Mini Window Box and Stone Rose Planters

I am finished making mini flowers; woohoo! 

Miniature window box full of flowers

I found the tutorial for the morning glories (blue hanging flowers) at About.com, here.

I made the flowers using my mini circle hole punch, and drew a five armed star shape with a white gel pen. This was similar to the Petunias, except they had 8 lines instead of 5. 

I used the heart shaped punch for the leaves.  Both the flowers and leaves were made from coffee filters that had been painted a few weeks ago, and all were shaped using a ball tipped embossing tool.  The hanging portion of the flowers are glued on to thread.  Yes, I glued flowers on to thread.  It was VERY fiddly and maddening but it was actually easier than gluing the flowers on to the wire.  I did the upright portions on wire, and bent them over. I like Alene's quick dry tacky glue for this.

The other flowers were made using my big border punch that punches out various flower shapes.  I used markers for the centers of some, and for others I painted the end of a wire yellow and pushed it right through the flower.  This worked better than gluing them to the ends of the wire; when I did that, the flowers kept straightening out on me.

Morning glories in progress

I really love the way the morning glories came out.  Blue flowers are my absolute favorite.

Mini long stem roses in stone planters

My rose planters are finished too.  I added some moss for greenery because I felt it needed something.  I love the roses but they'd be better in a vase than in the planters.  The white roses are my favorite; they were all made from coffee filters, but the white were unpainted.  I used acrylics for the red and yellow.  Next time I'm going to try water colors instead.

I enjoyed making the flowers and my Bake Shop Patio is looking so colorful.  I already glued all of these flower boxes into place, and I added some advertising and signage.  I just have to make some chair cushions and I'll be done.  I made one but it looks weird so I have to look at a few tutorials on how to do the corners.  I also suck at wrapping gifts when it comes to corners, lol. 
I added some craft sticks along the patio and roof to give it a more finished look and I'm happy with it.  I think I'm putting off doing the second chair cushion because then I'll be done, and I hate the thought of being done; I had so much fun with this project.

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.

Teeny Tiny Mini Clocks

These little mini clocks were so simple to make.  I found the tutorial on dollar store crafts; sorry I can't find the link again.  Basically you print out a clock face (shrink it in microsoft word), glue it onto a rimmed button, and glaze with 3 dimensional stuff that makes it look like a window.

Edit: The 3 dimensional stuff is called Mod Podge Dimensional Magic.  Sorry for my bad memory and being to lazy to get up to check when I first wrote the blog, lol.  I bought it at Michaels.
You can get it online too: Dimensional Magic on amazon .

Miniature Clocks

 I did the little brown one first and the dimensional stuff overflowed and got all over.  Then I did the other three, each of which has a cupcake on the face.  In real life clock numbers 2 and 3 are nicest, but in photos the 1st one is nicest; weird!

Sadie couldn't decide which one she liked best so she bought them all.  I wonder which one she'll choose?  Poor Rufus is staring at the empty cake platter.  Soon Rufus, soon. ;-)

Dollhouse miniature covered cake stand

I am so happy with the way this mini cake stand turned out! 
I saw a tutorial on youtube showing how to make a cake stand out of a pushpin and a button, and that is what this is.  I also added a cover (the top of my hairspray, lol), and a foam bottom so it wouldn't be as easy to tip over.

Dollhouse cake stand

Miniature cake stand

Trash to Treasure mini cake stand

The tutorial made it seem SO easy to take the metal tip off of a pushpin, but man, it's difficult!  My Dad had to do it for me, lol. I showed him the finished product just now and he cracked up laughing over how small it is.  You can see the toothpicks in the background of the above pic to get an idea.

I looked through all of my buttons to find one just slightly smaller than my hairspray lid so that the lid would fit over it just right.  It was an ugly deep burgandy with black discolorations, so I painted everything white, then went over it with pink nail polish to give a sort of glass effect.  I like the way the white shows through, giving it a marbled effect.

The button had holes so I filled them with glue and let that dry before I painted it.

My camera's charge gave out before I could get a photo of the cake stand without the cover, so I'll do that tomorrow.  I also worked on a little bistro style table and am waiting for the glue to dry.

Well, that's it for today.  Minis are addicting!

