Happy Halloween

Hello everybody! Happy Halloween!
Wow, it feels like forever since I last posted on my blog. I'm really sorry that I haven't updated for so long.
Hopefully that will be no more, I'm going to try my best to update more regularly.

As you probably remember from one of my previous posts I have slowed down with my progress on my Grosvenor Hall due to financial reasons. Well you'll be pleased to know that I have slowly started making progress again and I should hopefully be posting an update for the living room in the next couple of weeks.

One of the projects I have managed to complete recently is a Halloween dress for my Deeanna Doll. It's not brilliant but considering I designed and hand-stitched in a day I'm really pleased with the results.
I used a dark pink satin with a spider web chiffon overlay to create this dress and black satin ribbon for the neck ties and belt. At the moment it fastens in the back with snap fasteners but I will probably redo this at some point with a mini zip to give a polished look.

I have also started a Deviantart account and I have posted several drawings/paintings on there that I have completed. If anyone is interested in looking at my drawings the link is: http://dolphingazer.deviantart.com/
Any comments would be really appreciated.

Sorry again for the delay in posts and thank you to everyone who views my blog and comments.
Take care X

Dust Covers

Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. I usually post about my progress on my dolls house but I thought I would try posting something different. Recently I have been making dust covers for various machines that we own. Dust is usually one of the biggest problems when it comes to different machines breaking down.

So far I've made covers for my husband's PlayStation 3, xbox 360 and Apple iMac and for my Cricut Imagine and Cricut Expression. The reason for this post is I wanted to know if anyone would be interested in purchasing any of these covers. I can make them to order and I can do personal embroidery for them (names, brands, shapes, etc). The cost for the covers would depend on the individual requirements; I can make covers to specific sizes as well, all I would need is measurements. I can also make various die-cuts; I own at least 40 Cricut cartridges and numerous SVG files so I can make almost anything for anyone, again to personal requirements. I have been thinking about opening either a etsy, eBay or maybe even a Facebook shop to sell these, however I'm unsure whether I would get enough interest. I've posted some photos below showing what I have already made for myself and an example of the type of embroidery I can do (sorry for the poor quality). If anyone is interested please either comment or email me, I would love to hear your opinions.

Thank you again.

Take care x

Hello

Hi everyone! I hope you are well. Unfortunately this is just a little hello instead of a full post.
As you are all very aware dolls houses are very expensive hobbies (when you want them to be grand and realistic) and can take a long time to complete. For me the cost is a little too much as I would like so many beautiful (and expensive!) things to get the first floor completed by August. I'm not saying I'm giving up completely on my dolls house; not in the least. I would just really like to save some money up so I can buy exactly what I want instead of just opting for the cheaper option to get it finished quicker. Therefore my blog is going to be limited in the way of dolls houses and it will probably focus on my other crafts while I am saving. I will try and update as frequent as possible, but I can't make any promises.
I hope you can understand my situation (as most of you are probably in the same boat) and you will be patient with me.
If anyone has any good ideas about creating beautiful realistic houses on a budget please, please, please let me know, I'm all ears.

Thanks again and take care x

Living Room update

Hello everyone! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in nearly two months! Real life often gets in the way when all you want to do is your hobbies.
I have been busy with my Grosvenor, even though I haven't updated in so long. I've managed to finish my panelling for my living room and I glued the floor in place. All that's left for this room now is the ceiling, coving, light fixture, door and the chimney breast.
I'm still trying to decide what to do for my ceiling, I'm torn between leaving it plain with a large ceiling rose, ceiling paper or some type of moulding, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Overall I'm very happy with my panelling. It was made using thick card, thin strips of balsa wood, skirting board and dado rail. I painted everything with white gesso as I didn't want the panelling to look too shiny. The piece in the far corner behind the chimney breast is removable so I can access the wire for the fireplace if I need to; I want to hide all the wires behind walls and under floors if possible.
My next step is probably to work on the ceiling and coving, I'm thinking probably an egg and dart design. The doors will have a white surround and the doors will probably be the same colour as the stairs in my hallway.
It feels sometimes like I will never complete this dolls house but I'm slowly making progress. My intention is to complete the first floor (living room, hall and kitchen) by August at the latest so I can start on the next floor; which will be a drawing room/library, hall and dining room. Wish me luck; I'm going to need it!
Any advice or constructive criticism would be well received.
Sorry again for the delay in updates and thank you for looking.
Take care x

