The Brookfield- Adding the Cover

Watch the video here.

This week we are adding a protective plexi-glass cover to the Brookfield. This will be very similar to the cover that I added to the Toy Store a couple of years ago. That project is one of the most asked about projects I have ever done so I hope I answered most of your questions here in this video. If not I will be adding a cover to my big dollhouse (the Harrison) sometime in the near future and we can go over it again then if need be.

I was sick most of this week so sorry if I am not as clear as I should be on the video (cold meds do that to me) but I did my best to get the information to you.

The channel is simply made of two pieces of strip wood, a 1/8” by 1/8” strip glued to the edge of another strip approximately ½” x 1/8”. I added a couple of photos of the channel at the end of this blog post.  Be sure to double check the thickness of your piece of plexi-glass to be sure it will slide through the channel created by the 1/8”x 1/8” piece. You can use a bit larger if need be but this size should work with most of the plastic commonly sold in home improvement stores.

I picked up a cutting tool when I got my plastic this time and it worked nicely for cutting the sheets. If there is interest I would be happy to do a tutorial on how to cut the sheets of plastic when the weather is better outside. I do recommend you do this task either outdoors or at least over a hard surface floor because there will be tiny bits of plastic left from cutting and they are as bad as little pieces of glass if you get them on the carpet.

I like to cut my plastic pieces before I put the tracks on the building since it is much easier to move the track prior to gluing that to re-cut the plastic pieces.

channel piece end view

channel piece side view

Wall Art for the Dollhouse

Watch the video here.

This week for Trash to Treasure Thursday I thought we would make some use of those calendars we are done with from last year. It is also a good time to plan for next year and pick up this year's calendar with decorating your dollhouse in mind.

If you don't have a calendar from last year don't worry you can still pick up a new one at the dollar store for a dollar and use it. The regular stores will be discounting their calendars to half price in a few months too so keep your eyes open you'll find one to use.

I actually picked last years calendar with the idea that I wanted to use the art work for my minis. Like I said in the video I remembered a photo of an art gallery that I saw once a long time ago. The art in this gallery were large close ups of flowers and they were just on the stretched canvass. They may have been either paintings or photos it doesn't matter it is the look I am after not a direct copy. By just using something firm as a base to glue your art work onto you have the same look.

For other calendars you might want to use a frame you can either buy a frame at a mini store, online or make on yourself. We made some really cool “antique” frames for a Trash to Treasure a few months ago that would work.

Since calendars come in so many styles to fit into our real size homes and offices I am sure you will find the perfect calendar to decorate your dollhouse with.

The Brookfield a project overview

Watch the video here..

This week we are starting a new group of videos. I had already planned to put a plexiglass cover on my Brookfield this month but then over Christmas I realized I have neglected the dollhouse so much that it could use some work. So this week I take you on a short tour of the house, we glue a window treatment back in place and do some basic cleaning.

Next week we will start on the track for the cover, I will be doing a very similar cover to the one that I put on the Toystore a few years back. This time I will take more time and show the pieces more thoroughly since that is one of the projects I still get tons of questions on. When I did that video I wasn't expecting everyone to want to see that track piece better. Also this time the track will be lighter colors so it will be easier to see. Also I might have to adjust the basic track piece to accommodate the roof material that is on the Brookfield.

So let's talk about the this dollhouse. The Brookfield is the first dollhouse that I actually completed (well mostly completed there still aren't lights installed even though it is wired)

The kit was made by the Dura-craft company which is no longer in business. The kit was made exclusively for sale at JoAnn Fabric stores and was relatively inexpensive. One of the nice things that this company did was they included enough roofing materials in the kit to finish the kit. You really only needed to buy glue, paint and whatever floor coverings and wall coverings you wanted. I think they also might have included enough wood flooring for one level too but I am not sure. I did add some siding to the outside of the house just because I didn't want the smooth wood siding but you wouldn't have had to do that.

The floor plan is the typical small two story dollhouse floor plan of 2 rooms downstairs with 2 upstairs and a staircase in the center. I did turn the stair case around so that it came down to the front door rather than to the back to make the house look more realistic.

After we get the cover in place and I put the furnishings back in we will do a more in-depth tour of the house. If however you noticed anything in the video as I was taking it out of the house that you want to know more about be sure to ask. I will do my best to fill in the blanks as to where it was purchased or if I made it I would be happy to do a video on any of the items from the house.

