Calling all Bookworms

Frustrated with the San Franciscan build and with 100 degree temperatures making working in the garage impossible this week, I am talking a break from that house. Retreating to the basement provides great relief from end of summer heat, allowing me to work on the accessories for the house. Even though my daughter will take over the filling the house with furniture and do-dads, I couldn't keep from tinkering around creating a haunted house apothecary shelf. I decided that if I do one, I should do two since I am working on items for my ten year old grandson's Halloween house--a project that I need to get on with before he outgrows the desire. As I worked to fill a cabinet that will go in the San Fran, I begin to get quit obsessed with the idea of creating aVictorian apothecary for myself. I even have a house, the Westfield that I bought last year.

Vintage Westfield by Greenleaf

The best part of this project will be that I don't have to do a whole lot to the house since it was assembled probably twenty years ago, so it has faded and aged naturally. Among the items that I am making are books, lots of books for three different houses. I am so excited about the books that I have created that I decided to share the project here.

Before I begin, I must give credit to my inspiration Thicketworks.com with Heather. She provides the download documents to make the books and a video tutorial to guide the crafter through the process. She has a very soothing voice that is easy to listen to and so pleasant that you want learn more from her. I did alter her instructions; for example, she finishes her lovely little books by embossing them, which requires tools and products that I don't have in my supplies. So, here then is my version of these amazing little books.

Begin by downloading the book covers, pages, and bookends. You will have enough prints-outs to finish eighteen books.

Print 1= 18 book covers on
card stock or photo paper

Print two pages
on computer paper

Print 10-15 pages on
computer paper

Before you begin cutting out book covers, spray with an acrylic sealer. 

Next, cut apart books, pages, and end papers. I began by using my paper cutter, which worked fine for the book covers and bookends, but I found that it worked better to cut the book pages with sharp scissors--ten pages worth. I settled down in front of the TV and cut away.     

Once you have cut all of the cover, end pages, and book pages, begin by assembling your pages. Once you have cut out dozens of pages, sort the different pages and arrange them in stacks. Test a stack to see if it fits in a cover. Depending how accurately you cut your pages, you may have to do trimming.

Sort your pages. Trim one that might be too large. The  cutting lines are sometimes very hard to see on the printed sheet.

I selected these pages. The first two are the front pages a copyright page and the title page. The last sort of looks like a bibliography.

Top of stack: Title page 

Lay the firs sheet face down on top of title page. This page will be glued to cover.

Place bibliography on bottom of the stack 

Tap stack on table top to get spine even. 

Some of your pages may still need trimmed or sorted out of the stack.

Apply glue to spine. I used Eleene's Turbo white glue.

Smooth out with brush.

Clamp together and set aside too dry.

OOPS. Be careful where you place your clamp. 

In my mind, it was too much work cutting dozens of tiny pages, I'm not going to let any go to waste.

The apothecary has mice.

How many times have you checked out an old volume from the library, only to find that is well worn, well used? 

While your pages dry, work on the book covers.

Using acrylic craft paint, paint the edges of the back of the book covers otherwise the white photo paper edge will show.

Then score the spine.

Now, fold the book cover. If you want a rounded spine, shape the spine by rolling it against a skewer.

Because I am right handed, I turned the cover around to add the glue to the left (front) cover. Does that make sense?

Place one bookend paper, sliding it flush with the spine crease. Remember this is the front cover (book cover at this point is upside down).

Turn the book cover around to the right side and insert your stack of pages, placing the edge next to the left spine fold and flush with the edge of the endpaper. Using your glue stick, add glue to the top page, which has been placed face down on the stack of pages. In an actual book, this would probably be the copyright page.

Flip the stack to the left and press the pages into place by gluing the top sheet of the page stack to the end paper.

Add a bit of white glue to the spine of the cover and smooth out with a brush. . .

. . .add glue to the back cover. 

Add the second end paper to the back cover, lining up with the crease in the spine

Glue the last page of the pages stack

then press the spin against the pages stack, then press the back cover over the last page of the stack.

The end pages will extend beyond the book cover, so trim them off. 

You may need to do more trimming to cut away where the end pages might extend beyond the book cover.

The pages will only be printed on one side, leaving room for the reader to make notations.😀

 Heather will recommend trimming pages to uniform size, but I rather like the ragged edges for a more vintage look.

 I am thinking that this paper stack was glued together on the wrong side, making the pages upside down, but really it doesn't matter because who's going to read the book anyway? I went to too much work to throw away the mistake. This amply demonstrates the necessity to pay close attention to what you are doing.

These are such cute little books. They are large books that will fill a deep shelf or stack on the floor, or cover a table top. 

Now there is some good reading. Note the top book, one of my first that isn't quite as neat as the rest. I painted the pages gold on a couple of books, causing the pages to stick together. 

