Dollhouse Miniature Front Porch part 13

Watch the video here.

First sorry this is so late getting up. I ended up getting called into work an extra day last week then on Sunday my daughter brought my grandson over for a while. Loved seeing him but I couldn't work on the video with an almost toddler helping me.

So this week we are adding some shrubs to the planting beds. I decided to go this route instead of flowers because I want to leave my porch on display all year long and decorate it to fit the current season. Flowers would have been hard to make work that way.

The shrubs are very simple and use stuff you should be able to get really easily. In fact you might already have everything you need.

For the base of our shrub you have many choices. I decided to use scraps of the pink foam because I have lots of little bits from other projects. You can use the same or regular Styrofoam, wood shapes, or even form your base shapes from clay. Or really whatever you have on hand.

The next step to add a stem/trunk. This will have 2 uses. First it will act as a handle while we are working on our shrub then we will use it to “plant” the shrub. For mine I used plain old round toothpicks. Again use what you have.

After the glue for the stem is dry give the base a coat of paint. Any dark green (or even black) will work. It should be darker than you will be painting the foliage and will appear to be a shadow if any of it even shows. It is just there to prevent the color of whatever you use as a base from showing in the end. In my case I really didn't want the pink color to show but unless you use something that is dark colored for the base do take the time for this step.

When the paint dried I then coated the bases with a diluted coat of ModPodge and covered them with some outdated herbs. I love the texture the herbs give, they look like leaves on the finished shrubs.

Coat the herb layer with a diluted coat of ModPodge to act as a sealant. Otherwise you might find the herbs coming off.

When this coat dries add a wash of green paint to give your shrubs the look of a living plant. Remember even if the herbs you use are fresh now they will fade to a very pale tan over time.

Finally just put holes in the planting bed where you want to “plant your shrubs, trim the stem and glue in place.

I love how these turned out they really added a nice finishing touch to my porch display.

That being said I think we are pretty much done with our porch project. I do still need to get a door knob for my front door but other than that and some seasonal decorations I am ready to display my porch on the table in my entry. Here's a picture of it in place.

I will do some tutorials for some of the decorations I make over time.

So now I need ideas of what you all want to see next. Be sure to let me know what projects you want to see on the channel.