Ophelia's Dollhouse Attic

The eerie attic is coming along. Sooooooo many craft sticks!

For the walls with the wallpaper, I only did a small area of craft sticks, then glued down mat board for the rest of the wall. This way when the wallpaper went down there was no noticeable edges to the wood spots.

I started with the floor by gluing down wider craft sticks and staining them with water based wood stain. Then I brushed a gray wash over them a few times to give the impression of many years of dirt and dust.

Once I got all of the wall/ceiling craft sticks glued down, I stained them with a water based wood stain then put a red and brown paint wash over them. One that was dry I did a black wash in all of the corners and edges. The wallpaper was scrapbook paper that already had an aged look. I used Yes paste to paste it down then ripped it and smacked it with a steeped teabag. Haha I can't say I have ever smacked any thing with a steeped teabag before! I still have to darken the paper edges a bit more, but it's definitely headed in the direction I hoped it would.

Making Bigfoot

After dropping off all of their picnic items, I can only assume that the carefree picnickers made their way down to the nearby stream to wade in the water and search for minnows. Because this spot at the park has always been a good place to find food, Bigfoot never strays too far away. With a watchful eye he crept out of the forest and made his way swiftly to the table. Completely uninterested in the Frisbee or the straw hat, he flipped open the picnic basket lid and began digging through it. First, he grabbed a fist full of grapes, and then he ripped open the bag of potato chips and made a mess of himself as he devoured them. To his delight, he discovered two turkey and cheese sandwiches wrapped in napkins with care. As quick as the napkins had fallen to the ground Bigfoot was sitting comfortably on the bench with two fits full of lunch. Unaware that there is a curious little girl who has spotted him through the fence, Bigfoot inhales his turkey sandwiches.

This project was loads of fun. It all started last Thanksgiving morning when I sculpted him from polymer clay and put him in the oven. Luckily my holiday feast was elsewhere, so a turkey didn’t interrupt his baking time. After painting him using craft paints, I began to adhere the hair. Luckily, I had some left over brown Viscose that I had used for making mini dolls years ago. I cut it in short sections and used a paintbrush to apply Tacky Glue on him, starting at his ankles and then worked my way up. I spread out the short clumps of hair and press it onto him.

I have a long history with Bigfoot, which started in my childhood. When I was a little girl I would lead Bigfoot hunts with the other children in our woods. For some reason, I always thought if I found him we would be good friends. :)
Checkout the February issue of American Miniaturist (AM130) magazine to see more of my Bigfoot!

Ophelia and Nevel

I finally did it! I made mini clothes. It took a while to make the patterns, but it was worth it. The outfits are removable and require very little sewing. The patterns for Nevel and Ophelia's outfits will be in American Miniaturist Magazine August issue! A step by step tutorial with patterns to cut out as well. :)
I still need to make three more dresses for each season, this is her spring dress.
The house is coming along as you can see. The attic is taking the longest. Soooo many wood planks!!

 My art piece, A Very Strange Meeting from my book, Ophelia Under the Day Moon.
Visit www.auraleakrieger.com to see more and discover Ophelia.

Miniature coat hanger

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Making a miniature coat hanger

I am making one coat hanger made out of wood and one using mat board.

Cut wood to 2” x 3/8”. Then cut your molding strips to the correct size using a miter saw to get the beveled edges.

 Cut one piece of mat board to 2” x ¾”. Cut a smaller piece to ½” x 1 3/4”. Sand both front edges round with fine sandpaper.

Glue the smaller piece onto the center of the larger piece using wood glue.

~I want to thank Kris Compas for making me realize how great mat board is to work with for many mini projects. You should check out her blog. She has wonderful tutorials and makes beautiful furniture.

http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/

Once dry, I lined the inside edges of the mat board with a small amount of wood glue and cut my ribbon corners diagonally and then pressed it into the glue and pressed it down. Let dry

Draw a dot where you want your hooks to be and drill holes with a pin vice and a drill bit that is just a bit smaller than your wire. Then lightly sand down the holes on the board.

I had copper wire laying around, so I am using this for my hooks. You can use whatever gauge wire your comfortable with.

Pinch the end with round nose pliers and make a loop, then place the pliers in front of the loop and bend loop end forward.

Next, place the pliers on the wire as shown in the photo and bend around the thickest part of the pliers.

Follow the photo and bend again using the tip of pliers. And snip. This will be trial and error as you decide what shape you want.

Push the end into the hole you drilled and start wiggling it around for a good fit. Do not bend the wire while it is in the hole. If you have to bend it for adjustments, take it out each time then put it back in. You don’t want the hole to grow in size. Don’t worry about trimming the part that sticks out of the back yet we will do that at the end. Once you are happy, be sure each wire is completely flat when it’s lying on your table. If not, they will lean left or right once in the hole.

