The Building of the Indecisive Roombox - Part 3

With the roombox coming together nicely, I decided to create a focal point for the parlor; a mantel with a lighted village scene. This is a very special village scene, created by Sylvia Mobley at Pine Rose Studios. Sylvia does the most spectacular work in porcelain and ceramic clays!

As many of you know, I've done a few lighted village scenes in my time (ha ha!). So, I thought I would share how I put them on mantels and add the LED lights. 

Please forgive the terrible photos that were taken with my phone. I was in a bit of a hurry on Christmas Eve to finish and wrap the project, which was a Christmas gift for my mother.

I used:

• mantel 
• 1/2" thick foam core board or gatorfoam board; a bit wider than my mantel, the same height as the ceiling in my room
• matboard
• LEDs (one per house)
• Battery holder, switch, battery for LEDs 
• tiny drill bit and a pin vise
• hobby knife
• Crafter's Pick "The Ultimate" glue

I chose a French Style mantel piece that I felt would fit with the architecture of the roombox. As is often the case, the mantel was not deep enough to accomodate the houses, so I cut a deeper faux mantel top from matboard. White matboard is obviously preferred, but a coat of white paint solved my last-minute materials supply issue!

A faux mantel top was created from matboard.

Before I glued the matboard in place, I made tiny holes for the LED wires to slip through, one hole/one LED per house. Typically, I glue the LEDs into my paper glitter houses (tutorial) but in this case, I was concerned about gluing them to the porcelain houses. Instead, I bent the wires of the lights flat against the mantel piece and placed the houses on top of each LED (this solution worked well). The wires were pushed through the matboard and bent. They exit the back side of the fireplace under the faux mantel top.

LEDs are placed on top of the faux mantel top. Their wires exit under the top and behind the mantel.

Using foamcore for the chimney breast allows me to carve a section on the back of it for the battery and switch. I wallpapered the front of the chimney breast. Holes were drilled from the front of the chimneybreast (behind the fireplace) into the carved section. The LED wires were pushed through the holes and connected to the battery and switch (tutorial). 

The back side of the chimney breast.

After the wires were pushed through, and the LEDs were tested again, the fireplace and firebox were glued to the chimney breast. The houses were glued on top and the mantel was decorated.

A future post will show the completed village scene and the roombox that were finished just in time for Christmas.

Other posts in this series:

Part 1

Part 2

The Building of the Indecisive Roombox - Part 2

Well, here it is... just a couple of days before Christmas, and I have yet to finish the indecisive roombox. The project has been neglected for a while because I've been busy creating new kits for 2013 (I can't wait to show them!).

The ceiling was a bit of a challenge because I found out that I don't have the proper tools to cut it. A table saw would have worked perfectly. Are you reading this, Santa?

I installed the lighting components from Creative Reproductions 2 Scale, which included a flexible strip of LEDs and a power supply. Using a trick I'd learned from Joe Zerbolio, who teaches really helpful wiring clinics at the Miniature Museum of St. Louis, I mounted the LEDs on a triangle-shape molding and glued the molding to the front of the roombox.

The black walnut flooring kit was purchased from Broadnax Prints. It took a couple of afternoons to assemble the pieces like a puzzle, but it was fun! A coat of dark walnut stain and several coats of a gloss polyurethane will be added.

Choosing the wallpapers has proven to be the most difficult job! Even though the architecture of the roombox suggests a French style, the wallpapers and furniture will be an assortment of Victorian pieces that were collected by my mother and me for our large Victorian house.

Here is a selection of the many, many carpets that were collected over the years. Most of our collection was purchased while my husband and I were still dating. While on a trip to Istanbul, we found these little carpets in all of the tourist shops. And the fantastic markets offered plenty of opportunities to purchase large quantities of rugs for a discounted price. We returned home with our suitcases full of them! Perhaps that was the first time that the future Mr. True2Scale realized that his soon-to-be wife was a little obsessed with miniatures!

Other posts in this series:

Part 1

Part 3

The Building of the Indecisive Roombox - Part 1

I am an indecisive person. I mentioned in a previous post that it took 5 coats of paint for me to decide the perfect beige for our garage door. I take after my mother in that regard. Case in point—25 years ago, my mother and I started a 9-room Victorian dollhouse. The shell is still sitting in my mother's basement; furniture, wallpaper, and a myriad of findings all attest to the plan to finish the dollhouse. However our indecisiveness about color schemes, wallpaper, flooring, etc., prevented us from moving forward. Well, then came college, Mr. True2Scale, career, etc. (luckily I was decisive about those things!). But, the dollhouse was never finished. Now, it seems unlikely that the time and space needed to finish the house will ever be found.

That's why I've started this roombox for my mother. I'd like her to use some of the goodies that we've purchased over the years while we attended the many shows together. This seams like a simple idea, right? Well, until I decided to complicate it a bit...

The Indecisive Roombox
I think that it will be much more fun if my mother may change the rooms to fit her moods. If she's bored of looking at the parlor, she may slide a kitchen or a bedroom scene into place! The concept is simple enough, but the execution may prove a bit tricky!

