D.I.Y. Puzzle Kit Progress

The little DIY kit project I'd planned with my daughter worked out better than I'd even hoped for! She was really excited at the Cake Diary kit itself, but when she found out that she could replace the papers and flooring with stuff from my stash... Let's just describe her as giddy! I think she appreciates my hoard of craft supplies a little more now! :O)

She initially began looking at what scrapbook paper I had in teal and blue color tones, but once she saw the sunny orange with the blue tile pattern she was set. She loved the leftover piece of Houseworks oak flooring, especially once it was sanded and varnished and came out with the same warm tones as the papers. She also picked out and meticulously cut some brick paper that will wrap creatively from the inside of the shop to around the back side.  We still have a way to go as every step involved customizing, but she couldn't have enjoyed herself more!

Here she is cutting her very first shelf pieces from balsa. We both didn't like the flimsy card meant for the shelving, so we made our own. My smarty pants girl was even very impressed with my math skills! See? Mom does still know something! She will be adding lace detailing to the shelf edges on our next play date. I'll share more progress as we make it! And btw... She said this was the perfect kind of mini project for her because she thrives with a little direction!

On my Chocolatier project I also made some great progress. I began assembling many of the accessories from the kit and quickly had ideas for even better details. For the shelf unit, I auditioned some glass candy jars from my stash and found a few that seemed to work in half scale. I filled them with metallic beads meant to look like foil wrapped chocolates.

I also used some Woodsies and wooden heart shapes to make candy boxes. The paper ones that came with the kit were just fine, though a little too large for where I needed to use them. I laminated three Woodsies pieces together, painted, edged them in gold leafing pen and then added stickers to the tops.

For the small glass case on the main counter, I made "chocolates" using flat backed pearls and stars. I colored them with Krylon Shortcuts paint marker in brown. I like the shiny finish, though I should have left them to dry a bit longer than I had the patience for. The kit provides boxes of chocolates, but they are just a photo inside a box. I like that you can take the kit a step farther if you want to.

I also made chocolate dipped cookies using paperclay and an inexpensive silicone cookie mold. I colored them to look fresh baked, then dipped half of them in white and milk chocolate. Man they made me hungry!

The interior is nearly finished with the exception of a tiny cash register. I am going to attempt with my scroll saw and lots of sanding to create one from a block of scrap wood. We'll see!

I have a few more of the exterior elements to make up and all of the lighting to do. Maybe another week or two and I can say I have completed my first DIY puzzle kit! I am really enjoying it though, and believe it or not. the Storybook Cottage has begun to call me again!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

xo xo,
Jodi

Halftime!

Getting the balcony railing installed for the New Orleans felt like a major accomplishment!  I kept at it, installing the last interior wall then starting in on all the trim work. Here’s where you find out just how out of square your build is and how good you really are with your measurements. I'll have some pics for you next week. I have a fair amount of filling and touch up painting to do, and that just got real boring, real fast. I got out the roof piece to begin making decisions on the ceiling molding and suddenly felt lost for direction. Oh how I long for step by step instructions where I don’t have to make many decisions and can kind of just mindlessly enjoy something crafty!

Ask and ye shall receive!

For Mother’s Day this year, my grown up daughter flew to California to visit her paternal grandma. She asked me before booking the ticket if it would hurt my feelings if she was not with me on Mother's Day. How sweet is that? Of course I told her GO! Have fun! We don't need it to be Mother's Day to spend fun time together, and we do it quite regularly anyway! But she went even further to sweeten the deal and will be spending most of this weekend here. Last time she showed me how to make her eggs Benedict recipe with homemade biscuits, but this time we'll be working on new mini projects together!

I have always been curious about the all in one 3D puzzle kits that you see everywhere, and have always wanted to see if I would really enjoy working in half scale. So using the generous Mother's Day Amazon gift card from the same thoughtful daughter, I bought two of them. Mine is the Chocolatier store kit by Spilay. Natasha has less room in her apartment, and because she has very little mini experience I picked the smaller Cake Diary kit by Cutebee for her.

