October is here! The summer sure flew past and I have not made any progress on my house!! Did buy some foamcore to fiddle with the first floor idea. I think the house wants to be Sherlock Holmes house. I have quite a few things that I've collected for something like that but didn't have a house to put them in. So, by jove, I think I've got it!
Now that the blocks are in place for the wheels, there was an awkward space under the wheelhouse of the build. So put together a front bumper! All the underparts will now be painted black, perhaps that is today's project. Tried out the bases for the headlights and the brackets under the wheelhouse too. Those won't be able to be applied until the outside brick paper is on so have a little ways to go with that. Decided that since this is a summerhouse, the back door will have to be a screen door,
Who would have thought that so many years and life experiences would go by before I was again in my own home working on the Canterbury. It has told me that it definitely wants to be a Steampunk Summerhouse so the adventure has begun. Thanks to encouragement from Deb, I dove into the realm of steampunk and found myself enjoying every minute of it. This afternoon I will start gluing the structure together after detailing parts of it that were easier to work on with the section flat on my bench.
I've been stalling putting the brick paper on this project. I admit it, stalling. I've been stalling on the electrical too....So, from out of the blue comes the realization that this build reminds me of the Neverwas Haul that I have saved pictures of. Suddenly, lots of new things popped into my head; "I have an old toy compass I could do something with....I need a helm of course....and the Captain could be the miniature of the Titanic captain I picked up at Christmas Tree Shops years ago on clea
Dry brushed the black wagon wheels with FolkArt gunmetal gray metallic paint to make them look, well, more metallic! LOL! Then I found a Glad container and put all the wheels into it. Will keep the sawdust off that I'm bound to be creating making that set of scissor steps; but also keeps the Captain from messing with them. Though I did catch him with the hydraulic jack trying to pry open the lid.....he's persistent, I'll give him that. I was thinking about the steps and remembered that the wood
Yep, the house is talking again. I haven't even got the tower roof built yet and the house whispers "How about doing the whole roof.....". so now I am up in the middle of the night looking at pictures of copper roofs and how they're constructed. Actually I think it will look awesome! LOL!
Had a go at the roof of the bay window today and thought it came out pretty good. I searched online for different verdigris effects and this is a combination of what I found. Some people like more green, some more turquoise. Have fun and do your own thing! Have more ideas for finishing the rest of the bay so will keep the pics coming.
Well, let's finish our latest project! Remember yesterday when I was glueing flat backed crystals to the "sheet metal"? This is what it looks like now after three coats of Gunmetal Gray metallic paint:
The plumbing piece now has 3 coats of Antique Copper metallic and Brass metallic paints: I know what you're thinking, it doesn't match the other one! After a couple of coats of Matte nailpolish, we're good!
So on to the piece of 2x4. After priming it, I coated the wood with a th
After trying out the wheels, I realized that the underside of the house is partially visible. I wanted to add some detail but not so much as to detract from the rest of the build. Decided to add some simple axles and paint the whole underside black. In the process, I discovered that the Ceramcoat Black is not as black as FolkArt Licorice. Doing this also used up all of my black craft paint! So it's off to the store today to find some more paint so I can paint the wheels. I can see this build all
The noise coming from the shop was indeed Captain Morin putting the freshly painted wheels on the Summerhouse. I think Richard and Reginald from the steampunk family gave him a hand. Personally, I don't know how they managed it, but I did notice that my mini hydraulic jack is nowhere to be seen...I think these gentlemen look a little too innocent, don't you?
The wheels will have to come off so I can get started on the electrical. I have quite a few fixtures from over the years as I was a
Whew! What a weekend! We did yard work, traded in our car for a pickup and had company over for smoked ribs! Feeling not as young as I used to be! LOL! I hear noise coming from the workshop, I think Captain Morin is trying to put the wheels on His Summerhouse. If I don't watch it, he will be successful and drive off into the sunset! I hope he is being careful, still not sure how good his neck repair is going to hold. This will be a good test of the E6000 cement. Found a tiny letter on one of the
Had another day of randomness! LOL! When I was looking at the pictures of the Neverwas Haul, I noticed that it has copper trim along the roof ridge. At first I was going to order something similar online but then the thrify Yankee in me kicked in and I decided to see what I had kicking around the shop. I've had some plastic wrought iron fencing for years and pulled it out. It looked like one edge would do the trick so I got out my wire cutters to trim away the parts I didn't need. I tried
The back of the tower has been sitting there bare for awhile now so I decided to add that little piece of brick paper to make it complete. That way I can also glue on the remaining corner trim for the tower. With a bit of work, I transformed the white cardboard trim pieces that came with the kit to something fit for a steampunk house! I was standing there admiring my work while the Captain was looking at pictures of the Neverwas Haul online. His first words were, "Heyyy, there's an observa
Woke up with another idea this morning! Since the bay window on the side will have a copper roof with a verdigris finish, thought this would look good on the tower roof too with the brass porthole. Still have to cut a new piece for the tower. The first one was from a section of the Buttercup but I ended up cutting it for the wrong piece...arghh! But there is another piece there with a round opening, so I will be using that. Then typing paper over the seams and copper and verdigris here I come!
