Building a Dollhouse, Part 3

There's been a lot of progress on the dollhouse in the past few days, so I'm back with another update. The first order of business was to get the roof on. Here, the main roof and the front gables are being glued and nailed in place. Nails in the front were countersunk, then I filled the holes with joint compound, and once dry, I sanded and touched up the paint.

Originally, I had primed the roof white, like the rest of the house. Then I read that white could show through in between the shingles, so I painted the roof brown. I decided to go with wooden shingles that have an octagonal edge. Since the kit did not include the shingles, I bought two bags of 350 shingles from Hobby Lobby. At first, I was planning to stain the shingles, but decided I like the look of the natural color, which is much lighter than the brown I had painted the roof. The darker color won't show through in between the shingles, but you might be able to see the darker color under the edge of the shingles that are around the outside. So I painted around the edges with a lighter brown, closer to the shingle color. My sweet husband, who has put together the structure of this dollhouse since it required nailing (I don't do nailing), started laying the shingles. He drew guide lines on the roof 3/4" apart with a pencil to mark where the rows of shingles will go. We are using Fast Grab Tacky Glue to glue the shingles in place.

While he was working on the shingles, I started installing the exterior doors, windows, and trim.  Upstairs there's a little balcony.  I glued on the french door, corner molding edge trim, and the balcony railing.  All of the house trim is painted off-white. 

The front door was next.  I had painted the front door the darker Island Blue trim color.  All of the doors and windows have clear plexiglass panes that had to be slid into a slot in the wood before gluing them in place.  You can see some of the shingles strewn about in this picture.  

 I also glued tiny brass and crystal door knobs on the inside and outside of the front door and the balcony french door.  I ordered the knobs from eBay.

Next to go in, was the oval window in the front gable of the roof.

I had been researching how to shingle a dollhouse all week, but I still didn't feel comfortable that I could do it.  Since the shingles didn't need to be nailed in place, I thought I would be gluing them myself. Once my husband finished nailing the last parts of the roof together though, he told me to go get the shingles.  I started telling him all that I had learned about shingling the roof, and his response was "Don't worry, I know how to do this - it's just like a regular size house".   

I am so relieved that he took on this part of the build.  I was really worried about cutting all the shingles to fit into the valleys on this roof.  It's no problem for him though. He can cut the shingles to a perfect fit (it appears without even thinking about it).  It's like second nature to him.

I finished gluing in all ten windows. I used a combination of Fast Grab Tacky along with a few dots of  Zap-a-Gap to glue the doors, windows, and trim.  

All the corners of the exterior got a white corner molding trim.

I wanted to add some more of the Island Blue trim color to the outside of the house.  I found these adorable little shutters at Hobby Lobby and painted them Island Blue.  So to finish off the front trim, I started gluing the shutters in place.

I added four sets of shutters to the outer windows.  The walls around the bay windows aren't wide enough for shutters.  It's easier to buy four sets of shutters than ten sets anyway.  I like the look of the shutters just on the outer windows, and I like the pop of color.  

We got almost half of the shingles done.  My hubby is working today, but hopefully he will have time to work on it some more in the evenings this week.  

Once the roof was on, I was able to work inside on the third floor.  I found a fairy print dollhouse wallpaper on ebay for the third floor.  

I wallpapered the back walls with the fairy print paper and painted the side walls Cottage Rose.

Here's a view of the living room with the front door installed. I still need to add the trim.

Here's the french door upstairs that opens out onto the balcony.

Current view of the inside progress.

The next decision I'm trying to make is what to do with the area on the base in front of the house. I can't figure out if this area is supposed to be a porch or the yard. In the picture on the dollhouse box, it is painted white like a porch, but there is no roof over it like a porch would usually have. There is a fence or railing that goes around the edge that I have painted white. If I make it a porch, I could add some rocking chairs out there, but if I make it the yard, I could add some flower beds with plants. I know I don't want to leave it stained brown the way it is now. I am thinking about doing a flagstone treatment on it or on part of it. I'm not really sure how I could make it look like a yard with grass and flower beds yet.  