In preparation for this weekend, I thought it was a great idea to crack my kit open to get familiar with the instructions. While there are very few words in English, the photos are pretty self explanatory. Once you get the key to how the instructions are laid out, it's pretty straight forward. The Spilay kit has the parts segregated into bags marked with a letter. Once you find the bag with that letter, you see a photo diagram of the parts you need for that piece of the kit. The instructions then provide step by step photos of how to assemble. The window film, signs and patterns are referenced in the same way as the parts for easy identification. Many of them have already been painted, and my kit included sandpaper, scissors, tweezers, ruler, razor knife, screwdriver and parts to make a dust cover.

I'll report on the other kit brand instructions after we've had a chance to work on it, though they look really similar.

I have only worked on the main large furniture pieces so far, a couple hours over the past couple evenings and am making steady progress. It is such a nice change to just be able to follow directions, and yet I have found some great opportunities to personalize and embellish the pieces as I go. I have added scrapbook paper, lace, different door knobs and even raised the tiny signs by adding wood back pieces outlined in gold leafing pen. We'll pretend that "always" is not misspelled on this one. :O) This person's English is still definitely better than my Chinese!

Aren't they adorable?!? I am truly enjoying this kit and expect to do more in the future. I hope Natasha finds it just as fun and that it turns into a regular activity for us to enjoy together.

As is generally the case, the universe synchronizes the timing on things. Imagine my surprise and delight this morning when I learned via email marketing that Hobby Builders Supply/miniatures.com is now offering these kits on their site!

The most delightful thing about this little halftime experiment is that I am discovering that I LOVE 1/24th scale! I can see myself doing many more projects in this scale, and because it's so much tinier, I'll have room for twice as many projects! Watch out Shannon! Soon I'll be coming for some of those amazing Red Cottage Miniatures structure and furniture kits I've coveted for so many years!!!

Have a wonderful, fun and creative weekend everyone!

xo xo,
Jodi

A Wink, A Nod and A Stair

Oh My! Stairs are HARD!!! And the ones for the New Orleans have been a real challenge for me from the start. I reasoned that before I installed the last wall panel upstairs, and prior to focusing on the bedroom, I had better get the hallway balcony railing and all trims for that skinny room completed. Big hands and frequent lapses in grace were among my worries. To do this part of the project,  finishing the stairs was essential, but the stairs for this project have been a bit of an odyssey from the beginning...

During the first dry fit I decided the set that came with the kit were too narrow, steep and plain. So I began making my own. This was in May of 2017!

After I had finished the first set, I realized that the last stair ended way too close to the "fourth wall" and instead needed a return. And since I was rebuilding anyway, why not add built in shelves for more display opportunities?

The photo below was as far as I'd gotten in August of 2017. And there they sat during my looooong hiatus.

Another bright idea came when I thought that opening up the stairwell would allow the chandelier light from the landing to shine down the stairs. I couldn't resist the idea of having something so pretty, so the opening became much larger. Now there would be a balcony all the way around the opening.

See how narrow the original stairs and opening were to be
per the original kit specs?
No way Jose!

When you cut a gaping hole into the structure, it can cause some sag which is what I expected and did occur with the stairwell opening. I always thought I would probably have to have some sort of column to support the second floor, though my original solution proved to be too big for the room.

Slight floor sag at enlarged stairwell opening.

Original column plan took up too much space in the living room.

And crowded the walkway from the front door to the stairs.

To help support the opening, I have added a 1/4" x 1/4" trim strip all along the second floor. It matches the first floor trim strip that I added to give the extra 1/8" of length I needed for the kitchen cabinets. I drilled pilot holes then nailed it into the floor for extra support. I will likely still add a column, but will need to load the furniture into the room to decide on size and placement. So I have put a pin in that task for now.

