Hello family and happy Wednesday. I hope everyone is doing alright out there, remember to stay safe.

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I hope everyone is having a good week this far.  It’s the mid-point so we’re almost at the weekend.

Today I’m sharing some house planning and brainstorming.  Now when I say house planning I don’t mean my house … I mean my dollhouse (LOL), if you didn’t read my post on Monday I’ll link that here (Monday Chat), and if you did you know I’m embarking on some unchartered territory.

I’ve worked on an existing diorama (dollhouse) about a year ago.  It consists of two IKEA lack tables joined together with L-brackets.  It’s a pretty neat structure and if you want to see that journey check out my Dollplaceproject blog, to see how that came about.

First things first let’s break down (for those that don’t know) a Diorama is vs a dollhouse.

What is it?

Diorama | a model representing a scene with three-dimensional figures, either in miniature or as a large-scale museum exhibit. (dictionary.com)

Dollhouse| a miniature toy house used for playing with dolls. (dictionary.com)

Ball-Jointed Dolls | A ball–jointed doll is any doll that is articulated with ball and socket joints. In contemporary usage when referring to modern dolls, and particularly when using the acronyms BJD or ABJD, it usually refers to modern Asian ball–jointed dolls. (Wikipedia)

As you can see they almost reflect one another.  The house is a toy, and the diorama is a model.  I prefer to go with diorama because it’s really creating a scene but on a miniature scale vs. a toy.  My dolls are defiantly not toys and pretty fragile.

Looking for the House

Looking for a pre-made dollhouse can be expensive with prices starting at $300.  This is also an issue because my dolls vary in height.  With that in mind, I’m looking to build a diorama that’s 3 1/2 ft tall with attached tapered legs, that will be two levels.  I haven’t decided on a flat roof or pitched roof at this time.

The materials I want to use for this structure are plywood,  MDF, corkboard, pressboard, and foam-core but, that might change.  I want something sturdy, that will stand the test of time.

Inspiration

I’ve seen some pretty amazing modern houses and dioramas so let me share some visuals.  These are definitely not the dollhouses of my time or my daughters.

@lindsaysdollhouse on Instagram

Wooden Tales Workshop on Etsy

Unicorns and Fairytales

I love the modern farmhouse theme, using black, white and wood, however, I don’t want the child-like aspect so I’m looking to merge what I’ve pictured here.

Fun But Challenging

Making the structure in itself is challenging but furnishing it will be fun because I plan on making most of the furniture (hopefully).  For the past two weeks, I’ve researched everything about making doll furniture and wood-working.  I don’t have the tools to properly cut wood (I have a small handsaw) and I also don’t want to hurt myself.

So I started looking into a Cricut machine.  I’ve seen folks make everything from T-Shirts, to signs, and greeting cards, I mean you name it.   So what is a Cricut?

The Cricut Explore Air is a die-cutting machine (aka craft plotter or cutting machine). You can think of it like a printer; you create an image or design on your computer and then send it to the machine. Except that instead of printing your design, the Cricut machine cuts it out of whatever material you want! (Source: Practically Functional)

Here are a couple of projects I found on Pinterest…

Sugar Coated Housewife

Glitter and Graze

The difficult part will be trying to create the pieces for the furniture if I can’t find the template from the Cricut website.

Even though I have all these obstacles I’m still excited to start experimenting with my Cricut to see what fun things I can create. My hope is that it arrives, sometime next week, so more to come.  I will also share more of my furniture design process.

With that, I’ll close my post.  Thanks so much for visiting today, and I really appreciate all your support during this time.  What are you working on this week?  or What book are you reading?  Let me know down in the comments, and as always be well, and stay safe. — Peace…Wye —

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