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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Greenleaf Dollhouse Barbie 2" scale Roombox



Several Years ago, I got my hands on a 2" scaled Barbie Roombox by Greenleaf on eBay. I was so excited because I used to always collect any of the older Greenleaf dollhouse kits I could get my hands on. I was so excited I did not want to open the box. One day I hit the jack pot. Someone was selling all of their old store stock and they had 3 of these kits sitting on their shelves. I bought them and decided to build one for my youngest daughter back in 2008.

This is what it looked like when I finished it. She was younger at the time and everything had to be pink.


Last year (in December), she wanted me to freshen it up a bit. She took very good care of the roombox but it had writing on the walls and scuff marks so I told her I would do it. I got so busy (working to pay bills and everything else life throws my way) I let those get in the way of my doing it.

Every time I walked past it, I would clean it up and I even sat it on my work table a few times but I never "worked" on it (So she would take it to play with of course). I always felt guilty for not getting back to it.
:(

Yesterday Morning, I decided to put all of my other work on the back burner for the day and spent the day fixing up her roombox. For the most part, it still looked great considering how much Sarah & Rachel had played with it. This is what it looked like Yesterday Morning when I "stole" it from her bedroom.


The floor boards were all in tack but where dull looking so, I added a darker stain to them and then added a varnish on top of them. She had already picked out the wallpapers she liked so I decided to use one from her stack of wallpapers which is a light turquoise.
 I decided to accent and compliment that with a darker turquoise blue on some of the trim.

I then added some details on all of the white trim I decided to keep. The stained glass window still look great so I kept that in place. I also decided to add a stone paper to the fireplace instead of the red brick that was there. This past winter, I had purchased a 3 light outdoor post from the dollar store. It was a smaller scale because it was sold for their train village and it lit up via a battery pack. I kept looking at it and decided if I painted the post part silver it could become a nice ceiling light (And because it used AA batteries, I wouldn't worry about them playing with the electric). By the end of the day yesterday, this is what the roombox looked like:



 Of course, Sarah is very pleased with it and has begged me to make her two more rooms so I will build them this week and let her paint the trims and everything else (to one of them and then I'll do the other).

Sorry that the colors still don't show the "true" color shade but, maybe one day, I'll take lessons on learning how to use a camera to take pictures correctly 
;)
You can see more pictures by clicking below:





Thank You for stopping by to visit my blog today!!


Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Cathy's 1/24th scale Buttercup Lasercut Dollhouse Cottage



I know I have not posted here on the blog for a little bit but I wanted to share with you pictures of the 1/24th scale Buttercup dollhouse kit I built for a client. This was the first time that I added electricity in this scale. I also am a little more pleased with the brick and stone scale on this one. The stones and bricks are very close to the scale this time.

I made the tree and flower container up front of this house too. I also created the fireplace and the added burning logs inside the fireplace too.

All of the stones and brick were created by me using clay and then hand painted several colors to create the realistic look of stones and brick. I even hand formed each shingle. Enjoy the pictures!

You can see pictures by clicking the slideshow here:







Thought Of The Day ~  "Don't lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations." Marston
Thank you so much for stopping by to visit my blog today! 

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Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Greenleaf Dollhouse Contest 2011 Kit


Yesterday was the deadline for anyone to submit their entries to the Greenleaf Spring Fling contest 2011! Here are a sample of a few submissions this year. Because of my position with Greenleaf, I have never entered a contest with them though I must say, this years kit really talked to my creative side!! I am so proud to be a member of such a talented group of Online Dollhouse Miniature enthusiasts. The above picture is the kit for this years contest. Below are a few pictures from members of our Greenleaf dolhouse forum. To see more or if you can not see a particular gallery, sign up and become a member of the Greenleaf Dollhouses Forum by clicking here: http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/

All pictures below are copyrighted by the members named below and Greenleaf Dollhouses 

Greenleaf Username pquade




Greenleaf Username Raffa



Greenleaf username otterine




Greenleaf Username chattycathy66


Greenleaf username jujurodgers


Greenleaf Username rbytsdy


Greenleaf username LLyn M.


Greenleaf username Momof2Moos



Greenleaf username creativity95


Greenleaf username csd


Greenleaf Username Jo Med




SAM_2951 resized 

Thank you for stopping by to read my Blog today!!

Friday, June 24, 2011

Mckinley Dollhouse Build Blog (Completed)

May 26 2008
Posted by Minis On The Edge
The Finished McKinley Dollhouse

These are pictures of the finished McKinley Dollhouse! The Greenleaf dollhouses are loved by many great miniature Artisans. There are so many things you can do with a Greenleaf kit. They are lighter in weight but sturdy when assembled. They are simple to cut (I only used my hobby knife for this. All you have to do is think outside of the box. I always regret not taking the final pictures of this house after I cleaned up the edges and did touch ups but, these are the only completed shots I have of this kit.

Remember, if you dream it, you can do it! Have fun & feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comment section.
This is what the Kit looks like on the box:
This is what mine looks like:





You can see more pictures of the McKinley by clicking here:





Thank you for viewing my blog today!! 