What do you think this area should be?  A front porch or the front yard?  I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

I hope you are having a wonderful, blessed weekend!

Building a Dollhouse, Part 2

I just wanted to post an update on the progress of the dollhouse.  I've been working on the dollhouse for about 3 weeks now.   After priming all the pieces, I knew I wanted to paint most of them before assembly, so I had to choose a color scheme even before building.  I knew I wanted a cottage style and a bit of Mary Engelbreit style.  When I found these paint colors at Lowes, they just spoke to me, and I knew this was it.  They are from the Valspar Eddie Bauer Home Collection.  I bought a 7.5 oz. Satin paint sample of each color, plus an off-white for the trim. The colors are Weathered Glass, Island Blue, Cottage Rose, and Flame.

The exterior of the house is Weathered Glass and there will be off-white and Island Blue trim.  The shell of the house is painted and built.  We still have to build the roof and install the windows, doors, and the rest of the trim.

Inside the house, I'm also painting and wallpapering as I go.  Well, I've been painting before building, but wallpapering after building.  I am using Yes Paste to adhere all the wallpapers to the primed walls.  Yes Paste is a book binding paste, so it is great for a really smooth finish.  Since it is a really thick paste, there's not a lot of water in it like other glues, which would cause paper to wrinkle.  I could only find the Yes Paste at Michaels.

The kitchen has red and white gingham wallpaper, which is actually scrapbook paper.  The kitchen floor is covered with a black and white checkerboard scrapbook paper.  I applied about 5 coats of Gloss Mod Podge to the floor to give it a shiny tile finish.  

In the back of the kitchen, there is a bay window, which will be the dining area.  I used some Mary Engelbreit scrapbook paper that has been in my stash for years for the dining area.  I haven't been able to find any ME scrapbook paper in the craft stores lately, although I do see a few other ME items.

The living room has teal scrapbook paper on the walls.  The floor is the original dollhouse floor, which I stained with Minwax Light Oak and applied 2 coats of Satin Polycrylic.  

On the second floor,  the room above the living room has a rose print wallpaper. This paper is actually dollhouse wallpaper.  It came in a roll in the dollhouse section at Hobby Lobby.  

This bedroom has a pink floral print on the walls, which was also a dollhouse wallpaper from Hobby Lobby. The floors in these two second floor rooms have the original dollhouse floors with stain and poly, like the living room.  

The bathroom walls are painted Weathered Glass.  The floor is a tile print scrapbook paper with 5 coats of Gloss Mod Podge applied to make it shine.

The third floor is one big room.  Some of the walls will be painted Cottage Rose and some walls will be wallpapered.  The floor was also stained, but I decided to give it a different treatment.  I scribed floor boards onto the stained dollhouse floor with a straight edge and a pen.  Then I distressed the floor by banging it with the edge of one of my Quick-Grip Clamps that was handy, since we had been using them to clamp parts together until glue dried.  My husband came in to see what all the noise was, and his reaction was priceless when he saw me banging recklessly on the dollhouse. He must have thought I was losing it.  :)  I explained to him that I wanted the floor to look distressed. Then I mixed a little of the off-white paint with water to thin it down and brushed it over the floor to give it a white washed effect.  

Once the wallpaper was in, it was time to install the stairs.  I had a really hard time deciding whether to stain the stairs to match the floors or paint them.  I finally decided to paint the stairs off-white to match the trim.  I painted the railing and part of each spindle with the Island Blue.  Here is the living room staircase.

This is the 2nd floor staircase in the room with the rose print wallpaper.

I don't have much furniture for the house yet. I'm realizing now that the house is coming together, and I'm going to need to furnish it very soon.  Last weekend, we went to Mississippi, and we stopped by Treasure Hunt, which is a closeout store like Tuesday Morning or Big Lots.  They had a Melissa and Doug dining room set which was $29.99 for 60% off, so I got it for $12.  It included a table and 4 chairs and a china cabinet.  The pieces are stained a mahogany finish and the chairs have red cushions.  I'm not sure the style works in my cottage style house, but I couldn't pass it up for just $12.  Maybe I should repaint the set in an off-white to make is more cottage style.  What do you think?

