Mini Paper Punches

I ordered a lot of paper punches off of  Etsy back when I was working on my Bake Shop, and they arrived from India, finally, lol.

My package from India

 They were nicely packaged in a padded brown envelope. 

A lot of paper punches

 I was so excited to see this, lol.  I removed the bubble wrap and found yet another bag, lol.  I opened that, and sorted through the various punches.  I knew that I'd be getting some doubles but for the price (10 Canadian) but I was thrilled with what I got.

And yet another bag, lol

 Here they are in a pile, finally out of the bag(s).

 Here they are sorted by shape.  As you can see below,  I got 5 different punches, with some repeats.

Paper Punches

There were 10 punches in total, with 1 Daisy punch, 2 Clover punches, 3 Oak leaf punches, 3 regular leaf punches, and 1 Holly leaf punch. 

In the photo below, you can see one of each punch.  I chose one of each color for my set.

Set of miniature craft punches

 I ordered them because I wanted leaf punches for making miniature flowers.  I made mini roses, delphiniums, and petunias for my bake shop patio, and cutting the leaves was a nightmare.  I used a heart shaped punch for the leaves and it just didn't look right.  I can't wait to make more flowers now that I have these lovely leaf punches.

Testing the mini craft punches

 I grabbed a bit of construction paper from my recycling and tested them out; they work great!  Below you can see them displayed on a dollar store 1:12 scale coffee table.

Cut outs made with paper punches

 I went into my craft bin and pulled out all of my miniature craft punches;  with the addition of the 5 new ones, I have quite a lot now.   The two in the center of the pic below (pink scallop edged circle and green plain circle) were bought at the dollar store.  I looked for months and they never have any other shapes in stock, and seldom have these ones, so I was lucky finding these.

I also have these big paper punches, so I have quite enough now.  The big white ones were on sale for 40 or 50 percent off at Michael;s when I bought them, so all in all, I got great deals on my craft punches. 

I can't wait to make more flowers now that I have the leaf punches, but first I need to finish my pet shop.

Mini Cheese Board with Crackers and Cheese

I worked hard all weekend and made more crackers and some cheese to go with my cheese boards.

1:12 scale miniature cheese board with crackers and cheese

Doesn't it look yummy?  I had to stop and eat cheese after seeing the photos, lol.  In person, the cheddar just looks like little tiny specs to me, but once the picture is enlarged like this, it looks good enough to eat.  My crackers are a little too thick, but still make me want to eat them, lol.  That's so bad; talk about food obsessed, lol, that polymer clay food makes me hungry.

1:12 scale mini cheese boards with cheese and crackers (polymer clay)

I made 3 trays in total, soda crackers, ritz crackers, and 4 different kinds of cheese.  The swiss cheese was still in the oven when I took these photos.  I mad eso many crackers that I had to find printable cracker boxes online so I could store the extras.  I even made little bags out of waxed paper to fit inside the boxes.

Mini Cheese Boards

Mini Cheese board with cheddar

Mini cheese boards

I had a blast making these. 
Thanks for visiting!

Mini Pet Shop contents: pillows, collars, books, dog bed

I've been busy making these teeny tiny items for my pet shop.

Mini DIY pet shop kit items

The tiny collars are so cute.  They're just strips of felt with little buttons glued on, and the silver part is a silver twist tie (like for tying up garbage bags).  The books have pages, but they're blank, lol. So tiny!  I wanted to get a photo with a coin to show size but the battery on my camera died so it's recharging now.

The white pillow is just three layers of felt, cut in bone shapes and glued together.  The blue pillow is an actual pillow that I sewed and stuffed, with a felt dog paw applique glued on.  The dog bed is ingenious; it's just a printable rectangular box, with strips of rafia paper glued on in the round, so it looks like a basket.  Then a bit of cloth was glued inside.  The dog came with the kit.

DIY mini pet shop kit

So this is what I have done so far.  I have to glue the shelves into the store, and then I can start gluing the items down.  I still have some of bag B to finish, and then I can start on bag C, the final bag.  Then I'll get my Dad to do the wiring for the lighting, lol, and it will be done!  It will still take quite awhile as the tiny items that go inside are very fiddly and time consuming.  I'm enjoying making the items a lot more than I enjoyed making the shop itself.

Miniature Curtains, Cash Register Stand, and Furniture Placement

My little foamcore doll shop is coming along!  Last night I glued in the shelf unit and the little table, and added curtains.  I put little foam corner decorations on the top of the shelf unit and they were perfectly even when I glued them on but I noticed they've shifted a bit.  I guess I squished them when I put them on and they became unsquished, lol.  Next time I'll use card stock.  Live and learn :-).

 Sadie LOVES her curtains, and was so busy rearranging things and decorating that she brought her little daughter, Michelle, to help. 

 The cash register counter was made from one of the dollar tree dressers I bought the other day.  I turned it upside down and backward, lol, and decopaged it with mod podge, a card I designed to use as the store name, and bits of tissue paper.  I'm happy with the way it came out.  I used two of the little legs to hold miniature napkins in place. 

Dollar tree miniature dresser turned upside down and backward and mod podged into a counter, lol.

Foam core mini bake shop in progress.

Foam core mini dollhouse cake shop in progress

I'm loving this little shop, and my favorite part is learning how to take every day or found or dollar store items and turning them into minis.