Here is what I'm starting with, the Chateau Roombox from Goliath Miniatures. My mother picked it out when we were attending a miniature show in Chicago. At that time, it was to be her birthday present. However I'm hoping that I'll be able to give the completed roombox to her as a surprise Christmas gift.

The Chateau Roombox from Goliath Miniatures.

This is a really nice roombox to work with. It's very well built, and the plexiglass panel in front slides out for easy access to the inside.

A few hours of sunshine and unusually warm weather today allowed me to paint the inside and outside with a first coat of paint. The inside will obviously be covered, but I wanted to provide a nice surface for the tapewire to stick. My extensive collection of house paint came in handy for mixing the creamy color, which is comprised of: upstairs bathroom ceiling ivory, downstairs bathroom cabinets white, 3rd painting of garage door beige, and just a hint of front door chocolate brown. Keeping all of those cans of paint now seems almost justifiable!

Next step will be deciding on wall, floor and ceiling designs, and installing the LED lighting goodies that I've ordered from Carl at Creative Reproductions 2 Scale.

Other posts in this series:

Part 2

Part 3

Workshops in Texas and Sturbridge

In the upper Midwest, Spring is in the air! Or perhaps my burgeoning tulips are just being optimistic. This Spring, Mr. T2S and I will be busy preparing for several shows and teaching our first class, the Vintage-Inspired Christmas Hutch with Glitter Houses. If you will be attending the Texas Miniature Showcase in May, or the Sturbridge Miniatures Festival in June, I hope you will join us. We'll have fun working with LED lighting, paper techniques and assembling glitter houses. The lighted glitter houses and the decorations will be added to a hutch that has been beautifully painted and aged by Jo Dewane Miniatures (the QUEEN of mini aging techniques!).

Vintage Style Christmas Hutch with Glitter Houses 
1” scale Aged Hutch (prepared by Jo Dewane) holds 2 sizes of glitter houses which you will assemble and light.
Learn to work with LED lights to create this charming Christmas display. The light switch and battery are housed behind the cabinet doors, allowing you to easily add and remove the hutch from your scene. You will be given tips and shown techniques for working with paper, as we assemble 2 sizes of glitter houses and decorate them. Materials and instructions to make the decorations shown will also be included in the class.
Tools required: 6” ruler, sharp tweezers, x-acto knife with new blades, small paint brushes (old and new), small wire cutters, work light, small sharp scissors, white glue, magnification if needed.

Class registration for the Texas Miniature Showcase is available on their website. If you are interested in attending the class in Sturbridge, please contact me. We will also be teaching a class at Philadelphia Miniaturia in November. I hope you can join us!

The Stove Reveal

The stove "before" photo.

The stove revamp took a bit longer than I had planned. But I am satisfied with the results. I added feet (pieces that I had salvaged from the laser pointer our kitty played with until she grew too large), painted on a few coats of white and added a couple of "rust" spots. I didn't think that the wire hinges and door pulls were appropriate for the look I wanted, so I pulled them out of the wood. Instead of filling the holes flush and sanding them down nicely to make a good patch, I painted the low spots that I had filled with a bit of black paint. Then I touched up the edges of the black with some brown iron oxide color paint. It worked nicely to simulate a chipped enamel appearance. And... I didn't have to try to make a flawless patch!

My version of a vintage stove.
A little lantern with a red LED light is tucked inside.

I debated over replacing the hardware with something more functional looking. However in the end, I decided that this was going to be a display piece – like on the decorating shows where a young decorator pulls an old stove out of a barn and gives it a new life as a showpiece – in other words, I decided that I could take some liberties. So, I repeated the pattern I had made for the kits on the doors of the stove and added a bit of silver paint to the "trim". A wash of brown iron oxide color paint and water went over the stove top, paper, and silver trim pieces.

I'm so looking forward to cleaning up the mess I made with this project and getting back to an organized house. And now for the big reveal... the kitchen table!

The new Valentine's Day kits may be found on my website and in my Etsy shop.

LED Lighting Tutorial for Glitter Houses

I've had several requests for directions on lighting up the glitter house kits with LED lights. Hopefully, this tutorial will answer those questions as well as provide some general tips about working with LEDs.

Complete LED lighting set.

You will need:

• Glitter house kit or other project to be electrified
• 3V LED light
• battery holder, switch, 3V battery, shrink-tube
• Hairdryer
• Tweezers
• Tacky or white glue
• Super glue
• Clear tape
• Acrylic or enamel paint in white or cream
If you already have an LED supplied with your glitter house kit, you may wish to purchase the battery holder, switch, battery and shrink-tube together to complete your LED setup.

If you want the LED lights only, they may be purchased separately.

First, a basic introduction to LED lights (the tutorial follows):

Why LEDs?

LED lights are much more efficient than incandescent bulbs.

• They don't get hot (perfect for glitter houses, Christmas trees, and places where the lights will be dangerously close to flammable items).
• They last a LONG time - 10 years/10,000 hours. It's very unlikely that you will have to tear apart your project to replace an LED light.
• They give off a lot of light. In fact, sometimes they give off more light than is needed for our miniature projects. Thankfully there are ways to cut down the amount of light (discussed below).
• They are tougher to break than an incandescent light because there isn't a filament.

