Long Range Dreams And Sudden Inspirations

Greetings fellow creators! I am back again and it seems as if I'm on a posting streak! It feels so amazing to be dedicating so much time to the Greenhouse and Potting Shed project, or any minis for that matter! I have much to share so let's get started...

When last we left off I was putting the final details on the greenhouse roof. There was a point in its construction that I went away from the instructions and had to engineer some improvements. You see, the original assembly had no bracing at the bottom of the "glass" panels which made the structure extremely flimsy. It was literally being held together with very little glue. The weight of itself worked against itself whenever I'd lift it off the the walls. No Bueno!!! 

So, I beefed it up by adding support pieces at the bottom of each "glass" pane that braced themselves against each of the vertical styles. And, I added support where the two roof halves met at the apex. Here, I glued a long wooden dowel down the center so that the weight was carried by more than just a narrow glue seam where the two angles met. Much stronger! Also, rather than using the two small triangle kit pieces of "glass" designated for the gable end, I cut one solid piece which removed some flexibility and tied the gable to the roof sides much more strongly. And finally, I cut an additional spreader for the roof so that each vertical style tied into one - the kit only had four but there are five "trusses" including the end. The effort really paid off because the roof is totally solid now and I'll feel safe putting it off and on as many times as I need to without worry. I have a sneaking suspicion that this roof is why you don't see many of these completed kits on the internet. It was extremely difficult!

The next challenge was completely self inflicted. You see, I want to be able to remove one of the greenhouse's side walls because I plan to set up a lot of scenes in there. I not only want the ease of loading and removing minis, I want to take photos that look like they are being taken from inside the greenhouse. Because the kit was not made to be constructed that way. I had to engineer a way to make the walls sturdy. Its going to need to stand up to regular roof and wall removals. I added 1/4" x 1/4" beams and affixed them to the potting shed wall where both long greenhouse walls meet it. I also added more bracing to the end wall where the removable wall will butt into it. Adding all this sturdiness also allows me to have the removable wall off but still keep the roof on!

Before I could go farther with the removable wall, I had to get a handle on where some of my hardscape elements were going to go. I looked online for some inspiration and found many real life gardens with elements I wanted to try to incorporate. The first choice was what kind of path I wanted, I settled on something with a bit of whimsy - flagstone pavers made out of egg carton that would wind its way around flower and shrub groupings.

To allow for some depth in my planting beds, I made my egg carton
triple thick by gluing three layers together.

To color my pavers, I used my tried and true kitchen sponge/water/glazing medium/two tone acrylic paint method to give them life. Man was I having fun!!!

Inspiration photo and products used

I underpainted a moss green around the pavers.

Then I used Woodland Scenics Underbrush in light green as moss/clover/weeds between the rocks. I put down Tacky glue where I wanted the greenery, compressed the foamy stuff into the glue, let dry overnight, then rubbed my finger over everything to remove any loose stuff.

Another inspiration photo had a little wooden bridge over a dry creek. How charming! Using a scrap piece of chipboard, some Woodsies Craft Sticks, and a zip tie for "metal" straps, I made a simple bridge.

For the "dry creek", I used Scene A Rama rock and gravel mix. I like that it has various sized rocks to emulate the different sized rock you find in a creek.

The last task to complete before I could justify starting on the actual flower and shrub making was to address how the removable wall would sit firmly in place when I wanted the greenhouse enclosed. For this, I grabbed some of my leftover bricks from the potting shed floor. I wrapped the bottom of the wall in masking tape, set it in place, then glued a row of bricks onto the landscape board. Once they were dry, I painted them a gray that should just fade into the background (if they aren't covered by landscaping).

The wall fits tightly and will stay in place even if the structure is jarred in any way. Hooray! I love it when a long pondered plan finally comes together!!! This greenhouse dream began for me in June of 2023!

And that, my friends, is where I had to stop for the week. Just a few more chores and I can start on the pretty stuff! Yippee!!!

