Puki Mushroom house! project/tutorial (updated Sept 2012)

How cute!! I can't wait to see it done! A mushroom house is a perfect idea for a puki... I wonder if it'd work for a tiny... I'm soo going to watch this unfold!

 

wicked! i cant wait to see the finished mushroom

 

This looks like it's going to be awesome! I can't wait to see the final result <subscribes to thread.

 

This will be soooo interesting to follow!

Annefia!

 

It looks great so far, and thank you for posting pictures! I think using that cardboard box as the base is brilliant. I hope you have better luck with the curved top next time. Perhaps a layer of paper mache, dried well, then a thin layer of paper clay would give it more stiffness?

 

Wow this looks great! Such a creative idea, I sure will be watching this thread

 

Also, try modge podge, it might be this paper clay they mentioned, though it's a little different and not unlike a combination of paper mache and plaster. You can find it at most craft stores, like Michaels.

 

What a great idea!

 

I can´t wait to see it ready...XD Looking good!

 

You could use a styrofoam core for the top and glue it to the lid. Paper mache should hold well to the styrofoam.

 

I second the styrofoam core idea.

A lot of the craft stores have an entire aisle of styrofoam in all sorts of shapes. I'd be surprised if you couldn't find a dome to fit the top! (Or you could just cut a big styrofoam ball in half. Styrofoam makes a royal mess when you cut it, though.)

I'm looking forward to seeing this finished!

 

OMG! This is the cutest & most awsome idea ever!!!

 

This is a BRILLIANT idea. That trip to Michael's I keep putting off is looking to get more and more expensive! XD

 

That is an adorable idea and will probably be an adorable house! Looking forward to seeing more WIP-shots as you go along.

 

What a cute idea ^_^ Can't wait to see how it comes along.... hopefully it doesn't give my babies any ideas...

 

This is such a cute idea! Definitely gonna follow this thread

 

I love little mushroom houses! This is really an awesome idea and so far it looks great. I can't wait to see the finished product.

 

I am gonna follow this for sure. What a great idea!

 

what a fantastic idea! will certainly follow this thread.

 

This is a great idea. I wonder if you redo the top with at least two or three layers of paper mache, then coat the entire roof with paper clay, that it would hold better, and give you a more realistic texture. I look forward to seeing the future construction and finishing. best wishes with your endevour.
http://www.paperclay.com/

 

I think it looks awesome!

 

That's a very cute idea ^_^ looking good so far ! I cant wait to see it finished

 

Here is two little ones waitting to see what kind of it will look like when it´s ready...

 

You're doing a great job so far! It makes me want to go raid the craft stores again to see what I can find. ^.^

 

This is a good idea. I think I will make a little gardenhouse for my Brownie girl when she is here.

 

I'm so curious about the finished house! It'll be awesome!

 

Are you going to be putting a dome type roof on it or no? I'm not even sure how you'd do that other than maybe buying a cheap bowl and gluing it on and then covering it with something before painting. Or you can make it not stay attached and then you'd have storage between the dome roof and the cover.

 

How adorable. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

 

I was thinking of a bowl, also - a cheap plastic one attached to the lid could even possibly have window cutouts. I don't know how well painting would work on that, but you could always sort of "upholster" it (I'm thinking hot glue...) with a thin layer of batting and some cute fabric in a print you like. Then it would be adorably mushroomy squishy.

 

I can't wait to see it finished. How adorable! Great idea.

 

This is awesome! I'm going to try and convince my sister to let me do this for the dolls she's making!

 

Definetely gonna follow this. The idea (and what it loks like so far) is adorable and I can't wait to see the finished result.

 

OOH-OOH: may I suggest that you cut round windows into the roof? You can buy inexpensive round window molding at a dollhouse hobby place, or on line. With the rest of the roof painted red, and the little white windows, you'd have the perfect fairy-tale-cottage

Oh, and for gosh-sakes, buy a proper X-Acto knife at the craft store!! It was rather painful for me to read your description of sawing away at the bottom with a steak knife

 

This is soooo neat! I now have a sudden urge to go out and start making mushroom doll houses
I can't wait to see the final results.

 

I want to make one for my little dolly that's coming!

 

It's looking good! Are you planning on making a base you can put the house on? Maybe a stepping stone walkway and some fake grass?

 

That would be cool, make a whole scenery with the shelf

 

ooooo~ thanks for posting all the steps to this, very interesting! and i never knew that about cardboard and how it reacts to paint.

 

SOOOOOOOOOOO SWEET ! I love your idea !!

 

supper idea it looks super cute

 

Have you worked on the house the last weeks? Would like to see new pics!

