Dollhouse Miniature Giant Spider Halloween Decoration

 

Watch the video here.

This week I wanted to start making some Halloween decorations for the dollhouse so I spent some time looking at images of real size houses decorated fro the holiday. I kept seeing these huge spiders and I knew the dolls had to have one. I am in love with how he (she??) came out. I am sure after the dolls get past the nightmare view of the spider right outside their bedroom window they will love it too.

 

The body of the spider is simply half of a styrofoam ball. Mine was about 1 ½” in diameter and since we only need half the ball you could make a pair of spiders really easily at the same time. The other main component of the spider is just some chenille stems. I used white stems since I wanted to coat them with the same paint I am going to use on the body both so they match in color and to give a good “spider leg” texture to them I cut my legs to about 4” long so I got 3 pegs per stem so I only needed 3 stems (with a bit leftover)

When I cut my ball in half one side of it kind of flattened a bit so I decided to use this as the spider’s face. I used a bamboo skewer to poke four holes on each side of the spider body and dipped the ends of the legs into some tacky glue and inserted them into those holes. Allow this glue to dry.

Next we are going to disguise the texture of the foam ball by covering it with a layer of wrapping tissue. To do this tear some pieces of the tissue paper then brush some Mod Podge onto a small area of the ball add a small piece of the paper and brush more of the Mod Podge over it. You want to really soak the paper with the Mod Podge. Make sure to cover the top of the spider’s body. If you miss some of the flat bottom that is not so important but the part that will show needs a good coat of it. Also be sure to work some around each leg where it is attached to the body. This will blend the legs into the body and also help to hold them into the body. (we don’t want to have our spider loosing a leg at some point) Allow this to dry completely.

Once dry it is time to paint the spider. I just used some black craft paint for this. I was able to use a brush on the body but I did find that it was easiest (although very messy) to use my index finger and thumb to apply the paint to the legs. Just dip your finger/thumb in the paint and run the leg between them, much faster and I got really coverage with one coat of paint that way. Allow to dry completely.

 

I wanted to add a bit of bling to my spider so I used some purple glitter paint on the legs. It is very subtle and I might go back later and add another coat but I didn’t want to add too much. Just enough to catch the light from time to time. Allow to dry.

Next it was time to add the eyes to his face. I simply used some dots of red 3-D paint for this. I had debated trying to add glitter but in the end like the plain eyes better. Allow to dry (this type of paint takes a while to dry so let it sit at least overnight before you touch the area where his eyes are painted on.

Now it was just a matter of bending the legs and setting him place, I think he really likes the roof of the dollhouse but you could put him anywhere. And since his legs are so flexible you can use those to help anchor him in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.

Dollhouse Miniature Paint Test New Paints

 

Watch the video here.

I was walking through the Dollar Tree and checking out the new things that were out for fall and Halloween. I happened to notice a box shoved in a corner of a lower shelf that was almost empty that contained bottles of acrylic paints. The firs thing I noticed was the bottles did not look like the normal ones I see at Dollar Tree on the craft aisle. And indeed, these were Delta brand Ceramcoat paints!! I immediately grabbed the box and dug through the few bottles in it. I was able to come away with 5 bottles of brand name paints in what appear to be special Halloween colors. All for $1.25 each. I was very happy indeed and had to share them with all of you as soon as possible.

I did try to find the paints on the Dollar Tree app to see if there were more colors available but they don’t even show up on the app so I have no idea if there should be more than the 5 I got or not. I will be checking for more on each trip to the store for sure though.

Since I wanted to see what these look like I decided to do a paint test/swatch of them and share that with all of you too. I am really excited about these color and I am especially excited to get to use at least 2 of the colors soon.

To do the swatches I made a “swatch card” from some of the 140lb watercolor paper that I have been using for my paint test swatches. This time I had a piece in my scrap bin on my table and used it. It measures about 6” by 6” and I drew a grid of 2” square boxes to test the paints in. I felt the 2” size would give me plenty of room to test the paints and add the color names. And also I have plenty of room if I want to test other colors on the same card in the future.

Here is what each color looked like, all the swatches have 3 coats in the finished swatch.

 

Lime Green Metallic- like all metallic paints (at least in my experience) this one is very translucent. Even with the 3 coats it is still not as opaque as I would like so when I use this color I will need to remember to add an undercoat of a more opaque color. The metallic sheen is nice on this color but not super shiny.

