I’m not doing anything Christmas-related this year — no decorating, no gifts, nothing. I don’t mean to be a Grinch, but it’s really started to bug me how for the entire month of December (and even some of November!) the holiday is foisted on people whether they like it or not. You can’t watch TV […]
Tag: Christmas (Page 1 of 2)
(I live in California, so I can flippantly say “Let it snow!” on Thanksgiving without the risk of it actually happening…) With the bushes finished, I can move forward with landscaping the four seasons roombox. Today I added snow to the winter scene. It was fun! Maybe not quite as fun as playing in the […]
I’m waiting for something to come in the mail before I can continue with the four seasons roombox. In the meantime, here’s a tutorial for a 1:24 scale snowman. Supplies needed: Wood balls: 3/4″ and 1″ diameter Pin or thin wire Tiny pebbles (or something else) to make eyes, nose, and buttons A few sprigs […]
I didn’t get these done in time for Christmas, but I cross stitched three designs from Prairie Schooler’s Folk Art Christmas to go in my breadbox roombox. Here are the stitched designs. They’re stitched over-one on 36 count linen, for finished sizes of approx. 1-5/16 by 1-7/8. I started with the horizontal one, planning to […]
My gingerbread dollhouse looked pretty good the way I had it, but I wanted to finish the roof and front door, and play around a bit with frosting. And… I might have ruined it. I mean, it’s still adorable, and I had fun with it, but I went WAY overboard on frosting — past the […]
My parents came to visit last weekend, and gingerbread houses were on the agenda! Here’s what we started with (read the earlier posts here and here to see how I got the houses to this point). I already built a puzzle house like the one on the left, so my mom decorated that one and […]
With the puzzle houses assembled, it’s time to make them look (sort of) like gingerbread. But first, here are some pictures of my mom’s real gingerbread houses, for context. The stained glass windows are made from crushed Lifesavers, and the pieces are glued together with melted sugar. Note the open doors. As a wee lass […]
I just moved from a house that had a dedicated dollhouse workshop to one that doesn’t. Eventually we will build a room of some sort into the garage but for now I have a corner of the garage that doesn’t have all the storage and shelving I’m used to. Last weekend I was able to […]
After my first post about the breadbox roombox I kinda stopped talking about the broken lid. Surely all of my readers are dying to know what happened to it, so here you go! When we last saw the roombox lid, it was sitting snugly in a gluing jig. The corners weren’t quite right and Geoff […]
Rosy opening a Christmas present, the only way she knows how…
Two days until Christmas! Gotta get this roombox finished, or it’ll be embarrassing. :o With the wallpaper and cabinets finished, I glued in the baseboards and crown molding. This hanging basket is another Hallmark ornament. I had one of these already but had removed the bottom basket to make it more in scale. Since the […]
Less than a week until Christmas — time to finish those kitchen cabinets! I made a countertop from two pieces of basswood. I used a utility knife to cut a rough hole for the sink. Then I enlarged this carefully until it was just larger than the sink. A tad too large, actually, but once […]
The ink cartridge I was waiting for finally came in the mail, so I was able to move forward on the breadbox interior. The first step was staining the floor. This is a Houseworks flooring sheets that I got in a Freecycle haul this summer. I stained it with Minwax English Oak. When the stain […]
The Hallmark stove ornament I’m using in my Christmas breadbox roombox comes with a cord sticking out the back that you’re supposed to plug into a string of Christmas tree lights. I cut mine off long ago, but the very ends of the wires were still peeking out. When I started the breadbox project, I […]
Momentum on the Christmas breadbox hasn’t been quite as swift as I’d hoped… first I was waiting for a Miniatures.com order to arrive, and now am waiting for a new ink cartridge for the color printer. (Way cheaper to buy it online than locally, but no instant gratification!) At least I managed to make a […]
Because the Hallmark ornaments I’m using in my breadbox roombox have funky dimensions, I’m scratch building cabinets to go with them. This was my first time trying this, but how hard could it be? I started with the cabinet next to the fridge; we’ll go around the corner with a cabinet next to the stove […]
For years, I’ve been holding on to these Hallmark ornaments without anywhere to put them. They’re about 1:12 scale but look way too small when you put them with 1:12 cabinets (especially the fridge). And I love the detail, but didn’t necessarily want Christmas stuff in one of my dollhouses year round. Then there’s the […]
For years, the Fairfield has had unpainted resin fireplace fronts propped up against the chimney. I got in the mood to decorate the house for Christmas and decided the unfinished fireplaces would never do! I started by making hearths out of a polystyrene brick sheet leftover from when I built the house (I used it […]
Lucky Rosy, she got to open a few presents on Christmas Eve. The stylish coat was made for her by my mom. Even accessorized with a Christmas bow, it’s much more dignified than the elf suit. So far, the Frosty squeaky toy is her favorite… even more than the wrapping! Little does she know, Santa […]
I’ve been told that Rosy looks like Santa’s Little Helper from the Simpsons. In light of this, the elf costume was more or less a necessity. (The portrait with Santa, on the other hand, was pure indulgence.) As far as we’re concerned, this will be Rosy’s first real Christmas. Last year she was at the […]