Custom Styled Dollhouse Kits: Dollhouse Sword In A Stone Tutorial

Do you Love Castle scenes and medieval things? What about the King Arthur? Do you want to do something neat and fun for your fantasy miniature setting? Well, why not try out this tutorial I did a little while ago. It is a Sword in a Stone tutorial. You can see it here it was published in Greenleaf's Gazette in July 2007:

Doll House Tutorial

I love making things that are different and the sword in the stone was one of those things that I had a ball making for some of my friends. Please enjoy the tutorial and please share pictures with me of yours when you create your own item!

When a person mentions Creative Paperclay,© people in the dollhouse community often times automatically think either Stonework for the dollhouse structure or they think fireplace. Well this month, I am challenging everyone who wants to take the time to even “play” with paperclay to think outside of the black package!!

A year ago, I participated in a swap and wanted to make something different with things I had around the house. I had some pretty toothpicks that look like a sword; I had some cardboard and packing peanuts and a pack of paper clay. My son had some small jars of “Testors” Hobby paint that modelers use for painting the model cars (Mine were purchased at Walmart) I had metallic silver and metallic blue. And then it hit me. Why not make a sword in the stone scene!!

The items you will need are:

One sword shaped toothpick
One ¼ fl ounce bottle of Silver or gray enamel paint
One ¼ fluid ounce of Metallic Blue
One ¼ fluid ounce of gold
One oval shaped piece of card board (Mine was 3 ½” L x 2 ½” D)
Paper clay
Wood Glue
1 ½” paint brush
One Styrofoam peanut
Green foam (found in train supply stores)
Some leafy looking plants
Gray, Brown and black acrylic paint (for painting paperclay once it dries)

First, you take the sword shaped toothpick

and cut off curved handle part so it will look like this

Take your silver or gray paint and paint the lower half of your sword as shown in the picture above. Set it aside to let it dry.

This is the picture of the hobby paint I used

take your piece of cardboard and smear wood (or tacky) glue on top of it

take your packing popcorn and place it in the center of the cardboard, (you can stack a second one on top if you want a bigger stone):

Next, take your wood glue and smear it as evenly as possible over the popcorn

roll your paperclay to the thickness of pie crust

Scrap off the clay and lay it flat on top of the cardboard piece like this

take your paint brush and pounce all over the cardboard to make the clay more shaped and defined and to help it adhere to the cardboard & foam. Be gentle but firm enough so that it looks something like this when completed

Now, take your sword and put glue on the tip and place it in your stone

Take your blue & gold paint and paint the handle. I do this part now because of the fact that it can now stand up and dry while both sides get air so there will not be any red from the original toothpick showing.

let the Paperclay dry. It can take up to eight hours in some locations for something like this to dry in some areas. So be patient.

Once your clay has dried, it is time to paint the stone.

Take one tablespoon of water (from a measuring spoon NOT from dinnerware spoon) and add one drop of Gray, Black and brown acrylic paint

stir that together, paint the Paperclay all over with that mixture then let it dry

take one drop of brown paint and
add 3 drops of water and swish your brush one time on the front, one side and back (it can look sloppy don’t redo the swish strokes). You only want faint hints of those colors so do NOT add more paint

Next do the same with the Gray paint and it should look like this when dry.