 

Oooh... this is an ADORABLE idea! I just love it. Yours is looking great so far. Makes me wonder if I could do the same thing, if it would fit with my little fox girl. ^_^;

 

this is such an adorable idea, i wish i had a puki in order to make one of these hehe.. one day!! *evilplan = P

 

This is such a cute idea! I can't wait to see it finished.

 

It's coming along very nicely! Lucky Puki, I wish I could live in a mushroom house.

 

Just in case you haven't started on the top yet, here's a tip from a wargames scenery maker:

If you can get your hands on it, and you can afford it (or scrounge it off a family friend in the building trade), get your hands on one of those foam wall insulation boards (usually green or pink) and use that to make the basic shape in layers before shaping it further with a rasp. Once you got the shape you want, you can cover it with a layer of thinned down wall filler or plaster of Paris, or paper maché to make the surface smooth before priming and painting. Use water based primers.

Just an idea.

Phil.

 

awww, cute idea! cant wait to see the finished home XD

 

I agree with Phil on the foam insulation- you can get a sheet of it at Home Depot, and cut it in half there or sections to fit in your car. This looks like a 1;12 scale project, so you might be able to get scraps. This stuff is great for sculpting with, and covering with papermache or celluclay for your yard or base.

One word of caution on the use of paperclay: this is a waterbased clay- I do this for aliving and have created or 'bashed' several dollhouse kits witht his clay sculpting brick, stucco, stonework, crumbling plaster, even shelves on the walls, and exposed brick. I have a cheapie cottage kit I'm bashing for the future Puki or Pippos bjd that I hope to be getting.

First- buy yourself an exacto knife. Also, a ball stylus works too, for helping to create lines in the clay, or a good sculpting tool You can make these or buy them- I use a variety of sculpting tools.

You will also need a jar of water- and a small brush for keeping the clay moist, not wet.

Do not apply paperclay thick- roll it out with a rolling pin or polymer clay roller, to the thickness of a piecrust, and apply onto your house with tacky glue. Paperclay WILL CRACK! Especially in the humidity of Virginia- take it from someone who has worked on this clay in high summer on a dollhouse on a deadline...you need the climate to be controlled, not too hot, not too cold. If the clay cracks, you can make this work for you depending on the size of the cracks, especially for a mushroom house- fill it with moss or more thin slivers of clay.

also, you shouldlet your work dry overnight for about 24 hours at least, until the paperclayhardens, so you can repair the cracking and finish the other parts. Don't expect it to be an 'instant' project. Also keep in mind paperclay shrinks a bit, depending on the size of your project and the climate.

If you put a dome on it it would be cute with paperclay sculpted shingles too,

 

Somebody further up suggested using styrofoam. Because it makes such a mess and the little individual balls that it is made of tend to break off, I use another kind (the brand name ist Styrodur - not sure what it is called in the US) that tends to be more easy to work with. It is manely used for insulation and is much more compressed than styrofoam. It comes mostly in sheets of different thickness and sometimes in odd colors such as purple or light green. It is sold in hardware stores and Home Depo type of places.

I love your idea! Keep up the good work. I'm really interested in seeing how it turns out!

 

This is exactly the wall insulation stuff I was talking about above.

Styrofoam is a lot messier, but can still be cut with a hot wire cutter that you can get from most larger hobby stores with the minimum of fuss or mess - just do it outside coz the fumes can be a bit much. I would only use styrofoam if you can get nothing else though.

The wall insulation stuff is far superior, and can also be cut with a hot wire cutter for accuracy. Also, it will always be made of Styrodur in the EU because styrofoam is no longer within building regulations as wall insulation so a builders merchant will not sell it (although a DIY store might still do so).

The colours are codes for densities - each colour is denser than another, although they all average 50mm thick, 400mm to 600mm wide and 2140mm tall (2" x 16"-24" x 7'). The 400mm (16") wide stuff is for putting within partition walls, as the metal upright batons are always placed 400mm / 16" apart and the boards slid into place before the plasterboard is put upon the batons. The 600mm (24") stuff is for putting within cavity walls.

For coating the foam shape of the roof piece I would advise buying a large tube of ready-made polyfiller because it will not shrink much when it dries, and it dries rock hard. Roughen the surface you are about to cover with a rasp and put a coat on about 2-3mm thick. Let it go off slightly hen smooth it over with wet fingers and let to dry solid for 24 hours minimum before priming and painting.

A water based emulsion wall paint in white is perfect. It will prime the surface without any risk of melting exposed Styrodur. Then you can use poster paints or acrylics on top for colour.

Phil.

 

Deffintaly following this!

 

this is an excellent idea! Now I'm gonna have to make one for my BBB tiny elfkin Lyssandra!!!!