Outside the Architect's Loft with my Cricut

So it's now outside the loft again!  As mentioned, I had built a base to mimic a sidewalk and street.  I had just gotten a Cricut Maker and my first attempt at using it was to cut the curb drain from 2mm chipboard.  

I think it turned out great for my first attempt at using the machine.  Adding a few ivy leaves and dirt made it seem realistic.

The base itself is built up layers of Foam Core, that I added grooves to mimic a sidewalk and curb.  Then I layered many shades of grey and beige to try and get a "Concrete" color.  I'm still not completely happy with the finish of the concrete and pavement, but I'm loving the drain and the aging I've done on it, complete with a few ivy leaves that have fallen from the building.

I added wood trim around the entire base and painted in black. 

The next thing I used the Cricut for was a broken fence in the back of the alley.  I purchased a SVG file download from Bentley House Miniatures, it was a joint project with Thicketworks.  It was meant for fencing for a graveyard, but I gave it a whole different spin.  You can find the SVG file for purchase here.

I didn't use the center pieces, but the pieces on the left were cut on cardstock and glued back to back.  After the glued together pieces dried, then I added a thick layer of glue on the fencing.  This made the fencing more dimension to mimic metal fencing.

Once this layer of glue was dried, I repeated the process on the back of the cardstock.  When this was dry I painted the entire fence with black acrylic paint.

Then a layer of metallic gold acrylic paint.

Then a layer of metallic copper acrylic paint.

Once it was dried it's fairly rigid, but with a enough flexibility to force it to bend a little.  I "mangled" one end of the fence to look like a broken fence and mounted it to the back of the alley.

For the roof, the two layers of Gatorboard where trimmed in a 1" high strip of wood painted in a rust color.  Four posts were mounted in the corners and the other grillwork pieces were painted using the same paint technique and mounted around the roof.  This grillwork was about half the height of the fence grillwork.

It was mounted behind the wood strip, gluing and clamping in place until dried.  Thing I'll cap the wooden corner posts with some beads to make it more decorative and add some "aggregate" to the roof.

Next post I’ll be back inside the Architect’s Loft furnishing the first floor.

Until the next time…….

Wanda