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The Orchid Dollhouse Construction Blog

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About this blog

The Challenge

The Greenleaf Team Builders are challenged by Community Members in this rare event… Battle Orchid! This blog is the the work of the Team Builders. See the Orchid Construction Blog (Community) to checkout the fine work of our community members. Both groups did a fantastic job... they're all winners! Greenleaf thanks them all for making both blogs possible.

The Orchid Dollhouse Kit is one of Greenleaf's most popular dollhouses. It strikes the prefect balance between price and design. You may find this blog useful for tips and decorating ideas as build your Orchid Dollhouse. Bookmark the page and visit as often as needed.

Entries in this blog

1st session, 24 July

Because I'll be building on the road again, so to speak, I can't take everything with me, and I have no clear idea how it wants to look yet. Rather than list each & every building day/ session I'll group this into sessions of time blocks, since some days will be short due to environmental factors, and the Coventry blog got tedious. The kits go together very easily, it's what they want me to do with them and thinking it through that takes time. The first thing I did was open the box to

havanaholly

havanaholly

Will I ever see any progress?

I have been progressing slowly. The bay window is now attached and I am painstakingly adding siding on the sides 1 board at a time. It seems I will never finsh, but I know I will. I packed up the dollhouse in the car today and took it to Joann's what a mistake. As I was pushing a basket around the store, I think half of the city I live in had to look at it. There were a lot of women there getting spuulies for a beginning serger class at the community college adult community programs. I finally

darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

Day 06 - Painting the Bricks

Time to paint the bricks! To begin with, I take a very thin wash of brown iron oxide (acrylic paint, in the bottle), and put one coat of that on each and every individual brick [if you don't know what I mean by a wash or anything else, just send me a PM and I'll post detailed pix so that you can see what I'm doing]. No, she didn't say that, did she? Yes, she did. You have to paint EACH AND EVERY INDIVIDUAL brick. Remember that lil conversation I had with the house whe

LPCullen

LPCullen

Day 05 - Preparing the Bricks

My bricks are all cut and all mortar lines cleaned out, although I probably don't do them as well as I should. The house now has it's dirty wash all over too. It's just about time to begin painting the bricks, once everything dries. For drying times for me, in betwen cutting the bricks and the dirty wash, I usually wait 24 hours. To begin painting the bricks, I wait at least 48 hours after dirty washing, but usually 72 hours. If you're in a dryer climate, you may not h

LPCullen

LPCullen

Day 04, Bricking The Other Side

Time to paperclay the other side of the house. I've gotten Jimmy to do this and I'm just taking pictures, since I wanted to show "blending" and Jimmy does that MUCH better than I do. He begins by rolling out the paperclay, and you want to roll it out to about 1/8" in thickness. We usually use 1/2 pack of paperclay at a time. Once his clay is rolled he puts glue (wood glue) on the house. We usually just squirt the glue on there and then use an old credit card to spread it around so that you have

LPCullen

LPCullen

Day 03, Preparing the Brick

Today I have to clean out my mortar lines. To do this, I use a little tool that Rik Pierce gave us in his class. It's a little stick with a pointed end, and what I'm doing is just basically defining my bricks and making them all look like they're separate bricks. I take the tool and run it across the clay for the bottom lines. For the lines in between the bricks, I have to kind of flick out the clay in between the bricks--hence cleaning the mortar lines. Once the clay has dr

LPCullen

LPCullen

Orchid Completed

This house was a really fun build! My houses never feel completed without a Base with trees & flowers and my customers usually expects them of me now. I Think I love the bases myself with flowers because to me, that is what really make my houses look realistic. When I first started using bases (About 10 years ago) I used cardboard because I personally used to love to change them and it was lightweight enough to pick up and have it glued to the house. I then switched to thin wood but had to h

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

Painting & Trim

Well, I did not get to do anything to my house this weekend because I had a guest since Friday evening. But this is how the house is looking so far: I am very pleased with how this has turned out so far and also with the Chimney. I thought it may not look right but it looks fine to me so far. I edited the trim on the big Dormer because the one that should be there hide the brick detail so I took the top roof edges and cut those to fit there instead. :angry: I only need to Paint the s

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

I have been busy this weekend

Since my son was still at camp untill he got home 3:00 pm Sunday, (school starts 8:00 am Monday), and my earache is starting to feel better, I started decorating the outside. I glued the windows and most of the frame minus the pediment caps. I forgot to take a picture of this step. I figgured painting the siding strip individually would be easier to work with considering all the angle cuts I will need to make to go around the window frames. N

darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

wallpaper started

I finally felt well enough to work on the wallpaper today. I have been fighting an ear infection for the past few days. ( I HATE earaches), The printer is still having a problem so I took Darrell to the scrapbook store to help me find paper. These are the best we could find and still match the overall purple theme I wish to stay with. I would not have chosen most of them in a house for myslef, but for a house that may possibly belong to a little girl, I think they will be great. Thi

darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

Dirty Wash Has Started

Well, Today I added a dirty wash to the clay and I have added the first color to the roof. I have company today (my parents came up from Chicago) So I was showing my mother how I paint the houses. She coud not beleive that I could make this plain white house look so realistic :lol: Of course I felt proud to hear her say that :o Here are the pictures so far! Complements of Minis on the edge

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

Roof Finished

Well, I have finally finished paper claying the roof and BOY was it a lot of time and clay!!! Though there is not a fireplace on the insde of this house, I did add a Chimney to the roof just because I think it added extra appeal to the roofline. Hubby told me the roof was too high so I chopped off 1" from the top and then he was satisfied. I sliced my finger while chopping of the roof though :lol: :o Tomorrow it will be dry enough for me to paint and then I will start painting t

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

Uodate on Melissa's house

The walls went together very quickly. The roof has only the front half installed at this time. I finally got the dormers to go together the right way. There was not a problem with the directions, there was a problem with the reader of the directions. For some reason I kept gluing the narrow ends of the dormer roof together and putting that to the top of the dormer. I believe I lost cound how many times I made the same mistake. here are pictures of the shell &#

darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

I'm Out Of What?

Yeap, I have been at a stand still since Sunday Night. Her I was claying my roof and then I went to open my next package and discovered I am completely OUT of clay :lol: . When did this happen I said to myself? But because I am out I can't finish the roof till more get here (I order it in bulk). This is my progress so far. I am almost there though! Complements of Minis on the edge

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

Melissa's progress

I glued on the roof and built and attached the dormers. They gave me quite a fit, For some reason I kept gluing the roofs on upside down with the narrow end at the top. It looked right to me until I placed them on the house. I then took them apart and glued them back correctly. I will have pictures to post of this in a day or so. My printer is still acting up. I may stop by the scrapbook store on my way home from work today. If I can not get there today, then tomorrow will do. I may end up usin

darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

Day Two

I just remembered that the windows in this house are double hung, so I figured it would be best to install the exterior of the windows before I start to paperclaying. So I glued the exterior parts together and then painted them. Once they were dry, I got them installed. Had to use some of our special handy dandy weights on part. And now, I think I'll start bricking the front. Took one half package of paperclay and put it on our rolling board. That's just a

LPCullen

LPCullen

Finished

yesterday about 5:30 my mother came by to discuss the day trip she and my gran would be making today they are going to go see my other gran(mom's mom) and my aunts and uncles who are all celebrating their birthdays today. so Im thinking ok she can take the Orchid to her a week early. :lol: so last night Catriona and I sat from 7pm working on the finishing touches...she quit around 12:45 but as I still had the roof to do I was up till 3am and g

nuttiwebgal

nuttiwebgal

The begining

I started the house this weekend, I painted around the windows in the walls and the window frames. I have not broke out in a rash this time. My hamds did start to itch twice and i stopped and washed them and came back to working on the dollhouse later One everything had a coat of paint on it I stopped itching. Melissa

darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

More Clay

Well Now I added more clay to the dormers and walls upstairs. I also added clay to the back base of the house. Now all I have to do is add the roof, trim and base. Then I will be ready to paint :lol: . Why did I list the things I still have to do. Do you ever get the feeling you are getting no where very fast? :o I do.

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

fiddly bits

I have been slowly making progress on this house I am down to the fiddly bits which ispent 3 hours punching sanding glueing back together sanding and painting. uuggg. sometimes the gingerbread trim(fiddly bits) is hard to break loose from the sheets and sometimes you get ahold of some who want to fall apart in your fingers...guess what I was so lucky to have both happen to me.but I persvered and am pleased to say its all painted and looking very nice. &#

nuttiwebgal

nuttiwebgal

Day One

Such a cute little house! I love it's lines. I have of course pulled my floor boards out, which I usually do first, and I've used red oak stain, since that was the stain can that was open and I seem to like that color. I stained them, only used one coat, and put them out in the horrifying heat outside and let them dry a bit. Then I brought them back in and dry fitted the house together to see how it looked. Jimmy came home and decided to take over a

LPCullen

LPCullen

Floors are in & Stained

The Floors are all in and stained now. I also did touch up painting on the insides of the house around the windows. I also added the wall downstairs but I put it in so that the opening is in the front and not by the door. I did this because it is sometimes easier to put furniture in the kitchen when the wall has a corner like this one does. I used Corona Siding on my floors and cut them different lengths and then stained them Now I have to add the clay to the upstairs because I w

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

The windows

you would probably want to side this house after the outer trim is on the windows here is how the windows go together for that "working"look the frame alone....I had to use the actual window when installing the trim to get the correct amount around each side this is how the inside lower window looks without the trim and this is how it looks on the outside of course I used waxy tac

nuttiwebgal

nuttiwebgal

Still in the box

I juat love what everyone has done to their houses. I am still in the mental planning stage, as I wish this house to be playable by a child. I have a few ideas bouncing in my head, but need to see the house partially built before I can be sure if I wish to implement them. I hope to start it on Thursday after I go buy some more gloves. I do not want to take the chance on breaking out again. I may seal the pieces while they are still on the sheets. or just use gloves and seal after assembly. Oh an

darrellandmelissa

darrellandmelissa

Something New

Well, every blog I try something new. This time I wanted to try something new I had found at Hobby Lobby. It is calledPaper Perfect and I wanted to try it to make the stucco or plaster effect on the inside walls downstairs. I chose Mocha Creme color and it is very easy to use (Takes forever to dry though :lol: about 12 -24 hours ) but I really love the effect that I was able to achieved by using it. I did it last night before I went to bed so that I would not spend 12 - 24 hours touching

Minis On The Edge

Minis On The Edge

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