Month: April 2018

The Mouse House attic rooms in the top of the cabinet (behind the rounded windows) must be inserted first as there’s no way to get them in if the rooms directly below are in place.

Since wiring for electricity is an important next step, I decided I’d better start with the attic first. The room on the left will be a “Grandma’s attic” where I can display fun stuff in storage, but I decided to make the right attic room in a teenagers’ hangout.

The curved ceilings for both rooms were not hard to make. I simply scored the foam board every inch so it could be curved. I finished this ceiling with the quilt batting technique I used in the basement, and added ceiling beams.

 

I covered the storage room walls with a couple of layers of old wallpaper but chose an urban-look grid for the teenage hangout. I then aged everything with antiquing ink. I also wired the hangout with WORKING Christmas lights. (I’m very excited about these! )

 

Since I have to do most of the decorating in these rooms now while it is easier to reach them, I have gone to town in the teen room. I’ve added rock posters (printed on my computer, protected with both an acrylic spray and Mod-Podge) and hanging pennants. I framed a graffiti print that was on a card friends gave me awhile ago and hung that up as well.

 

I’ve also added a crate, tie-dye rug and some junk food, as well as throw pillows, books and a couple of albums.

Another fun thing I made for the room was a small guitar amplifier. I built a box and glued a silver, painted checker on the false back to serve as a speaker.

 

I covered this with a framed screen then added snaps to the top for the dials and a leather piece for the handle. With a cord inserted into the top, I think it looks great next to the red electric guitar I “borrowed” from our son Ben’s box of Christmas ornaments.

I know myself, so I know none of the rooms will ever be done, but I’m going to move on for now. Here’s what it looks like:

And here are a couple of pictures so you can see how small it all is. Note the penny on the pillow, the ruler, and my monster hand.

 

p.s. I already have an idea as to how I’ll make a lava lamp to put in the corner…and comic books…maybe a PlayStation…

 

 

 

 

…and send me the cartons!

I’ve been negligent in posting primarily because I’m not used to photographing my work in progress. However, I have been working diligently and loving every minute of it.

The egg cartons are needed for the outside of the room boxes. After debating how to “finish” these (bricks, stone, wood?) I have decided to “make” tree bark and attach that as it will give a quick suggestion that the mice live in a tree. This is what the boxes look like, unfinished, inside the cabinet:

Before I made the first batch of bark, I first had to decide how to finish the outside of the windows.  Since I had previously inserted them from the inside, the exposed edges were rough and ugly. I turned to my beloved, air-drying Paperclay, a great sculpting material, and applied it around each window. When dry, I painted the clay dark brown.

Then I made my bark. This took some trial and error, but after several sample pieces were made, I used about 10 egg cartons to make one batch. First, I tore up the cartons and soaked them in water. I then puréed them in our blender (don’t tell Andy!) and squeezed out some of the water so I had thick pulp. Then I rolled it out on a towel so it was about 1/4″ thick.

 

 

When this was dry (which took almost a week!) I tore it into large pieces and glued them in a staggered manner around each window until I’d covered the side of the box. 

Finally, I painted it with various colors of brown, tan and black and dusted it with green and red pastel chalk.

 

I’m happy with the way it now looks. However, I have a lot more bark to make and I’m getting pretty sick of eggs–so feel free to drop off any cartons you have on my front porch!