T5 challenge still working on

I'm still working on this, but I'm running out of time...I only have until St. Patrick's Day, on the 17th.
I probably won't even enter this, as I'm such a newbie and unsure what I'm doing yet, lol.
Here's what I have so far...I still want to touch up the paint and add a few more items, fix a few things...

T5 challenge in progress, unfinished

I may not be able to enter the challenge even if I wanted to, because I used spackle.  I've never used it before, and wanted to try it out.  It was cool...like frosting a cake.  I should have used more, but I didn't know if it would stick to cardboard or not.

OK, so here's what I used so far:
1. stir sticks-dock, rowboat.
2. toothpicks-dock
3. beads-sculls, bone, little silver thing that looks like a beer holder to me, lol.
4. feathers-part of two feathers, cut up, used for plant, stem of feather, cut used for base of sword, part of telescope (this is REALLY tiny).
5. Qtips- boat oars (1 qtip cut in half), part of telescope (feather stem and qtip stem, inserted in eatchother to make it)
6. Paper clip - parts of 1, cut up and twisted for oar locks
7. card stock - bottom of boat
8. small box - under rock on the right
9. paper -one sheet crumpled and painted to cover small box for rock on the right, half a sheet for photo image

I tried to make a treasure chest out of card stock, but failed miserably.  I can't get the printie to print to scale.

T5 in progress

I still had to use caps, so I found this cap for my ventolin inhaler (upper right), which sort of looked like a crate.  It's blue, so it doesn't go.  I tried using marker to color it, but it didn't work.  I don't know if paint will stick, as it's plastic.  I still have to use foam cards and felt, so I may cover it with strips of either of those. I put a piece of felt in it to remind myself, lol.

Oh, I was allowed to use an extra item not on the list, so I used part of a bobby pin for the sword.  The "handle" of the sword is another small piece of feather stem.  I painted the handle brass.

If only I had some experience, this could be really cute.  Everything I'm making is very amateur, which makes sense since I am an amateur, but it's frustrating when my brains sees something my hands can't make, lol.

I found the perfect sticker, in the shape of an anchor.  Once I add that, I'll have 10 items from the list.  If I can cover the ventolin cap with foam or felt, I'll have used 12 items from the list.  I plan to use the tea from a teabag for soil, but first I'm going to make a cup of tea, drink it, lol, and save some to dye a tiny piece of paper for my treasure map.  I plan to cut up pieces of an eraser to use as gold bars.  Oh, and the ribbon; I'm going to make a tiny flag from part of  the ribbon, and use the rest as a tether for the boat. So that will be 15 items on the list. Which means I still have to use 5 more!  There's no way, lol.  I can't even remember what else is on the list; I'll have to check.  I wish the list was made in word instead of pdf so I could just copy and paste it.

I was going to use bottle caps for the dock, which has turned into a sort of bridge/ladder, but it didn't look right.  Then I was going to use the push pins/thumb tack bases for the base of the dock, but I couldn't pull the pins out of the plastic.  I was afraid to cut them out, because it's been my experience that cutting things like that makes the tip go flying and those are sharp...I don't want my dogs to step on them.

I suppose I could use the foam board stuff and cut it in the shape of waves, but that would be tacky.  And not thumb-tacky, which I could use.

I was going to use cotton balls as white caps on waves...maybe I still can? I wonder if cotton balls can be needle felted?  If so, maybe I can needle felt a little pirate.

I only have one toothpaste cap, and it's on my toothpaste, so I'm using the ventolin cap as the toiletry cap. I keep my ventolin in the washroom medicine cabinet, so hopefully that will work.

I was thinking of using the toothpaste cap as the end of a cannon.  Maybe I can use the foam board stuff as a cannon?

Stick pins...I guess I could use them to secure the box/paper rock more securely?

I'm getting a headache, lol.  I wish I would have joined this group sooner, so I could have had more time.

Oh well, it's fun, and it's giving me some experience at thinking a different way.

T5 challenge continued

Well, I'm making a big mess with this challenge, lol.
So far I've used the stir sticks, toothpicks, paper, box smaller than 3 inches, qtips, bottle caps, feathers, beads.
Here's a picture (nothing but the box and photo are glued in yet, and not all items are in the picture.