 

 

 

 

Black Metallic- this color is the most opaque of the all the colors I swatched today and I can see me using this on lots of projects in the future. Anywhere I want the look of a black metal this will be my go-to color. Three coats of this color gave really good coverage.

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Purple Metallic-as far as opacity this one is the middle of the 3 tested today. I love this color and I am sure I will get a lot of use out this one as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Orange Glitter- as I expected this paint is orange glitter suspended in a clear paint base. For a complete coverage using a make-up sponge to apply it will probably give the best results. Otherwise for a light glitter haze a regular brush would be fine. All the glitter flecks are orange in color in this.

 

 

 

 

Violet Glitter- pretty much the same as the orange with just a change of glitter color. The glitter flecks are mostly dark purple with some pinkish ones sprinkled in. overall a very pretty color.

 

 

 

So are these worth the price? I think so especially the metallic ones, I can see using those in many projects year round particularly the black one and to a slightly lesser degree the purple one. The green will probably not get as much use but still fun to have. The glitter ones, I’m not sure how much or where I will use them but they are fun and I am sure they will turn up in projects from time to time.

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.

Dollhouse Miniature Pumpkin Makeover

 

Watch the video here.

 

As I was walking through the Dollar Tree the other day I saw these pumpkins hanging on the wall. They caught my eye because of the size, they looked to be perfect for the dollhouse. The color however was way too bright to look like anything close to a real pumpkin. I knew I had to try to tone down that color and use some to decorate the dollhouse porch for the season though.

 

 

The first step was to remove the wire from the bottom of the pumpkins and replace it with a toothpick to use as a handle while painting. I have my little wooden blocks to put mine in but you could also use a foam block or a chunk of pool noodle to hold yours.

For the first coat of paint I used Anita’s in Terracotta, this is a very muted orange and will tone down the bright orange and work well as a base coat under the painting technique I am going to use today. Don’t worry about this coat of paint being perfect, if a little of the bright orange peeks through that’s okay it will just add to the depth of color later.

 

I also base painted the stems with a very pale yellow paint. This will lighten them and allow the painting technique to work nicely to create the look of a dried stem on our pumpkins later.

Allow these paints to dry completely.

Now we are going to dirty up the pumpkins and accent the indentations on them. For this brush on a medium brown, I’m using some Woodsy Smoke from Anita’s. Then use a makeup sponge to blend the edges of the paint really well. I used a really small brush for this step to get the paint just in the crease part initially. When blending try to get rid of any sharp lines at the edges of the brown paint. Then allow this paint to dry completely.

Now we are going to give the pumpkin it’s color. For this I am using 3 colors of paint- the same Terracotta that we used earlier, Buttered Yam also from Anita’s, and some Vivid Orange from Folkart. You don’t need to use the exact same colors just some that are similar to these. Add a drop of each to a flat surface.

 

 

 

Then using a tiny brush add dots of the paints to the parts of the pumpkin that stick out from the indentations. I kept most of the Buttered Yam at the top of the area, the Terracotta at the bottom, and the
Vivid Orange at the middle. Then using a clean makeup sponge (the wide end) blend the colors to look like the photo. Allow to dry completely, since the paint is so thin this won’t take long.

 

 

Now we are going to tackle the stems and make them look like they are in various stages of drying out. Again we are using 3 colors of paint- the same brown we used earlier to “dirty up” the pumpkins, the same pale yellow we base coated the stems with, and Leaf Green from Ceramcoat. 

 

 

 

 

Again add a drop of each color to a flat surface and use a tiny brush to add tiny dots to the stem then using the skinny end of the makeup sponge blend the colors on the stem just like before. Try not to get these colors onto the pumpkin. When you have the look you like allow to dry completely.

 

 

 

Remove the toothpicks carefully and display your pumpkins around the dollhouse or in your fall mini scene.

 

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.

Dollhouse Miniature Neon Sign (non-working)

 

Watch the video here.

Today we are making a fake neon sign for the dollhouse or a miniature business. I was looking through a very old notebook I have that I wrote all kinds of projects in way back when I was first starting to do minis. This was at least 30 or so years ago. Back then I would go the library and check out any books or magazines they had on miniatures and take them home and read everything cover to cover. Took a lot of notes about projects I thought I might want to try to do someday when I had an idea of how to do them. This project was one of those.