Also at the end of these videos we will look at the landscaped board the house sits on too. We will (hopefully) be making a similar board for under and around my Harrison (my large dollhouse) later this year. I have been planning to landscape and finish that dollhouse for a long time now so I am hoping we can get to that this year. I really enjoy doing the landscaping stuff and I hope you will all learn from those projects.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone from our home to yours!!!!!!!!!!

Dollhouse Miniature Walnuts

Watch the video here

This week for Trash to Treasure Thursday I thought I would show you another little trick that has been around for years. I had forgotten all about this until it was mentioned on one of the online mini groups I am a member of. I am not sure why it slipped my mind but I should have shared it a long time ago.

Coriander seeds should be fairly easy to get your hands on. I know it is used in cooking a lot around my house. If you aren't familiar with it in the seed form you might know the fresh herb as cilantro, which is a fairly common herb in several styles of cooking.

You really only need a few seeds for your dollhouse display so hopefully you have some of these in the kitchen cabinet if not ask your friends they may have them.

As with any real food product in the dollhouse you will need to be on the watch for critters of all kinds that decide you have provided these for them. Just check on them regularly and it should be fine.

You might also try sealing the seeds into the bowl with some matte finish sealer like Mod Podge. I think that will help keep things out of your display.

For a bowl you can see from the video you can use just about anything, I couldn't find a bowl today but a wooden button did a fine job. Just check your stash of buttons, bead and wooden shapes to see what you come up with. 

 

Dollhouse Miniature Gingerbread House

Watch the video here.

This week I decided to show you how to make a gingerbread house for either your dollhouse or for Barbie and her friends to enjoy. I purposely didn't complete the decorating on mine because I wanted to leave it up to your imagination. I would love to see what you do with this project so be sure to post the pictures on the Facebook page.

We start out with a pattern to cut out the walls. Feel free to either draw your own or you can use mine. There are also tons of patterns online for real size gingerbread houses that you could easily adapt to the doll size.

My side walls measure ¾” x 1 ¼”

end walls ¾” x 1 1/8”

Roof ¾” x 1 3/8”

In real life gingerbread houses come in all sizes from tiny to huge so let your imagination go wild. You could make yours a castle or a cottage or anything in between.

I used some of the candy I made in last week's video to decorate along with some other mini candy I had on hand. I also used some of the Tulip Beads in a Bottle just because I have been wanting to use them for minis since I got them. I am sure I will be finding some more mini uses for them in the future.

For our frosting I am using just some plain old latex caulk. You find this in the painting/ home improvement section of the store. It is a very useful and inexpensive item to have on hand. It makes pretty foolproof frosting and cleans up with soap and water before it dries. You can also mix it with acrylic paints if you want to color it. It can be piped like frosting or just spread on so it really is pretty versatile to use.

To decorate your house you can use anything you have many beads and buttons would look great. You can make “cookies” out of the left over clay and use those to decorate.

Look online for pictures of real gingerbread houses to get your inspiration if you need help getting started. 

 

Dollhouse Miniature Wreath

Watch the video here.

I thought for Trash to Treasure this week I would show you a really simple Christmas wreath. This one again can be made in a variety of sizes and since real wreaths come in many sizes it will easily cross over to Barbie scale too.

I like to use the split rings that I show in the video because they are pretty cheap and easy to find. They are the same rings that are on most key rings I have ever owned. In fact the first time I made one of these I used the ring off an extra key ring that was laying around.

For the size shown in the video (package says the rings are 33mm which for those of us that aren't good at metric they measure around 1 ¼” in diameter) I like to use 3 chenille stems to get a good coverage. You might be able to get by with just 2 but 1 won't go all the way around.

Then it is on to the fun part of the project. Decorating! I just did a very simple decoration on mine but feel free to go wild. I would have done more but it was freezing in my work room the day I filmed.

Look through your ribbons, buttons and beads to find items to attach to your wreath. I am sure that you can also make little paper shapes, use tiny stickers or whatever else your imagination can come up with.

If you make a wreath or any of the other projects I have shown on video be sure to post them on the Facebook wall. We all love to see what you are making. Also feel free to post pictures of any of your mini projects on there or to post questions too.