My parents came to visit last weekend, and gingerbread houses were on the agenda! Here’s what we started with (read the earlier posts here and here to see how I got the houses to this point). I already built a puzzle house like the one on the left, so my mom decorated that one and […]
Tag: Creatology puzzle houses
With the puzzle houses assembled, it’s time to make them look (sort of) like gingerbread. But first, here are some pictures of my mom’s real gingerbread houses, for context. The stained glass windows are made from crushed Lifesavers, and the pieces are glued together with melted sugar. Note the open doors. As a wee lass […]
I just moved from a house that had a dedicated dollhouse workshop to one that doesn’t. Eventually we will build a room of some sort into the garage but for now I have a corner of the garage that doesn’t have all the storage and shelving I’m used to. Last weekend I was able to […]
Earlier in the summer I finished the garden for my puzzle house—all except the trellis. I wasn’t sure how to make it look like it had vines woven through it without adding too much bulk to the back to attach it to the house. Yesterday, with my mom’s help, I did the deed… and it […]
I actually finished this up over Fourth of July weekend, but forgot to post the pictures. Oops. I really liked the trim my dad added to the base of the Fairfield and I wanted to do the same for the puzzle house. Geoff helped with the cutting and mitering. The base is a bit thicker […]
The other day I was mulling over puzzle house path ideas, but wasn’t crazy about either one. Yesterday I came up with a third option that’s a winner—”flagstones” made out of egg carton material. I’ve heard of people using egg cartons to make miniature bricks and stones, but this is my first time trying it. […]
Yesterday I received my recent order from The Vintage Dollhouse, a shop in Houston that’s (unfortunately) closing out their half scale merchandise. One of the items I ordered was the metal mailbox in the picture below. I wasn’t sure if it would look weird to have the mailbox inside of the fence, but now that […]
Today I made a tree to go outside my puzzle house. I used a bare Lemax tree that I bought on clearance years ago and the “foliage” left over from the Fairfield’s shrubbery. The tree is from the Sugar ‘n Spice line, which means it’s supposed to look like candy. It started out white and […]
I have always envisioned the puzzle house as a country cottage with hardwood floors throughout. Last weekend I bought coffee stirrers to use for the floors. The skinny stick hardwoods I did in the Fairfield just seemed too thick and clunky. To my surprise, I couldn’t find wooden stirrers at Costco, Staples, Target, or the […]
The puzzle house that I was so gung-ho about last fall has been sitting patiently in the workshop while I’ve been focused on the Fairfield, so yesterday I gave it some love. Months later, I’m still unhappy with how off-center the upstairs window looked under the gable (you can see a picture here), so I […]
Today I finished up the shingling and glued the porch pieces in place. Woo! I’m not thrilled with the placement of that upstairs window. The peak of the gable was too narrow to put the window any higher but now that the porch roof is in, it looks really off center. I’m wondering if I […]
After a month’s break, I started working on my puzzle house again yesterday. With the shingles done, the next big task is the porch. I started by adding trim to the front corners of the house, where the siding doesn’t quite meet. I used 90-degree corner trim and painted it the same color as the […]
A couple of months ago, Glidden did a promotion where you could get a quart of paint for free, no strings attached. (Well, you had to give them your address so they could send you the paint. Seemed like a fair trade.) I ordered Belgian Waffle, a perfectly nice peachy color, but somehow in the […]
Today I finished putting together the structure (minus the roof) and applied all the siding. Wasted a ton of blue painter’s tape, but with good results! Thank god for paint cans and those little pinchy things… Lo and behold, I have a little house! It seems weird to me that part of the main roof […]
I’m loving how easy this house is to put together! This morning I poked around at Michael’s and Dollhouses, Trains, and More, looking for scrapbook paper or wallpaper for the inside of the cottage. Nothing caught my eye and I decided to move forward with assembly and worry about the inside later. I have some […]
I’ve started putting together a half-scale “puzzle house” by Creatology. Michael’s started carrying these kits in the spring and apparently stopped carrying them at some point over the summer, because they’ve become impossible to find. When they had them, the kits sold for $7.99—and of course, I never go to Michael’s without a 40% coupon […]
Emily is a freelance writer, miniaturist, and adventure game enthusiast.
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