The Captain took another header yesterday but didn't lose his head this time! Decided it was time to correct the situation. I took a look at the bottom of his shoes and he had worn his heels completely off. I might not be a cobbler, but I am pretty good with wood so looked through my stash and found some very thin pieces to work with. Traced around the heels of his shoes and cut out a couple of heels out of wood. He is much more stable now and with a little black paint, he is as stylin' as ever
The laundry pile again beckons. Well, not really beckons, kind of hollers and grabs your ankles until you wash it all! LOL! The Captain's list will have to wait for today. Rose is keeping him company by suggesting they go on a picnic down by the river. So he is mollified for now especially since she promised him some of her famous Lumberjack molasses cookies! She shared the recipe with me and my DH loves them too. So in case you would like some, we'll do something a little different today and I'
The light finally came on the other day...."Hey, I have a rotary tool!" So I dumped out the box of attachments and looked for a small drill. Sure enough, there was one just a little bigger than the one in my pin vise. Also made good use of the little vise that's kinda been kicking around for quite awhile. After drilling a few holes on the end of the steps, I lined up the small pieces with pins to see how they fit. I'll have to cut the pins shorter, but I think this is going to work! I'll j
I decided today was the day to try out the copper color on the roof. In my gallery is a how-to on doing a verdigris roof treatment. It's a good thing I wrote it all down as I would have forgotten it all! LOL! Before I did the whole roof, I wanted to try this out on the smaller roof section to see how it was going to look. I started by putting on a coat of Metallic Bronze by Craftsmart. I thought I did a major oopsie for a minute as I was going to glue strips on the roof before painting.
Thought it would be fun to add a picture of the inspiration for finishing this build. This little house has been through so much! LOL! It was originally going to be a cute little Victorian house with lots of gingerbread. Then had an idea that it would be a home for Sherlock Holmes. Then a Summer Home for Sherlock Holmes. Then steampunk crept in and we have been all over the place! LOL! It was going to be a steampunk summerhouse, but it didn't seem to want the additions I had worked so hard on; s
I was really proud of myself after building the telescope yesterday and was excited to show it to my DH when he got home from work. He was duly impressed but when I touched it, it fell over and the telescope broke off the mount and then the mount broke off too! Argh! So figured I needed to cut the legs at more of an angle to make it more stable. Woke up early with a few ideas and started hunting through my stash of wooden parts and metal filagree to add a little pizazz! I used a wooden bowl f
Happy 4th of July! Sat on the tailgate of our pickup last night and watched the neighbors' fireworks. They were great! Real humid outside today so I am back in my shop. The Captain expressed some concern for Rose and her long skirts around that large back wheel. He didn't want a horrible accident on their next trip! I had actually been thinking about how to deal with this, so started on a fender right away. I was wondering what to use for the curved top when I saw a piece of scrap wood curling u
The trip to my mom's was uneventful until I was hanging up my clothes, and who's in my bag but Captain Morin! Since he got back from vacation a few hours early, he decided he'd like to come up to see if there were any new ladies in my mom's dollhouse! So he showed up in his uniform and shared mint juleps with the lady of the house and just was thoroughly enjoying himself. After a tour of the garden, he had tea in the parlor and was shown a good time by all. My mom and I are supposed to go shoppi
Have been getting up at 7 the last few days because I was thinking about these steps! After staring at the picture I have, figured I needed a support bar at each end so spent part of the morning painting a stick. LOL! I thought that would be the end of it, but had a few scratch-my-head moments assembling the small top section. Cut a couple of pieces wrong so thankfully had a few extras. Always make a few extra pieces if you attempt building a set of these! Well, drum roll please, here are th
After posting the current picture of the progress on the Steampunk Summerhouse, something was off. I couldn't put my finger on it at first; but as I looked at it, I realized it needs to have the wood paneling continued onto the wall to the left of the front door. Good thing I didn't install real brick there! I checked in my junk box and I have just enough stained planks to do it too. That might have to wait as I need to make a WalMart run today. I might even have to run wood under the large bay
Yes, I am one lucky miniaturist! My DH gifted me with some great scraps and I am making good use of them. Cut them in half lengthwise and think these are going to work perfect! Also did some work on the scissor steps this weekend. So much time spent on a little stick! LOL! There had to be a hole in the center of each one that would fit a head pin so dug out my tiny hand drill and measured and drilled.I started to put the pieces together when I realized I need to cut the pieces for the steps as
