#HBS Creatin' Contest 2016

This is not my first time ever entering the infamous HBS Creatin' Contest - I actually entered the 20th Creatin' Contest. That's the one with the Charming Cottage Kit - Nancy Enge won with her phenomenal Sea House Pavillion! I was making dollhouse lamps for my parents for Christmas that year, so I only started the kit in November and entered just as a last minute "why not" kind of thing. I won a $5.00 gift certificate, and my mom LOVED her dollhouse lamp, so it was great all the way around!

I wasn't going to enter this year, either. Let's face it - there are so many amazingly talented miniaturists out there that competing just isn't my thing. What did appeal to me was being part of the community of  blogger friends who are working on this project simultaneously and sharing the experience! That part is so exciting to me, I truly love how unique and supportive our community is and I really wanted to be a part of it! I also finally joined Instagram, so it will be double the fun following everyone and seeing their great ideas! #hbscreatincontest2016

When the kit was first revealed I thought it was cute and a great size for those of us that have to watch how much space a project takes up in our homes. But, I couldn't come up with any ideas that lit my fire. Until I remembered a project that has been in the works in my mind since 2012. Once I thought about how I could bash the kit to fit the needs for my idea, I was off and running! I ordered two kits in April, and have been waiting excitedly to get started!

I've been collecting minis and materials for this project for about two years now. Each time I was shopping or came up with another idea for it I would add little extras on to my orders. I just kept adding things into a box, then it became a drawer, then it became two drawers!

The theme is an adaptation on the classic children's book The Three Little Pigs. I remembered reading this and many stories to my kids when they were little and thinking how many of these books had wonderful art but very dark narratives. What's with wolves trying to eat pigs, children and poor grandmothers? And why are these themes in children's books? Who knows, but I love it when the good guys win, so I am highlighting the ending of The Three Little Pigs in my miniature scene. My working title is: The Three Little Pigs: REVENGE!

I hope to capture a certain cartoon-ish art style with the project. Wikipedia says:

A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works.

 Well, we are going three dimensional here, but I hope to evoke the satire and humor part. The most important part of my theme will of course be the little piggies. It took hours of searching for just the right characters, but when I saw the 5" Maxwell bobble heads I knew they would be perfect. I just plan to cut off the Geico base and dress them each in their own unique personalities.

Suddenly it was time to begin working on the kit. I knew I was going to have some major alterations ahead of me, so I just put fear aside and jumped right in. I needed to combine two kits in order to have the room I needed for the things I have planned. I also wanted to use different windows and door, so adjustments had to be made to the walls and floor. I did a dry fit, traced where openings needed to be enlarged or closed all together and where the base needed to be shortened. I didn't want to go more than 30" wide for the project as a whole.

Replacement door and windows

Mock up - opening will now be what was the side

Marking where front porch will be cut down.

Once I had each of the pieces marked out, it was time for the scary part - cutting things with big tools! Yikes! It doesn't matter how many times I do this, I still get nervous! The rip saw was the perfect saw to cut both floor pieces. They were going to be straight cuts and having the guard on the saw is great for making sure that they are straight!

Rip saw with guide for cutting the floors

Once I had the pieces cut it was time to join them. One of these days I am going to learn how to cut slots for biscuits and properly join wood together. But not today... I used wood glue and lots of blue tape and pressure to join the floors together, letting it dry thoroughly before moving it at all!

Both floor pieces glued and taped

Because I knew there would be a lot of stress on the one glue joint, I decided to go ahead and attach the plywood base at this very early construction stage. My hubs cut out a 15" x 30" piece of plywood on his table saw.

Glued floors next to plywood base

Gorilla Glue applied to plywood

Joined bases fit to plywood

Base and plywood weighted down to dry overnight

Now that the floor was under control, it was time to tackle the walls. For these, I had to break out the scroll saw. I needed to make larger window openings for the two back walls. On the panel that will be the front door I needed to close up the original window opening (precious wall space needed), fill in the giant opening for a much smaller door, and add a support piece above the new door/window and one below the window. On the other end wall, I needed to enlarge the original window opening and enclose the giant opening for the kit's original door.  I also needed to remove the majority of the front wall, so that just a side and bottom frame remained. This meant very careful cutting on the walls, and then using the pieces that I cut away to fill in the areas that needed filling.

Hard to see lines to be cut

Completed piles of newly reconfigured walls

Once the pieces were cut, I needed to glue in and spackle the areas where holes in the walls were being filled in. I didn't get photos of this process - sorry! I was trying to watch TV at the same time with the hubs and sneak work in so that he didn't feel abandoned! ;O) Here are the walls after gluing, spackling and sanding.