Hope each of you are working toward long term dreams or sudden inspiration! Whatever makes you happy!!!

xo xo,

Jodi

Any Creativity Will Do

Hi Guys! I'm back for another post with a little bit of progress on a lot of different creative tasks. We'll start with the Lawbre Potting Shed and Greenhouse kit because this is a miniatures blog, after all, and it is the only miniature project that I've worked on this week. The other creative things I'll share are real life reno updates. They are keeping me from making more progress on the greenhouse, but any kind of creativity seems to keep my happy meter in the good zone. 

You can see from the photo above that the roof part of the greenhouse is just about completed. Getting here has been a challenge and I am disappointed to tell you that I did not get in progress photos. Not to worry!!! I will be building the greenhouse only kit from my stash soon. I'll take progress photos all the way through and will choose a lighter color so that it is easier to see than the black painted version. 

I have yet to add the glass in the gable end because real life progress was higher in the priority queue. More on that later...

You may have noticed that the greenhouse is sitting on it's landscape board. I did manage to get that cut, glued, nailed and painted before my priorities changed. The next chance I get, I plan to create a nice little path and flower beds all the way around.

1/2" plywood cut to 17" x 22". Trim is Home Depot Rondelet trim. 

Glued and taped

Close up of mitered corners

Nailed and dried

Now for some family room updates... You may remember last summer I shared that I was making a lot of inexpensive art to create a gallery wall in the family room. The theme was nature, and I wanted to experience as many different art forms as I could or thought I could do successfully. That included acrylic pours over hot glue flowers, collage, stencils and texture paste, painting, watercolor pencils, acrylic painting, tissue paper painting, sculpture, textures, folk art, sign making, paper art, paper clay, UV resin and mica power art. I made over 60 pieces and I had a ball! The best part was that with careful budgeting and recycling, I kept the entire project under $400.00! 

As you can imagine, hanging that much art can be challenging. I started cataloging the frame sizes I had on hand even before I began making the art. I made a layout and map so I'd know exactly where each piece would hang. The really neat thing is that I made it to scale, 1" = 1 foot so that as we were hanging I knew exactly how far each piece would hang from the last piece, the ceiling or the floor. It went amazingly and we had it completed in just two afternoons!

We also got the flooring installed and it went lightning fast! The boards were nine inches wide, and three boards fit perfectly across each row so cutting was minimal. Hooray!

Once the flooring was completed we needed to do the baseboards and create the faux beam separating the family room from the entry hall. They needed to be sanded, stained and sealed to make it ready for Russ to install. It is stinky work, but so worth the effort! They should be installed this weekend.

 Just look at those gorgeous tongue and groove ceiling boards! Sanding, whitewashing and sealing ninety of them was a marathon, believe me! But now we get to enjoy them forever!

We should have the room completed in the next couple weekends, including blinds and window coverings. Unfortunately, I have to wait until July to order my new sofa. We can't buy anything new until the new kitchen and laundry room appliances are paid off in June. 

I have some fun things to finish making for the shelves on either side of the fireplace. I have been able to work on those as I have blocks of time. My shelf will be the left one and Russ' the right. He loves Star Wars Legos and has an RC car hobby so that is what he'll display. Mine will be a combination of mini roomboxes, nature items I love and my Nintendo Switch stuff. 

For Russ' shelves, I made him a "Dad" word plaque done in Star Wars style panels using heavy cardstock shapes I created and cut with the Cricut Maker. Sometime soon I'd like to make him a diorama to display all of his droids. Just a simple and quick project, right?

Affixing Star Wars type elements

Painted navy gray

Added various metallic paints to elements

Layers of grungy washes to portray the used and cobbled
 together equipment of the Rebel Alliance

My shelf letters are coming along. They won't be as detailed as Russ', but I am more comfortable blending with the wallpaper. 😊

As you can see, my week wasn't eaten up with minis, but as long as there is creativity of some kind, I am happy! I sure am anxious to plant some mini flowers, though!!!

