Hot Weather and building stick houses

The weather for this Sunday is going to be very steamy and dangerously hot again through Monday.  

I've scrubbed water tanks and refilled them along with making sure the mules and pony have access to good shade already along with an area where they can stand under trees and catch any breeze that might come through.

I'm bummed. I was hoping to go camping in our woods for the weekend.

I got all my work done by 10am yesterday and then worked in the gardens. 

I decided to return to the stick house and see what I could come up with.

My helpers were all ready and raring to go.

The roofing is supposed to look haphazard and rough with bits of bark and moss. 

The next part was to paint and decorate the cardboard it is on. I'll 'make' it into a diorama I can use indoors or outdoors. [Not weather proof!]

This is my version of 'Free' building. Otherwise I'd want to purchase a set of Legos to build. If I had room, I'd build a whole set of these 'forest' huts and lay it out on my 5 foot craft table as a tiny forest town.

So as it turned steamy in the afternoon, I decided to finish my project.

I painted the cardboard to look like dirt.

Then I added chunks of decorated bark and roots that I had made last year. 

The bark chunks came from a downed tree and the pine cones came from our pine trees.

I don't glue down the other bits of roots and bark I am using so I can change the look as I need to. 

I also don't draw out plans or think much of what I am doing. I just punt it because that's how my creative juices flow.

If I add something and it looks neat, I keep it. If it doesn't, I toss it.

Cardboard. Moss. Bark. Glue. Craft Paint. Fake Mushrooms. Some fake moss.

Railroad model flowers. 

Imagination.

I added two of my favorite minifigures who are very much at home in the their magical forest.

...and then,

I set up my first scene to photograph.

I can use this stick building for so many things. The structure will fit a number of toys I have. The sides of the building can provide an interesting back drop for all sorts of scenes.

The best part about the whole thing is that it was built mostly from things I picked up in the yard at no cost!

Other Stick houses I've made:

Here is an old stick village I made and used for some scenes out in the woods. It was fun and when I left parts of it out in the forest to use again, some wild animal thought it would be great to pull it apart.

No harm done, I can always find more sticks to build with!

Today looks like a good day to beat the heat and enjoy some time reading and doing some Still Life Photography.

Hot Hot!

Things to do when it is unbearable outside. Bring some outside into the house. Since I was having fun with the candle holders, I thought I'd expand to sticks and bark. Using glue, moss, and some funky crafty items, I got busy.

and then of course I had to imagine what would take place on this piece of bark.

and I took it a step further. 
Since my 'photo table' had to be moved out, I haven't had a good place to do indoor dioramas are creations. However I muddled through and had to avoid the concentrator and avoid stepping on the 02 lines...
but I made it work.

I ended up putting the items on a box and using a cutting board that was made from an Italian Olive Tree for the backdrop.

I kept messing around and finding more interesting ways of using my decorated sticks and roots.

I went out after the sun went down and decided to watch Fireflies. On the forest edge, they were abundant in the tall grasses.

You may have to click on the photo to see
the driveway...4 minute Livecomp
exposure.

...and on to the week of somewhat cooler temps but a lot of predicted rain....

How to build a stick house for a Fairy Garden

The weather turned down right dangerous with air temps at -18F and who knows what the wind chills were. I bundled up, did the chores and made sure all the equine had plenty of hay and heated water.
Since I had to be outside for a length of time, I dressed for it.
I actually was comfortable doing the chores and hauling hay in the large sled.
Going for a hike was out of the question, if I slipped or started to get cold, I'd be too far from help.

I decided that I'd collect some of the sticks I'd gathered while hiking with Charlie and Sven the other day [when it was mild] and 'create' a new Squirrel House.

I decided to use my cell phone and then write on the photos as I went through each step so here it is:

This is an old sour cream container that I cut a window in. Since it is a squirrel 'house' he/she can climb in and out easily right?
I painted the container black first so that if there were gaps, the sour cream lettering wouldn't show through.

The gorilla two sided tape is weather proof and will hold up to 15 lbs or so the package says. It is so much easier to use the tape and then put the sticks on than trying to glue them in place.

I was fascinated that I could break chunks of bark with lichen on it and press it onto the tape in the gaps ... seems it will stay? Time will tell.

I used hot glue and more scraps to fill in some of the other gaps that didn't have tape on it.

I was going to make a fancy top with some clay or something else but I decided just to go into my scraps area and grab some old bark I'd found laying in the woods. I used Gorilla Tape to hold down a layer of scraps. Hot glue works best on a porous surface so I glued more scraps on top of that to make a roof.

There. But I still had some a few more touches to add.

I think the Squirrel likes the little shack.

I rather like these little projects. This will be fun to put in a section of the new mini flower garden I'll do this spring. I may have to think of something to make the stick house heavier so it will stay put.

The stick houses are a lot of fun to make and cost nothing as I can gather the materials needed when I take a walk.
This was a great little day project to do while the temperatures outside kept me safely indoors.

One of the reasons I liked this project is that it did not have to be perfect. Too many 'Fairy Houses' look perfect. If a person was to do this with a child, it could be just like this.
I think it is still cute in its very non perfect way.

Besides, if a squirrel were to make this?
Well, have you ever seen a squirrel nest?

I rest my case!

New project?

I enjoyed creating the little stick 'fairy house' last weekend. I did some more reading about how to reuse common household items and turn them into more fairy type houses.

One style that I thought was interesting, was putting tiny rocks on a container. Okay. So how does one do that? I mean how can rocks stick to clay or plastic?
I watched some videos and gathered some information. Try double sided heavy duty stick tape to adhere rocks to the plastic. Then spread grout or something similar around it.
Think of tiling but on an object instead of a wall.

I decided to go for a walk yesterday because the weather was just so darned nice! It was 48 degrees. The mules were sleeping in the sun, Rich was napping, so it just seemed like a good idea to wander down to the creek. Charlie had to stay home, the coyotes are really running now during the day time.

And...because I like to do things differently, I took my Infrared Camera to see if I could actually get some interesting shots in the winter.

Yes, it was interesting, the oak leaves did reflect light back and so did the clouds.
I had a filter on that doesn't record color. So I was really going for strict black and white. I'm not sure I like or dislike it. It is just interesting.

When I got to the creek it was obvious that there was a melt going on but it wasn't a gushing gully washer. There would have to be another very warm and sunny day to create that.
It was very slippery so just wandered slowly around and peered at things. Like moss and rocks.

I found some interesting bark that was dry. I peeled it off the branch and dropped it into a plastic bag I always carry with me. I sat down and sorted through some tiny rocks bits too.

I wasn't sure of what exactly I was doing, but an idea was shaping up in my brain.

Later I sorted things out and ...
I wondered how I might attach the interesting bark to the sour cream container. A used pill bottle could be an oversized chimney?

And the rocks?

A tiny rock wall?
A walkway?

Should I make this little house on top of the lid? Then I could take the whole works out to the garden and set it on a planter or a stump.

And there is this styrofoam package that my tree statue came in. I'd seen someone used styrofoam to make 'fake' rocks.

So many possibilities.

The bark didn't work out very well so I used some Gorilla Brand two sided tape. I put the tape on the plastic carton.

The tape works very well and was almost easier than using hot glue. I filled in the cracks with some DAP Kwik Seal Silicon Adhesive Calk. So much for the plumber side of me!

I used some of the super tape on top of the plastic carton, then added the top of a laundry soap container. I'll add clay and acorns to it I think.
The caulk will need some touch ups with acrylic paint.


Now I have to wait for the caulk to dry before I go to the next step.