Crumb-Coating My Styrofoam

I think Styrofoam has become my new best friend. I love how easily it carves......and it is soooo easily covered with Paperclay!! Here's a pic of one of the walls. I wanted the inside of this house to look like it was in the middle of a tree....so every wall has to have bark. The bark will come later, but for now we have holes to make. I just drove the cookie cutter down into the Styrofoam, and scooped out the insides......this way I have cubbies I can fill later....


Just a closer look at what I'm talking about...


Once everything was carved out......I began to 'crumb coat' everything. This is where I use a thin layer of paperclay to cover the Styrofoam, so later when I add a second layer, it's not messy. Makes it easier to carve into. Oh, and btw, I used circle and square cookie cutters....Here's the beginning of what the walls will look like. I got smart this time, and decided to do this house from the inside out.


The wall in the back hasn't been crumb-coated yet, but the wall in front has.

This little tiny room will become a storage room.

While waiting for the 'crumb-coat' to dry....I made the window frames and the front and back of the front door. Yes one door is bigger, you'll see one day when it's all said and done.

Also painted the fireplace. And gave it a brick background. Of course the bricks have been painted gray, and everything recently got a coat of that brown chalk.....

I think the hardest part of this whole project has been waiting for things to dry! However, I have been using that time to really think of how I wanted to do things. I'm taking my time, as usual, lol.....and day dreaming a lot. Stay tuned for more of the house, and if you've missed the last couple of blogs, you should check them out. I'm trying to break down what I've already done so far, to make it more interesting for you to read. Hope it helps.....and as always feel free to ask me anything I might of skipped over.......

until next time......

The Cozy Cottage in the Forest

Thought I'd show you where I'm headed with the new house..I started by building up the front window with Styrofoam.

Then I broke out the paper clay....

You believe this took me 3 hours to do?? LOL...At least it's a start!

*Oh before I forget......If you go look at the last post, I think in the last picture.....You will see that Ms. Beaver has a small piece of paper in her hands~ That's the sheet of sandpaper that came with the kit...And when I saw how small it was, I couldn't stop laughing!! That's about the only complaint I have with this little house......

OK....I'm going back to bed! I've got a cold, the computer has a virus.......and I'm over it.....lol......Hopefully I can get some more 'rocks' put in today!! See ya later!

PS.....Don't cut Styrofoam in your bed!! You'll be up all night picking the 'dust' out of your sheets! LOL!!

And one more thing...I have a few emails I need to get too......So don't think I've forgotten about ya'll.........I'll get to them sometime soon!!

Today's Progress....

Well, we went back to the craft store today for another piece of Styrofoam, Yes! Armed with another 40% off coupon. Today's mission was getting it glued down to the big board. This was another piece of foam core, but this one is about 1/2 an inch thick. Then came the Styrofoam. Cameron wanted stairs.....Cameron is my youngest, and very, Very, much into Star Wars. He has been a Big help when it came to doing research...I didn't know the cities' name that I wanted to go off of.....And of course he did! BTW...it's called Tatooine....that kid knows more about Star Wars than most adults. Scary!

Ok.....So he wanted stairs....didn't care that they don't lead anywhere...he just needed stairs....Maybe this is a small part of a bigger house on Tatooine, and the stairs lead to another house or something? Does it sound convincing? Lol! Again, I just hot glued several layers of Styrofoam together......

Then it was on to the right side of the door....I just cut the Styrofoam as I went~ Eyeballed it~ and glued it together.

Then I did the left side. No stairs here....Once I got it all glued, I sanded it with another piece of Styrofoam....yes, it's messy, but it works!

And here's the front door, with new, thicker columns....

Now I just have to wait for the bf to go to work tomorrow, so I can 'borrow' the other jug of plaster that is STILL sitting in the bathroom waiting to be used to finish the bathroom walls. Yeah! Remember how long ago it was that I had a new tub and toilet installed, Well, we still don't have all the walls or a sink! I figure he's not finishing it any time soon, so he won't notice that the plaster will be MIA for a little while. Seeing as I know the bf still has to buy another piece of wall, he can also pick up a new tub of plaster. Cause I'm sure I'm going to use the whole tub to finish this.............

