Video: Making a Reading Journal

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How is your week going? Mine has been really nice. The weather has allowed me to spend some time in the garden each day. I have also been reading more and delving into the world of BookTube again. I have found some great channels and I am planning on launching my own channel next month in addition to my book club posts here. In fact, one of the videos I found here from Liberty’s Library was the inspiration for today’s post.

In Liberty’s video she was journaling the books she read in June and I thought this was such a wonderful idea! I decided to make myself a reading journal.

I had the cover already made and just sitting on my shelf-it had some of the DIY charms we made together and I thought it would make a nice reading journal. I took out some pages from a sketchbook I purchased at the craft store. It was good because the pages are perforated so they came out nicely and left the rest of the journal in tact.

I trimmed the pages and then folded them in half. I attached them using a basic pamphlet stitch to a piece of paper I trimmed to fit inside the spine. Then I added some white duct tape to fill in the gapes and added some scrapbook paper I had in my stash to the inside covers.

I decorated the cover a bit more with a stamped title and some book page. I trimmed it out with some lace and am so happy with how it all turned out. If you aren’t sure how to make a journal I have a video on my channel here that shows you how. If you have any questions about it just let me know and I’ll do my best to help.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Dollhouse Tuesday?: Let’s Make a Mini, Mini…

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Please note this post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links I earn a small commission but it doesn’t cost you and more money.

I know it’s Tuesday but if I were to be honest I have been having so much fun with all things mini (and it seems you all are too 🙂 that I wanted to add a second mini video to my rotation each week.

Tuesdays will be reserved for miniature projects that aren’t related to my childhood dollhouse renovation. I have several room kits that I have been wanting to put together and let’s be honest, this hobby is really never ending (yay!)

Today I am sharing a kit (affiliate link) I purchased 3 years ago but didn’t get very far with. I was just starting to be excited about miniatures but if I were honest I think I was a bit overwhelmed with the prospect.

I decided to pull out the box and start making again yesterday and it seemed only right to bring you all along.

I do need to warn you that I don’t get very far. I move slow when I need to follow written instructions for things as I am a more visual learner (so grateful YT videos!!!) Still I sat down for about a half hour of miniature making fun.

I only made a few pieces and I am not sure how long this project will take but I am hopeful to have it done in a few weeks time and I will be sharing little video clips and photos with you hear as I work on it.

The kit is called “Alice’s Dreamy Bedroom” (affiliate link) by Rolife.

Well that’s all for today. I hope you like this addition of miniatures. I will be back tomorrow with another journaling video where we are going to have a play in our sketchbooks.

 

 

 

 

Until next time….

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Video: What’s in My Travel Art Bag

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Happy Monday!

Please note this post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links I earn a small commission but it doesn’t cost you and more money.

Today I am sharing with you what I am currently carrying in my travel art bag. I am will be journaling out and about more in the next few weeks and I thought it would be fun to share with you what I am keeping inside. Where I can I will include links to the actual items or something similar if you are interested in purchasing your own but of course look through your stash and see what you can use that you have already. I’ll try to also offer some alternatives as we go through the list.

I am using a pencil case (affiliate link) as my travel art bag. I like the size because it fits in my purse without taking up much space and I can carry it around with me easily. If you don’t have an empty pencil case you could use a ziploc bag which has the added benefit of adding some protection from water as well.

The journal I am using is a Leuchtturm1917 (affiliate link) in ice blue. It’s around 3.5″x 6″ so it’s a nice compact size.

I am also carrying a pair of scissors (affiliate link) that have a cover so they don’t end up poking through the pencil case.

I have also added a few magazine images I cut out but you could also use some digital kits if you don’t have magazine images.

I keep a small piece of paper towel to use with my watercolors (affiliate link). An aqua brush is also inside which so much handier than having to carry a small container of water around but they do make containers (affiliate link) for that as well.

I love to collect little bits when I am out and about. A leaf, a flower petal or a receipt from coffee. Having a glue stick (affiliate link) make it really handy to add this to my journal pages.

I used some plastic packaging and rounded the corners to make a washi tape holder. I love adding washing to my pages!

I keep a regular ball point pen and a pencil with an eraser in my kit as well. Sometimes you just want to jot down ideas or do a rough sketch and you can’t go wrong with having these basic supplies-even if that’s all you carry you can still make some beautiful art pages.

The last thing I like to carry are some Papermate Flair felt tip pens (affiliate link). I love the colors and they have a fine enough point that you can write with them as well.

Well that’s everything that I currently have in my travel art bag. I will be sharing some art on the go videos here as well but I hope you enjoyed a little peak inside my bag.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

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Video: Dilettante’s Dollhouse Episode #8: Painting the Exterior

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Please note this post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links I earn a small commission but it doesn’t cost you and more money.

Happy Dollhouse Sunday!

I am so excited to share this post with you all as I am finally painting the exterior of the dollhouse!  If you remember in last week’s episode I primed the exterior. In all I did 2 coats of primer. For the white, I forgot (again) to bring the trim paint we had at home to the studio so I used acrylic paint instead and it worked great! It has a nice gloss which I liked for the scallops and the trim and it really pops against the soft pink color.

I know I have mentioned a bunch of times that the pink I am using is the same color of my studio walls and I just love that this dollhouse will have a piece of my first ever studio with it for years and years to come.

