After a little bit of paint....

It looks perfect:) But they were crumbling apart as I painted them:(

I love how they turned out, but I'm afraid I can't really do much with them... But I do think I want to try some in polymer clay....

...until next time...

If you asked me last night....

I woulda told you I absolutely loved this "pottery paper clay"! (Remember I bought it a few weeks ago on clearance...) It is just like paper clay.... but with the texture and color of pottery when it dries..... This lion was my favorite.... I just love how it split down the nose.....

But some time between last night and this morning.... They've all broke apart. I'm thinking a certain orange fella had something to do with this.... but it was really upsetting to see everything chipped apart..... I even made a few planters... All but one survived. On the right of this picture.... You can see the molds I using.... They're full of clay right now.... Drying...... Hopefully these won't break. I'm thinking I can still do something with the broken ones..... Just have to think about it....

I also painted another column.... to replace the Bright white one that was in here before.

I started with several layers of red paint..... but after my first set of pictures, I realized it was too bright..... So I added a few layers of watered down brown, then black and brown... then added green to what was left of the wash and used that for the last layer. I like it a lot better now... And once I get one of my torso's one the wall, it will balance itself out:) I hope.

I found some more odds and ends to put in here.... Jody's peaches are on the end table... and her books are in the chair... I brought the tin birdhouse out (it's sitting on the stool) but there's No silver in this room, so I'm thinking it might go back in The Painted Lady. I'm trying to stick to a color scheme- and have been pulling my colors from the fabric in the chair. Lots of reds, coppers, oranges, yellows, and blues... The greens will be in all the plants that will one day get made....

I use this glass house as a book end to keep my bills from falling off my desk- And the other day I found one of my favorite pictures and had set it back here to remind myself to do something with it..... Any guesses as to who they are??

And if that freakin weatherman says it going to HOT one more time.... I'm going poke him in the eye.... DUH! We know it's freakin hot.....

....Until Next Time....

And the winner is....

LOL....Your gonna have to keep reading to find out......

So...Here's the floor to the mouse house. Each stone was made from paperclay, then glued into place using tacky glue. You can see on the right I haven't started gluing the rocks down yet....but I wanted you to see that it's ok to draw out what you want first, because in the end your just going to paint over it anyways, right?!


Speaking of paint.....First I painted the whole thing gray, then I went back with water-colors, and played around until I got what I wanted. This looked so pretty at this point -loved how blue it looked.......blow this pic up and check it out, I can wait........lol


Then came the railroad ballast.....that was easy enough...put glue where you want the ballast and add the ballast. It is called ballast right?!



But of course the bf came in and told me it was "Too Pretty"........So with a little thought I went back and added some darker watercolor paint over the ballast. And it still looked to clean.......

And after A quick post to ya'll....someone suggested chalk!

Now that's what I call 'dirty'! hehehe.
Just shave off some of your favorite brown chalk, and using an old paint brush, push it into the cracks where you want it. Then I went back and did it a few more times. (I like the layered look, lol) When I was done I sprayed it with a Matte sealer and it worked perfectly!!

And you know I couldn't get a blog in without a kitty pic! So I thought I'd leave you with a pic of Jasper and Fred.....they're so cute when they sleep!

Can't promise I'm back, but hopefully over the next few weeks I can get some pic on here for you to enjoy. I loaded up two hundred and forty something pictures this morning....scary huh!!! LOL

See ya next time:)

No more Marshmallows!! Woo-who!!

I told myself if it was the last darn thing I did today....I was finishing those Marshmallows!!! Honestly, I'm sick of looking at them, and bored. LOL.....it doesn't take much, Haha!

Haven't seen the strays today?? Casey.....if I do catch them, I planned on taking them to the humane society...I know I can't have any more...I just want to be able to have good homes, too....And that doesn't mean living under my house!!! Hahaha....Oh...and one day I will come back and share our opossum stories....Haha!! I tell ya, if it's not one thing it's another!!

OK...so on to the house!

Yesterday....I did a little marshmallowing.......glued on the window frames.......

And I got the Styrofoam glued in under the bay window.

And after I got bored with that....I did a little rock work under the window seat. I realized my seat it is a little crocked, and it bothers me...but I'm going to try and look past that! LOL...I'd like to do some more stone work in here, but have just ran out of paperclay, again!!!

Then, before I went to bed last night, I put 2 coats of light green paint in Cora's sitting room. I also glued tissue paper to the wall that's laying down, and painted that. Just wanted to give it some kind of interest! Still thinking it's going to need a couple more coats, but I really like the color.

And today..........Marshmallow Manor got off to a rough start...My oldest poured his whole bowl of cereal into the house, and I 'bout died!! So, now that the house has had a milk bath and dried....I can get on with finishing it!!! Kids!!!

If you can't tell......I'm DONE with the marshmallows!!!! Not sure what I'm doing next, but I just wanted to show ya'll that the house is getting a little closer to be done!!

It's the Little Things....