I also picked up this little old fashioned stove at Hobby Lobby, but I just don't know if it will work with this furniture.  The stove was $7.99, but with the 40% off coupon, it was only $4.79.  Even if I don't use the little stove in this house, I'm sure I'll keep it. It is so cute, I could just display it in my own kitchen. I still don't have any cabinets, a sink or a refrigerator for the kitchen yet.  I haven't been able to find a cottage style set like I have in mind. If you have any suggestions or ideas, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Here's a current view of the inside of the dollhouse.  

Next, we will be building the roof and installing the doors, windows, shingles, and trim.   

Meet Amelia Thimble from Wilde Imagination

Please help me welcome Amelia Thimble.  Amelia is a ball jointed doll (or BJD) from Wilde Imagination. She arrived in a tiny yellow box with green polka dots and an adorable sketch of Amelia holding a needle and thread in one hand and a button in the other hand.  Sew cute!

 

Of course, Twinkle wanted to be at the box opening to be the first to meet Amelia and welcome her to her new home.

Yay!!!  She's here!!!

It was such a long trip!

Here, let me help you out of there.

You rescued me!  Thanks!

Amelia is made of resin and has 14 points of articulation.  She stands 4" tall, just a little taller than Twinkle.

It's so nice to finally meet you!

These two are going to be fast friends.

Amelia has inset green-grey eyes that can be changed.  She has a chestnut wig, and her hair can easily be changed to a completely different wig.  I love the versatility of wigs.  It is so easy to pop a new wig on a doll if you get bored with how she looks, and it's like having a totally different doll. 

Patience, who is also from Wilde Imagination, was there to welcome Amelia home too.

Amelia looks so tiny in comparison to Patience.  I thought they might look like sisters, since they are both redheads,  but Amelia's hair is more auburn and Patience is more of a carrot-top.

Patience is going to have her hands full with these two.

Twinkle couldn't wait to show Amelia around the fairy house.

Time to get busy crafting some clothes and accessories for Amelia, with her help of course.  Amelia loves crafts, sewing, knitting, anything sew crafty.  She would feel right at home in a sewing basket among the buttons and spools of thread.  Her name is Amelia Thimble, after all. 

Building a Dollhouse, Part 1

Since building the Fairy Tree Dollhouse, I think I have been seriously bitten by the dollhouse bug. I had so much fun finding furnishings and decorating it.  When you love small dolls, it's wonderful to have a dollhouse for them.  I've actually always loved dollhouses and miniatures too.  When my daughters were really into Lego's, I wanted all of the house kits.  We have several Lego house kits, and those were my favorites to build, play with and just look at. Our Lego house kits are built and displayed on shelves in my daughters' room.

Last summer, we found a big dollhouse kit on clearance at Tuesday Morning.  I bought it on impulse (something I rarely do) because of the bargain price. The list price was $499.99, but Tuesday Morning's price was $199.99. They had marked it down to $139.99, and that weekend all clearance toys were an additional 70% off. Final price was $44.94 with tax. It is a House That Jack Built Rose Marie Dollhouse Kit. It is currently available on Amazon for $221.51, so I think $45 was an excellent bargain.

I guess I was a bit intimidated by the unknown task of building this large dollhouse, so it sat unopened for 9 months. Building the Fairy Tree Dollhouse must have given me just the encouragement I needed to get started on this kit. So this week, I finally opened the box.  Before I got started, I did some research online about building dollhouse kits.  I could't find any information on this particular kit, but I did find a wealth of information on dollhouse construction.  

If you're interested in learning more about dollhouses, check out Joanne's Minis Blog.  She has a whole series of videos on YouTube filled with information on Miniature Building Construction starting with Step 1.

You can also find Joanne's Mini's on Facebook.  

Also, check out Dollhouses and the Things that Go in Them on Facebook. That's Sharon's Facebook dollhouse community where you'll find lots of cool dollhouse info.  Sharon did the awesome tutorials that inspired my Fairy Tree Dollhouse. 

