A little Christmas scene, part 2

Here's the next part of this years Christmas scene.

A sheet of Balsa 1,5 cm, carved with cocktail picks,
because I was lazy ;)

Painted it dark at first, hoping that would show the 'nails'
better after painting it white. 

It didn't (a)

I removed some bristles at the bottom and the wooden
stand and bend the wire to get a smaller tree.

I thought wrapping bark around the wire at the bottom of
the tree ould look more realistic. It was an annoyance
to glue them however because the bark would fall
to pieces as soon as I tried to bend it :')

Tutorial for the stand by AkameruKawaii.

I've painted the trunk to cover the excess of glue
and to fill all the gaps ^^

And of course I've painted the tree to
get rid of the 'snow'. It's still nearly
hits the invisible ceiling but it fits ;)

I used this idea by Elizabeth to make stocking.

I didn't have stickers, so I used a linoleum floor tile I had
and printed some templates.

I cut the top part and didn't glue that onto the fabric,
though I wrapped the fabric around it at first ...

... to keep the right shape.

Covering them with fabric was a meticulous job :)

Decorating them was fun though.

As was putting some decorations
in place.

Next will probably be
decorating the tree.

The living room floor

I've been really busy working on the living room the previous week.
I'd decided that there would be no wall paper in my Hogsmeade cottage, but then I put some removable wall paper on two sides anyway, just to see how it would look.
I had been afraid it might be too dark and 'busy' with a design on the wall, but with the fire place and the opposite wall still plastered white, I thought it wouldn't :)

Hardest part of the flooring was making the template. I kept cutting a sliver here and one there and then it turned out just 1 mm too much and ... aaargh :')
I guess that's the problem when you build a house from scratch; the measurements of every floor and every wall, the fire places and the door openings, they all differ just micro millimeters (a)

Next was choosing the wood. Well, that was the easy part. I hadn't considered the thickness of the floor when I'd made the doors and thresholds, so those popsicle sticks people often use, were too thick. Which I was glad for because I'd rather work with Balsa anyway ;)
Normally I would've choosen 2 or 2,5 mm Balsa, but because of those doors, I've used 1,5 mm Balsa.

Based on this decorative paper the boards
will be 1,5 mm (just 2-3 mm smaller than
this decoration paper has xD

I've cut the boards at random lengths because I'm going for the rustic look. Well, random meaning not one size, but multiple sizes from 6 to 10 cm ;)
You can lay the boards horizontal or vertical in a dollhouse, depends on the look you want and how narrow a room is. I am going to lay the boards parallel to the longest wall.

After fitting the boards on the template, I sanded the edges of each single board to give them some signs of wear.
I also painted the template dark brown with arcylic, just in case there would be small gaps between the boards that would show the white paper. In hindsight that wasn't neccasary because of the stain.

I tacked the boards to the paper with wood glue. Note to self:
don't blow away the dust while flooring with Balsa :)

The floor is sanded and wiped clean of sanding dust with
a damp cloth. I put four nail holes in every floor board
and tested to see if it would still fit in the living room.

When the Balsa was completely dry I brushed
on the oak wood stain.

You're supposed to let the floor dry for at least 24 hours, but
of course I was out of patience after 14 hours (a) I sanded
the floor again, wiped it clean and gave it a second staining.

I've read somewhere that rubbing the floor with a few layers of bees wax instead of varnish will give it a beautiful natural glow, so I want to try that. Once I've found bees wax. Fingers crossed I won't forget :)