Most of today was spent daydreaming about all the different types of doors I could make. I googled fairy doors, and was inspired by so many things, my brain hurts. I did; however, break out the polymer clay and make 2 handles for my already done doors. I also added a little more moss at the top to make it look more natural. All I need to do now is find a frame for it, and I think it's done. Oh, I also added another wash of brown paint to the front door to get rid of that boring gray.And my English Cottage is finally done!! LOL~ OK, I've been putting this house off for a year now all because it needed a handle. I had made some, but they were too big. It's crazy what one can procrastinate about! If you'd like to read more about the making of the english cottage, check out my very first blogs....you will also get to see my hobbit hole...one of my favorites!!

Exploring more ideas

Lets see.....where did I leave off?? I do believe at this point I have added a wash of gray. Just took a little bit of acrylic paint and watered it down.

Next, I added a bottom. I want this little door to have stairs! I have mounted the whole frame onto a piece of foamcore board.....and the added some height to the bottom of it. (This way I don't use so much of the paperclay.) I also learned to not cut my door before really looking at the arch it's going in. I cut it a little smaller than it needs to be.......oops! And of course I forgot to take a picture in between these steps. But as you can see I have built my stairs. (Remember, the paperclay shrinks~ but if you have gaps, you can fill them with 'moss'...I'll explain more later.) I also tried to make some rocks in the bottom corners~ I don't like them~ but they'll do. I broke out my son's watercolors to add a little bit more color to the stones. I wanted them each to look a little different. The lion-head-door-knocker was made out of polymer clay awhile ago...and I think it has found it's home. I also made the 'metal' bands on the door out of polymer clay.
I aged the clay with a wash of gray again, and then wiped off the extra.
And then came time to fill the gaps. I thought I had added enough clay to make up for the shrinkage problem, but I was wrong. Luckily, I had planned on adding moss to this door. And it nicely fills in those horrible gaps. Looking at this picture, I realize I need to blow off some stray foliage. I used the stuff that you can buy in the model train section at the craft store. I used the light green foliage. It comes in a web like form. You can just pull off small strands, and then I rolled them like a snake and added them where I thought they might grow.
And this is where I am at tonight. I still want to go back and add a little more moss around the top...it's not natural enough for me. I also added enough wash of gray...and now wish I had left the door alone. I liked it a little darker.This little door has no special place to go. I just wanted to experiment with the different ideas I have seen. I have a house that will one day need moss, now I can at least say I have some knowledge of how to use it, without having ruined something really expensive. I do think that one day I will use the paper clay again. I love the stone work, and would like to see it on a house. But for now, this door will probally get put into a shadowbox (when it's done), and be just that, a 3D picture of a door.

More Paperclay today...

Today, I played some more with the paper clay. First let me tell you a little lesson I have learned about paper clay. It shrinks...just a little bit, but enough to say you should over lap things a little more than you think....I now have gaps in between the bricks and the stones...ugg!! OK...so, today I did the wood work out of paperclay. Easy enough.....laid out a 'board' of clay and scored lines into it to look like wood. I also painted all the bricks off-white. To the right of the picture you can see what will become the front door.I added my first coat of brown to the wood. After seeing how good the boards look, I really wished I have left the bricks brick colored! But, too late for that.
I put the door in the frame so you could get an idea of what it might look like. Who knows what will come of it...I don't know~ lol...I'm just exploring the use of paperclay. So far I like it.
Oh...and BTW, today I used a little tacky glue first, before applying the paperclay to the foamboard.....and it stayed in place a lot better!

Great Gifts and Ideas

I asked my Mom to make me a white blanket for my bed, and this is what she sent. It's beautiful, and so soft!! Thank-you Mom!!

See how great it looks on the bed!! PERFECT!!
And then last night, I decided that I wanted to start playing around with a few ideas. I had read about using cork to make bricks in http://www.caseymini.blogspot.com/, and had wanted to try it myself. I drew out a doorway on a piece of foam board and then cut it out with an exacto knife. Make sure you use a sharp blade, a dull one won't get you anywhere!
Then I cut out bricks....a little bigger then had been suggested. The back of the cork had this shiny paper on it, and I couldn't even use a permenant marker to write on it, so I had to free had it. It would look a lot better if the bricks were more uniform. I think I did alright. I have also started to sketch out my stone lines.
In the next photo, I have made my stones out of Paperclay. Note to self~ apply glue to foamboard next time before adding the paperclay~ I think it would of worked a little better, lol!
After I got done with the stones, I decided to put a coat of paint on them. I used an off white, and then decided to see what the bricks would look like with a coat of paint....not to sure if I like it, but I am going to go with it. If I could figure out how to grout in between the cork, I'd be happy. I also want to add more paperclay to look like wood planks in between the bricks. We shall see what tommorrow brings........I'm doing all this before I try to do any of it on a real house. I wanted to get the feel for it, and see how to work the different ideas! It also helps to see what I do and don't like.