peppysis: Miniature Barn Ornament

Howdy Doo Friends!! Let me just tell you, I have been having some fun around here. I currently have three new ornaments to blog on! YAY! Also, I have decided, as all of these are for my Bird Themed Christmas Tree, that as long as they have bird eggs, birds on them or in them or just a bird itself, it's OK to be on my bird tree! As long as that's settled, here is my precious little barn dance barn.

This little gem stands 3.75 inches tall by 2.5 inches wide by 3.5 inches long. Going back to 1:12 scale after this is going to seem like making items for a giant!

As usual, I made this one out of chipboard. I cut the pieces out and didn't take any pictures of that part. But I covered the insides using scrap book paper from my stash. For the "wooden" siding and flooring I had to do a few samples. I wanted the weathered look but couldn't decide what basecoat color I wanted. I chose my chocolate shimmer that I love so much and went with a mix of red and red shimmer acrylic paint on top. I simply painted the brown and let that dry then went on top with school glue and painted on the red while the glue was still wet. That is what gives the crackle effect.

The flooring has the same brown undercoat with mushroom and buttermilk paints on top.

I also went around the edges of the red planks with a paintbrush and the mushroom paint for dimension and used my brown ink pad to go around the edges of the flooring planks. I cut each strip 1 centimeter wide.

I went in with the glue around the inside edges and sprinkled saw dust because that's what is on the floor of a barn dance!

I wanted a party banner for the inside so I found a tiny, thin piece of lace from my stash and draped it around the inside of the barn making sure that the front piece could be seen through the doorway.

I made the tiniest hay bales I've ever seen using cut blocks of balsa wood, glue and sawdust.

The rooster, hen and chick came from a yard sale years ago. They are cast iron and have little wires for legs which is perfect to stick them down in something. So... there are my birds on this piece!

I also thought that a tiny barn dance needed a couple of instruments. At this point I believe I have lost my mind! I don't own the tee-tiny paint brushed needed to make these look really real. So, they turned out a little sloppily painted but the eye will never know at a distance. I made a Bass and a Banjo! I drew a Bass shape on a piece of cereal box and cut it out, then glued that to another piece, and then two more cutting each out along the way and painted it.

I also went to my computer and looked up county fair, circus and just old posters for the inside walls. And, for the outside banner, I found a blank banner online then added Barn Dance, Saturday Night to it and glued it to the front.

Here you can see the finished instrument in the corner waiting to be played.

The plant in the corner and also to the right of the front doors is just twine that I cut and brushed.

Here's the banjo. It is just four hole punches glued together, and cereal box cut and glued together for the stem or whatever it's called.

The roof is deconstructed cardboard that I pulled off both of the top and bottom layers because I wanted to stretch it out more while gluing it down. I originally wanted to paint See Rock City on the roof. I tried it and it did not look good.