Garage Sale Saturday was a huge success!

First we stopped by a home improvement store and found a glorious shade of oopsie paint and glass tiles that match!  The best part of the glass tiles is that they were in the fifty cent clearance section.

My only problem is that I need to figure out a way to cut the glass tiles so I can actually use them in the attic floor.  I have my feelers out to see if I have a friend of a friend that can hook me up.

As for the garage sales proper, I got a tiny zen garden that might go on the roof as a giant zen garden, but mostly it's for me.  Then I got these:

A teeny bucket and something that would work lovely as a rug.

Happy arting!

Today, I painted the outside of the dollhouse.  I've been itching to do something big, instead of so many little projects... but I'm struggling with the walling, and I have to do walling before I do flooring.  The one thing I can do is paint the outside.

These are the before pictures.  It's more gray than blue.  I used regular acrylic, and it just soaked right in.

This is the after picture.  I used a really cheap oopsie home improvement store paint, and, miraculously, I found a gorgeous blue shade instead of baby poop color.

It's really just tinted primer!  It covers really well.  I might do another coat just to be sure, but I love it.  It went on nearly white, but it dried this hybrid between sky blue and robin's egg and I love it!

I need to figure out a color for the trim, but, woohoo!

So, I did the flooring, and I experimented with my bricks idea.  (I know, I know, I'm an art rock star, people ask for my autograph and swoon at my feet regularly.)

I used some textured paper/paint samples that I got from a home improvement store, peeled off bits of that terrible green wallpaper, and cut bricks. 

A closer view:

Why visible bricks?  Well, the going theory is that Edgar Allan Poe was up to some Cask of Amontillado tomfoolery.  Don't worry, everyone in the house is present and accounted for.

OKAY SO PAINT.

This post was going to be more interesting, but the thingy I'm making is still In Production so I'm going to talk about paint.

Acrylic is going to soak right into wood unless you prime it.  So look for legit house paint (sometimes they have primer added, already), and even then, you're going to need a couple coats. 

Every home improvement store has an oopsie section, for when they screw up mixing for a customer and they want to get rid of it for super cheap.  Unfortunately, most of the paint there is a shade of baby poop.  So go check, and check often, and check lots of hardware stores.  Eventually you'll find one that isn't baby poop or fluorescent orange or khaki... unless you like baby poop walls or fluorescent orange walls or khaki walls, hey, I'm not judging.  I've found some epic shades of blue.

Needed materials for this project:
* guts
* the ability to talk to strangers
* the knowledge that you're doing something pretty neat

Okay, now I'll tell you about the carpet.  The answer is one particular big chain hardware store.  This is how it happened: my mom and I went there and asked if they had carpet sample books in the back that they were going to get rid of, that they wouldn't mind donating to a young artist who wants to make a dollhouse.
And you know what?  They have little carpet sample squares hidden everywhere in the flooring section ripe for the taking! And they have thin plastic wood-looking floor square samples.  They even have samples that look like marble.  They even have actual thick wood floor samples.  The only thing they don't have samples of is tile.

Here's an Example McPicture!

Be sure to ask first, when you go sampling, so they know you're not up to anything shifty.  And, personally, I try to never empty out a full sample box.

Here's what you're looking for when you look for carpet.  You're looking for a short-fibered carpet square that fits easily together with other squares and won't unravel when they're cut.  You might need to trim the sides a little to get them to fit together.

 Home improvement stores are fantastic resources, and they sometimes have wood scraps that they want to get rid of.  They might laugh at you a little, but you probably just made their day by asking the weirdest question ever.  I haven't come across anyone who's been anything less than helpful!

Happy arting!