Book making is a fun little project, relatively easy, time consuming, ink eating, but a fun way to spend an evening. 

Now go watch Heather's video and see how a true artist creates beautiful, vintage books.

Thicketworks.com 

Thanks for visiting. 

Playing with Fire (Don't)

Before I begin, this is project is not for children, even supervised because it will give them bad ideas.

Years ago we had fired in our basement because our daughter left a candle on her dresser burning. We were on the third floor and had she not awakened by the time the smoke reached the smoke detector, it would have been too late for all of us. So this is cautionary tale is a reminder that candles can be dangerous, so keep careful watch on your children if you decide to do this project.

I'm procrastinating with the San Franciscan. I actually am nearly done with it, but it is such a disappointing build, that some days I can't face it. Jen, however, is excited to take it over and says that the poor workmanship with will add to the character. I hope so.

So now I am obsessed with looking for things to put in a haunted house--just to get her started, you know. I spend over $100 yesterday between JoAnns and Hobby Lobby gathering up doo-dads, which I share later. Miniature candles, however, were not located, so I decided to make some.  I wanted nice drippy pillar candles for the apothecary's work take or desk, so some time ago a watched YouTube on how to make candles and made a couple for the Farm House, so here's how I made them.

Supplies

• Foil to cover your work area; I laid it on top of my cutting board
• Cording for a wick. You can use all kinds of things, but I just grabbed what had. As it turns out this cording works well and burns nicely. Cut to longer than the candle form. Located in jewelry section at Hobby Lobby
• Fat, plastics straws for fat pillar candles. I know. They aren't very popular these days. Perhaps you won't even be able to find them in your area. These were special ones for slurping up thick shakes.
• Or use a designer paper straw for thinner tapers.
• Cute the straw the length that you want your candle to be.
• For wax, I used two candles, one in a jar and a taper. Tea lights work best, but I didn't have any on hand today.
• A dish or something that you want your candle to side in. Optional

I really couldn't photograph while I worked, so here's the process:

• Cut straw the length that you need
• Drip some wax on the foil to create little puddle. Place your candle form in the puddle to hold it in place while you work
• With your candle form secure, pour wax from the tea-light into the form, slowly.
• Let the wax set up a bit, be patient. Fill others forms while you wait.
• Once the wax is set, but not hard insert your wick. 

If you are in a hurry, put your candles in the fridge for a bit.

Trim the wick. I left it long on purpose.

I burned the wick a bit before I added to the candle because I wanted a used candle.

Next, remove the form. I used a sharp blade to slit the plastic, which left a bit of line in the wax on the first candle. I also discovered that if I just slit the straw a short ways, the candle can be pushed out of the straw without cutting all the way down the straw.

Or if you want a colored candle, leave the straw on.

I also wanted a drippy candle, so I used the taper candle to drip wax on the sides of the pillar candle, with fair results. I realized that like real candles, the best way to get a drippy candle is to burn them, so I did and got a nice pool of wax at the bottom of the candle.

 Here are my results. You can purchase the little pie tins at the craft store in the jewelry sections. These have a hole in the rim, but you can also find some without holes and you can find smaller ones, too.

My haunted houses will be during the Victorian period where I don't think they had started tinting or coloring candles. In fact if they were made of bee's wax, they would have been that golden color. I couldn't get the candle out of the pink paper straw, so I just left it with the dripping wax it is waxy on the exterior of the candle, so I will just leave it. Perhaps a plastic straw would come off more easily.

There are more tutorials out there on miniature candle making. Check YouTube. Some make them out of sculpty clay. I don't have any. Never worked with it, but the candles are very nice. Very clean. Very pretty. Jodi over at http://myminiatureworld.blogspot.com has a great tutorial on making a batch of jar candles that are very pretty.

A final note: You probably don't want to light the 

So now it is your turn. See if you can't improve on my method. Again, be careful. Don't burn yourself and please watch the children--perhaps this is a project to do while they are in school.

I love read your comments.

Have a great day. 

Thanks for dropping by. 

After my little rant in my last post, I am feeling better.

I think we have all been there: a project gone wrong, a build that had problems from the beginning. I have learned along the way with all my projects be they lesson plans that went haywire or a sewing project or now a miniature house, patience is a virtue. I find that if I step away for a while, I can usually get a new perspective and new vision of what has to be done. Sometimes it only takes 5 minutes or in the case of the San Fran, months. I was going at all wrong, wanting to finish the turret first, but when I returned this week to the project and reviewed the instructions, this time stumbling on a copy online, I realized that I had it all wrong.

