Miniature Christmas Tree Tutorial - 1/12 scale dollhouse and Calico Critters

 

I found this tutorial several years ago - I can't remember who originally did this, unfortunately, so I can't credit the source. This tutorial is my take on the original one that I found online. 

Supplies needed:

* 1/8 or 3/8" round dowel or skewers (If you do not have round skewers, there are other options. You can use a square dowel. On starting this project, I couldn't find my skewers. So I simply cut 2 strips of a popsicle stick  at 3/8" wide and stuck them together. No glue necessary, as it'll be wrapped with the pipe cleaners.)

*Package of pipe cleaners - the style and color is up to you! How many is also up to the size and fullness of the tree you choose to make. For my project, I used around 10 or so, so make sure you have plenty on hand in case of mistakes. 

*Scissors to cut the pipe cleaner and dowel, or if needed, a small saw to saw the dowel/skewer (scissors have always worked for me.)

*A base for your tree - you can use those small wooden unpainted pots or you can cut up popsicle sticks and make your own square base

Step One:

Measure the space you intend to put your tree. This is important as the first tree I ever made was actually too tall and wide for the intended space. It bummed me out as that is still the best tree I have ever made! Write down the height you will need for your completed tree, keeping in mind both the base and a potential tree topper. Also write down the width you will need - you can make the tree as narrow or as full as you want to!

My Project measurements: Height 4 1/2"  Width 2 1/2"

Step Two: Cut your dowel about 1 1/2" shorter than your full intended height. This will include the end that will be glued down into your base.

My Project measurement of dowel: 3"  (tree will be 4 1/2")

Step Three:

This is where the fun begins! You will start at the end of your dowel - this will be the bottom edge of your tree. Take a pipe cleaner and neatly wrap the dowel all the way up - don't overlap the pipe cleaner and make sure the wraps are closely together, without any gaps. Leave any length left over from wrapping hanging lose. You will need that later. With mine, the remaining bit of pipe cleaner ended up being the exact length that I needed - 4 1/2" tall.

Step Four:

Now comes the branches! Calculate how much space you will need at the bottom for the pipe cleaner wrapped dowel to go into your base. You don't want to start the branches too soon and not have enough space for the dowel to go into the base. I intended to start adding the branches 1" from the bottom, but I ended up leaving only about 3/4" length to go into the base. I'll make it work. 

Remember, you are starting at the bottom and going up!

Now, keeping in mind the width you have measured out for the fullness you want for your tree, you will take a pipe cleaner and cut it 3/4" wider than your intended fullness. My tree will be 2 1/2" wide, therefor I cut 3 pieces of pipe cleaner 3 1/4" long.

Once you cut your pipe cleaner (from here on out, this will be called PC) wrap it around the dowel centering the piece in order to form 2 branches on either side. Only wrap the PC once - it isn't necessary to wrap it more than once and you don't want it bulky. Add the 2 and 3rd piece in the same manner, putting each one directly above the previous one. Don't stack them.

Step Five:

Creating the detail on the branches. This is where is gets really fun! First cut 6 1 1/2"  pieces of PC. Twist each one about 1/2" from the end of each of the branches you just made. This gives your tree a look of realism.

Step 6: This is your second row of branches. Do this exactly how you did your first row. 3 pieces of PC 3 1/4" long. Twist these around your dowel, about 1/4 - 1/3" above your last row. 

Once you have created 6 more branches, add the branch detailing in the same way. 6 pieces of 1 1/2" pieces of PC twisted 1/2" from the end of your branches.

Step Seven: Now you are adding your 3rd row of branches. These need to be 1/4" narrower than the bottom 2 rows. Cut 3 pieces of PC 3" long. Add them the same way, and then put the detailing on with 6 pieces of PC cut at 1 1/2", one on each of your branches.

Step Eight: Row 4 is exactly the same. 3 pieces cut to 3." Again, cut 6 pieces at 1 1/2" to add the detailing. This is LAST row to have 3 pieces of PC making 6 branches. 

