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Tag: Michaels puzzle house

A canopy crib, and other little projects

About a month ago I learned that Dollhouses, Trains, and More will be closing, and I’m pretty depressed about it. I used to live five minutes away and went in there about once a week. Even after I moved, I’ve been making the trip every few months to buy strip wood and other supplies. Their […]

Cassidy Creations washstand and fire screen

Since half scale furniture can be hard to come by, I’ve been collecting a lot of Cassidy Creations kits, mostly off eBay. I’m planning to build a bunch of them to go in the almost finished Queen Anne Rowhouse, but these first two might end up in other houses. The first is a washstand that […]

Half scale swap goodies and record album how-to

I just participated in my first mini swap, which combines the fun of getting chain letters in the mail (remember those?) with the fun of scoring a bunch of free minis. The swap was done by the Yahoo Half Scale group and there were 46(!) participants, meaning we each had to provide 46 of an […]

A trellis for the puzzle house

Earlier in the summer I finished the garden for my puzzle house—all except the trellis. I wasn’t sure how to make it look like it had vines woven through it without adding too much bulk to the back to attach it to the house. Yesterday, with my mom’s help, I did the deed… and it […]

Puzzle house garden completed

I actually finished this up over Fourth of July weekend, but forgot to post the pictures. Oops. I really liked the trim my dad added to the base of the Fairfield and I wanted to do the same for the puzzle house. Geoff helped with the cutting and mitering. The base is a bit thicker […]

Puzzle house path — third time’s a charm

The other day I was mulling over puzzle house path ideas, but wasn’t crazy about either one. Yesterday I came up with a third option that’s a winner—”flagstones” made out of egg carton material. I’ve heard of people using egg cartons to make miniature bricks and stones, but this is my first time trying it. […]

Puzzle house — playing around in the yard

Yesterday I received my recent order from The Vintage Dollhouse, a shop in Houston that’s (unfortunately) closing out their half scale merchandise. One of the items I ordered was the metal mailbox in the picture below. I wasn’t sure if it would look weird to have the mailbox inside of the fence, but now that […]

Puzzle house landscaping — getting started

Over the past few weeks I’ve been collecting fake flowers to landscape the puzzle house, and today I made the first few plants. Click here for a close-up. I want this garden to have more of an autumn color scheme than the Fairfield’s pinks and purples, so I’ve been looking for more subdued foliage. I […]

A tree grows in Puzzleland…

Today I made a tree to go outside my puzzle house. I used a bare Lemax tree that I bought on clearance years ago and the “foliage” left over from the Fairfield’s shrubbery. The tree is from the Sugar ‘n Spice line, which means it’s supposed to look like candy. It started out white and […]

Puzzle house interior, all trimmed up

I have always envisioned the puzzle house as a country cottage with hardwood floors throughout. Last weekend I bought coffee stirrers to use for the floors. The skinny stick hardwoods I did in the Fairfield just seemed too thick and clunky. To my surprise, I couldn’t find wooden stirrers at Costco, Staples, Target, or the […]

Puzzle house redux redux

In my last puzzle house post, I expressed uncertainty about the outcome of my homemade apex trim experiment. After reading the comments people left about the pictures, I decided to make a few modifications. I removed the newel post and shaved a bit more off the top, so the bottom points of the trim line […]

Puzzle house redux

The puzzle house that I was so gung-ho about last fall has been sitting patiently in the workshop while I’ve been focused on the Fairfield, so yesterday I gave it some love. Months later, I’m still unhappy with how off-center the upstairs window looked under the gable (you can see a picture here), so I […]

Puzzle house finished!

Today I finished up the shingling and glued the porch pieces in place. Woo! I’m not thrilled with the placement of that upstairs window. The peak of the gable was too narrow to put the window any higher but now that the porch roof is in, it looks really off center. I’m wondering if I […]

Back to work on the puzzle house

After a month’s break, I started working on my puzzle house again yesterday. With the shingles done, the next big task is the porch. I started by adding trim to the front corners of the house, where the siding doesn’t quite meet. I used 90-degree corner trim and painted it the same color as the […]

Shingles complete (mostly)

The front and back roofs and gable are shingled. I still have to do the porch roof but that requires building the porch first. I also repainted the windows and doors with a Glidden shade named Sandy Feet, and I’m much happier with it! The shingles turned out surprisingly well, considering they’re made from siding […]

Aw, shingle!

My grandmother used to say “Aw, sugar!” in front of me, instead of swearing. Today I say “Aw, shingle!” because I seriously hurt myself with the glue gun earlier. I was gluing shingles on my puzzle house and got a huge glop of hot glue on the back of a shingle. I went to throw […]

Puzzle house, with paint!

A couple of months ago, Glidden did a promotion where you could get a quart of paint for free, no strings attached. (Well, you had to give them your address so they could send you the paint. Seemed like a fair trade.) I ordered Belgian Waffle, a perfectly nice peachy color, but somehow in the […]

Puzzle house, day 3

Today I finished putting together the structure (minus the roof) and applied all the siding. Wasted a ton of blue painter’s tape, but with good results! Thank god for paint cans and those little pinchy things… Lo and behold, I have a little house! It seems weird to me that part of the main roof […]

Puzzle house, day 2

I’m loving how easy this house is to put together! This morning I poked around at Michael’s and Dollhouses, Trains, and More, looking for scrapbook paper or wallpaper for the inside of the cottage. Nothing caught my eye and I decided to move forward with assembly and worry about the inside later. I have some […]

1:24 scale puzzle house – first steps

I’ve started putting together a half-scale “puzzle house” by Creatology. Michael’s started carrying these kits in the spring and apparently stopped carrying them at some point over the summer, because they’ve become impossible to find. When they had them, the kits sold for $7.99—and of course, I never go to Michael’s without a 40% coupon […]

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