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

Miniature Ceiling Fan Tutorial - Dollhouse Part 7

Today I wanted to share with you how to make a miniature ceiling fan.

I used simple objects that are easy to find at the craft store to make this project. You can make the ceiling fan for any size doll, depending on the size parts that you use. Tools you will need are a drill, Easy Cutter (or something to cut a thin wooden dowel), wire cutters, and pliers. Here is a list of the parts that I used, including Hobby Lobby's item numbers.

1. Craft wood shapes - ovals - item #500082
2. Craft wood - bowls - item #165431
3. Craft wood - wheels - item #211045
4. 3/16" Wooden Dowel 
5. Jewelry Shoppe Long Headpin - Hearts - item #126722L
6. Small Knob - I used Tim Holtz Curio Knobs from the scrapbooking dept.
7. Craft Paints
8. Toothpicks
9. Fast Grab Tacky Glue
10. Locktite Ultra Liquid Control Super Glue

I started by drilling a hole in the end of the 3/16" dowel. I used the tiniest drill bit to drill a hole just big enough so that a toothpick would fit tightly in the hole. You will only need to drill the hole about 1/4" deep.

Cut the end off of a toothpick.

Make sure the cut end of the toothpick will fit tightly into the hole, then take it back out to cut the dowel to size.

Take the screw out of the back of your knob. You won't need the screw for this project.

Place the knob face down on the table, and place the wooden wheel on top. Put the end of the dowel through the hole in the wheel until it touches the knob.  Use a pencil to mark how long the dowel needs to be.

Cut the dowel on your pencil mark.

Use the pliers to hold the tiny piece of dowel while you drill a hole into the other end. You will need a toothpick size hole in both ends of this tiny dowel.

Apply glue to the cut end of your toothpick and twist it into the hole in the dowel.

Measure about how deep the toothpick will go into the screw hole on the back of your knob.

Cut the toothpick off so that the dowel will be flush against the back of the knob with the toothpick in the screw hole.

After making sure that you have the toothpick cut to fit into the knob right, glue it in place. I like to put Fast Grab Tacky Glue on the toothpick and the end of the dowel, and then add a drop of Super Glue on top of the Tacky Glue for a really fast bond. It should look like this with the toothpick completely hidden, glued inside the knob and the dowel.

Place the wheel on the dowel. The wheel is not glued at all, so that it will turn freely on the dowel. The ceiling fan really works. It spins with manual power. :)

Cut the end off of another toothpick, which will fit into the hole in the other end of the dowel.

Drill a hole through the center of the bottom of one of the wooden shape bowls.

Measure how long to cut the toothpick so that it can fit through the hole in the bowl where it will be glued later.

The bowl will be the ceiling mount part of the fan. Don't glue this in place yet though.

Take the wheel back off of the dowel and with a pencil, mark five evenly spaced dots around the edge of the wheel.  Drill a hole at each mark. Use pliers to hold the wheel while you are drilling into it, so that your fingers are not close to the drill bit.

The bag of wooden oval shapes come with three sizes. Choose the right size depending on the size fan that you want to make. The heart shaped head pin will fit on the oval like this, becoming your fan blades.

Holding the heart in place on the oval, bend the wire down around the edge of the wood, then bend it again toward the back where it will fit into the wheel (your fan motor).

Cut the wire to fit into the holes that you drilled around the edge of the wheel, checking to make sure that you cut the length of wire to match the depth of the hole.

Use both the Fast Grab Tacky Glue and the Super Glue to glue the metal pins into the holes in the wheel. The Fast Grab Tacky will give you a strong hold, while the Super Glue will set up fast. Be careful not to get the Super Glue on your fingers. Hold each pin in place for a minute until the glue sets up.

Once all 5 pins are glued in place, set aside to dry completely.

While that is drying, you can paint or stain your fan blades. I used white craft paint.

Once the glue was dry, I painted the wheel, pins, and bowl parts with bronze metallic craft paint.

The bronze paint was brighter than the metal on the knob, so once the paint was dry, I added a dry brushing of dark brown craft paint to make it match the knob. I also dry brushed the blades a tiny bit to give them more of an aged patina. Dry brushing is a great way to create a shabby chic look. Just dip your paint brush in brown paint and brush it on a paper towel until it looks like all the paint is off and the brush is dry.  Then lightly brush the dry paint brush over your project a little area at a time. If it brushes on too dark, you may need to wipe off your brush some more. You can quickly wipe off your project with a wet wipe if it looks too dark. It's kind of like using wood stain, you brush it on and wipe it off until it's just right.

Once the paint is completely dry, you can start gluing your fan blades in place. Using a toothpick apply Fast Grab Tacky Glue to the heart pin.

Put a drop of super glue on the fan blade where the heart pin will go.

Hold the fan blade in place against the heart pin for a minute until the super glue sets up.

Place the motor (wheel) back on the dowel with the hearts facing the knob.  Remember there is no glue on the wheel, so that it will spin freely. Glue the cut toothpick into the hole in the end of the dowel and glue the other end of the toothpick into the hole in the bowl. The bottom of the bowl will be glued to the dowel, but not to the wheel.

Here's the finished ceiling fan. My girls love giving the blades a tap to watch the fan spin fast.

I'd love to hear from you if you make your dolls a ceiling fan! And if you have any questions about this project, please don't hesitate to ask.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs,
Lisa