Grosvenor Hall Living room

Hi everyone! Hope you are all well. I know I haven't posted in nearly two weeks, again, and I'm really sorry. I've been rearranging my craft corner and it's taken a lot longer than expected and I'm still no where near finished. I'll have to remember to post a photo of my craft corner when it's finished.
Anyway back to my gorgeous Grosvenor Hall. Wallpapering time! Yeah! Or should I say boo, I hate wallpapering. I always end up with lumps and bumps or worse, ripping it. Luckily with the living room I wanted half wallpaper and half panelling so it made my job a little easier.
Before I even started wallpapering I had to think about the lighting. I really want lit fire baskets and I was concerned about how I was going to hide the wires. I finally decided that I would cut a section out of the chimney breast and make a small channel through the chimney breast towards the back of the house to thread the wire through, then I can hide the rest behind the skirting board/panelling as I had already done in my kitchen; still need to drill a hole in the back of the house for the wire to go through.
Once I had glued the chimney breast in position I marked in pencil on my walls how high I wanted to panelling to give me a guide on how much I needed to trim my wallpaper.























I trimmed the wallpaper down leaving about half a centimetre overlap on the bottom edge. Pasting the paper and the wall I carefully placed it in the room. I realised quite soon that I would probably not have enough wallpaper to finish the entire room so I decide to leave the chimney breast blank (I will probably add some sort of panelling later).
























I overlapped the wallpaper on the chimney breast and just over the front edge which I will cover with a wood strip when the house is finished to prevent the wallpaper coming away from the wall at the edges.
As you can see in the pictures I still need to trim the hole for the doorway, which I will do when it's completely dry. Overlapping the wallpaper and matching the pattern wasn't as difficult as I first suspected and overall I am quite pleased with my wallpapering.

I temporarily placed the flooring and the fireplace in the room to get an overall effect; so far so good I think. The picture above is of the lights I would like to use for this room with matching wall lights. But before I buy them I still need to make the panelling, finish the chimney breast, secure the floor in place and possibly wallpaper the ceiling. I also still need to decide on a coving I like. Too many decisions, not enough time or money, typical.
I hope you like what I am doing, feel free to comment, positive and negative comments are all gratefully received as I find them very helpful. Thank you again for taking time to look at my progress.

Bye for now.

Living room fireplace and spindles

Hello everyone.
Sorry for the delay, I can't believe I haven't posted in two weeks, bad me! I've just been really busy recently and I haven't had much time for my dolls house. I promise it won't happen again.

Anyway today I thought I would share with you my progress on the fireplace for my living room.
I listened to some suggestions from the lovely people on the dolls house emporium forum and I decided to use a marble effect for my fireplace. I have never painted a marble effect before so this was a real first for me. I started by painting my fireplace with a coat of white gesso and allowing it to dry before painting it with patches of different greys varying from a very light grey to almost black. With the darker colours I stippled the paint on to give it more of a texture.

white gesso

3rd coat of paint (white gesso)

2nd coat of paint (patches of grey)

As you can see from the pictures it did appear quite dark which was not the effect I wanted. So I gave the fireplace another coat of white gesso which brought it to a very light grey colour. All I need to do is add some veining and I think it will be complete. It's not brilliant and I know I can do better I just need to practice.

The next task I tackled was my spindles and the banisters. I used teak for the stairs, so I used this for the banisters. I used the picture of Mulvany and Rogers colonial dolls house stairs for my reference so I painted the spindles white.

I wanted to be able to paint the entire spindle in one go without it sticking to anything. I took a thick piece of card and I pushed metal pins through it to push the spindles on to. Once the spindles were secure on the pins I spray painted them with a Matt white.



I will probably wallpaper my living room before I finish making the stairs. I also need to make some panelling for the lower half of my living room and find  a suitable coving to give the room a elegant look. I'll probably install a chandelier in this room too but I'm not sure what kind yet.

