Project Diorama: Walls are soon finished

My diorama has progressed very much since the last time I posted anything about it. I have been in a crafting frenzy lately and been doing almost only the diorama during my "crazy mood". I have been in a constant flow so I´ve had no time to take any pictures with my SLR camera, but instead took some snapshots with my phone and posting them on my Instagram account. I put all the pictures here for you to see what I´ve been up to:

I made frames for the windows from wood and created a faux stone effect using egg cartons.
The gaps I filled with  grout (the whitest lines on right).

The second window frame made the same as the first one,
only this time I finished it before gluing it on the wall.

To create aged and plastered look to the outside wall,
I glued a thick creased paper which I had dyed with coffee.

I then highlighted the creases with white and grey pain to make it look uneven and old.
I wanted to make a stone foundation, also made from egg cartons with grout filled gaps.
Afterwards I painted the white grout as light grey, but I have no picture of that yet.

When the outside was pretty much done, it was time to move on to the inside wall.
First some moss green and grey paint, then a home-made crackle paint
before adding the final layer of white on top of it.
The dark paints peek through under the white from the exposed cracks.

This is how it turned out. The crackled surface is quite cool!
Not sure will I leave it like that or will I add some other colour as well, though.

Goodbye dark brown frames, welcome whiteness!
Ignore the ugly bathroom scene, but that was the best place to do the sanding and painting.

The flooring which I had made earlier got also some aging on it.
Just highlighted corner parts of each square a bit to make it look more three dimensional.
On the middle you can see the parting between the enhanced (left) and the untouched (right) surfaces.

Ready!
The little touch-up made much more depth to it.

Finally tested the whole construction together.
Sorry for the strange angle of the picture but it was super difficult to balance on a kitchen stool
while holding the walls up and taking a pic.

This is as far as I have got for now. One of the trickiest part is still to come, the window that is. I would like to get a real glass on it but I´m afraid it will be very difficult to find in a correct size. Of course I could go and get that piece of glass cut to size in some place but I bet it would cost a fortune. Maybe I have to settle on a plexiglass instead of a real one. But we`ll see.

A new year and some dolly thoughts

Picture: morguefile.com

Christmas was and went, the year 2015 has turned into 2016 and I´ve not updated anything since our little Christmas dolly meeting. Time goes by so fast! Of course I was going to do a Christmas photoshoot, but something always came and interrupted my plans, so - no pictures. Also sadly the darkness, the rain and the lack of snow stole my entire Christmas spirit away anyway. I had a nice time, but something was definitely missing. :/

Anyhow since it is a whole new year now, I want to wrap the old up and tell about my future plans.
The year 2015 was my first doll year after my 5 year brake within this hobby. I was very surprised how hard the excitement and inspiration hit me again after such a long time!

Things I achieved:
* I bought two dolls and sold one.
* I started making the diorama + crafted little things in it.
* Purchased new clothes and shoes.
* Commissioned a clothing set for Lyra from Etsy (still under making).
* Purchased doll stands for all of my bigger dolls (review coming soon).
* Made my first faceups for others than my own dolls and did my first customisations/ repairs for a BJD (more about those later on!).
* Made many new doll friends and participated on several meetings.
* Purchased a light tent for photographing. It´s been on my wish list ever since I purchased my first digital camera back in 2010. The tent has been ordered and still on delivery, but hopefully coming soon.

My future plans for the year 2016 are:
* To continue and finish the diorama.
* Learn to take better photos and generally be more active on that area.
* Purchase a doll I´ve been drooling (still on the desk of the doll artist, but according to her, soon to be ready for a perorder!).
* Get to know my only SD girl better and create her more complete personality.

...And the biggest plan of the year is:

* To participate the Ldoll festival on Lyon, France.
Nothing is certain yet but I would really, really like to go there. I have never visited any BJD convention before and it makes it even more tempting that it´s inside EU and not too far away from Finland either. I wouln´t dare to travel alone but we have already had some discussions about going there as a group with some doll people on Facebook. Let´s see how the things turn out.

Overall I´d say 2015 was a pretty good and productive year. The new plans are pretty exciting too and I hope you all will have just as exciting times ahead as I do.

Some unfinished things waiting for inspiration