Holiday Winter Cabin: Toothpick Logs

It was a busy weekend for my building. I had a lot of down time, so I was able to make more progress on my cabin. If these pictures look different than the last post, it's because I completely rebuilt it using balsa wood and toothpicks as logs. I felt that the toothpicks would be more to scale, even thought I'm really just guessing the scale at this point. I also chose balsa wood for no other reason than I ran out of foam core.

After re-cutting the frame, I glued it together before laying down the logs. I also made sure to leave the openings for the windows and doors instead of trying to cut them out after. Cutting toothpicks is a lot easier than the thicker dowels, but it would have still been hard with my sad little hand tools.

Once everything was dry, I went over it with a layer of dark brown acrylic paint. I then used wall filler to fill up the spaces in between the logs and give it that log cabin look. Once that was dry, I went over most of the logs with a stain pen to make them pop since some of the filler stayed on them and made them lighter. When working with such a small scale, this was inevitable. The house would have still looked great without the white in between the logs, but I just wanted to make it almost look like an old summer camp log cabin.

Next came the windows and door frame that I also made out of toothpicks. (Toothpicks and popsicle sticks are 2 of my favorite random wood pieces to use in miniature-making, and they're very versatile.) The actual door was made out of thin balsa wood that I cut to size and made indents into using my Xacto knife to make it look like wood panels. Balsa wood is fragile, so make sure you're not pressing down too hard, but enough just to make an indent.

Next up will most likely be the room or the stone foundation. I also have to build a fireplace or else that tiny stack of wood I made for the porch will not make any sense.

Money-saving Tip: Buy regular toothpicks from the supermarket versus the toothpick-like dowels they sell at craft stores. You'll have to snip off the pointy ends, but it's at least $3 cheaper because it's not marked up as a "craft item."

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