Too Much?

Just like a real job, building a dollhouse from scratch gives life structure. Right now I have neither. I retired from teaching nearly six years ago, so I took up minis as a way to fill my time. Building from scratch is a process; renovation is "Let's see if this works" or "What should I do first or next?" Right now I am making or buying things for the toy store and spending a lot of time on Pinterest looking for ideas and on Ebay and Etsy only to  realize that I will have way too much for the the store. Here's what I have been up to this week:

First, I wanted a block puzzle for the toy store, inspired by a wooden tray of alphabet blocks that my children had as wee ones. My efforts receive bad a C-.

First I built a little box to hold the 12 blocks. Then I built another one because the first one was too small. I purchased the 3/8 inch blocks at Hobby Lobby, 18 to a bag. I found my images through Pinterest on a blog where the artist used a different method to cover the blocks.  I had made a puzzle for a family reunion using this method, so I thought that it work again. 

I sized the six images in Word to a 1.2 square, covered the block with Modge Podge, placed the image, and covered it with MP, let the MP dry then cut the blocks apart and they didn't fit in the box.

So I build a new box. A better one with mitered corners, and I painted it white. You can see the second box was a bit more roomy. I thought that it was too large, but decided not build another one because this time instead of using plain computer paper, I used glossy photo paper (5X7) because I thought that it would hold up better, would add some bulk, and the images were better quality printed on photo paper.

With the extra thickness, the Modge Podge didn't catch hold, so I added some white glue.

Finally I was able to make the first cut with good results.

But the good results got worse as I added images. As it turns out, the photo paper is too thick and sometimes I didn't wait long enough to let the Modge Podge set up. Over night would work better.

So here is the final product. The box is just a little over 1 inch, so it would be a little over a foot square.  I am thinking of making a new one using square wooden beads, if I can find them to make a smaller puzzle for little hands. 

As for the store, I continued fiddle with the wallpaper templates to get good patterns to cut the good wallpaper. As I looked for examples of toy store fronts, I stumbled upon the idea to add an English phone booth. I decided to find a printable one and build one, so I printed one out at 6 inches tall, and I liked the idea of a red phone booth to liven up the front of the store. I visited England in 2001 and again in 2006 and I believe my friend has a photo of me standing next to one. I just had to find phone booth.  Anyway, I decided that I just was not up building one, so I began to search my favorite online catalogs. 

I went straight away to Minimum World and began my search. I found this wall mounted mail box. I liked that idea.

And then I found this:

I love my phone booth. 

The Queen's men are on guard.

And I've been making books. I wanted children's classics but as I chose my library I got a little carried away printing my favorites.

The titles are hard to read: The Hobit, Huckleberry Finn, Wuthering Heights--not exactly children's reading.

I printed the first ones on computer paper and then on photo paper. The computer paper gives a more aged looked because of the way my printer prints, while the glossy photo paper lends a crisper image.

I glued them to wood and a painted the "pages" with gold craft paint.

I even bought some flickering lights for the store, though I wanted white lights

And  I added two dolls to my order, the baby doll and the little one a pink dress who is probably too large for the toy store.

I am always short of boys' toys so I added miniature airplane kits. These are really tiny. Thus ends all of my Minimum purchases delivered all the way from England.

I assembled the nice gift from Robin Betterley. The Teeny Secret Book is scale. I enjoyed and would like to do more of her books. 

I often go downstairs to clean or do work on my rental accounts, but I get so distracted. The Bellingham is not finished yet. I still need to finish the third floor. If you remember an earlier post where I detailed my Roy Rogers themed bedroom in the attic. I've been held up first by building Lily's house and then trying to figure out wall covering for a cowboy room.

In my Internet searches for wallpaper, I haven't found anything that I like yet, so I turned to scrap booking stash--what mess--but I did find one 12x12 sheet.

I really like this, but I only have one color. Then I realized that the master bedroom is also blue, but I guess that is okay. I was thinking red maybe but I can't come up with any paper. Today I found paper resembling denim that I might use. I think the bedding will be navy and red. We'll see. I could change my mind again.

I hit eBay pretty hard a few weeks ago and most items came from Asia and took a long time to get here. Love these purple bell flowers for the kitchen table.

I still have one or two more shipments to come from the US, I think, so they should arrive any day.

Now I pose this question to you: How much do you adhere to scale? The pink dutch oven and the rest of the kitchen accessories are 1:12, but cups and saucers are not. Would you use them?