Thank you again to the lovely people who view my blog and leave me comments. I do love hearing what you think it really does inspire me.

Grosvenor Living room floor

Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. I would just like to say thank to everyone who has left me a lovely comment and to my new followers.
I finally finished my living room floor! It's taken about two weeks to finish but I think it's worth it. I decided that I wanted a parquet floor for my living room but in one colour. I had the wonderful task of cutting out hundreds of wood pieces, thank goodness for my mitre shears, they are perfect for cutting angles. I was originally going to position the pieces in straight rows but my husband suggested placing them at an angle. I was dubious at first but when I saw how it looked I absolutely loved it! I tried to draw a guide but it didn't really work so I ended up "winging it". All the pieces were glued down with RC modellers craft glue; which set quite quickly.

When I had finished glueing all the pieces it was time to sand it down but unfortunately my mini sander wasn't working so I had to do it all by hand! All I can say is ahhhhhhh!!!!! It took forever and I couldn't get it perfectly flat, I had to take a break for a bit otherwise it would have been thrown across the room. I finally managed to get it as flat as I could before starting to stain it. I wanted a lightish colour so that I could still see all my hard work. But me being me I didn't test the colour first and I stained all my floor dark oak which was way too dark. Oh fun, out comes the nitromors and the plastic gloves. After two coats of nitromors and sanding down in between I managed to get to almost the bare wood but there were still patches of dark colour. There was no way I could use a light colour now. In the end I ended up buying an antique pine stain; which I tested in a small place of my floor first.



















Because of the dark oak that I had previously stained the floor with there are a few dark patches in places. I was a little worried about this at first but when I put the flooring in the house it didn't look too bad. I haven't glued the flooring down yet as I wanted to do the walls first. Hopefully once the wallpaper and furniture are in the room the patchy floor won't matter too much. Considering it is the first wood flooring I have ever done I don't think I've done too bad. I did struggle a bit with this so goodness knows how I'm going to do on my dining room floor; seeing as I would love to have a Versailles floor. I think I'll probably purchase the iron on flooring from Bromley Craft Products, it might make things a little easier for me.
I'm trying to decide between either panelling my living room or wallpapering it. I have got a gorgeous wallpaper from Karen's Dolls house Decor which I think would go lovely with the flooring, but I could leave it for a bedroom maybe, who knows, maybe.
I have chosen the fireplace for my living room, I'm either going to paint it white and paint the details in gold or maybe even give it a marble effect.

Well that's all for today, I hope you like what I'm doing. Any ideas or tips/techniques would be very much appreciated.
Thank you again to the lovely people who left comments and to my new followers I feel truly honoured that you are enjoying my blog.

Take care and bye for now.

Grosvenor main hallway stairs

Hello everyone. I thought I would share with you today my progress on my main entrance hall. I began by wallpapering before I installed the sub floor landing. Because I wanted the entrance hall to be light and airy I chose the soft vert aqua toile wallpaper from Dolls House Emporium which has a lovely mint green colour to it. I noticed when I positioned my stairs that there would be a large gap underneath the stairs and the landing which I didn't like the look of. I took to the web looking for ideas to "dispose" of this empty space and I came across Marie Wendts Grosvenor Hall blog on DHE where she had made a false wall to hide this gap. 

Marie Wendts blog:  http://www.dollshousecollectors.com/marie-wendts-grosvenor-hall/the-foyer-and-under-the-staircase/

I really love this idea so I took some wood (baring my mind I am rubbish at woodwork) and I cut a piece that would fit in the gap and go around the corner. I only had small bits of wood so I did have to glue some together. 

Next I needed to create a support underneath the stairs, so before doing that I varnish my stairs with a mixture of mahogany and teak to create a lovely warm colour, taking time to sand in between each coat. When the varnish was completely dry I began thinking about how to support my stairs as I was quite nervous about trying to cut the piece out with wood. So again I took to the web and happened to stumble upon the genius that is Giac over at http://englishmanordollhouse.blogspot.co.uk/ who used illustration board to make his supporting structures! I thought wow I can actually do that lol. I went and bought a pack of illustration board and tried to cut the piece out as accurately as possible before giving it two coats of acrylic gesso on the front and back as described in Giac's blog. It fit perfectly! 

