Little Canvas: April 2014

Miniature Accessories

I've started making accessories for my dollhouses. These are all for the Shabby Chic house.

Miniature Pencils

I made them from toothpicks and painted with Acrylic paint. They will be displayed in a thimble in the craft room/art studio. So cute! I take them out everyday just to have a look! hahha Small things....!

Miniature tray with fat quarters fabric

The tray was made with Balsa wood strips and painted with Antique white emulsion paint.

I made the fat quarters from tiny pieces of scrap fabric.

Shabby Chic Shelf

The shelf was made with popsicle sticks. I painted it with Mint and Antique white emulsion paint and distressed it a little by sanding it. This shelf is for the bathroom, but I will be making more for the kitchen and maybe even one for the bedroom.

As the house is under construction at the moment, I used a mini easel to display it.

I'm really enjoying making mini's. This is so much fun!

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Tudor style dollhouse: From house to pub

At last I feel great excitement about my Tudor style dollhouse! I've been playing yo-yo with this house for months now. As it is not a proper Tudor, but a replica of the Tudor revival houses (called Mock Tudors in the UK) that were build in the 20th century, I never planned on decorating it in the Tudor style. However, the more I researched the decor of the time these houses were build, the less I liked it. I just couldn't figure out where I was going with this house. Keeping with a period when decorating is one thing. Being happy with it is quite another! And as I'm the one putting all the time, effort (fun) and money into it, I feel it's important that I actually like the house when I'm done with it!

By last week I decided to decorate it in American 1950's style, because that is a style I like and can live with. And then a few days ago it hit me.... why not turn it into a pub or shop or something? It's a small house and I have no intention of knocking out walls, but surely it was do-able? And now, finally - after two days of research (should've gone pub crawling! haha) - I can tell you that this house will be turned into a small, but exclusive coffee lounge/pub/function room. A re-purposed building!

I'm so excited about this! It will give me something completely different to work on. I will be decorating with 1/16 scale furniture, as was the intention all along. Will be a long while before I have enough furniture and accessories, but as I do have a few pieces, I thought I'd try them out and see what it looks like. This room will be the coffee shop/lounge area. I like where this is going...!

I played around with some paper I have too. The front walls of the house have been removed by a friend of mine who helped me fix a few things I needed tools for, which I don't have. We will put them back once I've done all the renovation work on the house.

I do love these papers. I quite like using bold patterns and colours in my dollhouses. Wait till you see the size of the patterns and colour of the paper I've chosen for my other houses! They're huge! hahah

So what do you think? Will you be popping over for a drink or coffee in a few months time when the pub is opened for business? Hope so!

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Renovation: Shabby Chic Dollhouse

With the weather turning and getting better, I've finally started the renovation of what will eventually be my Shabby Chic house. At the moment it is just a little girls playhouse.

I hope to be able to make it look at least a little more " grown-up" by the time I'm done. I had to wait for better weather, because I knew it was going to be an absolute mess, so I have to work outside. Most of the interior was painted with gloss enamel by the previous owner and that just had to go.

Before work started, I played around with some of the furniture I'll be using to decorate it. Just to get a feel of where I'm going with the house, even though in my head I know exactly what it's supposed to look like! I've learned by now (and it's the advice of all the more experienced dollhouse people), to first plan as much as possible before you start painting and wallpapering.

Now, the good news is.... there was paper underneath the gloss enamel paint. Which means it sort of pealed off in nice big pieces. Well, at least on the ground and top floor. The second floor was more of a nightmare! The bad news is.... there was paper underneath the gloss enamel paint! Now that all the paint is removed, I still have to get rid of the paper and glue!