Step Nine: Before we add any more rows of branches, we need to address the top section of the tree. Remember how you left the remaining bit of PC hanging after wrapping your dowel? We need to reinforce this with an additional piece of PC in order to make it strong enough to hold the branches.  

Take your additional PC and twist it into place at the very end of the dowel, right before the remaining piece hangs off. Twist it around all the way to the end of the dangling piece of PC, and then cut off the extra. Now it's strong enough to hold the branches that you will be adding!

 With my above example, the height of the dangling piece of PC that I just reinforced gave me the full intended 4 1/2." You might need to add more height, and if you need to, you will do so when you are reinforcing the dangling PC. My example here will be if you need to add another half an inch. Go through the steps exactly as I outlined above, but do NOT cut the additional piece of PC that you are reinforcing the dangling PC with once you reach the end of it (the dangling piece.) You need to go a half an inch BEYOND where it ends. Once you do that, bend your PC at that half inch point and then begin twisting it, going all the way back down to dowel, twisting this piece all the way back down and securing it back onto the dowel. Cut off any extra.

Step 10: This will be your 5th row of branches. Cut 2 pieces of PC at 2 3/4." You will only be twisting these pieces around your dowel to make 4 branches. Then cut the 4 pieces of branch detailing at 1."

Step 11: This is your final row. Cut 2 pieces at 2" and twist them around to make your final 4 branches. Add the 4 pieces of branch detailing cut at 1."

And you are done!

Once you are done, you will most likely need to "straighten up" your branches. You might need to pull a branch here and there a little to the side to make them lie more uniform. I also like to curl my branches up just a little bit, just like I would do setting up my real life fake Christmas tree. :) 

As you follow along the instructions, keep a watch to make sure the spacing works well for the tree height you are making. If you make your tree any taller, you might need to add more rows of branches. If you make your's shorter than 4 1/2" tall, you won't need as many rows.

This is a simple and quite fun project that you can modify for whatever tree project you might have in mind! You can make Christmas trees, you can make Halloween trees, Easter trees....Whatever you can imagine!

Reworking my entire plan for my dollhouses

 I've been really focusing on getting my the plans for my dollhouses and getting things settled this week. On Saturday I decided that since my goal is to build Halloweentown in the limited space that I have for it, it would be wise to go back through what I presently have, what characters I want to focus on, which houses I would like to purchase for future projects, etc. I ended up - after seeing the fact that the Aster Cottage was sold out on Greenleaf (how long it had been that way, I really have no idea) to check eBay. There were 3 for sale with varying prices. I bought on for $50 plus shipping! It should be here by the end of the week

The Aster Cottage will be for my dear old character, Mathilda Magpie. After securing her home, I got to really thinking about which characters that I wanted to work on things for and it boiled down to these:

Mathilda Magpie; Bartevious the Pumpkinhead (and his twin who I have never ever named); Lester, the jovial orange furry monster, unknowingly the nemesis of Mathilda; and Lynus, the Mummy who owns the One Stop Shop...Literally. That's 4 characters (plus 1 twin.) After thinking it out, rearranging things here and there I realized with utter glee - I could have houses for all of them and their business!

I cut the character I came up with for the Orchid as he wasn't one of my original 2013 crew. I reassigned my feisty house to being Lester's. I decided one of my Buttercup's would be for him and why couldn't he be my baker? Perfect!

Mathilda's house was one I always had a specific, albeit it undefined (yes, those 2 can coexist perfectly together) vision for, and the Aster Cottage just screamed her. So with that on the way, I moved my other Buttercup to her quilt shop, Magpie's Nest. 

