Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Stonework Tutorial - Dollhouse Part 9

This fun Stonework craft technique can be used on either floors or walls of a dollhouse or room box. Stonework would look great either inside or outside, and would be a perfect finish for a beautiful fireplace. It could lend itself to a lot of different design styles too, including anything from an old fashioned style to modern. It is easy and inexpensive, but it has a high impact, dramatic look when your done.  I am amazed that when the technique is finished and sealed, it looks and even feels like real stones.

Finished Stonework

Step 1 - Paint the surface under your stonework. You will leave a gap between each stone, so this paint will show through as your grout line. Choose your grout color and paint the entire surface of the wall or floor with that color. I used Anita's Acrylic Craft Paint in a dark gray color called Charcoal.


Step 2 - Collect cardboard egg cartons, fast food drink trays, and other types of bumpy textured cardboard. By using egg cartons and drink trays from different places, you'll get different colors of gray and brown so your stones will have different colors and textures. I also used a $1 pack of seed planting cups from Target.


Step 3 - Tear the cardboard into random stone shaped pieces. You can also use this same technique to make bricks by cutting the cardboard into uniform brick shaped blocks.


Step 4 - Begin gluing the pieces to the surface with the bumpy side facing up. Fold pieces around edges and corners so that it will look like one continuous stone on both the top and side of the surface. Leave a gap in between your stones to form the grout line.


I used my favorite glue, Fast Grab Tacky Glue to glue the stones to the surface. Tip: I keep my glue turned upside down in a mug so that it comes out easy when I'm ready, then I just drop it back in the mug. Fast Grab Tacky is a really thick glue, and it can be hard to squeeze out of the bottle if not kept upside down.


Continue gluing different colors and shapes of pieces on, leaving a thin line of gray showing through. Find pieces that fit together well or just tear the cardboard to fit the shape you need.


You can see the mess I made on the floor by tearing off little pieces to get the shapes to fit together.


Step 5 - Once all of the stones are glued in place, add more color to the stones with craft paint. Dry brush the stones with different colors of cream, tan, brown, gray, and even green for a mossy effect. I used Craft Smart Acrylic Paint from Michael's in Light Green, Spanish Olive, and Vanilla and Anita's Acrylic Paint from Hobby Lobby in Latte, Chocolate Brown, Burnt Umber, Rainy Day Gray, and Charcoal.


Dry Brushing - When you are doing a dry brush painting technique, you don't want to cover the entire surface with that color paint. You just want to add a shadowy hint of the paint color. To do this, dip the tip of your brush into the paint and then blot most of the paint off the brush on a paper towel. Then with the almost dry brush, lightly brush a faint hint of the color onto your surface. For the stones, I used a round brush and pounced a hint of color onto the stones.


The added creams, brown, grays, and greens give so much depth and dimension to the stones and make them look more natural. Look at the difference between the before and after of dry brushing these extra colors on.

Before Dry Brushing

After Dry Brushing

Step 6 - Paint the entire surface with Matte Mod Podge. This will seal and finish your stonework.


When you paint it on, the entire surface will be covered with a white haze, but it will dry clear. You can see the white haze in this picture, where I have painted the left side with Mod Podge, but not the right side yet.


Paint the entire surface with several coats of Matte Mod Podge, allowing time for it to dry completely between coats.


I applied four separate coats of Matte Mod Podge.


Once the Mod Podge is dry, the stones no longer look or feel like they are made of cardboard. They are completely hard, and they look and feel like stone. It's hard to see the depth and dimension in the pictures, but in person it is amazing.


Here is the final result.


I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you can use this technique in the future on your own dollhouse, room box, or even just a winter fireplace scene for your favorite doll.


Please leave your questions or comments below.
Hugs,
Lisa

33 comments:

  1. Me gusta mucho como queda. Gracias por la explicación.

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    1. Thank you Isabel!!! Please let me know if you try your own stonework project.

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    2. THIS IS SO COOL. WE ARE MAKING A FAIRY GARDEN AND THIS IS PERFECT. I THINK I WILL SPRAY IT WITH SPRAY SEALER TO KEEP IT DRY. DO YOU THINK THAT WOULD WORK? THANK YOU

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    3. Thanks a lot for your tutorial, I'll try. Yours is perfect!