Here's what I've done so far...

Step 1 - Checklist - Check to make sure all of the pieces were included in the box. This should have been done immediately after purchasing the kit to make sure there were no missing parts. The instruction booklet included a parts check list, and fortunately all parts were present and accounted for.  

Step 2 - Primer - I primed all the parts with a water based primer. I decided to stain the original dollhouse floors, so I didn't prime those. You won't be able to use a wood stain on any wood that you have put primer on.  I stained the three floor boards on the top side with Minwax stain. I primed the opposite side of floor 2 and 3 since those would be ceilings. I haven't done anything to the stairs or stair railings yet, because I can't decide whether to stain or paint them.  

Priming the pieces

Step 3 - Dry fitting - I read alot about dry fitting the pieces together before you assemble them with glue and nails to make sure everything fits. I used masking tape to hold the pieces together. I'm glad that I didn't skip this step because now I have a much better idea of how it all goes together, which will help with the building process. 

Dry fit - The interior

   

Here's what it looks like from the front of the house. I used containers of dog food to help support the heavy sides of the house in addition to the masking tape.

Dry fit - The exterior

I only left it together long enough to take a couple pictures and quickly take some measurement of the interior rooms for wallpaper. Since this is a cabinet grade kit, the pieces are 3/8" thick, which means there are a lot of very big heavy boards held together just with masking tape.

I hope to get started on the actual building process with glue and nails tomorrow. Please leave a comment below if you'd like to see future updates and more pictures of this project. Also, if you have built a dollhouse, I'd love to hear from you. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Bargain Hunting at Target, Wal-Mart, Disney, and More

I love bargain hunting.  Shopping is always fun, but it's so much more fun when you find a great deal.  I thought it was about time for another bargain hunting post so I could tell you about the bargains I've found recently. I'd like to pass along the word about bargain finds to everyone so they can look for them in their local stores.

Disney Animators' Collection Dolls

You can't find a better bargain than free!  That's right, I got two Disney Animator's Collector Dolls from Disney for FREE!  Have you heard of Disney Movie Rewards?  In case you haven't, this information is definitely worth sharing.  Inside every Disney DVD or Blu-Ray movie, you'll find a little slip of paper with a code on it.  Sign up for an account at disneymovierewards.go.com/ and put in the code for each Disney movie you buy.  These codes are in every Disney DVD or Blu-Ray that you buy anywhere.  You can also get points for movie theater tickets, surveys, etc.  Your points will be automatically saved in your account, and when you have enough points, you can order FREE stuff from Disney.  We recently ordered with our rewards points and were able to get both Jasmine and Mulan 16" Animator Dolls.  Disney sends out your rewards totally free, you don't even have to pay for the shipping. Here are our adorable new girls, Mulan and Jasmine.

Disney must have had some leftover Mulan and Jasmine dolls from the old series of the Animators' collection, which they have now put into the movie rewards program. Even though we just received them, they are the older style with their little pets. The newer Animator dolls' outfits are a little different and they no longer come with a pet.

The back of Mulan and Jasmine's boxes.

Disney Princess & Me Merida

We found Merida on clearance at Target.  She was originally $39.99 at Target, but they had her marked down to $19.98.  Half price seemed like a really good deal, too good to pass up. Merida is bigger than Mulan and Jasmine, and she has a more mature look too.  I haven't opened her yet, but from what I read she is an 18" doll, although she appears to be thinner than an American Girl.

She has a cute face.  I love her freckles.

Life in the Dreamhouse Barbie

We found this adorable new "Life in the Dreamhouse" Barbie set at Ross for just $14.99. The set includes both Barbie and Midge.  I think the price at Ross for the two pack is closer to what one single doll sells for elsewhere. The Life in the Dreamhouse Barbie dolls are modeled after the new series of "Life in the Dreamhouse" webisodes that you can watch online at barbie.com/dreamhouse. They look different than the average Barbie and Midge dolls, and they have more posability.

