Greenleaf Dollhouse Primrose Cottage Custom Kit

How many ways can you make a Primrose Cottage by Greenleaf? This has been something I have had fun with for years. I have been working at seeing how many different looks I can give this basic kit!

My Doll Passion Not just dollhouses

Most people think that since I am known for my dollhouses that the only hobby that really captures my heart is Miniatures. Well, I was actually a doll collector before I became a Miniaturist. There is just something so special to me about dolls. Baby dolls, women dolls, men dolls, Barbie dolls, Christine Orange dolls, Rustie Dolls, Pamela Erff, Robert Tonner, Mel Odum, Madame Alexander.... Ohh The list goes on and on!!

It was so funny. I had dollhouses without dolls inside. Why??? Well I thought I could not picture myself in the room or a scene if there was a doll present in that house. For Years, I never put a doll in a scene. Then, a friend of mine, Chris V (as us mini friends of hers know her as) invited me over to her house and I got to see her roomboxes which she had displayed all over her house. She had Fabulous scenes with people in them!

One teashop scene she had really drew my attention. It had a soft sculpture doll in it by Margaret Tees and I was in LOVE with that doll (Even offered to buy it from her LOL ). Chris gave me Margaret's eBay name and she had dolls up for auction and I won one. It got here so fast and every since I got one of those dolls, I started collecting dolls in miniature too. This mini doll addiction just started about 5 years ago but I have over 20 dolls from her alone now.

This is the Contemporary doll collection
















These are my Medieval dolls she made me













These are my Egyptian Dolls she made for me

















These are some of the ones I won off of eBay over the past years. I have about 4 more but they are in my daughters room right now because they live in there dollhouse :)



































Here is a link to see more of the dolls I have in my collection. I will up date this very soon as I just started back taking pictures of my doll collection :)

Create a Dollhouse Tudor Fireplace

I was featured in Dollshouse & Miniatures Scene Magazine in 2007 and did a tutorial on how to create a Tudor Fireplace. Click the Pictures to view a bigger Shot of the article so you can also create your very own Tudor fireplace:

Easy Burning Embers For Dollhouses

To make a glowing fireplace, you will need the following:

Fireplace
Hot Glue Gun
Glue Gun Sticks
Coffee Grinds
1 tree twig (dried and brown)
1 light bulb (Painted orange or red)


1. Take your twig and cut three (3) 1" parts

2. Plug in your hot glue gun

3.Take your fireplace and drill a small hole in the back of the fire place center so that you can feed your lightbulb wire through it.

4. Take your light bulb and if it is a clear bulb, paint it red or orange and set it aside to dry

5. Once the bulb dries, feed it into the hole you drilled in the fireplace

6. Take your hotglue gun and add a small drop under the light bulb and press it down so that it will dry in place.

7. Add some glue under one of the twigs (that will be a log) and put it on top of the light bulb.

8. Add a dime sized amount of glue to that log and add your second log on top of that

9. Add glue on the third log and sprinkle dried coffee grinds on top

10. Plug in your light and enjoy the warm glow. If you like you can dry brush black paint on the corner of the logs to give it the "burnt" look. You can also go over the coffee grinds with black paint.

My Children playing with Sculpey

I am sure that if you are a parent, you dread to hear those words "I'm Bored". This long winter break (16 days!!! ) , I came up with an action plan. I decided that everyday we would do a craft project together, go to see some movies, ride the train to stay with my parents and let them have a sleep over.

Well, yesterday was the day I had down for making 1" scale babies and then we are going to make a little baby's room. I bought a disc about 3 years ago on ebay on how to sculpt babies and thought that would be more fun than using the clay press molds I had. So, I popped in the disc and it did not work!!!

What would a Mom like me do having no skills at sculpting babies in 1" scale?? Well, I took a ball of clay and started trying to make a face just to see if I could do it..... Well I did but I could not figure out how to do a body!! That's when we hopped in the car and went to Hobby Lobby to buy fabric.

Well, I sculpted one face again to show the girls how to do it and gave them each a pack of sculpty (Which I had all ready warmed up) and 3 hours later we have gorgeous babies!!

My daughters are ages 6 & 11 and we had a blast doing this.

This is my 6 year olds babies (One is gonna be for her Barbie doll who just had a baby LOL )



This one is of my 11 year olds babies



and these are mine



Some of their babies look better than mine so Parents, Aunts or Grand moms, please give a pack of clay to kids. It's amazing to see them at work creating things from their own imagination!! Who knows, I was never able to sculpt dolls but one of my girls may actually love doing just that. The best part is, we created memories yesterday by creating them together. I hope this is something they will always remember......

Paperclay Picture Frame Gift Scene Part 6

Now you can add a vine behind the fence corner


Add a Chair or something else in the center to give it more charm:

Paperclay Picture Frame Gift Scene Part 5

Add a dap of hot glue to your ferns



Add them to your fence



Take 3 of your flowers and create a small bunch. Add a dap of hot glue and glue it to the front of the fern & take a fern leaf and place in front of that flower



Add your smaller flowers in between ferns and next to your big flower bunches



it should look similar to this when done



I added a bird to the fence

Paperclay Picture Frame Gift Scene Part 4

Now take your fence and scissors



Cut your fence like this if you want a corner Vignette like mine is. You can leave the fence whole and size it to fit one side of your frame



I used quick grab glue because it dries fast and the glue is easy to cover with paint. Glue the bottom parts together first. If you over glue, don't worry!! Don't try and clean it because you will smudge it over the clay. The glue spots will be covered by flowers if you do not smudge. Once you glue the bottom parts to the base. Glue the fence joints together. If you over glue and it show, do not worry, you can paint this glue when it dries


Take a drop of brown paint and over load your brush with water. Smear only the tip of your brush over the stones (Try not to get any in between the stones). Add this VERY lightly on about 3 stones


Do the same with Dark Burnt Umber

Painting the stones

Once this is dry, you can take the clay base out of the frame so you can add a dirty wash all over the stones. The dirty wash This consists of one 4 oz. styrofoam cup filled with water. Add 8 drops of Black & hippo Gray. Mix this and then with your brush paint this all over your stone. Look at next picture to see progression of this



Now, take the frame and base and put it back togther

Paperclay Picture Frame Gift Scene Part 3

Start making lines to create a flag stone floor look.



This is what it looks like



Now take your stylus and smooth out the mortar lines. Now let it dry for about 8 hours (or overnight)

Paperclay Picture Frame Gift Scene Part 2

Roll the clay to the thickness of piecrust



I always like a straight edge so I can have a clean line on one side. Then cut off the excess


You should pounce your brush all over the clay to texture it



Put the frame and clay base together. Press firmly to smoosh the clay around the edges



Take your Mortar tool & stylus out.I made my mortar tool from a old plastic card that came in the mail. You can use a skewer for cleaning the lines. Use sand paper to round the tip off so it won't be too pointy



Put the frame back on this so as it dries, the base won't warp

Paperclay Stones Picture Frame Scene

Have you run out of space and want to create something quick & cute? What if you want to give a gift to someone special? Try this tutorial here as you can alter it and fit it into your own dream scene



Take your picture frame and disassemble it. You will not need the glass part of this frame for this project. You can also plug in your hot glue gun now.


Take the paper insert and trace the outline of it on a piece of cardboard. Once you have traced it, you can cut that piece out.



Take your Glue and drizzle it on


Smooth The Glue all over this piece