Sunday 16 January 2011

Cricket Hollow continues.....

I have been happily working away on Cricket Hollow and loving every minute of it. This is the perfect miniature project. A truly unique and fascinating way of putting a building together and a great opportunity to mess about with paint effects. As to how much fun I am going to have filling it, well you will have to wait and see!
The windows are in, one in the front and one in the side. The glass is actually glass - which makes it feel so real. There are mullions to go across the windows but I am waiting until I am further on as I can't decide what to do with them as I really want to be able too look in clearly. The logs sticking out at the front are the porch support beams.
Here is a photo of the inside. The beams are in and ready for the upstairs floor to go in. As you can see all the pieces are so clearly labelled, I don't want to imagine how long this takes for each kit but it certainly makes the putting together a complete dream.
This is a view of the side window. Also you can see how perfectly all the logs cris-cross over each other.
Another view of the back.
This is taken from above to show porch support beams and the porch posts in place.

I decided that now was the time to do some painting. In the instructions it gives a very clear description of how to use India ink and rubbing alcohol to weather the logs but I wanted to have a go with just the paints that I had to hand. Firstly I gave the whole building a very rough coat of light brown.

Here is a close up so that you can see the colour and the coverage.

I then went over it all again with a medium grey. I dry brushed it on and then wiped it off. I made sure that some parts were missed altogether and some parts had a heavier coverage.

This is a close up of the edges where I tried to give a more heavily weathered look to accentuate the way the logs are placed as I really love this part of the design. I absolutely love messing about with paint effects. Once this layer is dry I am going to do a little extra with a lighter shade of grey.
I gave the inside of the building two coats of white. It recommends white in the instructions so that Annies quilts are shown off to their best.

I love the way that it looks so rustic - with the log edges showing through the paint.


The other project that is sat on my craft table at the moment is a 48th scale Baby House. My friend Rita was kind enough to pass it my way when she realised how bad my Baby House addiction had become! With it being such a bare kit I thought it would be good to have some fun with the design. I am planning lots of collage probably with a vintage botanical print theme.
But here is the basic Baby House so far. The top and bottom half are not glued together yet and the doors are just propped against it.


Here is a photo of the insides.

These are the legs that came with it.


Lots on the go at the moment. Numerous miniature projects, knitting projects and quilting projects are all being worked on at once. Never a dull moment but that's how I like it.

2 comments:

Sandra said...

You certainly have been busy with all your projects. Cricket Hollow is coming along beautifully. I love this kit, and you are doing such a great job of making it up!!! I'm looking forward to more progress photos.

And the QS baby house is going to be a lovely project too - who puts that kit out? What are the measurement?

The Pin Factory said...

Sandra - sorry it has taken me a while this time to get round to replying to comments! The QS Baby House was one from a while ago that someone has passed onto me. I don't think that it is available anymore. I will try and remember to measure it and I will email you.
Thanks as always Sandra
Claire x