Hello.
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5479044/304der.png)
Tried Ben's style because it looks cool, mine doesn't look nearly as detailed though. Plus I have no idea what brushes he uses.
C&C please. :P
I pretty much only use the absolute basic round brush in Photoshop. The very simplest one you can find :). For detail, it's just dropping size down to 1px and painting the detail in yourself. It doesn't take as long as you might think once you get used to it!
For blending I do use the next type of brush, the soft edged one, but that's really only when I want to blend things.
Your background is a decent start, I'd suggest filling the backdrop up a bit more with mountains and things at varying distances rather than with a single mountain, as it does look a little flat at the moment :)
The house bothers me a bit. Now it looks like made of a kid's building blocks. Take a look here http://www.bauen-tiere.ch/pi/bteil/sbs/sbs_dvo_b.jpg (http://www.bauen-tiere.ch/pi/bteil/sbs/sbs_dvo_b.jpg) or here http://www.carinthia-meisterwerkhaus.at/f_vario110.jpg (http://www.carinthia-meisterwerkhaus.at/f_vario110.jpg)
Yeah, the house looks very simple and unnatural. Also, if you put mountains in the back, make them brighter and less saturated to mimic distance. And if it's not supposed to be a volcano, change it's shape, mountains don't look like that (well, volcanos neither, but they often do have a more cone-like shape).