McKinley Dollhouse Build Blog (Electricity)

May 26 2008
Posted by Minis On The Edge
Adding Electricity
 I used a mixture of hard wire and tape wire to light up this house. Because this house has a flat back and will hang on the wall, I fed all of the wires to the back of the house by clipping off the plugs and feeding it through holes that I drilled into the back of the house.
After that, I added a 11" strip of tape wire and took the plastic cover off of the tape wire. Next, took the wire and split the two wires about half inch down and then added one side on each side of the tape. Do not let the two exposed hardwire touch each other when you lay them down. I then took some masking tape and tacked it in place so that I could do all of the wires this way. Once all wires were added, I then took my soldering iron out to heat it and while it was heating, I added soldering flux (just a little touch) to the exposed wires (All of them) so that the solder will adhear to the wires to the tape wire. 
After that, I add some solder to the tip of my soldering iron and then to the exposed wired to affix it together. I do this to all exposed wires. Here are the pictures to help you with the visual side of the instructions

After that, you can remove the little pieces of masking tape you use to help tack down the wires and keep them in place while you solder them in.




After that, I taped down all of the loose wires and labeled which room each wire it for. You can also add more lights & outlets to this later on if you like.

  Now, all you need to do is add the Junction Splice and put one prong on each side of the tape wire. Then you add your transformer lead in wire and transformer and You have Electric!



It really is simple to do. Don't over complicate things by thinking too hard.Remember, if you have more questions feel free to ask in the comment section.

McKinley Dollhouse Build Blog (Roof Editing)

May 26 2008
Posted by Minis On The Edge
Roof Editing

I started with foam core just to see if this design would work and if it would look really nice. I ended up cutting the roof height (on the raised roof side) down to 8" high. This is what it looked like in the beginning:


It took a while (3.5 hrs. ) to get the angles right because I found out that this house needed a little more support now that I was bashing it away from how it should have been done.



This is after I added the wood roof & attic parts. It was level on one side and not the other and I went around and around with the leveler :) I did finally get it right :p . After I got it to the point where I was satisfied , I added sandpaper and painted it black to give the roof floor an "Asphalt" look. I then added the Chimney stack ;) :



I wanted to add roof trim to give the roof more detail. At first I started off by using the kits trim:
I ended up using some iron railing for the widows walk instead. 



I aged it with a sea foam green paint:


Thank you for stopping by to read this blog!

Mckinley Dollhouse Build Blog (Fireplace & Tower)

May 24 2008
Posted by Minis On The Edge
Fireplace & Tower Alterations
This is the close up of how high the attic wall would have been. You can see where I added the extension here:


This is the way the stairs & fireplace originally look. 


I decided to add an extra wood storage shelf I also added stones on the fireplace:



My next change was to alter the look of the Mckinley's front door. I did this by using 2 strips of wood that is 1/16" x 1/4" x 36" . I used the actual door but used the strips of wood to alter the door design and not add the windows. I then added a lion head knocker to it that I hand made.
 
After that I started trying to figure out where to add the porch light. I found out that the area is too tight to add a light next to the door but, you can add the light above the door. 



I also wanted to make a pointy tower roof as i had with my Pierce that I built last year so I did this by cutting wood in long triangle shapes to make the roof pointy :) I would have added a weather vane but decided that a tower cap would look good too.








 I hope these changes help you to realized that the picture on the kit box is just that. A Picture. A few alterations and already this kit is looking different. Don't be afraid to have fun with your kit.

McKinley Dollhouse Construction Blog (The Beginning)

 
May 24 2008
Posted by Minis On The Edge
Starting The McKinley

This time I am only blogging the changes that I made to this Gorgeous doll house kit. The McKinley has been my favorite since Lisa from Greenleaf asked me to make one 4 years ago. This is something that a newbie can do if they have the patience but since most new people have a hard time with the kt instructions I want it to be known in advance that, this McKinley Dollhouse blog is really for the advanced builders who can look at these brief comments listed and make the changes.

I started the building of this house a few weeks back. I started out building this kit pretty much like everyone else on the Greenleaf Build Team. You'll notice though (if you have your instructions nearby) that I did start a little bit out of sequence. When I have built a kit several times, I don't view the instructions as much. I have been wanting to bash (Alter) this kits' design since I completed my last one :) . I started on the back wall since I knew I was going to bash it by extending the roof line. I took wood that Greenleaf uses for their kits. They sell extra sheets but you have to call them for plain sheets that are not punched out yet.



When the original roof is finished, it is only 4" high. Mine right now is "bashed" to have a 9" high ceiling. ;)

The next big change was that I wanted to change the kitchen wall so that the opening would be in the front of the room, not the back. I did this by cutting this wall into three sections so that most of the tabs would still be in most of the right parts of the floor for stability. I figured this out through trial and error and it took me over an hour to get it straight, stable & right. I also moved the kitchen wall over by 1" to make the kitchen larger.

I then had to attach it to the rest of the structure that I had already assembled:


It ended up looking a bit like this:


Thank you for stopping by to read my blog today. I am moving my build blogs over to my blog here on blogspot so that things will be easier to find. That is why you may see older dates written on the blog posts.
Hope you are having a Fantastic Day! 

The Thought Of The Day is ~ There is a saying "The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficult thing." What thing is difficult in your life right now that you can turn into an opportunity?