Changing Gears... Again

I bet none of you were expecting to stop by and see something like this, this week! Me either! In fact, the idea didn't even hit me until Monday. This whole staying at home thing has a way of making you forget about what day of the week it is. That's why I totally lost track of a very important upcoming event. I can't say much more than that, right now, but I promise you'll know everything in a couple weeks...

Suffice to say that I needed to make a small project - Pronto! And what better than a Spanish influenced private garden oasis? I began by gathering scrap pieces of foam core. I had a piece that was 7-5/8" x 4-11/16 - a good size for the floor.

VERY rough drawing!

And then I had two full pieces which I could use to make a back wall and sides, and two half walls in the front.

I wanted a couple windows with wrought iron inserts, so as usual, I let the Cricut do the cutting.

Here I am using 3 rulers to help me place my frame exactly into position. Then it was easy to trace the opening and cut it out with an Xacto.

To frame out the corner fireplace walls, I made a pattern from scrap cardboard and then used it to cut the shape into my foam core - half on the back wall and half on the left wall. Where you see the "X"'s are the waste part of the wall.

I also cut a front strip that would join the two side walls and provide a structure for the round wooden beams. By Monday night I had a rough structure!
Amazing what you can accomplish with a major fire placed squarely under your buttocks!  :O)

Tuesday morning I was up and painting a piece of Canson Illustration Art Board for the tile floor before breakfast. I picked a few desert type colors and splotched them randomly on the board. Once dry, I cut them into 15/16" squares and began laying tile.

Tuesday evening I had the tiles laid and began to prep an egg carton lid for bricks. For this project, I needed the bricks to be very Rustic! So, I chose some more desert colors, this time darker for contrast, and splotched and pounced until I could not see any gray.

Wednesday began the brick laying. I was determined that I would have it completed by bedtime so that I could get a good, thick coat of varnish applied that would have overnight to dry. I did it! Just barely. And there were additional bricks that had to wait until all of the walls were joined later.

In the background you can see the groutless bricks just waiting to be nestled in some spackle. In the foreground, you see three random objects that probably don't give away what their intended purpose will be. The cardboard piece is a 3/4 section from a masking tape roll. They are perfect for ponds or landscaping - anything than needs a sturdy circular shape. On top of that is a piece of cereal box - Lucky Charms, of course! It has been cut to fit into the corner as the base for the fireplace. The empty gesso bottle just happened to have the perfect shape for the fireplace I envisioned. All I had to do was cut it down, then cut it in half, then cut an opening from it. The stove pipe is the one that I did not end up using for the New Orleans kitchen. It was meant for this stove!

The tape on the gesso bottle helped to guide my cut with the Zona saw.

At this point I cut the back part of the gesso bottle off
and also cut an access hole for the fireplace.

While I contemplated how I was going to attach the fireplace and at what point, I made what I think are called gussets for the pergola top logs. This was to ensure that my spacing and holes would be perfect. Again, the Cricut saves the day!

At this point, I had to start the grout. It was already Thursday and to be honest I was freaking out a little bit. I was wondering why I am always cutting things so close and why in the world did I think I could get this done in time and still remembering all the while that my faith has been rewarded innumerable times in my life and all I had to do was to keep focused and keep moving forward.

Taking in progress photos, however, was not my priority, so the next photo might be shocking...

Grout - check!
Fireplace installed - check!
Walls attached - check!
Window frames painted and installed - check!
Stucco texture (Mod Podge mixed with paint) applied and walls painted - check!
Gussets added to skinny foam core upper walls - check!
Holes cut out for beams - check!
Fireplace logs and fire light added - check!

And it was only Friday morning! Note to self: Go look at the plaque on your front porch, dummy. The one with Proverbs 3:5-6.

Before

Remember how I said "Rustic" earlier? Here's how you "Rustic" something up...
It's fun to flip to the before and after pics in the slide show - dramatic!

After

And with the roof assembled...

I am amazed at how much I accomplished this week and I have real hope that I will complete this gift in time! Now, I can turn my attention inside where I'll:

Make a chair
Make a table
Add more lighting
Make a multitude of flowers
Add a decorative base with minimal landscaping
Make a holder for the battery box
Pillow?
Rug?
Animals?

Aw darrnit! I better go read that plaque again!

Hope you are all safe and well, and with faith, are meeting all of the new challenges (opportunities) that are suddenly presented to you!

xo xo,
Jodi

Pound Cake Exterior: A Happy Ending...

As this week draws to an end so too does the exterior of Pound Cake! I'll pick up where we left off last week and take you through the process...

You'll remember that my intricate stencil idea didn't work out so well so plan B was to cut various "fondant" shapes with the Cricut. I used Kraft cardstock and then laminated two layers together to increase the thickness. I also made scalloped trim in the same way to add a little extra detail where the black transitioned into the white "cake" layer.

Here is the first side applied in a random pattern. The cardstock is very white and the paint is a warmer white so the detail is easy to pick up. Each section was painted in the warmer white later to leave a raised textured effect like fondant.

Plain white white cardstock.

Painted with warm white.

On the front area I left room so as not to interfere with the porch roof.

Once the "fondant" was done I could get the wiring sorted. I was able to lead all of the wiring for the lights (thus far) to one point of exit, creating a hub for the power strip. Any future additional lights will have to be carefully camouflaged and lead here. Luckily, I still have lots of space and a transformer large enough to handle many more bulbs!