I began by trimming out the excess siding from the inside of the windows using my craft knife (affiliate link). I know I ended up taking a bit of the wood with it as well but I am not worried since I will be building my own windows along with the interior and exterior trim.

Once I did that I began with painting the scallops white. I also painted the underneath of the roof that hangs over and all the currently brown trim.

If I were doing this over again I would probably wait to attach the scallops and first paint the color on the lower part, then paint the scallop pieces and then attach them. It was a little fiddly painting where the scallops and the siding met but not at all hard and it came out really nice when I used a smaller brush.

I also noticed that some of the side pieces weren’t glued down the best so I added some more wood glue and attached them with some clamps to dry overnight. This worked perfectly!

I then moved on to the siding and painting it pink.

For the purposes of the video I just painted the front but for you blog readers I will give you some sneak peak information. I have (as of writing this) completed the whole exterior painting and it looks amazing!!! I am beyond happy with how it turned out. In the end it was about 3 coats of paint on top of the 2 coats of primer. I think if you were using darker colors you wouldn’t need as many layers but what’s really nice about the cardboard is it dries so quickly. By the time I finished both sides I was able to go back and paint the front and then move back to the sides. It worked really well and went much more quickly than I expected.

Here’s how it turned out:

The best part is that I can now move inside the dollhouse! I still have lots of finishing touches for the exterior-along with a fun idea for the “walkway” that wraps around the house on 3 sides-but some of those will require purchases I can’t make just yet. Instead I am going to move inside for next week’s video and the first thing to do is figure out how I am going to lay everything out inside which means deciding on the stairs. That also means building a template for the stairs so I can move it around and see where I like it best. I have an idea on how to do that so here’s hoping it works!

Well that’s it for this week. I hope you enjoyed seeing how the dollhouse has progressed. I am just in love with this hobby! I can’t see how I could ever be bored with it 🙂

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

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Video: Dilettante’s Dollhouse Episode #7: Scalloped Siding for the Dollhouse

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Please note this post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links I earn a small commission but it doesn’t cost you and more money.

Note* Sorry if you checked out the video last night and it wasn’t complete-my internet went out and apparently the full video didn’t load. Thank you to one of my viewers for bringing that to my attention!

Happy Dollhouse Sunday!

I have been so excited to share this week’s blog post with you all. I was able to get the scalloped siding finished and I am really happy with how it all turned out. I used my trusty cereal boxes to make the scallops. I had some of the siding pieces I cut for the lower half and I just used those for the scalloped side. These were cut to 3/4″ (1.9cm) wide and I used a plastic cap to trace the shape of the scallop.

I put 2 marks on the cap that I lined up on the edge of the cardboard so that the sizes were pretty close to the same. The nice thing is it wasn’t very noticeable if the shapes were off a bit here and there.

I glued them on with my Gorilla Wood Glue (affiliate link).  I was able to easily cut the pieces along the edges by creasing them and then coming in with my craft knife (affiliate link) once the glue had dried. I still need to go in and cut around the windows which I will do before I paint.

Once the siding was done and dried I went in with some primer. I used a primer called Triple Thick only because we had some left over from a house project but any primer you have would work. I wanted to prime the siding to hopefully give the color a better surface to adhere to and to give me more even coverage.

I might do a second coat but I am going to see how the first one dries and take it from there.

In other dollhouse (and book club) news I started reading “The Miniscule Mansion of Myra Malone” by Audrey Burges (affiliate link).  I hope to have it finished for this week’s update and I’ll share all about it with you then. I will say that I recommend it as the story is really unique.

Well that’s it for today’s blog post! I hope you enjoy watching the video and if you have any questions about how I did anything feel free to comment below and I will do my best to answer.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

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Video: Dilettante’s Dollhouse Episode #6 DIY Siding out of Cereal Boxes

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Happy Dollhouse Sunday! Today we had an amazing day at our church picnic and then took a trip to the store to finally buy our anniversary present! We celebrated 21 years married a few weeks ago and were trying to decide on a gift and finally settled on a new grill! Our old grill is about 15 years old and really needed replacing. We have been really enjoying cooking and eating outside so it seemed like a perfect gift. That combined with a lot of really nice family time has me uploading this week’s dollhouse video a bit later than I planned-but I think it’s worth it!

I originally planned on spackling the siding where I removed all of the decorative elements, sanding and then painting-which I did but I wasn’t happy with the results. The wood is in pretty rough shape and so I came up with the idea to “vinyl” side the dollhouse.

If you watched my first video you know that I am looking to completely change the look of this dollhouse and add a bit of cape cod feel to it. I think the siding along with a scalloped peak, will really make this house beautiful!

Since I am always trying to use what I have available or to hand I decided to give it a shot with cereal boxes. If you have spent any time on my blog you know I love cereal boxes from dollhouses to making journals. I wasn’t quite sure how it would look with the paint or even how it would take paint so I did a sample piece and it really came out nice! With the sample piece looking like a winner I decided to go ahead and start siding the whole house.

I cut my strips to 3/4″  (1.9cm) high and as long as the cereal box. Then I marked a line 1/4″ from the top (.64cm) that was my guide for lining up my pieces. I began gluing from the bottom and started to work my way up.

Since I was able to use full strips along the bottom I did and once I got higher I made sure to stagger my seams so they wouldn’t end up in a straight line. So far I am really happy with how they turned out. I am going to continue working this week so that next week we can focus on the scalloped peak which I think is going to be so much fun!

I hope you enjoy the video.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante