Uhh. Am I gonna die? Hello! Welcome back to Studson Studio! With a little bit of foam board… And corrugated paper… And a song we don’t talk about… We’re on our way to making the colorful
Casita. So colorful in fact that it will entirely
drain your printer of ink. Very cool. One printer refill later, here’s how big
this magic miracle mansion will be. Perfectly scaled for running an Encanto encounter. The main ingredient is dollar store foam board,
which needs a skin peel to expose its soft fleshy interior. This batch had very tenacious skin grip though. Usually it goes about like this. Times are changing. This foam board is going to make up all the
walls of the house, but we need to imprint it with bumpy aluminum texture to simulate
lumpy plaster texture. Rod rolling can only take the roughness so
far though. But a nice tight ball can add the deeper randomness
we need. With the foam properly lumped, let’s start
building the front door of Casita using an architectural process of vaguely holding a
ruler up to make it seem like I’m measuring something. Yes, that’s about right. Then we take those measurements and slice
approximately 100 rectangles of various sizes. One thing of note is I slice each wall that
will join at a corner at a 45 degree angle to help hide the seam, more on that later. The doorway has a stone archway around it,
which I made by lightly scoring the foam with a craft blade, then I went back over each
cut with a pencil to accentuate each line. Then I did the same thing for all the bricks
before hot gluing together the aforementioned angled corners. For the door, you might think it would be
tricky to get that rounded beam to wrap around the top, but if you cut balsa wood against
the grain, it actually bends quite easily. Almost as easily as EVA crafting foam, which
we’ll use instead. But we can still make use of these wooden
casualties for the wood slats that sit above the doorway. The rest of the wooden doorway is more wood
that doesn’t have to be curved into weird positions, then the door knob is an old earring
back. Next we’re moving up to the roof tiles with
my old friend, corrugated paper. Out of these offensively garish colors, we’ll
use orange because it burns my retinas the least. Slice up a bunch of strips… And let this bandage be a personal reminder
to me to stop hanging my finger over the ruler. I’m pre-making a bunch of roof panels, but
the secret trick is to angle each strip upward with hot glue so the edge can take a dry brush
easier when you’re painting. And for the roof bones, the process is basically
this: Start with a regular rectangle. Then make it into a kinda willy wonky hexagon,
then angle it up like this. Then trim pieces of the roof panels to fit
the roof skeleton and it’s done. But if you wanna take it to that next level,
borrow a few extra takeout straws to make those sturdy ridge tiles that overlap at each
of the roof ridges. Might as well prep a bunch just to be safe. And with the doorway done, that means we’ll
continue on with the rest of it. Starting with this block as we work our way
backward. Once again, rectangle. But with a couple holes blasted out for that
the interior wrap around deck that we’ll build later. I’ll be honest, my interior dimensions of
Casita are made up and completely wrong because I mainly care about the exterior looking good. But if you need detailed blueprints, there
are 100,000 Minecraft Casitas out there with complete accuracy. For the roof trim on this section, and also
every section, I’m whittling beams out of balsa wood. Then completing the inside of this block with
just enough structure to add part of the interior walkway later. Quick crafting tip for you. Did you know pretty much every box comes with
free creases that you can use for roof ridges or anything really? Think of all the time you’ll save. You don’t have to fold your own cardboard. Hot glue… This big L completes the main structure of
this block, but there’s also this little friend hiding in the shadows down here… Which I went ahead and made off camera since
it’s just a little guy. Now let’s cross over to this flower tower
over here, which belongs to Isabela. One of the members of the Madrigal family
with a “gift.” She has the power to generate infinite flocking
material without paying those hobby store prices. But isn’t Isabela isn’t quite as powerful
as these supporters on Patreon… …whom this month took part in an Art Challenge
to create something that expressed their own ideal gift or superpower that they have or
wish they had. Kinda like the smattering of superpowers and
gifts of the Madrigal family. These challenges are a new thing we’ve been
doing on Patreon and they’re pretty cool. Thanks for all your support and sending in
your art, patrons! Now back over to the flower tower. The first step was to whip up this box and
then stuff a tube in the corner to make this port hole thing. And here’s a hot tip. I used the business end of a hot glue gun
sans glue to create this nifty design that’s decently close to the stonework design on
