Many many moons ago, an evil evil wench of a friend assured me that I would enjoy making a 1:12 scale dollhouse.

And I thought, “oh, I could make this really awesome cool haunted house… and and it would be awesome and cool!”

But first, I decided to do a “practice piece.” Christmas was coming and I had a young niece and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make a dollhouse meant to be played with, meant to be a toy. Easy-peasy.

Working in 1:12 introduced me to problems I never had in 1:144.

And introduced me to building that required manhandling and hefting… with grunts and sweat and profanity.

To be honest, I hated it. Where previous projects took over my workbench, this thing took over my house.

I loved making a dollhouse for my niece, but I hated making a 1:12 dollhouse. And I knew, as I applied the last splash of paint, that I would never make the 1:12 haunted house.

Mostly because, I really really didn’t want to.

So, for several years now, two pieces of furniture that I had already distressed for my now never-going-to-happen 1:12 have sat about mocking me. Every time I ran across them I could only think, “I really should… wait, no. You can stop mocking me, I’m not making you a house.”

With the most recent “finding” of these pieces, it occurred to me that there was a one-word answer to the question of how to finally put a stop the mocking: ebay. Yep, I want these pieces to go away so I can quit thinking about them.

This first piece was inspired by a sad old dresser that once belonged to my grandmother (no, not a family heirloom, just a cheap ugly dresser). I own it now and it lives in the garage as a cheap ugly catchall. When I pulled the 1:12 scale version out to prepare for ebay, I realized I wasn’t quite finished with distressing it… it really needed one mismatched leg. And more scars.

Always more scars.

The second piece is a stained and distressed loveseat… it looked lonely all by itself, so I decided to add a 1:12 scale “doll”.

What I’ll do with the 1:12 pieces that I purchased, but didn’t get around to distressing, I don’t know… but for now, I’ll be satisfied with these pieces finding a new home.

It’s like I’m completely de-hoarding my cluttered work area.

*glances at work area*

Okay, maybe not “completely”…

When I saw that my partner in the HO³ (that’s “HO HO HO”) swap had a fondness for Victorian Christmas Trees, I knew what I had to make.

The tree started out to be true 1/12 scale, but because I had to raise the base (to hide some wires), it turned out to be about 11″ — which is larger than the average tree (and larger than I intended), but let’s just say it’s a 1/12 scale tree for a room with a cathedral ceiling.

The tree is a standard “bottle brush” tree covered in “princess pine” (Lycopodium). There are scads of tutorials on how to make such Christmas Trees — the one I found the most helpful was at Victoria MiniLand. Obviously, I went for a fuller, messier shaped tree, but the instructions for attaching the princess pine are the same. Just don’t be so neat in measuring branches and such.

I found the bottle brush tree on Etsy and purchased the princess pine from one of my favorite mini-suppliers, Kitz! Miniatures. I used nearly two full bags from MiniKitz.

If you ever do a tree like this, I offer this tip: some of the bits of princess pine will be too stiff and branchlike. You might be tempted to throw those bits away, but don’t. They come in very handy for hanging heavier pieces (like the cones) or pieces that need to be wired in place (like the candles).

The Victorians didn’t go in for fancy tree skirts (I know, odd that they didn’t tart up the skirt with an excess of tassels, beads, and lace), but rather used a simple white cotton skirt to represent snow. The only fancy bit was tossing on some Epsom Salts to make it sparkle.

I just happened to have a real honest Victorian Petticoat (1880s – 1890s) that was in sad and pathetic shape, but had enough “good” fabric (i.e., not stained, ripped, or filled with holes) to make a skirt (and hide a bunch of wires).

On other end, I had a LOT of ideas about how to handle the tree topper.

But they were all terrible, terrible ideas.

So I ended up where every desperate person with terrible ideas ends up — Google. I found the most wondrous crafty blog with the perfect template for making a 3D Star Tree Topper. Granted, I had to reduce the pattern, but that’s the only change I had to make. I printed the star on plain computer paper, followed the easy-peasy construction tips, and painted it gold. Et voilà!

Even if you don’t need a 3D star tree topper pattern, the Crafting Creatures blog is well worth visiting for the Paper Crafty Eye Candy (the quilled Mickey Mouse is one of my faves).

The paper cones on the tree were inspired by an article in the 1869 Cassell’s Household Guide. The ones with red stripes are filled with “sugar plums” — which are not plums in sugar, but rather a dried fruit concoction that sounds a lot like fruitcake without the cake. The ones with green stripes have hard candies.

The paper cut out decorations (a popular craft for Victorian Era kiddos) are gingerbread men and stars. Yes, I painted each little gingerbread man. But given the “kid craft” nature of these, I wasn’t concerned with the perfect paint job.

The popcorn and cranberry garland is made from tiny balls of styrofoam that was pinched, squished, torn, colored with various markers and paints, and then strung on beading thread. It was a bit tedious, but the only real requirement for making this garland is a skinny-minnie beading needle. Because the bits of styrofoam are so wee, a regular needle just tears through the styrofoam and nothing stays on the thread.

The candles were made from wee bits of polymer clay formed on 30 gauge (skinnnny) wire. When I started attaching the wicks, Mr. Jivvy thought I’d gone round the bend. Always a good sign.

There are lights on the tree (but of course!) — two strands of lights with battery packs. The battery packs are disguised as plainly wrapped packages under the tree. The packages are so tall to accommodate the on/off switch in both positions.

The HO³ swap was to include “one large HO” (the tree) and “two small HOs that related to the large HO”. What else could I do but make two toys to go under the tree.

First, the elephant pull toy. Made out of bits of paper, cardboard, scrap wood, a bit of string, and beads.

And second, the BLISS (American) and GOTTSCHALK (German) inspired dollhouse. The Bliss and Gottschalk houses were fanciful, lithographed, and not overly concerned with issues of scale. It was not uncommon for Bliss houses to use scraps of over-sized lace for curtains.

The house is made of paper and scrap bits of wood (the steps, columns, etc). Oh, and the over-sized lace curtains.

And, last but not least, the scale shot:

New Floortiles: Black and White

I designed these floor tiles with my own little computer and they are free for you to download and use — I only ask that you do not resell them (it’s fine to use them in a project that you plan to sell).

All downloads are PDF files and require the free Adobe Acrobat Program to use. You will also need access to a color printer to print and use these wallpapers.

PLEASE NOTE: Because the patterns are so small and so close together, the PDF file may not display properly on your screen (it will look like there are missing or misplaced elements). That’s normal and does not affect the way the wallpapers print.

Click here to download the six free patterns.