So far I've learned that dollar store foam core sheets make great structures.  Scrap book paper makes great wallpaper.  Buttons make great clocks and cake trays.  Mod podge is wonderful.  Cutting and folding printables is frustrating.  Ribbon, dowel, and lace make cute curtains.  Popsicle sticks make great shelf units.  Buttons make good doorknobs.  Beads make great computer monitor stands. My printer eats ink like it's starving. Cereal boxes can be cut and glued into layers to simulate thin wood.  Scissors get dull too quickly.  I have more glues than I ever thought I would. There is no such thing as a cheap dollhouse. And last but not least; I still like playing with dolls, lol. 

Found Item and Minis in the Mail!

Hello, hope you are having a good day.  I'm having a great day!  I was down the basement looking through my Dad's workshop and found two of these little tins.  They're just over an inch long and the lids slide on and off.  Well, this one does; the other is rusted closed.

 I asked my Dad what they were for, and he said he used to use them in his lighter.  I guess that was back before the disposable Bic lighters, lol.  When we opened this one, there were two tiny flints and a pile of dirt that must have been the others; they somehow disintegrated.

 This would make a great cookie tin for my bake shop, but it would also be cool to use it in a survival dollhouse scene, as flints that are used to start fires.  I'd love to do a survival scene...maybe a prepper's basement, or a zombie apocalypse, lol.  That would be fun!

 Sadie likes the little tin; it's just the right size for her.

 Yesterday this package was delivered from China.  I was so excited to open it because I knew it had to be my little pet shop kit.

 I opened it, and yes, it was!

 The wood storefront and box back is great quality wood, not like that thin stuff in my Laurel dollhouse kit.  There are little packets containing everything I'll need to make this kit, including wiring and lighting.  I'm going to start this next, after I finish my bake shop.  I'm a bit worried that the parts will be too small as it's not 1:12 scale, but half scale.  I love that all the bits are included in the kit; I don't have to scramble the way I'm doing for my cake shop (I spent way too much buying craft supplies to make my "cheap" foam core cake shop, lol).  If I can manage the small pieces, I'll do more of these kits from China. There are so many on Ebay that I just love, and the prices are great.

 This hole punch also arrived in the mail.  It's not as nice as the one I bought at Michael's last week, but Michael's didn't have the round 1 inch punch so I ordered this from Ebay.

 I also ordered this little purple plate punch.  I had no idea it was a home made item.  I kind of wish I'd known because I probably wouldn't have purchased it.  It's cute, and a great idea, but the little inner circle isn't completely round and it's very hard to turn it so the pieces will fit together.  I have to find the rough edges on both pieces and line them up.  I'll put some nail polish to show where the rough edges are so I can line them up more easily.  Maybe my Dad can file it down, or maybe I can...I do have a tiny electric sander.

 Below are the plates it can make.  The top plate is the one the punch came with, and the bottom two are the ones I tried to make.  I would get a callous if I used it the way it is because the rough edges catch.

 I also broke one of my little bead cases.  You know, those little cases of beads from the dollar store?  I didn't throw it away as the bigger piece would make a nice display shelf if I can figure out how to cut off the parts where they used to be attached by hinges. 

 I was thrilled to see there was an inner plastic thingy that I could easily cut up to use as trays for my bake shop display stand.

I cut them out and stacked them up; in the above photo there are two stacks of 4 trays.  I am so pleased with them, lol.

Huge Dollar Store Haul

I went to the Dollar Tree to buy shears to see if they work better than scissors at cutting craft sticks, and went a little crazy, lol.

I was thrilled to find our Dollar Tree FINALLY had some dollhouse furniture.  I kept hearing about how I could find minis at the Dollar Tree but we never had any here...until now.

Dollar tree furniture

 I bought every item they had, lol, and ended up with what you see here.  I thought the table was a dining table but it is too short, so maybe it's a big coffee table?

Sadie likes it anyway, lol.  She's very happy to have furniture that is not made from cardstock or craft sticks :-).

 I don't know if you can see, but this dresser above was cut weird...the lines aren't straight at all.

 The little legs on this chest of drawers were glued on crooked.  Sadie and I tried to pull them off to reglue them but they're really stuck on.  I think I may just paint this one and use it upside down in a bedroom scene, with the little legs painted to look like nail polish bottles or perfume bottles. They also sort of look like little baby bottles.

 I found these great little scrapbook paper books.  I've seen these at Michaels for a lot more than $1.25. 

 This would make great wallpaper for a focal point wall.  There are 6 sheets in each design.

 Here are the shears, scissors, and a hacksaw.  They're the reason I went to the dollar store. 

 I bought one of these little storage containers above to store my minis and it's already full so I bought two more. 

 I found a lightweight level for use with my Laurel kit, some glue, more little storage containers, and some candles just because I want the tin around them, lol.

 I bought these stencils hoping they'd be useful for polymer clay.

 And these dough cutters.

 Sadie likes the butterfly and thinks it would make a nice summertime cake.

 I grabbed a bunch of these baby toys in hopes that they could be used as clay cutters.  I had to buy all three because I wanted the circle from one, the square from another, and the oval from the third., lol.

 I am going to try using the square cutter to make brownies.

I also bought some tissue paper with tiny patterns on it, to use as cupcake wrappers, some glass things that look like cabachons but are not (I can't believe they were at the dollar tree when I paid full price for them at Michaels the other day).  I also picked up some baby rattle notions and a little flashlight.  I am going to try to hang the flashlight so the light shows but the flashlight does not, lol. 

Mini bowls

I saw a youtube video showing how to turn these little rattles into bowls.  You can view it here.
I used the new shears to cut them apart and ended up with these two cute bowls, which need to be sanded.

Sadie is thrilled with them!  I like them too!