Isabela’s tower. And then four walls for Isabela’s tower. *exaggerated gasp* Gotcha! You might notice that in a lot of these corners,
I’ve been adding corners. And that’s because the corners add a lot
of corner stability to cut down on general wobble. For many of the doors and windows, I glued
a bunch of thin balsa strips on paper board to make these wood slat sheets to speed up
making doors and windows on the fly. Then I capped it off with a cute pyramid head,
but there are still a few other details on the front side of the tower
I stole these beads from Bill Making Stuff. Thanks, Bill. Then for the balcony railing, I have these
fancy toothpicks, but all I need is the overly lathed end cap. I used every one I had on this project, so
now all I have is a box of regular boring smooth toothpicks, disgusting. We’ll attach the balcony later after painting,
but for now, this sections is done before we turn it into a pink bouquet later. Below this tower of flower is another brick
box. We’ll just rough this out using such techniques
as previously seen just minutes earlier But the really important test is to make sure
each section is properly balanced, let’s have a look.. Nice. Once more for safety. Really happy we won’t have to throw this
section in the trash. And then one more little guy hiding back here. Speaking of little hiding guys, who are you? Based on how this section looks peeking out
the top, I’m going to try to extrapolate what I think it looks like. Much like the other sections so far, this
section is also a vague rectangular tower, but with a notch cut out of the middle, which
is where the interior walkway will pass through later. And for the roof, there’s a notch cut out
of the side, which is where we’ll need a chimney. Oh cool, it’s done. This was carved out of a singular piece of
material, which is a technique I’ve seen some other creators use before. We’ll tuck this here, but on the other side,
there’s one more generic rectangle that belong’s to Luisa. You can’t really see it from the front,
since it’s being smothered by her sister Isabela’s tower, but it’s there under
the surface doing a lot of heavy lifting for Casita. Uh oh, video out of order alert, but we need
to pop back out to the front side to build this balcony. It’s pretty much the same as Isabela’s
fancy toothpick balcony from earlier, but as penance for suddenly making a nonsequential
video, I will take this L. But this L is actually a special feature that
enables a big W, which is, a wrap-around balcony. And now we come to Casita’s last two sections. Abuela’s miracle window and Bruno’s giant
green tower. My best guess is that these sections also
sit on a set of cuboids, like the rest of the house. I made these off camera, but you can have
these dimensions as a treat. On the first section is Abuela’s room, which
is sandwiched against the base of Bruno’s tower. Abuela’s room also has a window, and the
observant amongst you might notice Casita actually has other windows in fact. Most of these were made using the rounded
end of these craft sticks and a chisel. We’ll come back later to finish the exciting
saga of windows, but for now, this is the one that will house Abuela’s candle. For some extra wood detailing, I used some
tiny clothespins, but pinched off just the pinching portion. These make for some nice ornate beams that
line the edges of the roof tiles. Later, we will place the miracle of a magical
LED behind the window. But for now, we’ll set Abuela in her nook,
and slide her aside for her son’s section. That’s right, it’s time for everyone’s
favorite anxious Uncle. Bruno’s tower needs four columns made from
these cardboard tubes you might recognize… But we don’t talk about poo though. Next, I wrapped each tube in a piece of painters
tape to hide the cardboard seam, and capped off each end with a cute pink bead. From there, I built the tower up with pieces
of foam board and insulation foam before closing up each corner with the readymade columns. Until finally, the looming penthouse, which
seems to have a waffle texture on the walls. This is the look we’re going for. Foam melts at waffle iron temperature, so
try using a foam hot wire cutter instead by grazing the foam’s surface with just a gentle
lamb’s kiss. It was a little tricky to keep the lines even
while going freehand, but it’s close enough. Once you’ve completed what looks like an
inverted padded room, the windows can be filled out with a tiny bit of cross stitch canvas
grating. The trick is to keep your holes a little tight
so you can get a nice snug pressure fit. To hide the seam between these sections, we’ll
need a few foam tombstones. Each of these has an archway cut out, as well
as a little star-shaped asterisk window. You’ll have to make four identical pieces,
but one is bound to be uglier than the rest, so hide that one on the back where no one
will see it. And now the cherry on top, which I’m pretty
excited about because I have the perfect bit. Earring backs. Precariously stab a safety pin through the