 I was undecided as to whether I would want to wallpaper under the stairs or not. So for inspiration I browsed through my Georgian House Style book and noticed that traditionally under the stairs would have been panelled. 

For my panelling I began by measuring the size and angles that I would need and using a thin mount board I cut the pieces out. After giving them all two coats of acrylic gesso I glued them into position. (I even cut a little piece out for the gap at the bottom of the stairs). I gave everything another coat of gesso to fill in any gaps and placed my stairs into my hall to see how they looked. I'm very happy so far with how it's turned out; mainly because there is no more gap under the stairs. 

I won't glue my stairs into position until I have completed the spindles and bannister; which I will probably leave until I have finished the rest of the decorating. I have noticed looking at various photos of Georgian interiors that in that time period there were often two to three spindles per step which I really like the look of. Also in the "Magnificent Miniatures" book there is a Colonial house with a similar stairway to what I would like to create.

I really like the look of the stairs and the banister being the same colour and the spindles being white. Unfortunately with the Grosvenor hall kit you are only supplied with enough spindles to do one per step however by chance I managed to find ones that look very similar on eBay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170156750515?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

so I will probably buy a few packs of these and see how I go, but that probably won't be for a little while.

Next task the living room floor! I will probably do a parquet pattern; which I have heard can be difficult! I will let you know how I get on.


P.S Thank you for looking at my blog and for your lovely comments; they make me smile.

Grosvenor Hall Kitchen

Hello again, I'm back with another update. I thought I would post some photos of my almost finished kitchen. The wallpaper I decided to use was a blue delft tile embossed card; which has a similar effect to real tiles. I was originally going to use real tiles but I didn't want to lose too much of the size of the room and I felt that real tiles would make the walls too bulk; so the embossed card was a good substitute. 
The kitchen range is made by Hearth and Home Miniatures (Item KRB3F). I bought It a few years ago for £72; which is a lot of money but I really love the look of it, I installed a red bulb into the fire grate so when I finally wire everything up it should hopefully have a lovely warm glow. My husband bought the light recently for me because the light I originally intended to install didn't suit the final look of the kitchen.























As you can see in the photos the chimney breast was painted white but I wanted to add more life to it. I purchased gault coloured brick slips and grout from the Richard Stacey range and set to work creating a surround for my kitchen range. I measured my coving and my skirting board and left a space at the top and bottom of the surround so I can fit these at a later date. I left a small gap around the fireplace so I can remove it to access the wire for the light. I used a mixture of acrylic paints to slightly darken the bricks and the edge around the fireplace to give it a "used" look. When everything was completed I fixed the chimney breast to the wall with tacky wax so that it can be removed as well.
I love the look of my kitchen now it's almost finished, all that's left to decorate is to fit the skirting board and coving; which I will probably leave until I have completed the other rooms.

Grosvenor Hall Kitchen

Hello everyone. As you can see from the photos below I started on the flooring for my dollshouse. In the entrance hall I decided to use a Victorian black and white diamond laminate sheet because I thought it wouldn't be too overpowering. I really liked the idea of having a real stone floor for my kitchen, so I bought random square flagstones in Marl stone from Richard Stacey Miniatures. I cannot remember if I used four or five packs but it did take a while to arrange them in a pattern that would cover the entire floor. I cut a piece of cardboard the same shape as my fireplace so that when I grout the flooring it would go up against the edge of my fireplace. I also placed a piece of cardboard in the edge against the wall between the fireplace and the back of the house so I can run the electrical wire for the light along the grove and then hide it with the skirting board fixed in place with tacky wax.
























Next the messy bit of grouting. Once I had finished the grouting I positioned my fireplace into position and it fit perfectly! I really like the realistic look of the flooring now that I can see it finished.. I will probably leave the skirting board and coving until I have finished more rooms. I think the wall with the fireplace on looks too bare so I will probably do something with it; maybe purchase some brick slips to make it look as if it has a brick surround.

