Building a tree house part 4

Last night I started covering the tin foil with paper machè like Sharon Ojala's tutorial. I can't remember what she used but I had some wallpaper adhesive available :) I thinned it down with more water than usual and dabbed the stripes of paper in it. Not to much because I didn't want it to get to wet. So every now and then I placed a dry stripe on top of the wet ones.
You can see in the photo's I took this morning that it hadn't all dried, but right now - nearly 24 hours after I started - almost everything is dry.

With the new floor. I hope it doesn't turn out to look to dark, but atm I like it. What do you think? ;)

Building a tree house part 3

I figured that I better do the ground floor first before I start with the paper machè. I've decided against another wooden floor, because that would be what I would normally do to; match everything so it'll all look nice and go together perfectly :)
So instead I've choosen to make a stone floor, made from egg carton. I tore some egg carton in little pieces. It was already painted but since I would be using Gesso it wouldn't matter.
With a lot of Gesso - mixed with a little bit of water - I sort of 'glued' the pieces to the template I've made previous. After I fitted the last piece I put some more Gesso over it.

The painting turned out different than I intended because I was impatient and didn't wait long enough to let the Gesso dry completely. I started by dabbing black acrylic paint with a paper towel (like the kind underneath) and after that added black paint between the 'stones' with a small brush.
But then I took a big brush and that when everything started blending together :) So I only added some brown acrylic paint by dapping with the bigger brush et voila :D

Earlier I tore a couple of news papers into stripes so this evening I can finally start playing with the paper machè. Should be fun ^^

Building a tree house part 2

Time to take on the glue gun. Again :) I've been trying to work with it for several times, unsuccesfully I must say, so I dreaded this fase quite a bit :')
But somehow I got the hang of it and even started to like working the glue gun. Who'd have guessed? :D
You can watch the tutorial by Sharon Ojala to see how to do it, so I'll just show you how my little treehouse has progressed. 
What worked for me was not glueing every piece of tin foil at the same time. After a few pieces I took a break so I could look at it with new eyes and see where I wanted the next pieces.

At the bottom I let the pieces of tin foil deliberately stick out. They'll be the tree roots and I can still bend them anyway I want at the fase, or even cut them if I don't like them after all.

I didn't like the two little windows the second floor had before, so I changed that into one larger window. It looked too much like a face with two eyes and a mouth ;)

On the inside of this wall I want to make a fireplace. On the outside I want to make a stone chimney so I took the half of an egg carton and glued it to the side.

The wooden floor got three coatings of oak stain. Hopefully that'll be enough because I already glued it :P
Still thinking about the other floor (a)

Next will be covering everything with paper machè, from newspapers and glue with water. Can't wait to see how that'll turn out.

Building a tree house part 1

Welcome to this new blog!

Here I will blog about this new project I've wanted to start with since May :)
It all started with a visit from Stefan (from the FB group Magical Minds). He wanted me to take care of one of the elves he'd showed the precious week. Such a nice guy, he'd made a tiny letter, explaining the background he'd made for her, and also brought a trunk, a wand, a violin etc. 

We talked for over an hour about this amazing hobby of ours ;) He makes dollhouses and furniture from material he finds in nature like tree bark etc and you should definitely take a look at the photo's he has posted on FB's Miniatuur in Natuur. (Miniature in Nature).
Since my way of crafting is so totally different he challenged me to make a tree house myself and showed me a wonderful You Tube tutorial by Sharon Ojala. After I saw the 1st (of 14) video's on making a tree house from scratch I knew I wanted to make one of my own but it took me untill this weekend to find the courage to actually start ;)

I made a start in June when I started demolishing the doll house I bought at a thrift store last year :D
But that turned out to be to big to start with, so I've found something else: a 5 liter plastic container.

 

I cut out one side and made holes for a door and windows. And I used masking tape to cover the sharp edges.

With some card board it started to look like a house already, but  I want a stone chimney, a spiral staircase, a balcony in the shape of a mushroom and lots of ivy climbing over tree bark. Too ambitious? Probably ;) But if I don't try, it's never going to happen.

I used thin card board (from a pizza box xD) for a template for the floors. 

In case they might bend too much when I'll start glueing, I painted both sides of the two pieces with gesso/primer.

 

I took craft sticks, cut them in 5 cm pieces and glued them to the card board with wood glue. Be sure the wood sticks out a bit on the sides. After the card board is totally covered you can turn it upside down and cut away the wood that's sticking out.

So, this is the result after the first day. I'm starting to like working this way, without a detailed plan, just going with the flow, while things don't have to be perfect because it isn't supposed to be :)
I think it might become 1:24 or 1:48 but I won't take measurements (I'll try at least).

Next step will be giving the wooden floor a layer or two, three or more, of oak stain. And I have to decide if I do the ground floor the same or if I rather make a stone floor.