Thanks for visiting. I enjoy reading your comments, so write something. Oh. I almost forgot, going a mini show Saturday in Denver, as long as the weather holds. Snow is predicted. This one is sponsored by the Denver Doll and Toy museum and while it called the Little Show, it is exactly that, a small show, but with local vendors and artists with a lot of really great minis. The plan is for Lily and her mom to with and we will meet sister Heather there and shop until we drop or run out of cash--which likely will happen before we drop.

On a sad note, the Denver Doll Museum has closed. It lost its lease on the house where it lived for so long and now is trying find a new place and to raise the money to move. Right now the museum artifacts are in storage as Denver real estate market goes crazy.

See you soon.

Living Small

With the Cranberry Cove finished, I have been working on small things for the Storybook toy store. I bounce back and forth between making the little things and working on the house. Right now I am trying to get the templates for the wallpaper accurate. The front wall is giving me the most trouble. Here's my progress so far.


Using the computer paper template, I cut out a mock template on the unicorn craft paper.

Looks good. I had to replace the place in the Xacto knife to get a good cut.

Nearly perfect. I am not so worried about the top edge of this side wall because I will be adding a scolloped trim, but I did cut a bit wide at the bottom of the window. The curves at the top of the window are a more important accurate cut.

 While those curves are a perfect fit, the store front wall is a tough wall because of the window trim and the narrow spaces. I struggled to get the template plate accurate, which I did with the computer paper, but I am still struggling to get a good fit with unicorn paper.

As I explained in a previous post, I bought the unicorn paper to use as wall paper, but decided even before I cut it that it was too bold, so I purchased good quality wallpaper from Itsybitsy.com (by the way, they are now selling flower kits.) The unicorns are growing on me, however. Still, too bold.

So, only when I get a really good pattern cut will I cut into the wallpaper. 

Patience.

 And I have been shopping.  I found these classic Fisher Price toys on Sarahsookakbabies on Etsy. The original toys that came with the house were bears. A lot of bears along with a few clowns, but mostly bears, so I am expanding the inventory. My girls spent hours playing with their Fisher Price toys, so when I found these on etsy.com, I had to have them. They are all handmade by Sarah in England with authentic accuracy, and while, you as you can see, the items are hand made making them even more special.

 I, too, am working on some handmade toys for the store. I ordered this kit from Robin Betterley. I didn't realize at the time that they were half scale, which makes them really, really small.

Cutting out the paper images is pretty tricky. You need small, paper cutting scissors that are very sharp.

So far so good.

The pieces are so small.

Pull toy finished. Love it. Used a sharpie pen to color the red.

The kit comes with 4 toys  to assemble and two game boards.

The stick horse is done, too.

I wanted to find a safe place to store my toys until they go into the house, so I've been playing. This shelf while it fits in the house is out of scale, is nice way display the toys and has inspired me to rethink some my original design thoughts.

I even found some Barbie boxes to print and cut out. I need to redo them. Instead of gluing them together I used scotch tape to hold them together, making them look cellophane wrapped, but they are rough. I also need to change printer ink, too, to get a better image.

I found more timeless and classic toys on eBay:  this boat, multicolored blocks, and beg bench came together from eBay.

Shelf looks pretty cute, but I have another plan. I want to have the carousel mural on the wall, so I am going to remove the light and use glass shelves over it over the mural. I finally realized that I can do whatever I want and I don't have to be bound by the previous builder--it's just that electrical is so tricky and the current lighting works, so I hate changing the lights, but the one on this wall is certainly in the way.

Looks pretty crowded, but then as I look at toy stores online, they carry a lot of inventory.

Le Creuset by Catlin @ CLD Miniature 

A while back I bit the bullet and purchased a Le Creuset dutch oven. I'd read that once you buy one you will never need another pan, and that is so close to the truth. I love to watch Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, use her dutch over. I was finally lured to purchase the expensive piece of cookware because the one on display was pink, a special commemorative piece produced for breast cancer awareness. So in my searching for minis on Etsy when I ran across CLD Miniature in Australia and of course, I had to purchase this little mini dutch over. Right now it is in the Bellingham, a nice compliment to the green, I think.

 Here in Northern Colorado the weather is mild, with the temperature climbing in the 50s, while other parts of the country are freezing cold and buried under feet of snow, we are wishing for more moisture. Anxious for spring, I will be called to the garden, so I must live small while I can. 

Thanks so much for joining me today.