Arthur Dollhouse Kit Completed & Ready To Move in

Here is the finished pictures of my house with Base. I'm thinking about adding some vines but I have not in over a week so this is how the Arthur is looking as of this morning. 

 I use handmade clay flowers and the ferns are plastic but very thin plastic and look very realistic. The rose vine is actually 2 vines combined because one was not enough for the look I wanted.

Here are the rest of the pictures:

This is the base bottom. It has an opening so that you can access the electric:

 

This Dollhouse Build was started on April 15th 2005 and it ended May 10th 2005.

I moved this blog info here from the Greenleaf forum just to try and keep some of my tutorials in one place. I will try and add a new dollhouse Blog from over there every day. Unfortunately, I lost all of the large pictures of the building of this house but you can get the main idea from viewing the shots shown as is.

Over the Years, I have built several Arthur Dollhouse Kits. You can see those pictures by clicking the links to go to that album and see bigger pictures:

by toppdollar

by toppdollar

Half scale

by toppdollar

by toppdollar

I created this one over 11 years ago. I only have 3 pictures of it but can't locate one of them at the time (it's a front shot). It was taken with my 1st digital camera which is why the pictures are pretty lame.

:)

Arthur dollhouse kit Shingles touch up paint

Okay, I have done the touch up to the shingles and they look MUCH better!

I think I will jazz up the house and add the base sooner than later. I can't picture my houses without the yard so I will start on that next even though for the most part, I am finished!! Okay....are we ever really finished with a house . Here are some more pictures and there will be more to come since I am going to do the base....TODAY!!

The doll below is Charles. He is the Real Estate agent trying to sell this guest a house that has a bedroom with flowers on the wallpaper LOL

Arthur Dollhouse Kit Roof Shingles Are On

I finally decided to use the shingles that came with the kit. I was tempted to use paper clay but decided wood would look better on this house. Another BIG thing that made me want to use the kits shingles is the fact that it comes on sheets. What that means is I don't have to add each shingles on one at a time Yeppie!! Notice that I added spackle in between the gaps so that under the roof, the plain color would not show through

 This is louisa at the front door. She will not live here but is a new doll I just got and so she needed a place to stay until I find her a stable home.

I have to paint or stain the shingles next and add some more browns & grays to the stonework. After that, I will be done! (As if we are ever done with a house )This is the inside down stairs

This is the upstairs

It took me another 45 minutes to add the 2 coats of "dirty wash" to the stone and to shingle the roof and patch it in areas.

As you can see, I am mostly finished with this house. I painted the shingles brown and I started off too dark so I had to finish the rest of the roof the same way because I did not want inconsistencies. When it dried, I took sand paper and rubbed some paint off. All I have to do now it go all over the roof with a wash of Dark burnt umber and that will make it more realistic by adding depth.

The only other thing left to do is for me to either paint the back foundation wall or to paperclay it. I finally put the hole in it to feed the power strip wire through so that the house can be lighted. I will add a base to it at a later date because I love flowers and a yard. 

A base also makes moving the houses MUCH easier. For the most part, I found that building this house was very simple and easy to "Bash" (or change if you don't like the dollhouse term Bash). The only real bashing I did was with the front door and adding the chimney. I also added new window inserts by use of transparency film. All of these things only added a few hours to the normal assembly process and it adds a little more character to this beautiful house kit. Don't be afraid to Change your house and make it your dream house! These ARE budget houses which means they are priced so that no matter what your budget is, you CAN own a dollhouse. I used things such as Gator foam for the chimney because it is less expensive than wood and if you are like me (afraid of power tools that bite) this is another alternative.

Don't be afraid to follow the instructions in a way that fits making your dream house a reality. I strayed away from them several times to add or take things away from the original design. Challenge your creative juices and you CAN do it. I am here to help!! Remember, this is your house and it's up to you to make it your Dream house!

Arthur Dollhouse Kit How 2 Make Burning Embers

Today has been one of those days for me. Some of you may know but I have Graves disease and sometimes I just feel "not so good". Today just so happen to be one of those days for me, I only did a small thing. 

I made burning embers for my fireplace. Let's get started!!! First off, you can not burn your self You need 1 Red Straw, 1 small tree branch, a tooth pick, Train ballast, Clear "Liquid Nails" (or clear silicon sealer) and a Small piece of wax paper.

Take the straw and with your scissors, cut a 1" piece and a 1/2" piece.

Second, cut a small circle (or triangle) into the middle of the 1" straw piece.

Third, take the small 1/2" sized straw piece and insert it into the bigger 1" sized straw.

Fourth, Take your straw and put it on top of the wax paper. Take you clear Silicone (or liquid nails) and put a squirt on top of the straw (be sure none cover the 3 holes (one on each side and one in the back).

Fifth, Cut your logs in 1" sizes (varying a little) be sure they will fit inside your fireplace!! Take your logs and position them as they would look in a fireplace. Use your toothpick to shape spikes so it will look like flames licking the logs. Sprinkle some ballast on top of this so some will rest on the logs and under the front of the logs.

Let this dry for about 2 - 3 hours Sixth, Add a dry brush of black paint over the logs and ballast to make them look burnt. Insert the back opening over the light bulb in your fireplace.

Now turn on your light and enjoy your burning embers 

Let this dry for about 2 - 3 hours Sixth, Add a dry brush of black paint over the logs and ballast to make them look burnt. Insert the back opening over the light bulb in your fireplace.

Now turn on your light and enjoy the look of your burning embers!!

Arthur Dollhouse Kit Adding Wallpaper & Lights

Today I bought some lights to add to the rooms and because I am using a power strip for this house. I think this will make it much easier for those us who start off afraid to electrify because they think it is too complicated or that it will take up too much time.

So far, I have spent a total of 2 hours and 43 minutes on this house (Partial assembly, Painting & Wallpapering and staining the floors). The next step of adding the lights took another 37 minutes (I have a stop watch ).

The first picture shows the plug of the light.

Because I have drilled a hole in the ceiling to feed the wire through, this plug must come off. You do this by taking your needle nose pliers and pull our both prongs. Then delicately pull the wire out of the plug.

Now you want to feed that wire through the ceiling (upstairs floor). Then you need to secure your light into place.

Because I do not want wire bumps showing through my carpet upstairs, I had to create a channel in the floor. Now I would not have had to do it this way if I had a sheet of wooden flooring but hobby lobby is out and I need to go on and finish the inside of my house LOL.

I used my dremel tool to do this. Be Very careful!! Don't go in too deep!

After that, I added the wire to be sure it fit. Once it did. I taped it down with masking tape and added my carpet.

As you can see the wire won't show through!!

Now be sure your wire is long enough to fit your power strip. Mine is long enough so I fed the wire back through the hole and seperated them as they were before. I then added the prongs and secured them. I tested it to be sure they still worked and they do!!