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Despite some major conflicts (I’m taking an online illustration class and it’s gardening season!) I have been able to squeeze in time for the Mouse House as well. The next area to reveal is the music room.

Here is the “before” picture of the room:

And here is the completed room:

Just like the books in the library, I made lots of record album covers and records for this room. I copied the covers from the internet, shrunk them to size, and then covered them with packing tape for glossy protection.

I made the actual LPs by cutting circles from a large plastic tub of spinach, then spray painting them on one side with black glossy paint. Once dry, I scratched grooves in the paint with a pin, used a hole punch to cut the center hole, then attached a label.

I also made a lot of music books for the shelves and piano. Again, images are prolific on the internet so I printed the covers and made them just as I constructed the reading books in the library, using resized music as the inside pages.

The stereo cabinet and stereo equipment were fun to make. I “bashed” a dresser I already had by taking off the door and drawers and removing a shelf.

The turntable is essentially a block of wood with snaps for the knobs; a button and snap for the turntable; a small strip of wood for the arm; and a teeny tiny pin inserted into the wood to make the needle. I’m especially proud of the rotating arm!

The Mouse House turntable.

The receiver was made with another small block of wood, a snap and a small section of chain I cut and glued to the front as buttons. I made the speakers with wood and pieces of weird, hard felt stuff that Andy had laying around from his work.

Once I loaded the albums on the shelves of the dresser (painted red) and placed the turntable and receiver on the top, I thought it looked just fine as a small stereo cabinet.

I also printed and framed several mouse-music related images for the walls, which were easier to find than I could ever imagine. (Actually, some of these pictures are rats, but shrunk to size I think they are close enough!)

Finally, I made a music stand and trumpet mute. These had to be accurate since my oldest son is a professional trumpet player! I took a broken plant stand from my garage sale acquired dollhouse accessories and spray painted it black. I made the top part with half of a plastic lid with the top of a scrapbook tape dispenser glued to the back. Once spray painted and glued to the stand it looked just like the heavy stands Zack uses for practice/gigs.

The mute was a wooden game piece painted silver with tiny strips of twine glued to the sides to simulate the protective cork.

The musical instruments, piano, French horn and trumpet were all items I’ve purchased at sales over the last few years. I also have a violin and bow that I may add at a later date. For now, I think the room is complete.

The area I just tackled in the Mouse House was the “children’s” bedroom. Here’s a shot of the basic room after I finished the electrical wiring. I added a loft to increase the space just like I did in the Master Bedroom/Nursery.

And here is a photo of the completed room:

I started by building the bunk beds. I knew I’d need a lot of sleeping areas (they are “prolific” mice, after all!) so I decided to build four beds on the back wall. I built four frames then attached them to a primitive ladder I constructed out of balsa wood.

I then tackled the mattresses. I know it is ridiculous to make things that aren’t even visible in the Mouse House, but for some reason I wanted the bedding to be completely authentic. While the sheets, pillowcases, pillows and quilts were actually pretty straightforward, making the mattresses was a true war.

The complication was the mattress “filling”. Once again I didn’t want to head to the store for foam padding, a decision that in retrospect would have been much easier. Instead, I decided to fill them with the teeny tiny styrofoam-like micro beads I found in the bean bag pillow in my son’s room. (He’s gone–grown up and with his own place. Slicing open his pillow seems justified to me!) Anyway–those little balls went EVERYWHERE! And the stuck to EVERYTHING! It was quite the mess.

Sooo….after quickly learning that this project required precision, a steady hand, a funnel and then a lot of vacuuming, I got to work and made four mini mattresses for the beds. I was sure to add a warning label. I am not kidding–removing the tag could result in a disastrous situation and my new law is to never, ever risk those things tearing open!

Once the beds and bedding were in place, I concentrated on the loft area. I inserted a desk, painted chairs that I already owned, and made desk supplies including notebooks, markers, a bulletin board, posters, a bottle of glue (out of a cut end of a pipette.) I also made a new lamp with the cap of an empty tube.

The “school project-like” solar system mobile took me longer than anyone ever spent on their homework. I hung it under the loft next to a space poster and a telescope set up in front of the bookcases.

Other details included mini-flashlights I made for the mice to have nearby when they want to read in bed. The first one I made with with the bottom of a pen, while I used colored straws for the three subsequent flashlights.

