Wee House Craftalong-Ongoing 2011-Forever!

[dreadlocklove]

The holes are all cut but need to be fixed (my partner cut a bit crooked) before sanding.

Otherwise, I just finished painting the sand paper that will be used for the shingles!

Total cost so far: $1.41

[batgirl]

I went home for Christmas, so I was able to get some pics of the doll house my Dad built me. It needs a good deal of fixing up as it's been in the basement for 30 years, but here it is.





In addition to the teeeny one I posted before, he made a smaller one as a trinket box for my Mom. The roof is the lid.





And he built my Mom a "room box" which she has set up as a family Thanksgiving, her favorite holiday.

[teag]

what a wonderful doll house I love that it has legs and that room box great details, it's lovely and a trinket box too, your Father is a talented man, I am envious

[batgirl]

Thanks, Teag! He's a pretty awesome Dad.  He had a woodshop when I was kid. He made most of the furniture in the house & room box as well. He's always been an inspiration! He definitely taught us about making something out of nothing, he was always making animals out of scrap telephone wire, playhouses out of pegboard and o-rings, etc etc.

[dreadlocklove]

Are you going to steam the wallpaper off or just paint over it?   

The cost of my house has skyrocketed.  I went to Dollarama to buy more adhesive shelf/drawer liner for the flooring (it's a wood pattern) and also picked up some scrapbooking pages for the wallpaper.  They didn't carry any solid pages so we took a ride to Michaels.

WELL!

Some of the single sheets there were on sale, as where a couple of the books.  So over $40 later...   

[dreadlocklove]

The flooring is "installed!"  It's time to choose from the plethora of wallpaper options now!

Investment so far:  $3.67

[Spiffyhink]

I've been reading this with some interest for a while now and have decided to join. I checked my local craft stores, but none of them really have any Doll house kits for less than $100!!!! No matter, I bought two pieces of foamcore, sketched up a design, did all the math involved to figure out what the dimensions and angles would be (for the slopped roof), and started putting it together. It turned out rather nice for something that took me a couple of hours to make. I've already taken it back apart and am covering it with wallpaper and door/window frames (that takes a looooong time), but here are some pics of it dry assembled:







These are without any windows or doors, of course. Here is a pic I took after doing the front windows on the second floor:



I would have done more of those windows on the side, but they're kind of a pain and take forever! The rest of the windows I just made into simple rectangles. These look nice though.

I'm looking forward to see everyone else's progress. There are some really lovely creations here! Batgirl, you are very lucky to have such a talented father--the things he made are all amazing! I can't wait to see more pics from everyone!

[craftylittlemonkey]

Wow, great stuff is happening in here!

Spiffyhink, will you cover your house with a layer of paper mache to make it strong or something? I remember seeing instructions for making bookshelves out of cardboard boxes with layers of mache and though it would be a neat idea for a doll house. Your windows are fantastic, they just look amazing.

I'm still swamped with work here so not a lot of crafting for me but I'm watching!

[alwaysinmyroom]

Batgirl--what a wonderful house!  I think there is a trend for people to fix up houses that were part of childhood...yeah, it is a lot of work, but it can be done over time and with love!  The house and the furniture are just wonderful...such warm fuzzy details!

spiffy--whoa--what a project!  The windows look great!  I also love that you were able to decide on the sixes of the room yourself!  foam core...love it

I don't think I have spent anything beyond the cost of the doll house (about $6)...I used everything I already had...yeah--I need to finish...maybe next weekend

[Spiffyhink]

Wow, great stuff is happening in here!

Spiffyhink, will you cover your house with a layer of paper mache to make it strong or something? I remember seeing instructions for making bookshelves out of cardboard boxes with layers of mache and though it would be a neat idea for a doll house. Your windows are fantastic, they just look amazing.

I'm still swamped with work here so not a lot of crafting for me but I'm watching!

Thanks    I hadn't really thought of covering it mache, since I'm going to add so many other things I think it'll make up for the lightness of the foamcore. For the outside, I've decided to glue down 1/2 inch strips of cardboard, overlapping, for the siding, and then reinforce the corners with more cardboard, so I think it should be fairly sturdy once I'm done. The foamcore itself is pretty thick, so I don't think I have to make it too much sturdier.

I'll probably go to the paper mache once I've run out of foamcore though. I've got some left over that I'll use for the furniture, and once that's through I'll be breaking out the scrap newspaper! Foamcore + Paper Mache = Awesome