Put those aside and paint the base the color you want, sanding in between coats.

Don’t sand your ribbon though.

I found some Styrofoam and pushed my hooks into it and painted them black to look like wrought iron. Two coats followed up with an acrylic satin varnish should do it. Let dry completely. You could spray paint them instead of brush painting, it would be eaisier.

Put the hooks into the base one at a time and trim the extra off with wire cutters. Then pull each hook out, dip the end in wood glue or super glue and push back in. Push base flat on table to be sure it will be flat on the wall.

If you have some beads that would look nice at the base of the hooks, add those first on each hook and then glue hook in place. I wiped some wood glue over the back holes as well to be safe. Let everything dry.

There you have it. Stick it to the wall and hang all sorts of fun mini things on your new coat hangers!

Making a dollhouse fireplace

After unsuccessfully searching online for a fireplace for the living room, I decided to make my own. I came across this blog by Elizabeth Slinn, which had some helpful ideas. http://studioeminiatures.blogspot.ca/2013/08/light-my-fire.html?showComment=1375581563553

During the next few weeks I gathered different materials around the house to decorate the fireplace and then started to build it. Here is a mini tutorial.

Making the form:

After measuring your room, use foam core and cut the front and back to 4.5” wide x 4 ¾” tall.

Cut a 2” wide x 3.5” hole out from the bottom center of the front. Round the top of the hole if you like.

The sides were also foam core, cut to 1.5” wide x 4 ¾” tall. (It may look a bit taller in my photos, because I cut it to these measurements as I was constructing it after these photos were taken.)

Interior bricks:

Next, use mat board for the interior of the fireplace. Cut this as a 1” wide x 4.5” long strip. Lightly score the board with a utility knife 4” from both sides and fold.

Next, score the foam core back using a score tool to make the bricks go 4” up the back. Then put the mat board inside piece next to the foam board back piece to make sure the bricks line up once assembled. Once all of your horizontal lines are in place, stagger your vertical lines to resemble bricks.

I used the metal ball score tool after the smaller score tool to round out the scores.

Using red and tan paint, paint the bricks and add the soot. I used the tan paint and a very thin brush for the mortar and then mixed a darker brick color for every other brick.

Put it together:

I used blue tape to adhere the inside to the front and back. I LOVE blue tape!

Then I used wood glue to glue the sides on.

Decorating your fireplace:

I cut molding for the top and added wood and embellishments. The silver trim along the top and around the hole was a slinky metal ribbon material. I think I got it in the scrapbook section years ago or the ribbon section at the craft store.

I used gold ribbon to run down the sides.

Then I glued the mat board on the top with wood glue, flipped upside down and put a weight on it until dry.

I will tell you it took a week to come up with the right pieces to use. Every evening I would just take a look at it and start putting pieces on and taking them off. Then I would remember materials that I had and try those until I was happy.

Finishing and painting:

Then I painted it with two coats of a Zinc gray and black mix. Once dry, I went back and hit all of the embellishments with a lighter gray paint. Then used a coarse brush and black charcoal to enhance all of the edging.

Front fireguard:

For the front grill guard, cut two pieces of mat board at 2.5” x 3/16. Shape them with your fingers so they bend in a curve and brace them in the hole with white glue. Once dry, paint black.

I bent these two metal pieces of jewelry embellishments, painted them black and then glued them on with white glue.

For the base, I glued black textured paper on mat board and sanded the edges smooth and painted them black.

If you want to add electric for your logs just cut a small hole in the back to run your electric.

That’s it! Place it in your room and enjoy! 

Ophelia's Dollhouse Door

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Luckily my dog woke me up early on this Saturday, so I have some extra time before I have to get some chores done and go out to meet a friend. I brought all of my “little” projects that have been lining up outside to finish.

 
 When I was getting ready to glue my doorknob onto the door I knew I had to add some fun to it, so I rubbed it with some charcoal, put a mat finish on it (using a soft gel made by Golden, which I use that to finish off all of my mixed media art pieces.)...

 

...and to top it off I wanted to add something to the corners. After looking through my inventory, I found this cool metal embellishment! I cut off the corners and glued it on. Love it! I think it might need an old brass door kick as well as a little bird nest up in the top cove. Plus, some tea stained lace curtains on the inside. :)

 

How to patina miniature items to give them an aged look.

 

I wanted my doorknobs around Ophelia's house to look like old brass. I used these two metallic paints. While holding the knob in place with a toothpick I coated the knob/plate with the darker metallic paint first, being sure to get into all the crevasses.

 

Once dry, I painted over them with the lighter metallic paint. I dabbed the brush on the wax paper first to get off some paint then I painted them sporadically and quickly. Immediately, I taped my finger over the knob plate to lift any extra paint. I still want some of the original gold to show through.

That’s it!
Here are some examples of finished knobs on doors.