The back of the box shows artwork from the Life in the Dreamhouse webisodes.  

These Barbie and Midge dolls are adorable. They both have rooted eyelashes, which I love! I think this version of Midge is especially cute.

Kawaii Crush

Target also had several of the Kawaii Crush tiny dolls on clearance. The sets that were originally $5.99 were clearance priced at $1.78. We got Chilly Millie Yip Yip.

We also got Sunny Bunny Hop Hop.

We found another Kawaii Crush bargain at Ross for just $6.99. Betty Teddy Zoom Zoom is a cute little set that includes a tiny doll, a car, and some other accessories.

Mini Lalaloopsy

Browsing the toy aisle at Wal-Mart, I spotted two of the cutest Mini Lalaloopsy sets I had ever seen.  Both sets included the most adorable kitchen furniture.  I put both sets in my cart and took them to the scanner, thinking they would be a lot.  I was thrilled when both sets scanned for just $5 each.

Berry's Kitchen

Crumbs' Tea Party

I don't know if these sets are old or new, but I know they are new to this Wal-Mart because I've never seen them there before.  The furniture has lots of details like plates shaped like buttons, a safety pin stove handle, spools of thread for the table leg, and chairs shaped like cookies.

Here is a closeup of the table and chairs that comes with Crumbs' Tea Party.  The chair legs are a little fiddly and sometimes fall out.  I will definitely glue them in as soon as I can find out what kind of glue to use.

Here's a closeup of Berry's Kitchen stove and sink.

Here's a picture of everything together that is included in these two sets.

These kitchen sets can be fun to use for other dolls too.  Twinkle wanted to give it a try.

Hallmark Kitchenette

The local Hallmark store has all their Hallmark ornaments on sale for 75% off. I got the Kitchenette for just $3.75.

The oven and cabinet doors open and close.

This would make a perfect size kitchen for mini dolls.  Here it is with Twinkle for size comparison.

Li'l Woodzeez

Li'l Woodzeez are very similar to Calico Critters.  I'm a fan of Calico Critters, but I've never purchased any of the Li'l Woodzeez.  I've only seen Li'l Woodzeez at Target, so I was very surprised to find two Li'l Woodzeez families at Wal-Mart on the clearance aisle for just $4.00 per set.  That comes out to just $1 per animal, which is a good deal for these cute little animals with clothes.  I didn't know Wal-Mart carried Li'l Woodzeez, since I'd never seen them in the store before.  Oddly enough, Li'l Woodzeez are not even available on Walmart.com.

Bushytails Squirrel Family

Waterwaggles Beaver Family

Target carries Li'l Woodzeez both in the store and online at Target.com.  I was also surprised to see that not only does Target.com sell Li'l Woodzeez, but they also have Calico Critters on their website.  Calico Critters are only available online at Target.com though, not in Target stores.

So check your local Wal-Mart's clearance aisle if you're looking for a bargain on a Li'l Woodzeez set.

Dollhouse Shelf

We found this adorable little house shaped display shelf at Target for just $10.99.  It comes with hangers on the back, so the shelf can be mounted directly on a wall.  It would be so simple and cute to set it up as a little dollhouse room diorama.

Here it is with the mini Lalaloopsy sets.  This would also work well for dolls that are just a little larger. It would be so cute to decorate the walls with scrapbook paper to make it look like a decorated little room.

Hair Accessories

We found the cutest doll sized hair accessories at Wal-Mart in the baby clothes department.  These tiny ribbons, bows and clippies were on clearance for $1 per set.  I think they are a bargain even at the regular price of $2.50 per set for some adorable hair accessories, perfectly sized for dolls.  The tiniest ones are the sets on the round cards (these must be designed for the youngest babies).  Some come with one clip of each color per round card, so you may want to get two sets if you want a matching pair.

We had fun trying all these new hair accessories on our dolls.

Kit

Rosalee

Rapunzel

I hope you are finding lots of great bargains where you live.  I'd love to hear about them. Please leave a comment below to tell us about your latest and greatest finds.