Grosvenor Hall doll house

In 2011 my wonderful husband bought me the Grosvenor Hall dolls house kit from eBay for my birthday. Since then I have completed a few things on it but unfortunately not as much as I would like to have completed.

In my opinion Grosvenor Hall is one of the most impressive doll houses that you can buy for not a lot of money. I've posted the link below that takes you to the Dolls House Emporium website, which includes information and photos of this gorgeous house.

http://www.dollshouse.com/dhe/product-dolls-house.aspx?house=grosvenor#features

When I finally opened my three boxes that contained the house the first thing I did was to prime everything with a 50/50 mixture of water and PVA glue to seal the wood. Then I painted all the walls and floors with white emulsion and started putting the house together. (sorry for the poor quality of the photos)

I knew from the moment I opened the box that this project was going to be time and money consuming, but so far I have enjoyed building this house. As soon as I have sort all my photos out I will be posting photos of my entrance hall and kitchen that are nearly completed. Bye for now! 

Pinterest

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I haven't posted since last month, I've been relly busy but I do hope to write more regular posts. Today's just a quick post to talk about Pinterest. I love pinterest a lot, I happened to stumble upon it a few months ago and now I have 39 boards and nearly 5,000 pins and counting. My boards range from costumes, doll outfits to dressmaking, doll houses and various DIY and crafts. I hope you will take a look and maybe even follow me and I will probably follow you too. I would love to know your opinions about pinterest; whether you love or hate it, (and to find out if you like my pinterest). Thanks.

My pinterest is: http://pinterest.com/dolphingazer86/

Singer Futura XL-550

Hi everyone, just thought I would let you know that the Singer Futura XL-550 is being sold by Create and Craft again. I think that it is a brilliant machine and as far as I'm aware Create and Craft is the only place in the UK that currently sells it. (Although they don't seem to sell it for long). If anyone has any questions about the machine don't hesitate to ask.

I have included the link below if anyone is interested in it.

http://www.createandcraft.tv/Singer_Futura_XL550_with_125_built-in_designs_and_
popular_fonts_for_monogramming_239176.aspx?fh_location=//createandcraft/en_GB/$s=Singer

Gene Marshall

The other day I was browsing one of my local charity shops and in the window I noticed a doll. I went into the shop to take a closer look and I was surprised to find out that it was a Gene Marshall doll with a dress and tights! Unfortunatly there was no price on her so I went up to the front desk to ask; thinking that they were probably going to say something along the lines of £20. Well imagine my surprise when they said she was £3! £3! I couldn't believe it, not for a dressed doll, so of course I payed for her and went home as quick as possible. I went online and found out she was the "Dance with me" Gene. So now my grand total of large fashion dolls is two; not many I know but my intention is to create outfits for them and maybe sell them (haven't decided yet).

Doll collecting

I wouldn't say that I was a doll collecter; seeing as I only have a few dolls. But I do love the idea of creating mini fashions for these beautiful dolls. For my birthday last year my wonderful husband bought me a gorgeous Deeanna Denton made by Tonner. I love the fact that she is curvy compared to other dolls, and seeing as I love the classic 30s,40s and 50s looks she is probably the perfect doll for me. She did not come with the original outfit but she did come with many other outfits as my husband purchased her from eBay from Sister Mary Joseph's Doll Bazaar. Although she did come with some outfits she didn't have any underwear! So the first thing I made for her was a lace slip; which was made with a piece of white scalloped edged lace with one hand stitched seam that is at the back.

 

The second garment I made for her was a black and white polka dot, 1950s inspired halter dress with a full circle skirt. I wanted it to fasten with a zipper at the back, but unfortunately the zipper I chose to use was unsuitable for her size; which caused slight fraying at the back of the dress (hence there is no picture of the back of the dress). I fully lined the dress in a white cotton because I have heard dark colours can stain the dolls. I feel that for my first attempt it wasn't terrible but there are a few things I would change, such as the right type of zipper for the dress and possibly a lower neckline (after all she is a curvy girl and this needs to be shown off).

The gloves, shoes and jewelry came with the doll. I did make the belt though using a small buckle and a strip of faux leather attached at the back with a snap fastener.

I have so many ideas for different outfits, I just need to practice to be able to make them.