Spring Fling Contest

As many of you know, I am obsessed with miniatures. From my Gnome dollhouse made out of a formula can (which I need to post finished pics) to my Blythe doll, I love anything mini! I am participating in the Spring Fling 2012 contest by Greenleaf. I don't expect to win. I'm just doing it for the fun of it.

I know a lot of people are going in the direction of a farmer's market or greenhouse (since those are the two additions you can purchase). Because I like to think outside of the box and do things differently, I decided to turn mine into a sweets store (cakes, cupcakes, cookies) with an outdoor eating area.

 

Day one consisted of putting the main structure together. Since I was doing a store, I felt that the front needed more windows. Hubs used his jigsaw to cut out two windows for me. I also primed the building.

 

More priming and painting. It was easier to go ahead and paint the trim before gluing it to the building. I also did a crackle technique on the door because I want this to look like an older building that was renovated.

 

Here is a look at the interior. Lots of pink and aqua!

 

Day two consisted of brick and stucco work. I know this sounds silly, but I purchase my eggs based on the egg carton. I bypass the regular eggs in the Styrofoam cartons to get cage-free eggs in cartons that are perfect for making stones. I did an egg carton stone treatment on my Gnome dollhouse, but this time I needed to make bricks. This was an incredibly time consuming part.

 

This is the side of the house that the farmer's stand will go. I'm not using mine as a farmer's stand, of course. It's going to be a lemonade stand for the outdoor eating area! I decided to "stucco" this wall. I used Golden molding paste to create a stucco appearance.

 

Here's an up close shot of the stucco work. Not bad!

 

Day three was a back track day for me. This is the side of the building with the existing windows. I was doing a brick treatment, but I got lazy and stopped measuring my cuts. Horrible! It looked awful. And, being the perfectionist I am, it bothered me to no end. So, I started using my craft knife to rip the brick off. Probably an hour of work wasted. Not to mention the amount of egg carton wasted! So, lesson learned: the lazy way might be easier but not necessarily better.

So, that pretty much wraps up the first three days of construction. I've still got a lot of work ahead of me but I am loving the process.