When all else fails....Break out the Glue Gun!

That, I learned from Mom! When I was about 8 or so, My Mom brought home a gingerbread house for us to build and decorate. LOL...We had the worst time trying to even get the walls to stick together....And after many failed attempts....Mom said, "I'll be right back!" .......Yup! She came back with the glue gun and we glued that son of a gun together. I don't think we've ever laughed that hard! Good times! Good times! LOL

OK.....so Debbie asked me yesterday, what the thickness of the foam core was, and instead of answering with a 'I dunno', I figured a picture would be worth a thousand words....It's somewhere under 1/4 inch, if that helps? LOL~ Can you tell that I'm not good with measurements....hahaha...... (Foam core is on the right, the 1 inch thick Styrofoam is on the left)

I was very productive yesterday!! And if I hadn't run out of Styrofoam and Plaster, I think I woulda worked on this all night. It helped that yesterday was beautiful outside, so I was able to sit on the porch when I plastered. LOL~I sanded inside~Not recommended!!

Alright, so first we have the 2 end pieces of Styrofoam being glued to the ends of the foam core box. Then I glued on the front piece of Styrofoam and flipped it upside down. I placed some heavy books inside to help set the glue. I also taped the outside of it together to hold it all in place.

Yup! I even remembered to cut out the holes before I glued!

Last was the first top piece. Even Otis came to test out it's durability.....
.....and it's still standing! Woo-Who!! It's cat proof!! Well, kinda.....until he sinks his teeth into that inviting Styrofoam....that's gotta be more fun than eating the toilet paper.

Here's when I realized that I was either too impatient, or the tacky glue that I was using was not going to work when it came to gluing the Styrofoam together! That's when I broke out the glue gun. And Ta-da.........It worked! I figured since I was going to be coating this whole thing in plaster in wouldn't matter what kind of glue I used to hold it together.

After it was glued...I started carving and sanding. Again, I don't suggest doing this in the living room like I did, LOL.....The bf just shook his head as he walked by yesterday afternoon. He's learning to leave me alone when I'm on a roll! The kids just laughed at me, like I was in trouble or something......

So, this is where I was at when I took a break yesterday to fix dinner. I still have to do the bench thing that wraps around the whole house, and the 'columns' around the front door. Like I said, I'm outta Styrofoam again.......

Then, after dinner, I decided to start plastering the top......You know, 'Just to see what it will look like', LOL.......and plastered till I ran out of plaster. Funny thing, I started by using a spatula to apply the plaster, but then soon realized how much more fun it was to use my fingers! And it made a better looking surface! As you can see I have those front 'columns' and the bench propped up against the house, This is just to give you an idea of where I'm headed with this.......

I'm thinking the front columns needs to be thicker, and taller......Time will tell.

Ok, and now one more quick story before I go. I'm normally the last to go to sleep around here, so I'm normally the one to hear and see all the strange things that go on in the middle of the night. Well, last night, as I was laying in the bed, cuddling with Otis and listening to the bf breathe very loudly...I heard something run across our roof. It got Otis' attention....he perked right up and looked at me as if to say 'What in the Heck was that?' ......and then there it was again, running in the opposite direction...this time, it woke the bf up and I told him it must be the squirrels running around up there.....As he rolled back over..He mumbled, "That's a really big squirrel!" And as it ran across the roof again, I started thinking...That is a really Big squirrel! So I put my robe on, and headed outside to see this really Big squirrel. As I walk far enough away from the house to see on top of the roof, I can hear it. It was No squirrel...Just my stupid cat! Jd had gotten himself up there, but was freaking out about getting down. ??? Never mind how he got up there? Why, was he up there???? Who knows?? So, I came back in the house and woke up my oldest son, Drew......The bf would of just told me that the stupid cat got up there somehow and that he'd figure out how to get down eventually.....So I didn't even bother waking him up to help. My poor half asleep kid drug himself outside with me, To lift the ladder up, so I could climb up there to get that Darn Cat! ..........At midnight............. in my pj's..................in a flooded back yard- thanks to the week long rain spell we've had! Fun, huh! Stupid cat!