I also selected “posters” to hang above each bed–all with different themes. They are hard to see, but the top bed has musicians; the green bed has dancers; the blue bed has sports posters; and the bottom bed has car and motorcycle pictures.

The final architectural touches included a railing around the loft, strung with Christmas lights. I also added the fire pole for quick access from the loft.

Here are more photos of the completed room:

Here is a picture I took quite a while ago of the space for the master bedroom and the nursery in the Mouse House cabinet:

This area has been challenging. Initially I planned on putting the nursery in the loft that extends from the back wall. I pictured three cribs lined up in a row with cute Beatrix Potter prints on the walls. That would have left lots of room below for the master bedroom and all the items that might require (large bed, wardrobe, nightstands, etc.) However, after thinking about the reality of mice (and humans!), I realized I needed more space for the nursery and the “parents” would just have to make do!

After months of work deciding what to make and where it should go, here are photos of the space now:

As I’ve noted before, most of the wallpaper I’ve used throughout the house is scrapbook paper. That was my default choice, as dollhouse wallpaper sold in stores is limited and generally too traditional for me. Instead, I planned to print the wallpaper myself from patterns I found and liked on the internet, resizing it to scale, but after reading more about how to do it, I was wary of the quality of my printer ink and didn’t want to risk having it yellow or fade too prematurely. So, shopping I went, mostly to Scrappy Chic, a wonderful store near me. Of course, this was pre-pandemic!

The flowered paper I found for the master bedroom takes me right back to my childhood: here is a picture of my bedroom a few (!!) years ago and me taking one of the millions of naps I’ve had so far in my life:

There are several items to document in this blog. First of all, the bedding. I made all of it, including the quilts on the large bed as well as the one hanging over the crib (using bias tape and ribbon for the fabric strips) and the sheets and pillowcases (I used a vintage handkerchief for those).

I also made a shelf for the master bedroom loft out of a piece of molding and added books as well as a photograph of a mouse from the internet that I framed and covered in resin.

I formed hooks with wire and beads and installed it on the wall behind the boxes in front of the red laundry chute in the corner.

There are smaller boxes of diapers and more books stored on the bookcase shelves with folded clothes and bedding. There are also books and toys under the bed.

Moving “downstairs” I painted the crib and changing table, and constructed the diaper pail/trash can with a lid from a can of hairspray painted white with a black button lid and a tiny wood foot pedal. I made the nightlight with a broken globe that was just the right size to fit in a miniature lightbulb–with the broken part turned to the wall, no one will know that it’s missing a fragment of plastic! I also made the books and the prints with images on the web, sewed the mattresses and bedding for the cribs, and made a tiny sign for the laundry chute door..

And now for the surprise! I made the mobile above the crib with Shrinky Dink plastic, drawing stars and suns on the plastic and shrinking them in the oven. I then attached these little charms to a gear that fit perfectly on to a wind-up music box I had in my stash.

I cut a hole in the floor of the loft and inserted the music box, attached the gear on the ceiling side of the nursery, and hid the entire contraption with the large diaper and wipe boxes in the master bedroom.

SURPRISE!! I can lift the boxes, wind-up the music box, and the gear rotates the charms on the mobile as it plays “You Are My Sunshine”!

NOTE: I so want to include a video of this here, but I guess I have to “upgrade” my plan to put a video on this blog. Just sing as you read this and imagine the mobile turning slowly above the crib.

If we were not in the middle of this Covid-19 pandemic, I would try to figure out how to motorize this mobile electronically. I think it would be fairly easy, but I don’t want to go to the hobby/model stores and spend a lot of time with others learning how to do it. Maybe I’ll motorize my next house (!?!!)

I wrote about all of the books I’ve made for the Mouse House in a previous post, so now I’d like to share where the majority of them will be displayed: the library. Here’s a picture of the room fairly empty:

And here are pictures of the library as it looks now:

I am really happy with how this room is coming together. Stay tuned as I’m sure I’ll be tweaking it over the next few months!

It’s been snowy and cold and Andy has been completely bedridden due to back spasms. As he’s slept, I’ve finished several key items for the Mouse House and consequently completed four rooms in the last week. I have a lot to blog!

The playroom is a “short” room, tucked above the dining room and below the nursery.