When I read it the other day I was instantly intrigued this seemed too simple to work. But I am happy to report I think this could be a really fun thing to do to create some artwork for a more modern dollhouse room. I will say I would be very careful about where this is displayed since hot glue does have a tendency of melting again if it gets too hot. So keep this one out of direct sunlight. I think it will be fine in a normal room-box just don’t place it right in front of a window where the heat could melt it.

The first step in this project is to decide what your neon sign will look like. I went the easy route and just wrote the word “open” since my brain was not really in creative mode yet. I drew two parallel lines to give me the height of my letters and wrote my word all in pencil. I made my letters very blocky and simple. Then once I was happy with what it looked like I traced just the word with a black marker. This way I would be able to see it to trace over it later. I taped this to my work tile. This is my pattern.

Now I taped a small sheet of parchment paper (the stuff from the kitchen) over the top of the pattern. The tape won’t really hold it but it will help a bit. You need to work on a surface that is both nonstick and translucent so you can see your pattern.

 

Make sure you glue-gun is really heated up. I found with the one I have it needed to preheat for at least 10 or 15 minutes to get the glue to flow nicely on the lines. When I tried it sooner it was very lumpy and looked really bad. You want the glue to be dripping really well from the tip of the glue-gun. One the glue is hot it is just a matter of tracing the lines on the pattern. Keep in mind you might need to do multiple layers of glue to get a good looking line. Just take you time and go slowly. Once you have traced over all the lines on pattern make sure the glue between areas is touching. In my case I needed to make sure all my letters joined together. If there is space between them just add a small dot of glue to act as a “bridge” so that you will have one piece when you are done. Now let this cool and set up but leave you glue-gun plugged in so it stays hot.

Once the glue has hardened check to see if you have spots that are too thin or that you missed and add more glue as needed. You can do this as many times as you feel you need to until the sign looks the way you want it to look. Once you are happy let it cool all the way to room temp and you can unplug the hot glue-gun.

Now you can peel the sign off the parchment and take another look at it. If it needs to have more glue added this is the time. Go ahead and add glue to any spots you feel need it. Allow to cool again.

Once cooled use a small pair of scissors and trim the sign to remove any spots that don’t belong and also those hairy bits that hot glue always leaves.

Once you are completely happy it is time to add the color to the sign. I am using some alcohol markers made by Bic, you could use any brand of alcohol marker for this.

Turn the sign over and carefully fill in the back of the design with the marker. Skip any “bridge” areas you added to hold the sign together. I find it takes about 3 coats of ink to get a really good color. I also found letting the ind sit for a couple of minutes between coats allowed it to stay on better. I think (but I’m not sure) that what is happening is the ink is soaking into the glue.

Once the color is the way you want it you can either mount the sign on a board like I did. Or on the wall of your miniature scene.

I had planned to mount mine on black but I liked how the colors looked against the white better so that was what I went with.

For my board I cut a piece of foam-core slightly bigger than my sign, glued a piece of white paper on the front. Then I framed it with some black card-stock.

 

 

I ended up using tacky glue to attach the sign to the board.

 

Now for the almost disaster I had. I was originally going to use some super glue to attach the sign. And for most of the sign it was fine. But the spots where I put the dots of super glue on the area of the sign that was the green color instantly turned brown. I guess the super glue was reacting with the whatever that color ink was dyed with. The other 3 colors I used were fine just the green reacted. I was able to work very quickly and using a sewing pin I picked off the glue from the sign in those areas and then added more ink over the spots.

 

The sign I did on camera was the third time I traced the letters and I see a great improvement from the first one I did to the last one. With some more practice I think I could get some pretty intricate designs with this method and that could be a lot of fun.

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.

Dollhouse Miniature Exterior Siding Cube 2.0 Side 1

 

Watch the video here.

This week I decided to cover a side of what I am calling my Exterior Siding Cube 2.0. I talked a while back about the fact that the original cube got damaged so I had to toss it. I really liked it so I decided I was going to do another one. I asked if you guys wanted to see me create the new one and I get enough positive responses to go ahead and share the process. I decided that I while some of the sides will be the same or similar to the old cube I will try to add some new ideas this time around also. I would love your input on what to add so if you have ideas let me know.

Also if this video seems rushed I apologize, I had actually planned to do another project today but there is one key component that I couldn’t get my hands on so I had to scramble to come up with a project for today.