This was an exciting moment! I finally got to see all of the lights lit together on the transformer instead of the 9 volt battery! I am super happy with the amount of light given off by these 16 fixtures and bulbs!

Now it was time to address the roof. Remember how I had modified the fit so that I could add and remove the roof as needed while I installed the second floor walls? Well, that left me with some unsightly gaps that I had to address. It seemed that the easiest and cleanest method was to add more of the scalloped cardstock.

Gap

Scalloped cardstock cut to fit and painted.

Gaps gone and you barely notice the scallop edge.
But if you do, it looks intentional.

Switching to the porch entry floor... I painted coffee stirrer sticks and laid them in alternating black and white to create stripes.

And then I painted the roof's metallic finish on in several coats. It is
Jacquard Lumiere Metallic Acrylic Paint in Pewter. It looks like a lead roof so it's really neat! Also, I left this photo uncropped so that you could get a look at my background hoard. I am embarrassed to say that I have not done a deep reorganization of my bins and shelves since I finished the New Orleans last summer!!! I may take a short break before I start on the interior of the bakery just to hit the reset button.

Next in line was the front porch. I continued with the black storefront theme and added a couple small ceiling lights. The wire will have to be run to the back in some inconspicuous manner.

For the storefront sign I once again harnessed the power of the Cricut. Using the same font as the window vinyl, I cut and laminated three layers of kraft cardstock and installed that onto the kit's sign board.

The dormer gingerbread has been added here, too.

Gratuitous lighted shot...

Opposite angle.

There will be touch ups, and I am leaving space for more inspiration to lead to more detail, but Pound Cake's exterior has indeed reached a happy ending!

And last, I want to take a moment to truly thank each of you for being here. Each of you who come by to share a little of this amazing and heart filling passion. And to those who have uplifting words and leave thoughtful comments that lift my heart and encourage me to reach for new challenges. And for those of you who don't have words or time or even a free hand to type them but send good thoughts instead. Thank You All So Much! For without you, the joy for me in this passion would be hollow. I am so happy and grateful to be part of this special community of fellow mini enthusiasts who inspire and encourage one another! Each of us adds our own unique flavor and we are so blessed to have connected with one another!

xo xo,
Jodi

Have My Cake And Eat It Too!

In keeping with my flighty nature (when it comes to miniatures), I grew bored/dissatisfied with the SOS shop kit. After I had made a counter unit and painted the exterior front wall, I moved all of it's parts and pieces to the top of the New Orleans where it will likely sit until it inspires me again. No telling how long that will be. Good thing there won't be any company coming over for a while!

Why switch, you ask? Because once again, ideas solidified and I became excited for the next steps on Brimble's bakery... the roof and exterior.
The roof is really pretty boring, so rather than expanded explanations, I'll just show the progression via photos and captions...

Fill, Sand, Gesso, Sand...

Cut cereal box covering for wires...

Add trims and gesso...

Dowels to bridge the apex gaps in the dormers...

Of course the cereal box fits - it was Lucky Charms!

In Miniatures, you can turn a wooden roof into a
metal one with just a few pieces of trim!
It's magic!

No shingles - yippee!!!

Channel molding to hide and direct wires...

Base color for metal roof...
The metallic paint will come later...

Also notice that body trims are being added to frame exterior elements...

And just in time - The Cake part, because, well, I really love cake!!!
Some of you may remember that I wanted to try to make the exterior of Pound Cake look similar to a layer cake...

So using the Design Space software for my Cricut, I made lattice, stripes and floral stencil. These were cut from paper products, of course, rather than fondant!

Lattice, stripes and stencil created in Design Space.

Here you can see that I laminated three layers of Kraft card to thicken up the lattice.

And here I am adding hundreds of tiny half pearls, one at each intersection. There were 112 of them used for the bottom lattice alone...

And then, along with trims, they were added onto the bakery...

And then the stripes...

And more lattice and trims above that...

Great progress, right? Until I got to the flower fondant layer...
This was proving to be a total trial and error adventure. I had hoped to be able to share the finished exterior in this post, but alas, the work continues...

I had the following ideas about how to achieve a fondant/frosting kind of texture:

1. Cut floral shapes with the Cricut and add embellishments to supplement.
2. Create a stencil with the Cricut and apply spackle like frosting over it.
3. Use a Tim Holtz stencil as above with spackle, then paint and embellish.

My first attempt at cutting an intricate floral stencil was a disaster. For those of you with a Cricut, I used Cricut Kraft paper with the Kraft setting, fine point blade with extra pressure. It did not cut all the way through on the first pass, and the second pass only tore sections. So disappointing. Back to the drawing board...

My next experiment is going to be with larger flower shapes which I plan to apply in a random pattern on the wall, paint and then embellish. If my cuts don't go well again, I'll try the stencil/spackle idea, though I fear that will be majorly messy!

To fill my non mini time during our mandated seclusion, I have also been baking (muffins not cake... yet!), cooking a whole lot more than I'd like (but not as much as Russ likes), finally getting my money's worth out of Audible, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, and learning that at 51 years old, yes 51, you can absolutely love playing video games. It turns out, surprisingly, that I'm a pretty good pirate and warrior! :O)

Finding silver linings is something I'm truly good at. I hope you are too, that you are staying safe and healthy, that you have all you need and are not afraid to ask if you don't. There is so much kindness out there and we all get to take turns giving and receiving it.

God bless all of us!

xo xo,
Jodi