The floors and interior walls needed to go in first to stabilize the exterior walls. The house is wonky because I didn't know what I was doing from the beginning, but in all fairness, the design is poor. The vertical support beams gave me a lot of problems and that's where it all went south. And once the glue was set, that's way it would be. Wonky.

I have spent the last couple of days working on the floors and the interior walls. They still are not glued in place, but I am confident that they will fit nicely.

Looking from the top down, the house looks together, but it will have a lot of cosmetic surgery along the way to cover up it's blemishes.

Using my extra wide clamp to squeeze the walls into place, the floors and walls begin to stay in place.

While the clamp is great, it is cumbersome, so I also use painter's tape that sometimes loses its grab.

There's quite a gap to fix. The kit comes with exterior trim, so the trip will cover the gap on the outside and I'll come up with fix inside. 

The floors have to be leveled, so using a little level that I am able to move around the floor, I will be able to get floor level--a problem that I've not had with the MFD wood kits.

Is this half a bubble off? More like an entire bubble.

The floors are an odd assembly, coming in two pieces. I have glued them together, but they are unstable and don't stay in place very well even with the wall glued on.

The first time around I didn't know what to do this inch wide pieces. The instructions called it a 'splice' which to me meant that it went between the two pieces, so that's how I glued. Wrong. Rereading the instructions today I realized that it is actually a support beam, which also accounted for the notched edges on the walls. Now the floor has more stability and fits better.

Because the walls are so thin, they are hard to glue in place, but with a little support, once the glue sets, the wall is in place.

Now for the ceiling. I'm letting glue set now. I'm working on this house in the garage, so once the sun goes down, there's not good light to work. So tomorrow I'll dry fit the roof. Won't that be fun?

There have been other issues, too. Like the stairs. There are two sets. As I dry fit them, I realized that is one is not assemble correctly. The stairs over lap. So now what?

 The treads need to be even so that they fit against the wall.

First I tried to cut the excess away on the scroll saw, but the light was poor and I couldn't see well enough to make good cuts.

I decided then to use my hand saw. Nope. That didn't work either.

I decided that I had to use the power tool. And this time with better results.

I kept my fingers out of the way and wore my safety classes.

The treads are bit ragged, but it's a haunted house.

A bit of sanding cleaned up the rough edges. 

I am feeling better about this build. Still, the turret makes me really nervous.

And then there is the furniture. That is another story for another time.

Thanks for stopping by, and Jodi, I so appreciate your encouragement and you hugs. Thank you. 

What a Mess

I titled my garden blog last week "The Party's Over," and I am so glad that our social obligations are done with. We hosted a 50th class reunion in our barn Aug. 2nd and wedding last week, so yes the party is over. I took a long break from my dollhouses while we prepared for the two super events. We really don't entertain that much, but this was a big summer full of events.

I knew that when I went back to the little houses I would work on the Dura-craft San Franciscan with hopes of getting it finished to hand off to my daughter. I've written a little about it before, but let me tell you now my real feelings.

It is a mess. An awful mess. To review: my dear friend meant well when he paid $5. for the house in a tub. It had been started, but the lady said that she got overwhelmed by the project, and now I can see why. I have have really bungled it up.


First, the instructions are hard to follow. There are too many pieces with too many numbers and letters. It's just easier to look at a drawing without out all of the labeling. Right?

Next it is the very thin plywood that splinters and has to be punched out of flat sheets. There are over twenty boards that contain parts to punch out, resulting in a lot of splinters. Too many parts.

                

Nothing fits partly because I just didn't position pieces correctly and the glued them in the wrong place.

I have been focusing on how to add the turret, but after reviewing the instructions (always read the instructions.) To be quite honest, I did read them, but I have not worked on this house for months so now I am having to re familiarize myself with the parts.

Part of a good building strategy is to dry fit parts, right?

Rather difficult with these old kits.

I am trying to figure out the roof. I think that I have to install the 3rd floor first which does not fit because the house is uneven, so I have to figure out how to square it and make the floor fit before I can add the roof.

I don't think is what is meant by 'kit bashing' is it?

I have this large gap between floor and outside wall. UGH!

And the kit is short the siding. I've been able to purchase some but I need more to finish the turret.

The gaps just cause so many problems.

This is a side wall that wasn't glued in place. No. I cannot unglue it. Tried that.

I wondering if I should glue the floor to the cardboard? 

So there you have it. A real mess. I hope to have this house actually finished so that I can give it to my daughter who wants to make it into a haunted house, so she doesn't mind the mistakes.

A note now to the wise: There are 3 Dura craft models for this San Franciscan house. This one is # 555. Avoid this kit. AVOID THIS KIT.  I have a second one to build that is made out of the MFD wood that will go together so much easier. If you must build this house, look for the updated models. 

I'll be back, hopefully having made some progress. 

Thanks for joining me.