Finally it was time to glue walls to the floor and base. I usually like to do a bit of finish work on the walls of a dollhouse kit before I assemble because it is easier than reaching in with my big hands. This time, though, since I will be doing a lot of brick work, I needed the walls and floor to be attached first so that where corners and floors meet walls look right. I dry fit everything again to make sure it was nice and square. I have to say that this is a well made kit and would be extremely simple for anyone to put together as originally intended. I then added wood glue to the pieces and taped everything up tight to dry.

Glued and taped! Yeah!

While I waited for the walls and floor to set, I started painting the doors and windows. I like to use spray paint on them because I like the finish it gives much better, and there is much less sanding to do. This photo represents four coats, so far. I'll probably get two more in today and then let them dry overnight. Tomorrow, I'll get the other side.

Meanwhile, I have some decisions to make about brick. I have several options - I have been colecting brick options for a while now. I just need to decide what will go where and in what logical order I need to start. My window of opportunity for mini time is closing, so I need to take advantage while I can. Work will ramp up soon and I'll have no way to get out of my responsibilities. :O(

I have some exciting surprises planned - all of the lighting will be attached to the roofing and outside! There are lots of roof and beam modifications yet ahead of me, so I'll keep the scroll saw and some bravery handy!

If you are also participating in this years contest, please leave a comment! Especially if you are blogging about it or posting on your Facebook page! I'd love to add you to my blog roll and see what amazing ideas everyone is working on! I just can't get enough!

Mini On My Friends!

Jodi

Easy Teacup Chandelier - Take 2 and 3!

While work continues on the roofing and the exterior trim of the Shabby Chic Soap Shop I received my new Du Bro tubing bender. I had to try it out, so this lead me down another rabbit hole...

If you'll recall from my Easy Teacup Chandelier post, I had an epic failure at my attempt to bend 1/8" copper tubing with the K&S Tubing Bender kit. It has been pointed out to me by kindred souls over at the Greenleaf forums that it was probably just user error, because they have no problem using them. I was using copper tubing, and they were using brass, so that was probably what accounted for the diverse results.

The Du-bro bender included four 3" pieces of 1/8" brass tubing. It bent like a dream! No crimping, no breaking. Here you can see all four pieces perfectly bent into beautiful J's!

Okay, so it works perfectly on brass but how about copper?

Not so much. It actually crimps and breaks the metal. Now I am sure that if I insert a piece of solid wire into the tubing and heat it up a bit before bending (as was suggested to me on the forum) I may have better results. Another challenge for another time perhaps... For now, we'll stick to the very accommodating brass rod.

But on to my progress on the chandelier...

I needed a central brace - something a little decorative. Hoarders everywhere will rejoice when I show you some really old stock I had saved for "just in case"... Veranda Posts!

I got out the trusty old bead container and started to create something of a shabby chandelier using these and other "parts".

These two bead caps glued together will serve as the base of the center wooden dowel.

I am using a combination of E6000 and The Ultimate Glue to see what sticks, pun intended (snicker)...

These will be the parts that support the saucer and attach them to the brass J's. The toothpicks are simply an attempt to keep things lined up and uncrooked:

Here is the dowel being glued into the bottom bead caps. I was very generous with the Ultimate glue here. It will dry clear, and the whole assembly will be painted white, so a little messy was okay.

The J's will have to be attached to the top of the chandelier somehow. A large bead cap seemed like just the thing - only, I needed to make the holes larger so that the 1/8" rod would fit into them. I just used the Dremel with the drill attachment to open them up a bit. You can see how one of the four has been enlarged.

Next, I needed to assemble the candle bulb, cup, saucer and support bead caps to the J's. This meant fishing the candle wires through each component. I found that a little persistence, going slowly, being willing to back the wire out a bit then push forward with gentle pressure helped to coax the wires to manage the curve and pop out blissfully from the end.

Closer up...

Now to add the top to the dowel with the base. I decided maybe screwing it in might be better than just glue. Drilled the pilot hole, widened the hole in the bead cap, then screwed it down... The screw sticking out the top will serve as a spacer - you'll see what I mean in a later step...

Okay - time to add the arms - in this model there will only be four. The photo below gives you a rough idea, though a messy one, of what I'm trying to accomplish...

Getting there is a fiddly and messy business. Hopefully, once completed and painted shabby white, it will add to the flavor of the look for the shop that I am trying to achieve. If not, I have plenty more brass, plenty of beads, plenty of veranda posts and plenty of will to try, try again... The teacup chandelier experiments will continue...

Meanwhile, check out what materials and details I've revealed to use in the HBS Creatin' Contest 2016 page. Kit bash and layout are coming in early June if all goes well!

*** UPDATE ***

Here is the chandelier after I glued it:

Sloppy, huh?

Here it is after I painted it:

Sloppy, huh?

