How to Make Faux Brick

Waiting on the results of this Greenleaf contest is driving me batty so I thought I'd write up a tutorial for making realistic brick. My Orange Blossom is built on "brick" posts. Rather than create individual bricks and mortar them together, I created solid posts that looked like brick. This technique could work really well for making a brick chimney too! I wanted it to look weathered and like bits of mortar were falling out: First, I started with blocks of balsa. I usually prefer basswood for realistic minis, but balsa has won me over for many things because it is so soft and lightweight. This makes it easy to cut curves and do applications like this. I grabbed my handy metal ruler and a fine hand saw and scored lines that were the height of bricks. You could use a regular craft knife too. I matched up the rest of my blocks and continued making the horizontal lines across each of them, on all sides.

Next, I wanted to deepen the grooves I had just scored so I took an emory board and sanded each line.

Here's a close up on how it looked after sanding with the emory board. My nails got a good sanding too :)

The next step was to cut in the vertical spaces between each individual brick. I had to experiment a bit at this point because I wanted it rustic. I tried a craft knife but I eventually found a bamboo stick that was just the right height to "punch" in those notches between the bricks. I was working with the grain so they often came out a little irregular. Good thing that was what I was going for!

I then base painted each block with shades of grey and a little white to become the color for the mortar. I was careful to get in all the cracks. At this stage I found that the paint softened the wood a bit. I took my handy bamboo stick from earlier and punched some of the holes deeper while the wood was still soft. After the grey paint dried, I brushed on red and terra cotta paint over all of the raised areas. This let the mottled grey paint show through as the mortar in all the scored areas.

Here's a picture of the brick posts in its various stages:

I hope you found this tutorial helpful!

Feel Like Voting for Me?

You've probably all seen my Orange Blossom entry for the Greenleaf contest in previous entries. Miniatures.com is also doing a "piggyback" contest of the same kit and having their Facebook members choose the winner! IF you would like to vote for me, please click on each of my three pictures of the Orange Blossom and then click on "like" under the picture (link below). I am entry 10 on the second page of pictures, but the link is below. You do have to be a member of their Facebook page to vote but anyone can go and just look for fun :) It is a really nice site to belong to for those of us interested in minis. There are some really great pictures and it's fun to join the discussions!

The link to the page is HERE.

Thanks for considering me!

A Proper Thank You!

With all the focus on my Greenleaf house, I've neglected to say a proper thank you to Margaret of My Petit Partere.This lovely fruit was a giveaway from Margaret and I was the lucky winner!
It is polymer clay skillfully done! Pears, bananas, strawberries, melon, oranges, even a wheel of cheese! My favorite are the apples which have just the perfect blush of green to make them look like my favorite variety, Macintosh apples. She even sent them all on a little dainty embroidered table linen. Too sweet! Look carefully in my pictures of my Orange Blossom and you'll see a basket of these tasty treats on the dresser. Click on the pictures to see all the details: If you love what you see, Margaret is now selling on Etsy! Yeah! Check out her work there and maybe pick up a some fruit or one of her gorgeous candleabras for yourself. Here's her blog again so you can like to her Etsy site: Margaret of My Petit Partere

Outside Details

I took so many pictures of my house so I'm afraid you'll be seeing a lot of it in these next entries! The gorgeous sunshine made it impossible to see the screen on my digital camera so each time it was a shot in the dark...er.. I mean light :)

This one is with the doors closed showing the classic crossbuck X design. I considered changing it thinking it might be too barnlike. After a little research on historical designs, I decided instead to repeat that detail in my scratch built railings, making it a featured accent. I repeated the X in some of the furniture inside too. The colors were so critical for this project. I made my own little swatches of possible colors on scraps of wood and then just played mix and match til it looked right to me. I wanted to bring in a little orange to accent the oranges and I LOVE this shade of red. It just makes me happy! The pewter grey was a great neutral between the two colors and matches the color of weathered wood in the ramp without having to make everything worn. Originally I thought the white was too crisp, but with a little "bug juice" mixture to take it down a bit, and the white sand of our beach, I think it worked out.

I did not make the wonderful adirondack chair but it reminded me of home in the Adirondack region of New York. It's a transplant to these Florida shores, just like me! Most Floridians are from other places originally and that was certainly true of the early pioneers who would have run their business out of a building like this. Those chairs are a reminder of home.

Feeling Fabulous and Free!

I did it! I just sent in my final photos for the Greenleaf contest and am going to bed (which I haven't done for 24 hours by the way) with a big smile on my face! I'll be posting more details but I thought I'd show you the three (yes, only three!!) pics I chose for my submission. You have to go to the Greenleaf member's gallery <--(click) to see the fabulous entries for yourself. Look for Brae aka Otterine. Too authentic!

Don't forget you can click on the pics to enlarge them. If you see any flaws, just don't tell me or the judges for that matter LOL. Right now I'm just basking in being done and happy with my work :)

Almost there!!

This is a picture I took of a tree frog from my yard here in Florida. Maybe he can remind me to keep "hopping" on my contest entry for the Spring Fling contest for Greenleaf miniatures :) Don't forget you can click to see detail!

It's time for the final push! As others on the Greenleaf blog are posting early pics of their contest entries, I'm sweating out the final pieces. This is my first full build and I have to say this laser cut kit was easy and just like putting together a puzzle. Laser cut is the way to go! It was interesting to me how everything is a chain reaction... you can't glue this until this part is painted, etc. For someone as indecisive as me, I had to keep propping things in place just to make it look like something was done. :)

If you would like to see some of the great entries in the contest, click on this link to some member's albums. Just look for albums marked "Spring Fling 2010." Really incredible work!

Now I'm back to work. As the Greenleaf people say... "Fling on!"

Inspiration in Dry Times

It have really missed being able to write about my mini projects! With all the hush-hush of preparing for the Greenleaf contest, I've had to take pics and restrain myself but I promise it won't be too much longer! The contest deadline is Memorial Day (at the end of May) and then I'll have a flooring tutorial, lots of pics and other tuts that I can't mention yet (sigh). In the meantime, how about a little inspiration pics for you? These are all real life pics I've found online or in magazines and tucked away for those dry times when I need a little idea boost...

My son would LOVE this bed! Love the colors and plan on recreating this for my Beacon Hill: Just beautiful, clean lines. I love corners that would make good book nooks :) This is also going be part of my Beacon Hill:

I don't even love pink but this pic could win me over! I adore this set up and am really inspired by the Swedish design styles. I love settings like this that just make you feel peaceful.

Hope that holds you all over for a little longer! LOL Remember to click on the pics for more detail.