hole in the middle, narrowly missing your finger, and you’ll have an almost film accurate
roof ornament. And that’s the last section! Tricked ya, there’s one more here that I
just sort of made up to fill in space leftover in the back. It isn’t in the movie, so please make up
a new Madrigal that lives here in the comments below. And here’s the complete Casita collection
before we move on to adding texture. I want to emulate the texture you see on adobe
walls, which is a material that actually starts as a goop. I’m using modeling paste as a goop base,
baking soda for a little extra gritty texture, and water to thin it out until we have a nice
slurpable Goop Soup. The consistency should be thick, but still
chuggable. Then using a sponge, while the goop glaze
is still a bit damp, continuously pat with a stippling motion until the brush strokes
are gone and the goop bumps are small. And don’t be afraid to double fist the goop
if you have some extra hands to help out. If your goop is too thick and starts to obscure
detail, use a toothpick to scrape out your cracks. Or for especially messy holes filled with
goop, a can of compressed air might work better. After a quick coat of white primer, it’s
looking almost exactly the same. Now let’s take it over to the airbrush for
some painting. I was just about ready to start, but then… Squirrel! Good bye, friend. The first pass with the airbrush is a pre-shading
step using black paint to add a shadow into the recesses where sunlight might not reach
or would otherwise be blocked by other geometry on the model. If you’re familiar with 3D modeling software,
this is pretty similar to the look of turning up the ambient occlusion. And whoops, I ran out of black paint, so let’s
switch to brown, which in hindsight, is actually better. This building will be painted yellow later,
so the brown should make for a warmer shadow. All right, pre-shading done. Now it’s time to add layering on some color
onto Casita. The house has an almost pastel scheme, so
we’ll mix these colors with white as needed. “Nice break!” Using an eyedropper, I like to use this suck
and squirt method until I have a smooth shade. Then I just start spraying in smooth even
passes, making sure not to completely cover up the pre-shading gradient from the previous
step. But there are no laws here, I just keep going
until it looks pretty good enough to my eyes. For areas where I would be bad at staying
within the lines, I used some masking tape to preserve the white primer below. And with the wall basecoats done, it’s now
roof time. The roof tiles are likely made of terra cotta,
so I painted them in terra cotta. This lovely terra cotta was also used for
Casita’s archway entry, as well as a family of similar hues for the various bricks around
the house. Then I went back and cleaned up the bricks
with white paint to act as the mortar. All the wood beams come in two shades; rusty
red or a tasty turquoise. After the beams, this color was also used
for the door, which was painted in a black to retain some darkness in the recesses. While staring at this, it started to bug me
how the roof tiles were all one color, so let’s spice it up with a couple variations
on terra cotta. It took a couple hours, but the result now
looks slightly less like a sheet of corrugated paper. And now for this mac n cheese-lookin’ waffle
on Bruno’s tower, each of the tiles was painted in the ghost of avocado.
…which was also dabbed, stippled, splotched, painted, and dry brushed across the whole
tower for a bit of plaster wear and tear. Speaking of dry brushing, that goes for the
whole Casita, using appropriate colors that are a lighter version of whatever color they’re
being painted over. I finished Bruno’s tower with a silver hood
ornament, then realized Isabela needs an ornament as well using a piece of this christmas tree
bauble. I then used a straw to paint these circular
sections, and the result is a mess. But it doesn’t matter, because this mess
will covered in flowers later. If it’s going to be hidden by another bit,
then it’s okay if it looks like not good. But do you know what does look good? This Rapunzel tower from Disney’s Tangled
made by my bud Knarb. I highly recommend a click after this to watch
him build a screen accurate bigature that towers over his three year old. It’s a super impressive Disney build that
required interrupting this video for. And now, back to our feature presentation. Painting is just about done, so let’s take
a short montage break while we install windows. And with painting finished, we can finally
move on to assembling Casita, starting with a fresh install of windows. All right, Mirabel, what do we need next? Floors! Where do we keep that? Drawer! Oh right, my thing of mini decks! As they always say, you can never have too
much deck, so here’s a sheet of stained stirring sticks ready to go. If you have extra…
…make sure you keep it for later. Using fancy toothpick railing, let’s fill
in the last remaining gaps here. Then for Bruno, I bent some very beefy staples