T5 challenge in progress

It's not that nice looking.  Apparently my imagination is miles away from my ability, lol.  I know how I want this to look, but can't seem to do it.

I'm far from done, and there are only a few more days left in the challenge.

It doesn't help that I don't know how to use printies.  I found the cutest little treasure chest printie, but I can't shrink it down enough.

This photo shows the boat, made from stir sticks, the dock made from 4 toothpicks and stirstick left overs from the boat.  The dock is held up by two bottle caps on one side, and the small box covered with crumpled and painted paper (to look boulder like, lol) on the other side.  I have oars made from one double ended qtip, but it's still wet.  I want to make an anchor from a paper clip, and a sword from a paper clip and paper, if possible.  I have some feather trees, but thery're still wet.  I'm going to use the tea from the inside of a teabag as dirt, with part of a buried treasure (more beads) sticking out.  I wanted to make a little shovel.  I still have to use foam, more paper (not cardboard or poster board...I can't think of the name...some sort of paper board, lol).  I'm going to use part of the ribbon as a flag, and part of the ribbon as a rope to tie the rowboat to the dock.
I'm supposed to use thumbtacks...and I forget what else.

T5 challenge

Well, I joined a Canadian online miniature group, and they're having a trash to treasure challenge.  The ladies are all very talented, so my attempt at this challenge is going to fall far short, but I want to try, anyway.
When I first read the list of items we have to use, an idea popped into my head right away.
I read "napkin, tea bag," and thought "Treasure map!"  I thought I could dye the napkin with the tea and crumple the napkin up to look like an old treasure map.  I thought it would be cool to make it a 3D treasure map, with a sunken boat (the mast made of toothpicks sticking up out of the water), an anchor (paper clip),rickety falling apart dock (stir sticks and toothpicks), rowboat (stirsticks), skull (beads from Halloween), palm tree fronds (feathers painted green).  I'm allowed to use felt, a piece of green material, a piece of card stock, foam board, and other things.  We're allowed to use glue and whatever else we need to put it together...I wonder if that includes spackle, so I can make some caves?
Anyway, I have no experience with minis (other than my plastic canvas dollhouses), so even though I have lots of ideas, I don't know if I can put them into practice.
I tried playing around today, and this is what I have so far.  It's very rough...I was just trying to see if it could be done.  There's no stain or paint or anything, and the clamps are still holding the pieces together:

Rickety dock out of 4 toothpicks, 2 caps, part of one stir stick.  Rowboat from stir sticks, left overs from dock.

 

After the glue dries, I'm going to paint the caps grey to resemble cement, and stain the dock and boat.  I have to make a bottom for the boat, out of card stock.  I have weird looking toothpicks that I found at the dollar store that will make perfect oars when cut in half.  The toothpick sticking out of the boat isn't part of the boat; I just put it there to give the clamp something to hold onto.

Dollhouse update, and links to cool miniature websites

Well, I got an email saying my dollhouse kits have been shipped today, woohoo! 

Meanwhile, I finished stitching the interior of the plastic canvas dollhouse I'm curretly making. The pattern is called "My Pink Dollhouse", and it's for a 6 room, 3 story dollhouse.  I did all 30 of the interior pieces; here they are:

I'm using a big gift box from the dollar store to hold most of the pieces (I put a ful sized kleenex box next to it to show scale).  I love those dollar store gift boxes; they're perfect for storing craft items.  I have 4 of them, and want more, lol.  They'd actually make great room boxes too; they're already "wallpapered", in tiny patterns.

I've found soooo many great websites for making my own dollhouse miniatures.  My favorites are the trash to treasure websites, where they show how to use regular household items, like broken jewelry, straws, etc., to make miniatures.  Here are a few of my favorites so far:

My Small Obsessions
Creating Dollhouse Miniatures

I also found some terrific youtue tutorials:

I can't wait to try these out.

I also found a wonderful book  called Making Dollhouse Miniatures with Polymer Clay, by Sue Heaser.  It's the best Polymer book I've ever seen, and I'm so excited because it even shows how to make an old fashioned kitchen, complete with woodstove and country sink!  I can't wait until i have all of the supplies I need to try this.