I had already wallpapered the room with copies of miniature, vintage newspapers, in homage to an old abandoned house Andy and I explored years ago in the Appalachian Mountains. I was fascinated by the newspapers glued to the wall that helped prevent drafts so I used that idea here. The floor in the playroom is built with shims I found in our workshop. The maroon tube in the back is part of the laundry chute which extends five floors–from the master bedroom down to the laundry room.

Here is the playroom now:

The room includes children’s books I made as well as game boxes I printed from images on the internet. The playmat with the road and railroad tracks is also a picture I found and printed on fabric. With a great blast from the past, I made the hanging banner with Shrinky Dinks, the plastic sheets that can be drawn on and then shrunk in the oven. The toys were found at various garage sales, including the awesome Lincoln Log set that was part of a $5 bundle. Score!

My favorite part of the playroom is the television I made to light up when the power is on. Just like the rest of the Mouse House, there is no set time period, so I decided to make an old-fashioned tv just like the one we had when I was growing-up (except we didn’t get a color tv until I was in college)!).

I used various items around my studio to construct it, including plastic from a small container, a cardboard jewelry box, wood, snaps, wire and aluminum foil.

Essentially I made a box with a plastic window and inserted two more pieces of plastic behind that. I wanted the test pattern to be invisible when the power is off, so I put opaque plastic over the piece I colored to hide it as much as I could. The rear of the tv is the bottom of a cardboard box with a hole cut into it. When I put the television in the playroom, I wired a lightbulb and stuck that into the hole in the box so the tv lights up when the power is on.

Follow my blog and stay tuned–there are more rooms to come!

I have been as busy as ever building the Mouse House but because I tend to jump from room to room, I can’t share finished spaces as I have the last few posts.

A lot of my time has been focused on making books. I want them to be in every room so I need hundreds of them. Most of them have actual pages inside; some even have pictures and print. The process is tedious, but I like the realism.

Here are some samples:

A lot of artists make miniature books with a cover glued over a piece of wood or cardboard, but because I want real pages in most of mine, I developed a way to do several at once.

First I stack narrow strips of paper on top of strip of card stock. I then sew these pages together vertically down the middle of the stacked strips. Books that have thinner spines I use a straight stitch on my sewing machine while thicker spines get two stitching lines or a zig zag stitch down the middle.

Then I fold the strip vertically with the card stock on the outside:

The third step is to print out book covers from the internet. These can be hard to find as I want images with the front and back covers as well as the spine. Pinterest has been a helpful source, especially with vintage book covers. I resize these images, print them out on my Epson printer, and spray them with hairspray to set the ink. Then I cut them out and score the fold line along the spine.

Once I have several cut out covers, I glue them on the strip of cardstock/paper with the spine of the book on the stitching line:

Finally, I cut these apart and trim all of the edges to size. If it’s a vintage book, I frequently sand the edges of the spine and then “antique” them with a bit of diluted paint or scrapbooking stain.

I’ve made lots of children’s books:

And lots of books for the older reader as well:

I’ve finally made enough of them to fill the bookcase I built for the library; that room should be completed, soon!

Uh oh–a little mouse opened the washing machine door before the laundry was done!

I knew I wanted to have simulated water in at least one room of the Mouse House and decided it would be fun to do it in the laundry room. I’ve never attempted this before so I wasn’t sure it would work. First, I built the washer and dryer out of wood, spray painted them with enamel and then roughed them up so they looked used. I drilled the front holes with a drill press so two bead containers would fit in them as the interiors of the appliances. I went back to my handy snap stash and made the buttons on each machine with snaps and scrap wood painted black.

Then, I took the bottom of one of the bead containers and inserted it into the washer. I covered it with wax paper, and then used flexible caulk to cover the areas where I wanted the suds to flow. I did this because the resin I used next was clear and I was afraid the bubbles wouldn’t look soapy without the white background. I then placed glass balls of various sizes on the caulk, and carefully poured the resin over that. I also added bits of fabric to the mix so it looked like laundry.

When it finally dried (a long 24 hour wait) I was able to remove the wax paper so it looked like this:

Finally, I glued it into the washing machine and carefully used super glue to prop the door open.

Other details in the laundry room include; an ironing board and hanging rack I made out of scraps; a miniature quilt I made that I rolled up and placed on top of the drying rack; lots of detergent, spray starch, bleach, etc. from images I printed from the internet; two pictures on the back wall I printed and framed; laundry “instructions” glued above the appliances; and a gray laundry basket (under the laundry chute) that my brother Dan made for me on his 3-D printer.