I had intended my Real Good Toys Peaches and Cream for the Pumpkinhead twins, but the third story always baffled me as I couldn't figure out what to do with all those rooms. (I prefer small dollhouses.) It suddenly clicked into place as I was re-tooling my vision for Lynus. I decided that I didn't really want to do a general store. Instead, he can run a breakfast/lunch buffet with a coffee bar. I needed a 3 story house for him so he could have the bottom floor be the restaurant, the middle story a huge kitchen and personal living room, with the attic space being his bedroom. Well, the Peaches and Cream is perfect for this! So then I gave Lynus a brother named Eye-gor, and together they run the One Stop Food Shop...Literally. 

With the pumpkinheads being moved out of the Peaches and Cream, the best option for them was my Duracraft Brookfield. I had originally intended to use that as a Dragon Laire for my tiny resin dragon BJDs, but with space this limited, it didn't make sense to really pursue that. Now it is the home for my Pumpkinhead twins. The 2 story 4 room home is exactly what I wanted for them. Now, what about their businesses?

Back in 2013 one of the first dollhouses I got and put together was the cute little Primrose. I had originally intended Bartevious to run a toy shop. I missed having one, so I decided I would go ahead and order one. Only this time, I wanted to make it a Jack O Lantern shop for Bartevious' twin. For Bartevious' store, I decided that the Adams would be perfect. Nice and small! (And cheap!!) But what would be his store? My original plan for a toy shop made no sense, really, as in my Halloweentown there are no children. So what would he have? At the moment, I am thinking book shop. It's a WIP though.

So, to summarize, my main original cast of characters will all have their homes and their businesses. And I can fit them all in my space, with some creative maneuvering. Thank goodness I prefer the little kits, ha ha!  This is a truly satisfying feeling. I had always dreamed of this happening, and now I can finally have them and their homes/stores in the flesh. Now I need to update my Dollhouse page!

My latest Flea Market find...

 I really wasn't looking for another dollhouse, at least at a conscience level. I'm so happy with my 4 houses and I am technically *technically* out of space for any more. But.....

I found this guy at the Flea Market today for a mere $20.  I later found out is the Duracraft Brookfield. When I saw it and the price, I grabbed it and started off towards the check out counter before realizing a second later that I hadn't even looked at the inside to make sure that I like it! I did, so home it came with me.

 It's a little worse for wear. It needs a good airing out, as you can tell by the smell that it has been in storage for a long time. The outside is painted, as are the window trimmings/flowers boxes, etc. The door is glued in place, so it doesn't open. The shingles are a little beat up, though honestly, I love that they look worn. So to me, they are perfect.

When I originally carried the house out to the car, it had a room divider in both the upstairs and the down stairs. While I was eating dinner, I was wishing that I could simply remove that bottom divider, to go with the design concept that was coming together in my head. When I looked back at the house after dinner, the top room divider was partially out and the bottom room divider had somehow fallen out completely and ended up in one of the bags (how and when??) So, that work was already done for me! And that's when I really looked at the construction of the house. And let's just say, it has some issues. I'm not sure who put this together or how long ago, but it's starting to come apart. The trim has already shed 2 pieces just from the drive home. I'm afraid that it was put together with hot glue. :/ I've heard it recommended that if a house has been put together in such a way that you take it apart and glue it back together with wood glue. I'm honestly afraid to do that as I don't want to mess up the shingles in the process of taking the house apart. I really think that it would damage them, so I'm thinking maybe the next best thing would be to simply reinforce the pieces with wood glue. 

The door is going to be removed, and I am going to custom make a door to replace it. I already have the vision of how I want it to look. The window trimmings I need to take off as some are very crooked on the inside. And, I just don't like them. The windows like the door are curved at the top, so I will really need to re-use the original trimmings, so I will have to be extremely careful in the removal process. And if something messes up, well...I'll just have to get creative.

My plan for this house is to do what my very first original plan was when I got back into the hobby a few months ago. And that is the Tudor Lair for my dragons. I am getting my second resin bjd Dragon out of layaway tonight, so I should have him home next week. The dragons are technically just a bit too big for the scale, BUT this house has very high ceilings. So I think it'll work. Fingers crossed that it'll work. I'll get my one dragon out tonight and put him inside to see how it works.