from armature wire to cage up his star holes. And now, I’ll stop talking so I don’t
ruin the assembly montage. And there it almost all is… Except for Abuela. Because it’s time to light the Miracle Candle,
in which the real miracle is how I did end up catching the whole house on fire. Instead of a fire hazard, we’ll use this
battery-powered dollar store tea light. For the candle itself, I used a nugget of
a paper straw, and the tiniest dab of hot glue, which is used to secure another tiny
dab of flame-shaped hot glue. After a quick pass of flame color, this Magic
Candle is ready to shine eternal or for three to four hours when the battery is depleted. And of course, there’s always one more thing
I forgot, whoops. For the chimney and weather vane, I used metal
beads, balsa wood, and a safety pin? No, a deluxe safety pin: Founders Edition. Beneath Casita is a whole lot of green, so
let’s build a big bushy base for this building. To sculpt this foam, I’m using a hot wire
foam cutter, so it’s important to grab some face protection because you don’t want to
be breathing in these hazardous fumes. This is my first time using this hot wire
tool and I must say it was very satisfying sculpting this generic, slightly sloped plateau. And there we go. Any lumpy imperfections don’t really matter,
because the whole thing is going to be hidden under a blanket of various greenery. Mmm, delicious gelato. Before we get to the base, let’s moss up
the house using pva glue and fine green flocking. This has the added benefit of filling in any
egregious gaps, hiding messy paint jobs, or covering up hideous shingles. And through the magic of glue, any extra flocking
can be brushed away and saved for another day. Alternatively, you can also just mix flocking
turf with glue to make green goop and brush it on directly, which is something I first
saw on Black Magic Craft. Casita is looking completa, except there’s
a void where the floor should be. A printed floor is fine. The house and base are collectively very light,
so tacky glue along the edges should be enough to keep it together. Then for the ground form around the house,
I’m mixing up a Boylei Hobby Time special of plaster, some dirty paint water, a couple
really old creamy beiges, and a fancy dripless pour of mod podge. “You just pour, and then you turn.” Mix it up a bit, then try to show the camera
without spilling, then mix some more until it’s a lumpy pancake batter. Spread that sauce nice and thick, and while
it’s still wet, lay down some pieces of tree bark as stones, ,and some stones as stones
for the front walkway. After it’s dry and looking like crusty earth,
it’s time for my favorite part: Using a static grass applicator to apply some
static grass with the power of electricity. I just can’t get enough of these tiny grass
blades, they’re just so cute. And then to add some variation to this unkempt
lawn, I used some spray adhesive and sprinkled on a bit more flocking here and there. Bushes. I have these palm trees that cost money. And these sticks that cost nothing. And they’re actually a big improvement. And if you’re wondering why they’re so
tall, that’s because the wax palms in Colombia are huge and absolutely rule. I gave it a trim and some highlights to really
accentuate those dead damaged leaves. And here’s the new and improved grove. Most of these were jabbed wherever I felt
like it, but these two in the front are specific movie tree placements. Along with a few more finishing touches in
front of these windows. But… There’s a disturbing lack of pink on the
house thus far. First we’ll bang out that tree next to the
front door using a sticky stick dipped into my green clump foliage nugget box. The green is a nice base layer, but it needs
a coat of pink flock, which I don’t have… yet. You can make your own clump flock using cheap
sponges, which I first saw on The Terrain Tutor. Make sure you follow his tutorial, and not
mine. Because what you shouldn’t use is an electric
grinder that isn’t meant to hold water. Uh, too late now. Am I gonna die? If you do manage to avoid getting electrocuted,
try using a blender next time. Any light colored sponge is good, but I had
the luxury of starting with pink as a cheat code to make it easier to tint them to another
shade of pink. Using about one part white pva glue to five
parts paint, I mixed up a batch of pleasing pink and hot blinding magenta. And since there’s glue in here, make sure
to spread them around a bit while they dry.. Back at tree town now, I frosted the tips
in glue, then dipped them deep in my pink pot. For Isabela’s tower, we need a blanket of
green before we can convert it to a pink palace. I attached a few green spider webs using this
hobby store vine product as a base layer, then I was a nasty little freak and used the
rest of the pink clumps. All done! Thanks for watching, everyone! As always, I couldn’t have done this without
the support on Patreon and the slammers of the like and subscribe button. Until then, enjoy the Casita beauty shots
and sing along if you know the words…