Have a happy, creative week, my friends!

xo xo,

Jodi

Lawbre Greenhouse Construction Progress

Happy spring everyone! Though you would not notice any difference if you were here in the northwest US with me. It is foggy, gray with low lying clouds, very chilly and drizzling with tiny droplets of rain. Would someone please tell the sun and the flowers that it is time to come out now??? Ah well, at least here in my work room I am doing spring things - building the Lawbre Greenhouse kit!

While I would never want to discourage anyone, I am compelled to say that it is no wonder why you do not see many photos of this completed kit. Nor can any blog posts be found about building one. It is fiddly, complicated, has loads of parts, takes an extra amount of patience and, while it has extensive instructions, some of them are not very clear. It is "vintage", long out of production, and not cheap if you do happen to find one. I purchased both of mine from eBay: this kit with the potting shed/greenhouse and a stand alone greenhouse only kit. But I am a glutton for hard things and can never pass up a kit from times past. Let me expound on the assembly process...

Kit Components

The first thing you need to do is to pull apart the instructions to remove the included building template sheets. With these, you will make a board to pin the parts to for assembly. You'll need large sheets of foam core boards to attach the templates to, then you'll have to cover the templates in waxed paper so you do not ruin them with glue. This is because for the long sides and roof sides, you will need to use the template boards twice. For the Potting Shed and Greenhouse kit, there are four sheets: long wall (x2), roof side (x2), end wall and door. In the freestanding greenhouse only kit there is an additional template for the end wall with no door.

My Foam Core boards were 11" x 14" x 1/8" and were the perfect size. Luckily I already had them in my supplies. I used an Elmer's Glue Stick to adhere the template onto the foam core board, then covered the template with waxed paper using Zots to hold it in place.

I followed the instructions, using "T" pins to hold the parts in place while the glue dried. I used Gorilla Wood Glue for the wood to wood adhesion and Fast Grab Tacky Glue for the "glass" jobs..

At this point everything needed to be painted before inserting the "glass" (which is just some sort of plexi material). The wood is nice but needs a good deal of sanding. I am not super happy with the glossy finish for the black paint: it is Wrought Iron by Patio Paint. It is weather resistant so I should have considered more carefully before settling on it. It isn't terrible in person, but the gloss finish and photos aren't the best of friends.

In between all the gluing and painting I started on the greenhouse floor. I didn't have many of the clay bricks left over from the potting shed but I did have a lot of Magic Brik sticker roll in my stash. I covered the MDF floor in primer, then stuck down the brick sticker in several rows.

I made a mistake when I used a mystery baggie full of powder to make the bricks with. It was not a good mortar. I think I had made the same mistake a while back and didn't like the results. But because it was a while back, I forgot and repeated the same mistake. Can I blame menopause? It was too gritty and too runny and wanted to pull up with the sticker. I should have used joint compound. At any rate, it was not the look I wanted but I decided I could rise to the challenge and make it work. Instead of uniform brick it turned into an ancient and worn out paver look. Whatever.

Mortar spread over the sticker paper

Pulling off the sticker sheet along with some of the "bricks"

Once it dried I sanded and cleaned up the grout lines a bit.

To make the bricks coordinate with the bricks in the potting shed (at least in color tone), I repeated the color palette from my last post. Then I applied whitewash, then sealer, then spackle for the grout. I applied a grayish wash once everything was dry. It still needs more aging, but I'll save that for when I apply the final aging to the entire structure. That way it stays uniform.

Initial coloring

Applying matte sealer

Turned out well enough for a greenhouse floor

Once the floor was ready I began to assemble the walls. I am playing with the idea of leaving one of the walls removable so that it is easier to set up and take photos. Only two of the three walls are glued to the floor now.

A daisy chain of rubber bands held the floor tightly to the walls while the glue dried

I left the door to open in or out for scene flexibility

The third wall is not attached

I made a valiant start on the roof, but that is a whole new level of complicated!!! I had hoped to have it finished for this week's post, but the process is going much slower than the walls had gone. Hopefully, next week, I'll have the roof plus the landscape board to share. And I also hope to share some exciting updates on the real life family room progress!

Until we meet again, I wish you blooms and buds and a bit of sunshine!

xo xo, 

Jodi