I’m not sure I’m done. I know I’ll add more laundry as I make clothes for the mice–I want there to be a lot more mess on the floor–but for now I’m going to move on.

I’ve worked on the various components of the Mouse House bathroom over time. Almost everything in the room was a piece I constructed with stuff around my own house.

The sink was made with half of a travel toothbrush holder as the base topped with a lid from a vaseline container for the sink. The knobs are pushpins topped with beads and the faucet is a wire and sewing rivets. I carved the toothbrush from a toothpick, and made the soap dish out of a button and sanded an Altoid into a rectangle for the soap.

The bathtub is simply a small, ceramic bread pan I spray painted white. The drain is a snap. I made the copper plumbing from scraps I found in Andy’s workshop, and added another pushpin, bead and snap for the water handle. The shower head was a button I found at an Estate Sale. It was in a bag with lots of other buttons that I didn’t want, and the seller kindly gave me this one.

I made the shower curtain with wire, jewelry rings and a piece of fabric from my stash.

The toilet was made with a small ceramic pot I found at the Salvation Army, topped with a black plastic lid from something in my workshop. I found the perfect button for the lid from a stash I inherited from my mother in-law. The toilet tank is actually a floss container I painted to match. I added a bead threaded with a white headed pin for the handle.

The storage dresser is from a garage sale: I roughed it up a bit and then added some stain to make it appear old. The items on it and the shelves above it were printed from the internet and then fashioned into boxes and bottles. I made the razor with wire, the toothpaste tube with foil and a rivet, and the toothbrushes from toothpicks and felt.

Other items in the bathroom include a shelving unit made with a miniature dresser drawer. I topped this shelf with “perfume” bottles made with beads and snaps. I also constructed simple towel hooks from sewing supplies, and a pile of paper goods from images printed from the internet.

Final additions included a scale I made with wood and a snap, a pail of toys, a basket with toilet paper, books and a People magazine, a curtain, bath salts and shampoo on the window frame, a waste basket, and a toilet plunger (made with a furniture foot and a dowel.)

Up next: The Laundry Room!

As I previously posted, I completed the Mouse House basement workshop last week. Over the weekend, I finished the other two “rooms” on the first level –the furnace room and the “entrance” to the house.

Here is a view of the furnace room with the furnace and the water heater that I built a few months ago:

And here is the completed room:

A crucial part of the room are the shelves I built to hang on the back wall. I’m discovering that the house looks best to me if they are full of stuff, so I gathered lots of things to put on the shelves including more paint cans like those I made for the workshop as well as new spray paint cans I created with labels from the internet and beads. The boxes were made from scrap paper and filled with extra miniatures I have laying around but won’t use otherwise.

I also made a ladder and hooks to hang it on and fastened that to the wall below the shelves.

Other homemade details include a fire extinguisher constructed with a toy bowling pin; books on the shelves I assembled by printing book covers and sewing pages inside; rickety saw horses I made with thin wood and lots of drippy paint; and a vegetable planting guide on the wall.

To complete the room I added a toy wagon full of sports equipment, a great metal folding chair, a fly swatter and a dart board–complete with darts!

For a size reference, here’s a picture of the room with my can propped against it:

The entry to the Mouse House is between the workshop and furnace room. There’s a trap door that can close and a ladder that can be extended down to the floor so the “mice” can get inside. At the rear of the entry is another rope ladder that extends all way to the attic of the house. I also added a bench, coat rack, bell to ring upon arrival, mirror (made out of a make-up compact), umbrella stand and, of course, the garbage which is waiting to be taken out.

The next level of the house includes the bathroom and laundry room so I will be experimenting with how to make water and bubbles. I can’t wait!

Exciting progress has been made on the Mouse House and I am happy to document the finished workshop. (“Finished” is just a turn of phrase–this thing will NEVER be done!)

Here is the empty workshop:

And here is the completed “first draft”:

I’ve explained how I made the shop-vac in a previous post. Details about most of the other pieces in the workshop are in the captions of the following photographs:

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Soooo…I’m moving on to another room tomorrow. I am having so much fun I completely lose track of time. Last night at 7:30 Andy came downstairs to ask about dinner plans. I was shocked as I thought it was only around 5:00!

To close, here’s a final photo with my beloved LaCroix can as a size reference: