A Sister house, the Greenleaf Buttercup

I recently finished building a Greenleaf Buttercup dollhouse for a special family, with the colors chosen by the new owner, Linsey. This house will be in the same bedroom as the pink Dura Craft Ashley dollhouse I built about a year ago for her half sister Jenise. 

Linsey has a different personality then Jenise so she chose more fun bright colors for her house. She also chose purple for the front door color. I gave both of the girls these houses bare so they could add their own decorations and furniture, etc. I managed to get this done just before Christmas, so I hope they're enjoying them both!

 

 

I also uploaded a quick video of the completed house on my YouTube Channel Mini-Shack, with more detailed interior and exterior photos. As with almost all my videos, there are clips of the building process at the end of the video. Here is the video on YouTube:

 

 

Now that I have built both the Dura Craft Ashley and the Greenleaf Buttercup, I can say they are pretty much the same size and take the same amount of time. Originally the Ashley dollhouse kit came with a spiral staircase, but I chose not to use it and built a straight set of stairs instead. So when I started building the Buttercup and realized it doesn't come with any stairs at all, I decided to use the spare set from the Ashley! So in case anyone has noticed - YES, the Ashley spiral staircase is installed in the Buttercup. 

Since the Buttercup is done now, I started working on my new Cape Cod Skilcraft house. It was my Christmas present to myself, and even though I have so many other exciting projects to choose from I couldn't wait to open the box and get it started. It's not a large house, so I don't anticipate taking too long to complete it. I really wanted cedar shake siding to make it as authentic as possible, but was dreading the task of applying the shingles by hand. So I went to one of my favorite dollhouse websites miniatures.com and did a quick search. I was delighted to find exactly what I was looking for: a sheet of pre-molded shake siding. I painted a few layers of different tones of grey, did some rubbing, and the weathered look came out perfect. I'm excited to get the rest of the house together, as I'm doing a little bit of kit bashing as well. More on that later!

Thanks for visiting :-)

~ Mini-Shack

BB's Sweet Shop

Well I've done it again...I need to stay off internet resale sites...I couldn't pass up a deal for a Greenleaf Buttercup kit new in the box, which will eventually become "BB's SWEETS", my bakery and sweets shop.

I picked it up from a lady in my town and she also included a handy book called "Everything You Wanted To Know About Dollhouses But Didn't Know Who To Ask" written by Nancy Van Horn from the company Houseworks. Some of the information is basic, but there's a few good tips and tricks in there that I've found useful. Here's a photo of the cover of the book and the table of contents:

I'm excited about the Buttercup kit. For a while now I've been picturing a bakery in my head and scouting out different houses for the shop. I was really stuck on the Greenleaf Brimble's Mercantile, but I'm too thrifty to buy one new from Greenleaf. Plus, they only sell laser cut kits now and I want an original kit. They have come and gone on eBay, and I missed out on a few by hesitating. I decided to go smaller so I had narrowed it down to the Ashley by DuraCraft or maybe the Adams by Greenleaf. What I like the most about DuraCraft kits are the cool etched windows they always include. Plus the Ashley had a spiral staircase, which I was going to put in my Alison Jr. instead. But that's quite alright, I am very happy with my Buttercup purchase. I'd like to get it going right after the holidays..it's fresh on my mind but I do have several other projects sitting here staring at me, plus I need to finish off the interior of my Brookwood, which is what I am currently working on.

My plans for the bakery are fairly typical - shades of pink with decorative stripes and polka dots, with a lot of yummy treats in display cases. I'd like a few cafe tables or at least a counter bar as well. 

The kit came in a plain brown box (pictured in the photo of the book above) so I don't have a photo, but here is a stock photo of the Buttercup. Coincidentally it actually shows a sample of a shop:

 

Wish me luck on time and project management! HaHa.

Thanks for looking!

~ Mini Shack