Yard Tutorial By Sarah Topps

My Seven year old Daughter, Sarah did a Wonderful Tutorial on the yard she & her big sister created for the Spring Fling Contest on the Greenleaf Dollhouse forum. Sarah did most of the work on the yard. To create your own wonderful yard scene click Here

You can see the tutorial below also:

 First, you take some cardboard and set the house on the center part of  it. You can see Rachel in the background while Sarah is trying to see  how much yard is needed.

 After that has been decided, cut the card board down to the size you  want and then trace the footprint of the house. Next, paint the entire  yard on the outside of the footprint (You would adhere the base after  it is all dry.

You would paint the entire base a light green (Sarah's paint is apple barrel "Leaf Green" Color). After that dries, you will pour a dime size amount of hunter green color paint. Dip your brush in it and then wipe off access paint till the brush is almost dry. Then you will pounce this (alternating in different directions so that there won't 
be a pattern)

 Next, take your brown paint and squeeze out a dime size amount. Dip your brush in it and then brush off access paint till the brush is 
almost dry. Then you will pounce this (alternating in different directions again so that there won't be a pattern). You may not wish to have much of the brown as you do the greens. 

 Next, Sarah decided she wanted a "stone" walkway. So she took out the  stone pattern stencil.  First, you have to paint the area Gray. After  it dries, then you lay the stencil on top. Then you would take your  dark brown paint and dry brush the outer edges of each stone and dab a  little in the middle. Then after that dries, you will take a lighter gray, and again, dry brush each stone. Sarah did this color only two times randomly in each stone. When that dries, then you can remove the stencil and viola, you have a walkway.

Next, with the help of big sister Rachel, make a straight glue line 
with hot glue and then add some green poly fiber on each side. When this dried, Rachel cut the loose fiber and then Sarah took the tacky glue and put a drop on top of the fiber. She then took Hot Pink colored foam and put that on the tacky glue and now the yard has flowers to help dress up the entry way.

Next, glue the house to the base and add the Green Poly Fiber around  the house. You can even add a fence to enclose the yard like Sarah did.

They had so much fun joining in the Spring Fling Contest fun This year!!

Thanks for reading my blog!

Tracy Topps

Rachel's Aged Dollhouse Shingle Staining Technique

My Daughter Rachel decided she wanted to do a tutorial on her favorite way to stain the shingles on her dollhouses and her first tutorial appeared in the December 2008 Greenleaf Gazette. She was so excited to see herself published online :)

Rachel's Shingle Paint Stain technique

Do you want to add a different aged look to your dollhouse shingles? Follow along as my daughter Rachel shows you how she did it to one of her houses.  Many times, you may find that the different shades of browns for your roof may leave your houses looking like every other dollhouse you've seen. You can change that simply by staining your roof using paint & water.

You can do this by first painting your entire roof black. This will help because when you use this technique, your shingles may curl and warp in some areas. It will show black underneath and NOT the bare wood underneath the shingles. You WANT the shingles to do this because that is what gives the aged looked.

Start shingling the roof just the way you always do.

 Once the entire roof is shingled, you can take a 4 ounce paper cup and fill it halfway with water.  Then you'll add 1 teaspoon of the paint color you wish have for your roof color. Remember, this color will not be as dark as the paint shows because it will be watered down. Stir that paint around in the cup. Get your paint brush and start painting!

Paint each row one at a time being sure to cover all of your shingles.  Your brush needs to be very wet!  Paint from side to side but let your final strokes go down from the top of the shingles to the bottom. The picture below shows Rachel going side to side with her shingles.

 This is what it looked like when Rachel finished.  After it dried, she decided she wanted hers to be a darker color. So she went over it again with the water wash.

Once that dried, Rachel wanted to add more details in select shingles so she took a dry brush and added black paint to it. You do this step by adding a couple of drops of black paint on a plate (we used a piece of card board). Add paint to the front and back of your dry brush and then wipe off the excess paint.

start painting around the edges of your shingles and the bottom ends of your shingles.

Her house is not totally complete but we will continue to add the shots as she finishes it. 

Here are a few houses I used this technique on.

I used gray paint and used no highlights on this one.

 I used to shades of purple on this one. A darker purple and a lighter purple

 I used two shades of green on this roof

If you use this technique on your houses, Rachel would love for you to post links so we can see your pictures!!!