Creating a Dollhouse Garden Part I

For the last several very rainy, gloomy days I've been back at work on my Camp MiniHaHa '12 (CMHH'12) project, and I'm quite happy to this point. The first thing was to pave the street side of the shop, and I used egg carton stones for this, using a number of tutorials on the net. My stones are intended to be slate, so they are gray primarily; to add a bit of life I dry-brushed Pewter Gleam paint here and there, to mimic the reflective inclusions in slate. Three colours of gray and a dry brushing of beigy-gray were used to add depth to the stones. Then I planted moss in the cracks. I really am happy with this, see photo below.

The next step was the ultramarine blue fence, made from popsicle sticks, of course. I had seen a photo of a fence painted this colour on Pinterest, and really loved the look, so added it to my setting. Then I placed the little bench, and realized the door would look so much better if it was painted the same colour as the bench, a wonderful light turquoise or robin's egg blue. Love it! I will add some faux door hardware to it once the garden is finished. The two blues really liven up the whole scene.

In a previous post, I had mentioned that I would need to add some height to my planting on the side of the vignette. So I added the trellis, and twisted some brown paper-covered flower wire to create the framework for a climbing plant. It was a toss-up between clematis or roses, and as this setting is intended to be the flower fields of Provence, I opted for roses. My favourite rose is the raspberry-scented wild rose that grows on beaches and seaside areas around the Bay of Fundy. It comes in white, pink or raspberry, and has large, single blossoms.

I used a five-petal cutter for the roses, and shaped each blossom 3 times. Some of them are intended to be just opening, some have been open for a couple of days, and some are pretty much blown. The centre of each flower was coloured with white pencil. The centres consist of wires double-dipped in glue and yellow sand, and then with a ring of orange-y floral foam added below that. I like the result, and my husband recognized the type of rose immediately. I still have to make up some buds at various stages. The leaves were punched with a five-leaf punch using hand-painted paper. It is hard to see, but the leaves aren't  perfect; some of them have been chewed by insects, and like all roses, there are some rust spots on the leaves. I love roses, but don't grow them!

The leaves go on first, of course, and the blossoms are added later. The rose vines are attached only to the trellis, the whole garden area slides out for repairs and maintenance. The base is pink builder's foam, painted, and the tea leaf dirt is being added as the flowers are planted. I shifted some of the larger bottom leaves lower down, and added some of the smaller leaves in their place, as I wanted the vines to be a  little airier. Also, there was a small detail on the trellis centre that  I hoped would show.

There is a problem uploading the last photo, so I will publish this and hopefully, add the last photo later.