If you haven’t seen the tutorial where I made the cube I am using here is a link to that one. These are super simple cubes made from foam core which I demonstrate a different technique on each of the 6 faces. We have one that when finished will have 6 different ways to create dollhouse miniature porch, patio, or deck floor. This one will be ideas for the exterior walls of your dollhouse projects. I also have plans to start a roof cube soon too. I have also played with the idea of doing cubes that are devoted to different decorating styles. For instance maybe a mid-century modern cube that would have 8 different surfaces related to that style, or Art Deco, or Victorian, or whatever. Those would have a combination of wall, roof, and ceiling ideas/textures/finishes that might be a mix of indoor and exterior. Also cubes devoted to interior finishes could be fun too.

These cubes are decorative but also inspirational, I find looking at the different sides does spark ideas for projects. I have my flooring cube in my living room and guests have been fascinated by it and it has sparked conversations so it is fun for that also.

Now on to today’s project.

For this first side I am going to do a “stucco” type finish. This happens to be my favorite way to get this look. It is also really easy and really cheap to do (even if you are covering an entire dollhouse with it) I used this finish on most of the exterior way back when I built my Harrison dollhouse. I think the tour of that dollhouse was either the very first or second video on the channel so that was a looooong time ago.

All you need to do this technique besides the surface you are covering are whatever paint you wish to use and some facial tissue (make sure it is the kind that is smooth without any designs stamped in the surface)

To start peel the layers apart if the brand you are using has more than 1 layer and tear the tissue into smaller pieces.

The paint for this layer is basically a primer coat so even if you are using a latex paint for the final coat just use a craft paint for this layer.

 

Paint a small area of you surface with a generous coat of the paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then lay a piece of the tissue on top of the paint.

 

 

Use your loaded paint brush to move the tissue to give you the amount of wrinkles and lumps you want. Keep in mind that after you add the topcoat of paint at the end it will even out the look so make it slightly more lumpy than you want in the end. Make sure the tissue starts as a single layer because otherwise I find the paint doesn’t soak through as well and bubbles will result.

 

 If you see areas where it looks like there is air trapped just mash the area with the paint loaded brush and mash it down. You really want to coat this with plenty of paint.

Allow this to dry completely, overnight is best for this step.

Normally I use interior latex paint from the hardware store but I don’t have any in the cream color I wanted for this project so I am using just plain old craft paint. I would not recommend using craft paint for the exterior of a dollhouse but if you need to be sure you use enough coats to give a good finish and follow up with a topcoat of a clear mat or satin sealer (like Mod Podge) The cream color I am using I had to mix for another project so I made extra to use here. It is just mostly a white acrylic craft paint with a few drops of the palest yellow craft paint I had on hand. I just wanted something like a cream/ivory color. Just brush whatever paint you are using over the surface and allow it to dry. You might need 2 (or more) coats depending on the paint you use. Allow the paint to dry.

Since my goal on this side of the cube was to create a really old, dirty wall I wanted to add a dirty wash. If you making a newer wall you can skip this part or just do a tiny bit. For this step no matter what type of paint my main wall color is I would use an acrylic craft paint. I started by mixing a brown color that looked like mud. You can use a ready made color or mix one like I did. Then I added a lot of water. My paint barely covered the bottom of the small container I used then I added water to be about 1/8” deep. We are really just going to use the colored water not paint in this step.

To add the wash use a large brush and add a good amount of the wash to a small area. For this step of the project I am stirring the paint/water mixture each time I put my brush into it. Layer on a good layer of the wash and let is sit for a few seconds up to a couple of minutes depending on the look you are after. On a dollhouse you will have to lay it down so the surface you are painting is horizontal for this. After the wash sits use paper towels to blot off the excess. You should have just a stain of color. Go over the surface repeating these steps and then let it dry. It will lighten up in color as it dries. When you have the level of grunge on the surface that you like you can move on to the details.

Next I added a layer of just the water from the top of the wash container around the edges. On a dollhouse I would do this at the bottoms of walls where they were in contact with the ground. Where mud and such would splash/seep up. The more you add the older and grungier your wall will look. If you have window openings add drips coming from the corners. The only place you want to avoid adding too much is in areas that would be protected, places like just under the roof eaves, leave that fairly clean and add more grunge closer the bottom of the wall. Just have fun and make it as old or new as you wish.

 

 

Since I dd use craft paint now was the time to add that sealer coat. I just used some mat Mod Podge since I am after an old grungy look. For a newer looking wall use a satin sealer. Allow this to dry.

 

 

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.