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  2. I love your stone work!! It looks really beautiful. Did you put grout in between the stones?

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    1. Thank you Mary! Before I started glueing the pieces on, I painted the entire surface with charcoal gray craft paint. By leaving a small gap between each piece, the gray color shows through and looks just like grout. After all the pieces were attached, I painted the entire surface with several coats of Matte Mod Podge, covering the stones and the grout lines with it. It looks and feels like real stone now.

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  3. That's ingenious! Very creative and well done. Thank you for sharing.

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  4. What a fabulous tutorial and so well explained that even a dummy like me could do it!
    Thank you so much, I look forward to using this tutorial when I do my new home for my BJD's. BTW your completed home looks gorgeous.
    Cheers,
    X

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    1. Thank you Xanadu! I'm so excited that you will be using this technique on your BJD home! I'd love to see pictures!!!

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  5. I have been itching to make a stone fireplace...what a great tutorial! I have no excuse now! Thank you!

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    1. Hi Nonna! This would make a beautiful stone fireplace! It is simple and fun! You should definitely do it! I'd love to see pictures when your done!!!

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  6. Thank you for the tutorial. I used the technique on a fireplace and it turned out great!

    As soon as I figure out how to upload a picture, I'll do so.

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    1. That's great Myrna!!! I'm so glad that you were able to use this technique to make a fireplace. I would love to see it a picture!

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  7. Great job! I used this technique in several different ways. I use air dry clay in the grout color I want and put it between. Looks good. This would be so much easier, thanks for the tip!

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  8. Wow!This is fabulous! Thanks so much for your awesome tutorial! I love stone and have done a lot of stonework on my real house. I have been thinking about ways to incorporate stonework onto my dollhouses and was considering collecting tiny real stone and grouting, which seemed daunting. This is so do-able! Yay! I think I will make a little fireplace just to try out your method. This would be so great on a large chimney. You're my hero today! Thanks! ��

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    1. Thank you Wendy!!! You are so sweet!!! Best of luck with your fireplace! I'd love to see it!!!
      Hugs,
      Lisa

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  9. What a great job this is the first time I have seen this done. Thank you.

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  10. Thank you for sharing your techniques.

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  11. Thank you so much for the tutorial. I am looking forward to trying it.

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  12. bonjour,
    je suis impressionnée par ce travail de carton, je vais essayer sur terrasse de maison de poupée. Par contre comment avez vous réalisé les joints des pierres ?

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  13. I bought a very well built fixer-upper. It has a flocked brick foundation as well as two chimneys. They are in very worn condition. It is a huge house. I will need to sand off the flocking and do something. This seems like a perfect solution. I did not want to cover it with stone paper etc. This seems like an ideal solution. Thank you for the step by step instructions. Plus the products you used. I love this house! Hope I don't mess it up! Wish me luck! :)

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  14. Lisa, you do BEAUTIFUL work, ur very talented. U must be so proud of your work! Keep it up ;-)

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  15. I love this idea so much. I'm making my daughter a doll house using what we have at home. I dont have egg cartons but I'm going to use the card board from toilet paper rolls and packing boxes. Hopefully it will look half as good.

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  16. Great tutorial. I have started my patio for my Little Toy Shop. It is going well. Could you tell me what dollhouse is in your pics?

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  17. Great tutorial. I have started my patio for my Little Toy Shop. It is going well. Can you tell me what dollhouse is in your pics?

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  18. Wow! Looks amazing. Another great tutorial. & thank you for completly explaining the dry brush tech.

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  19. Vc conseguiu me explicar tudo que eu quero aprender, vou fazer casinhas de fadas e " bruxas" p/ a minha netinha com sua explicação OBRIGADA.

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  20. Hermoso trabajo. Eres la mejor!!! En como describe y enseña, es fenomenal!!! Felicitaciones quedaron las piedras ídenticas a las verdaderas, gracias por tu enseñanza. Abrazo.🌹

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  21. It's so nice of you to share your beautiful work and how you accomplished it. I've been saving egg cartons, and now I know how to use them. Thank you!

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  22. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful work with instructions on how you accomplished it. I've been saving egg cartons, just in case I would figure out a way to use them, and you just taught me how!

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