Um... Yeah... It still needs work so I decided to just start all over again... See my little brass rods all cut to the perfect length and everything? Then I tried to bend them...

Then I learned something new - after the new brass tube (that the hubs so nicely picked up for me from the hobby store) bent and broke just like the copper tube! Apparently, you need to do something called ANNEALED to the metal.

Yep - I read all about it. Apparently, if you are trying to harden the brass, say if you are making bullets, you heat the brass with a torch until it is cherry red and immediately knock it into water to cool it quickly. If you want it soft, you heat it to cherry red with a torch and then let it cool slowly, like let it air cool. Then it is supposed to submit to being bent into a nice looking "J" with no crimps and no breaking. So, to sum up this post, this is an ongoing experiment, and I will post again about my annealing experience and let you know if I actually made a purdy chandelier...

Thank Goodness For Quick Shipping!

When I last posted, I was waiting for some things to arrive in order to move forward on the soap shop: White paint, a variety of trims, and the half scale speed shingles for the main roof. I am happy to report that I had the trims by Monday (thank you Manchester Wood Works on ebay!), the paint on Tuesday (thank you Amazon for the 8oz white paint for $4.33 and free 2 Day Prime shipping), and the speed shingles on Wednesday (thank you Greenleaf for the Priority Mail). I was able to tackle each little project as the shipments arrived!

The overwhelming consensus on the bay roof, both on the blog and by real life viewers, was to go with the "metal" option. I liked the idea! I thought it would add just another little textural detail to make it look extra yummy! I had some nasty gaps in the little roof where I had to make adjustments to the slots, so I needed to get those filled in. I used a piece of scrap wood (a poked out tab from the kit) to fill in the gap, then slathered everything in a couple layers of spackle. Once it was dried and sanded, the surface was smooth enough to pass for "metal". I added some trims, painted it with a few coats of trim color and then applied several coats of satin varnish so it would have a little metal sheen.

I received the trim that I needed to finish off the back roof edges. I had a heck of a time getting the mitered corners to match up. It was one of those days that I had to struggle through and wonder why everything was so hard. In the end, it worked out - it just literally took more than 2 hours for a 15 minute job. Meh... That's the miniatures business - it just makes the successes that much sweeter.

I got the paint and then went after all of the gaps and scrapes and things that needed touching up on the interior. You know, it's kind of difficult for me to keep some of the shabby! I just tend toward trying to fix everything, even when I remind myself that I 'don't want it perfect'. It's supposed to be a bit shabby and have some character. Do you find yourself doing that, too?

I had some of the hexagon speed shingles left over from the gable ends, so I went to work on the dormer area of the roof. I knew that once it was shingled, you weren't going to see it, but I painted the background color on just in case. Then I shingled the area and gave it a whitewash just like all the other hex shingled areas.

I did a final dry fit on the dormer and installed the window, I traced around it so that I had my line of where to roof up to. I need some input as to weather I should add a flower box under the dormer or just leave it alone? I'll take suggestions now and then later, after I post a mock up, so we can all get a visual on size/scale/placement etc...

Look at the photo below. Do you know what these are? They are little packages of speed shingles. 3 diamond, and 1 hex just in case I needed more. This photo represents $43.30 of roofing material (including $7.50 for shipping). That is the most expensive roof ever for a dollhouse! Well, I am sure not ever. There are monster roofs out there. But it is the most for me, so they had better look darn cute for years to come! :O) They do go on super fast, so if you have a short attention span like me and want the roof DONE, I recommend them highly!

I started a few rows of roofing Wednesday night. The hubs came back from his California trip (with son to bring home VW Bug which wonderful auntie Dayo gave to son) early Thursday morning, so there it sat until this morning. Just an FYI and note to self... Don't try to shingle a roof while talking to your mother about emotional family drama. I got a little wonky and had to pull stuff off to fix it  - after I got off the phone... I did 7 rows of diamonds, then 3 rows of hex, then back to diamond etc... I have a ways to go, but got a brainstorm type headache this afternoon, so I am on hold again until tomorrow.

Now here's another dilemma; shall I make the dormer and porch roofs metal as well, or just continue with the diamonds on them, too? I am not the best roofer in the world, so that teeny scared part of me is a little intimidated about the dormers. I want to do what's best for the shop, though, so I'll get over the fear if that's what I need to do. What do you think?

One last note before I go try to find my last Imitrex (for migraine)...

I have started a page for the 2016 Creatin' Contest build. Nothing too interesting yet, but I do have a theme picked out and plan to get started soon. Once the roofing is completed on the soap shop, but before I begin on the interior. If I start on the layout of the contest kit, I can get a better idea of a timeline and if I need to start freaking out yet or not. You can check it out here...

Hope you all have a wonderfully fun and relaxing weekend!

Jodi