The good thing is that with the Tudor concept, stucco for both the outside and inside of the houses will cover any potential surface flaws that I am liable to run into in this house restoration project. I just wish that I can start on it soon! I had started working on my actual house with prepping the bedroom walls for painting, which is having to be done in sections. All of this work includes sanding the walls, taping and mudding under where the strips were and then finally, priming and painting. It's going to take a few days before I am finished taping and mudding one part pf the room, and until that's done and we can start loading some stuff back into that room, the dollhouse room isn't usable with all that stuff in the way. Ah, life with projects! :D

First Project has begun! Greenleaf Orchid

 This all happened a few weeks back, so I will try and recapture how it all went down.

When I was gifted the Orchid, it had all been punched out already and sanded, so I was saved that bit of work. It was sometime around 10 or so at night when I decided to glue it together and finally see it standing! I had already spent a great deal of time debating as to how to do the outside of it. I had settled on going Tudor with it, and so I was most excited to get it together and see it that idea actually fit the personality of the house.

I had in previous times put together an Orchid. I didn't remember it as being very difficult and got it together myself with no problems and very little drama. This one? The opposite! I had to take an Xacto knife and whittle out the holes for the wall tabs. I don't think that that is abnormal for these kits, but I hadn't expected to have to carve out as many as I did. That part wasn't the problem. I could not get the house to actually stay together once I put the glue on the edges and taped it. And I really taped it! It was like something would reach out and knock a wall over. I had to have help and finally took the advice of putting a little dab of low temp hot glue underneath the house and  over the outside of the secured tabs. It worked beautifully and in a flash, my stubborn little house was together. 

Little did I know, but this was the first unveiling of my house's personality. It has some spunk, to say the least! 

Once I had it together, even with the glue still drying, I was able to start to get the feel of what the house seemed to want with itself. I had forgotten just how spacious the inside of the Orchid is. While it technically a small house, to me, it's really an ideal size. I know some people prefer the bigger houses. I share my dollhouse space with a family member, and so therefore, I share my dollhouse space with the Realgood Toys Newport. It is a beautiful house, but honestly? I wouldn't want it. It's just too big for me. I prefer my little Greenleaf houses. :) Now, back to my Orchid.

After a huge amount of debating, going back and forth, see sawing like crazy, thinking about it while trying to go to sleep at night, I finally decided on what the Orchid wanted. I nixed the Tudor idea. I'll keep that thought for another house, but my Orchid definitely did not want that. It wanted to have wood siding, painted black. I adore that look! Think famous Salem Witch house. :D We had some bags of those little thin wooden sticks that you can get at Walmart which are perfect for this!

Even though I taped the sides "securely," both of the outside walls still managed to have a gap where they are supposed to butt up against the back. about 2 or so inches from the bottom. Annoying, but hideable. And if after what I think will hide it doesn't, I can come up with an amusing story to explain the flaws. To begin adding the siding, I started on the side that doesn't have the bay window. I carefully measured and marked the center, and drew a line in pencil all the way up. This way I have a guide line so that I can center the sticks and keep a neat pattern all the way up.  My attempt to hide the gaps is to just cut the sticks along that edge longer as needed to cover it up. So far, so good, but we will see eventually the end result!

It's not a fast going process, but it is one of the most relaxing and soul soothing activities. 2 hours can pass and feel like 20 minutes! I'm just taking my time, gluing on one stick, fitting and marking the next piece and so forth. I'm not sure how long it will take to finish it - probably a couple more weeks depending on how much time I can give to the process. 

I absolutely love how it is looking! It's so perfect, and even better than I expected it to look. I never thought I could love a dollhouse this much, nor did I ever think a house could have such a defined personality and presence. It's got as much of both as the characters I have created for the story! It's been a few days since I have been able to work on it, and I miss it!