Sunday 5 February 2017

Bluebell Cottage

Are you an impulse buyer? I am, especially online...it's just too easy to buy things...I'll be browsing Etsy or Ebay or any number of other sites, spot something I like and..click, it's mine. I am just as bad in person. At my recent trip to the Kensington Dolls House Fair, I impulse bought a tiny fairy and a automata. Both wonderful things in their own right, but where on Earth am I going to put them? Here is my little Automata it's by St Legers.



Well this project starts with one such impulse buy. Whilst browsing Etsy one day, I found an adorable little mouse in a blue dress on Suzy's Creations. I bought her immediately and was very pleased with her but had nowhere to put her. She sat on my shelf for over a year. I was always worried she'd be knocked off the shelf and hoovered up by accident so she ended up in a box in a drawer and she's far too pretty to be in there so I decided I'd better build her a little house to live in.

My little Easy impulse buy!

If you've been following the blog, you'll know that so far  I've been working through the Petite Properties 'Kit and Book' series. However, the next house in the Kit and Book series 'Washtub Cottage' wasn't quite what I had in mind for my next little mouse house. So, I looked at PP's Basic House range. This range come with construction instructions but don't have the finishing instructions that the Kit and Book series have. Of course you can still use the techniques in the Books to help finish the basic houses. So that's what I did. I bought a Gooseberry Cottage kit and the Washtub Cottage book. The techniques for constructing the Cottage were variations on what I'd learnt before. The challenge for this house I decided would be to make everything for it myself from scratch, not calling on my etsy friends.

First, I had to build the house though. I decided to go for a clay tile floor, similar to the one in Emelia's, but to experiment with the finish. After the claywork was done, I painted it white then I painted every other tile black -which was very cathartic-. Lastly, I sealed it all with gloss varnish. I was pleased with the effect. Then the walls had to go on. I papered and painted the walls before construction hoping for a cleaner finish. The ceiling of the ground floor room was beamed, but I wanted carpet on the first floor room which I was planning to be a bedroom so I used fabric to make a carpet -purchased from Little Trimmings-.

All the pieces ready to put together.

After gluing the house together it was time for the clay work. I've discovered that it's really worth putting in the overtime with claywork to get a better finish. After rolling out the clay and gluing it on to the house, I really take my time to do the scribing but it still looks pretty rough when it first dries.

Unfinished stonework

I start off by sanding the whole wall with very fine sand paper and then I scribe out every single stone again. This does take ages but is really worth the effort. Little bits of clay chip off but it just adds to the effect. I do love working with clay.

Ready to paint!

I went for a white-washed effect by giving the stone two coats of white and dirtying it up a little by dry brushing. The window sills and door were painted a lovely blue.

For the roof I wanted a terracotta effect so after cutting the roof tiles from thick card. I mixed 5 different shades of terracotta and individually painted each tile before laying the strips on the roof.






After fitting them, they looked a little too clean. Bea Broadwood does a great range of pre-mixed paints. One of these is called 'Muddy Paint' and it's brilliant for dry brushing external walls and roofs to make them look more authentic. It was this paint I used to muddy up my roof and it made all the  difference. I added the chimney pot and my house was done!

All ready for an afternoon's mini-ing!


Then my little Bluebell Cottage was ready for furniture. Next time...I build all the furniture for my house...no kits and no cheating by buying ready made on Easy.


2 comments:

  1. If you can get your hands on any or all of the three 1:24 Country Room books that Bea put out back in 2007-08 (Has it really been 9 years?), they contain instructions for making your own speciality paints using poster paints and water, including Mucky, Beam and Mortar as well as how-to's for plaster rendered walls, stone and brickwork that are easily adapted for use in 1:48, and yes, even 144th, as long as correct scale is observed. I found that the projects in each book can also be scaled down for 1:48 with minimal effort, if you remember to make the smaller pieces out of thinner materials. Substitute a lighter weight card or even a heavy matte printer paper used for brochures. I brush a thin coat of ModPodge matte finish or spray the card with acrylic matte finish on one side, or both if I think It needs it, before I cut out the pieces and if it still feels too squishable after it is built, I treat it again.
    Chris in Canada 🇨🇦

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    1. Thanks for the tip Chris! I'll see if I can get my hands on some copies! Xxx

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