A Curiously Small House

When Leslie from Alpha Stamps asked me if I'd be up for painting a minuscule Tiny Metal Dollhouse, I said sure, bring it on! To get an idea of how small the house is, the chair in the picture is 1:24 dollhouse scale.

If you're going to take on painting one of these tiny dollhouses, the first thing you need to do is paint it with black-chalk spray-paint. It has to be the spray paint, regular chalk paint will cover up the details on the house. Since the unfinished house is metal, you need something for the paint to stick to; I put the piece in a small cardboard box and hit it with the spray-paint.                                                                                    

When the house is dry, you're ready to start painting your house. I used Distress Paints for my house, along with some very, very Tiny Paint Brushes. The handles are not short on the brushes, but the brush heads are very fine; which make them perfect for this project.


A few hints for painting your house:

• Don't use a really heavy, thick, creamy paint. If you do, you'll lose details on the house so you may want to add a little water to your paint if it is too thick.
• Don't expect to get it done fast. You have to take your time or you'll end up with a blob that sort of resembles the house you started with.
• If you don't want to try to paint the window frames, simply file any paint that may have gotten on them with a file or emory board. Then the silver will show, making it appear that you painted them.
• Have A LOT of patience.
• A margarita or two helps the process move right along!

Once your house has been painted it is time to get the Mini Glass Dome ready. I took a 3/4" paper punch which is the perfect size for the base of the dome and cut a circle out of the Diorama ReadyGrass. If you want to have a walkway like mine has, you can carefully scrape off some of the grass with an Xacto knife when you figure out where your path should be. When you're happy with it, glue the grass down to the dome base.  Place your house where you want and then put the dome over the house to make sure that you have it placed right before you glue it to the grass. To seal the mini dome, I just ran a glue stick around the lip of the dome and place the dome over the house, then set aside.

The pedestal is made from a thin wooden spool, with a flattened out bead cap adorns the middle of it. To make the pedestal base, I took a 3D Gold Crown and turned it upside down.                                                                                                                                   The spool is smaller than the crown opening, but a piece of card stock cut to size is glued over the opening for the spool to stand on. Glue the pedestal to the upside down crown first, then the Mini Dome to the top of the base and let it dry; and now you have a cute piece to put into your dollhouse or Cabinet of Curiosities.