What kind of power source do I need for LED lights?

LEDs for miniaturists are typically available in 3V, 9V and 12V. Depending upon the type of LED, you may use a:

• 3V coin cell battery
• 9V battery 
• 9V regulated power adapter (it's important to check that the adapter is regulated; most are not)
• 12V dollhouse power supply 

IMPORTANT: Make sure that the LED that you purchase is compatible with the power source that you intend to use it with.

A blue LED lends an eery look
to the Halloween Glitter House.

All of the LED lights purchased from True2Scale should be used with a 3V coin cell battery CR2032, NOT a dollhouse power supply or a 9V battery. The 3V battery is preferred for the glitter houses because it is small and allows for the freedom to move the display around without having to worry about hooking it up to a stationary power supply (for example: an outlet in your dollhouse). Also, the battery allows up to 10 lights to run for about 12 hours. 3 lights will run on a single battery for about 40 hours. The battery can then be changed.

This hutch, decorated by After Dark Miniatures, contains 8 glitter houses
with LED lighting. Battery and switch are located on the back of the hutch.

How to Add an LED Light to Your Glitter House Kit 

Conducting a Trial Test
Before the house is glued to the base, but after the roof piece(s) have been attached, you may wish to check the light. It is a good idea to see how the position of the LED in the house affects the way the light shines through the windows and door.

1. Slip the battery into the battery holder (A), making sure that the plus (+) side of the battery is on the same side as the plus (+) sign on the battery holder. 
2. Twist the LEDs red wire to the red wire on the switch (B). Then, twist the other wire to the black wire on the switch. 
3. Turn on the switch. If it doesn't light up, take it to a dark room (this is a very small light after all) and try again. 
4. When it is lit, slip it inside of the glitter house before the base has been glued to the house. Move the LED around to see how the light shines through the windows and door. Make a mark inside of the house showing the desired position of the LED. 
5. Untwist the wires.

Battery and battery holder (A), Switch (B), Shrink-tube (C), LED light (D)

Changing the Brightness of the LED
In my opinion, the LEDs are a bit too bright for the tiny glitter houses. To dim the light, I paint over the bulb with a white or cream color paint. Acrylic or enamel work just fine. If you feel that you want to dim the lights even more, you may wish to use 1/4 watt resistors. These come in a package of varying tolerances. You'll want to try different color resistors out to see which tolerance you prefer. You will need 2 resistors. 1) Slide the shrink tube over the wires. 2) Twist the red wire of the LED to the first resistor; twist the red wire of the switch to the resistor. 3) twist the green wire of the LED to the second resistor; twist the black wire of the switch to the other end of the second resistor. 4) Slide the shrink tubes over the connections and heat with a hair dryer until they have shrunk tightly around the connections.

Making the LED Wires Shorter
Straighten the wire of the LED. Figure out the length you want the bulb's wires to be. If you need to shorten the wires, you can re-expose the ends by gently sanding with a piece of fine sandpaper.

Attaching the Light to the Glitter House
Put a small amount of super glue on the inside of the house where you marked the position of the LED. Attach the LED to the house with the yellow side facing out (a green arrow is printed on the back side of the LED). Clamp the LED to the house with a tweezers or transparent tape and allow to dry thoroughly. Bend the wires to exit the back of the house. Don't worry about hiding the wires; they are so fine that they will not cause gaps, and may be covered with white paint, glue and glitter to blend into the snow. Glue the base to the house and decorate the house according to the directions supplied with the glitter house kit.

Connecting the LED to the Switch
Slip the black shrink-tubes (C) over the ends of the wire on the switch (B). Push them toward the switch. As before, you will twist the red wires together; and twist the black wire and the remaining wire together. Pull the black tubes down to cover the connections. Heat with a hair dryer until the black tubes shrink down to fit tightly around the wires. Enjoy your beautifully lit glitter house!


Adding Additional LEDs to One Battery

This is the method that I teach in workshops:

1. Remove the colored varnish (red and green) from the ends of all the wires. You'll want approx. 1-1/2" of VERY SHINY copper showing. The easiest way is to burn it off with a lighter. Then use fine sandpaper to remove the charring. Again, the wires should be shiny copper when you are finished. The key to a good connection is removing the varnish completely.
2. Hold all of the red wires PARALLEL. Twist the wires together VERY tightly. Do the same with                                                         the green wires. 
3. Strip about 1" of the insulation from the wires on the switch unit. Put shrink tubes over the wires. Hold the red wire on the switch unit PARALLEL to the red wires of the LEDs. Twist together very tightly. Do the same with the black wire/green wires. 
4. Fold the twisted portion of the wires down and pull the shrink tube over top of the bundle of wires. Test your connection. If it works without flickering, you're ready to heat the shrink tube with a hairdryer.
5. Heat the shrink tubes with a hair dryer until the tubes have shrunk completely around the connections. 

I recommend using no more than 10 LEDs per battery. The more LEDs used, the sooner the battery will need to be changed.