The trim strip has helped the sag.

The banister was not attached, just sort of in dry fit on top of the spindles. I had inadvertently knocked it around a little and some of the spindles had come loose. Many repairs had to be made, the banister had to be permanently attached, and decisions made on how to address the return stairs. As in: spindle and newel post or no? I also had the tricky angle cuts to make to join the banister sections at the top where the landing stair is longer, and at the bottom where the return meets the main rail. Nothing lined up perfectly or angled well, so I had to fake it. Wink, wink. I have used layers of wood glue as spackle, done some "creative sanding",  and hoped the final painting would disguise this fact enough to pass.

Wood glue as spackle.

The bottom newel post needed a bit of a lift.

Creative sanding.

In addition, I had to make decisions about what to use to make the balcony railing and then actually make it. I had considered several options such as creating a fancy wrought iron design out of plastic fencing pieces, but ultimately decided the house was asking me to keep things traditional. Too bad for me because spindles, baluster and bottom rail were the most fiddly option! Extremely tiny gluing surface, spacing nightmare, measuring minefield, ripe for knocking over after installation and just short of materials were some of the challenges. Below is the jerry~rigged~jig I made in an attempt to get the spindle spacing at least close to even. I made the rails in four sections and then joined them together. You can imagine my joy at having the entire thing explode to pieces while attempting to secure the baluster and bottom rail with rubber bands. It  happened more than once. My neighbors now believe I speak in Tongues.

The only way forward was to exercise extreme patience and let each step thoroughly set and dry before moving on to the next step. Here is one of many dry fit checks I made at every step along the way...

I made use of the waiting time by making up a bunch of frames with artwork for the stairway wall and upstairs hall. I used my old faithful method of marking out the wall space on my cutting mat with tape and then playing with the arrangement. I don't always follow the arrangement I've laid out, so this wall is going to need more art in frames.

You can see in these photos that I took the opportunity to add some decor to the stairway shelves, and to install the entry table and lamp. By install, I mean attach a piece of wood to the back of the furniture and attach that to the wall semi-permanently. By that I mean that I attach with Quick Grip so that the piece stays in place but can be removed without damage at any point in the future. This is ideal when a "decorate as I go" method is employed. I find it easier to decorate tiny spaces this way and less damaging than reaching big hands into tiny recesses at the end. There is still more to add, but I need to make a bunch of plants and flowers and want to do them for the entire house all at once. Flower and plant making have a way of taking up your entire work table!

My next steps are to install baseboard and other moldings into the stairwell hall,  make a fabric shade for the dormer window, make some artwork for the walls and contemplate adding another mirrored faux window to the stair wall. Everything I have on hand is either too big or too small, so I am waiting for a good idea to convince me to give it more effort. :O) At that point I can finally install the last wall in the house and begin again on the bedroom.

A lady from a blog I follow recently shared that she received some critical comments from a person via FaceBook. It struck a chord with to me to want to say a few words about it. The vast majority of us who love and have a passion for dollhouse miniatures, and who have blogs/Instagram/Facebook that we use to share our projects and connect to each other with, are not professionals in the litany of skills and trades involved in the hobby. We share because we receive and give support to like minded folks who "get" us. A lot of us share things that we are trying for the first time, more complicated things that we are trying to learn from, or things we are simply just having fun with. We don't share because we think we are perfect. Long lecture short... For those of you who support and encourage all of us through your wonderful comments...

~THANK~YOU!~

You are truly angels of light whose positivity impacts us in ways that you'll never know the measure of. For those of you who feel moved to write something nice, DO! And for all others, Be Kind with your Words. Check to make sure your intentions are good and words sincere before you type them. Making someone feel bad about their work only feeds rather than starves monsters. The world needs more angels and fewer monsters and you get to chose which you want to be! :O)

And to everyone, whatever gender, if you put others first and show love to them...

xo xo,
Jodi