The Brick How-To

So, let's take a closer look at those bricks under the gable because I'm pretty proud of them!

I actually got the sheet of bricks ready back in September because I was anxious to do something else on top of putting up walls and trying to unwarp things. 😄 I was a fan of the actual construction of this house, but the projects that make it really come to life are more my bag! Besides, I needed something to do while waiting for long lines of glue to dry!

So! Here we are. Now, there are plenty of brick options out there in miniature land that actually use little, tiny bricks that require mortar and individual placement. While that looks very cool and realistic, this option was much more economical and favored getting it finished in a timely manner. (I will have plenty of one-by-one placement when I finally get to the roof shingles anyway!)

I bought this sheet of bricks at Hobby Lobby:

While it's the only option, I wasn't thrilled with it, either. It's just too ... bleh. Super-plain. Looks super-fake. And, we can't have that on the fake house, now, can we?

So, without really knowing what I was doing (not even kidding), I started hitting it with sandpaper:

I folded up a piece and went for it. I figured distressing it was a good start to take the shine off. My real-life house does not have shiny bricks. Does yours? I must mention, in case you ever take this on, that I ended up sanding every brick individually because that was the only way to not make some random scratch across multiple bricks. No one wants the fake bricks to look even more fake. I mean, really. It was a bit of a pain, but, it's not like I ever have to do this again. Knowing there was an end point made this kind of fun!

Then, I needed to add some color. First, I tried to blot it with a mini stamp pad:

That method was not working well for me because I couldn't really figure out where the ink was going. So, enter method two:

THAT was starting to work for me! I blotted and sort of smeared and just worked with the ink to see what I liked. Here's the outcome of that evening's work:

This outcome definitely garnered appreciated ooo's and ahhh's from the family! I was impressed with it myself. But, if you are any kind of crafter at all, you already know the problem I faced: Ink on a plastic sheet will not dry. Like, ever.

I was half-way through the use of ink when I realized this factor. But, I finished the sheet because I was enjoying the project, and I figured some of the ink would settle in the sanded places. So, I figured I'd finish and see what happens.

After letting it dry (ha-ha) overnight, I went ahead and wiped off the wet ink, which was almost all of it, for this turnout:

Even that is better than what I originally bought! But, I wasn't ready to settle as the first outcome looked so good! Solution? Alcohol ink markers!

With a coupon in hand, I headed to Michael's and bought a brown, Artist's Loft marker. I read a number of reviews on alcohol ink markers, and, cutting to the chase, I bought the least expensive one individually (versus buying a set). With a coupon, I believe this cost me $2.

Now that we have the consumer report behind us, let's head to strategy. I definitely needed on because alcohol ink dries super-fast! So, I embraced my brick-by-brick approach and did a little smear from the marker on part of a brick. Then, I quickly smeared that with my finger. Swipe. Wipe. Repeat!

I varied the marker swipe on each brick and just didn't worry about it if I accidentally put too much on one because it was going to dry too fast to do anything about it anyway! And, it's a sheet of bricks. There's nothing perfect about how bricks look!

Here's a picture of it half finished so you can see the difference from the distressed, stamp pad fail and the alcohol ink marker success:

And, as posted previously, I love the result!

So, there's that! I plan to use the rest of the bricks as a little walkway up to the front step when I get to the yard. On the immediate docket: I'm still planning to paint inside!! My paints are literally sitting in front of the computer monitor taunting me, so let's see what I can do to get that party started!