Uncategorized - Doing It-Projects with CSBergman

Decorating the living room of a 1970’s style dollhouse

I decided to work on the living room of my 1970’s themed dollhouse. This house was basically gutted when I got it, so I am starting from scratch. I started out with a list of things I wanted in my 1970’s themed house, narrowed that list to what was actually do-able, and then decided on what projects for the house would be going in what rooms.

For the living room, i wanted a stone wall with a fireplace, wainscoting, and some authentic vintage wallpaper that we salvaged from my grandparents’ house before it was unfortunately torn down.

For the stone wall and fireplace, I first cut a piece of sturdy mat board to fit the wall it was going on. After double checking the fit, i attached the ready made fireplace that I chose for it.

Next I used mod podge to glue little pieces of torn off egg carton (the cardboard type) onto the wall, layering it to form a stone texture. Note- keep the printed side pointed against the wall so it won’t have to be painted over later).

Tear off pieces of cardboard egg carton to use for the stone texture

Layer the cardboard to form rough, rock-like texture, glueing it down and coating it with mod podge.

I glued little pieces of craft stick on the wall to form shelves before placing the egg cardboard.

When it was dry, I slid it into place on the wall of the dollhouse, made sure all fitted as it should and looked the way i wanted, and then glued it in place with just a dab of glue.

Next I cut another piece of mat board to fit another wall, and glued on a piece of my wallpaper. I cut pieces of popsicle stick and split dowels to create a pattern of wood for the bottom section of the wall, to form wainscoting.

I tinted the wood with thinned out paint so it looked like stain, and made a rail with a long split dowel.

I made sure it fit where i wanted and then glued it to the wall, then did the same for the other wall.

Eventually there will be trim along the ceiling, which will cover the little piece of old wallpaper peeking through.

I haven’t been able to decide on a floor color, so I have tried several different colors of “carpet.”

Brown shag. I was hoping this would be a similar shade to the wood of the floor, as I like the rich warm hues, but it seems a little washed out to me now. (This is part of an autumn themed fuzzy pillow from a thrift store)

Orange fuzzy (it’s the inside of an old sweatshirt, so it has that worn fuzzy carpet look to it 😆)

I also tried a puke yellow but it definitely didn’t look good with the wallpaper. I am thinking of sewing an orange trim around my flower rug, and i would love to reupholster my couch to something like the orange flower velvet I used to see all the time, but haven’t found a good material for that, yet. Any thoughts? Which carpet do YOU think would look best? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

How to make easy Halloween Gravestones for your yard

I decided this year to make some gravestones that we will set out in our yard for trick or treaters. I wanted something easy and inexpensive that I could do with my child.

We started out with big pieces of cardboard cut from old boxes.

I cut out the shapes I wanted with a box cutter, cutting 3 duplicate pieces per headstone, so I can make them thicker.

Next i glued the 3 pieces together. Then I used duct tape to seal off the edges of each stone, as I would like for them to last a while without falling apart or getting bugs inside.

After all of my stones are prepared, I need to paint them. I used Rustleum paints.

Next I used a stone texture paint.

I painted the backs completely with the stone textured paint, as I don’t plan on adding words to this side.

Adding some shadows to the back, over top of the stone texture.

I added a darker gray to the edges of the back so it looks more spooky and aged.

All of the backs done! Now I wait for the paint to dry completely before moving on to the fronts.

For the fronts I painted just the edges with textured paint so it is easier to write our words on.

After the front is completely dry it is time to add words. I chose to let my child paint the words on as a fun project. I wrote the words and she painted over them.

In order to make these gravestones stand up, I decided to make a base for them.

I took the folded flaps of the boxes I cut up.

I gave them a quick coat of paint. You can be more elaborate if you want, but I just put some stone texture on them so they look a bit like dirt.

I found some landscape staples that I had for my garden. These are really nice staples but you could use any kind.

I inserted the staple into the UNDERSIDE of the base, so that the pointed part is going to be coming up on top.

I inserted two staples on either side, so that the gravestone can be carefully pushed onto the staple. Keep a hard surface underneath so that the staple stays in place.

I gently pushed the gravestone so that the staple points go into the middle of the cardboard.

Now I have a more stable base to hold the stones upright! If it gets windy on Halloween, I can set a heavy stone on the base to hold the gravestone in place, or I can put some landscaping staples into the base to pin it to the ground.

How to Make Ghosts for Haunted Dollhouses and Halloween Decorations out of Glass Figurines

Finished ghosts with glow-in-the-dark paint on them.

I have been wanting to make some ghosts for a while to inhabit my antique church. My church is a little on the rough side, so making it a bit haunted seems reasonable (without, of course, altering or damaging my church in any way). Anyway, this is a solution I really like.

I started looking for clear glass figurines, and finally settled on a nativity set.

These figures worked out perfect! The base is a bit hollow, so a battery operated votive candle can be used, if desired, to light it up (the figure in the upper left corner is standing on a votive candle.)

These figures will fit well in my church, as they are about the right scale for the building, and also they look holy. I decided that, for my purposes, I wanted them to glow by themselves instead of having them elevated by sitting on candles. The candles would work fine if I had them in different settings, but I like using glow-in-the-dark paint.

The glow-in-the-dark paint I use is just a run of the mill crafting paint that can be found in the paint aisle of many craft supply stores. There are different brands and probably any brand will work. I bought mine from Walmart. I also used a darker paint for shadows; I believe I used payne’s gray acrylic.

I watered down the payne’s gray and put layers of paint in areas I want to be shaded, just to add more definition to the form, because otherwise the clear glass makes it hard to make out details. After the shadows, I put on thicker layers of the glowing paint in the raised areas like the head and hands, shoulders, sleeves, etc.

After painting the shadows and glowing highlights.

In order to make the figure glow, you need to hold it under a light, shine a flashlight on it, or just keep it in a well-lit place for a while to ‘charge’ it. The glow won’t last for very long before it needs recharging with a light source, but it is still fun.