Treasures from Italia

I've not had much time for miniatures lately, but I did receive a welcome treat from the gracious and talented Flora. We have arranged a swap and here is what lucky me got in the mail:

My favorite candlesticks, some strawberry preserves, a parcel, and a lovely box of antique mail, postcards and photographs - just what I needed!

Thanks so much, Flora!!!

Yet Another Book

Hi, all. I've been working on the open book style and have made several this way. I'm trying out the Etsy thing, so if anyone's interested in purchasing one, or seeing more pictures - click on the link below.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/57564766/antique-style-open-book?ref=cat2_list_6

Have a great day!!

Wow...the most amazing miniature ever!!

Perhaps many of you Europeans or world travellers have seen this - I may make a trip to Germany just to see this - enjoy the video!

More Books and some Teeeny Tiiiny Tiles

I've continued with the book making little by little and here are the results. In the end (as if there could be an end), I think my favorite method is to print book printies onto printable fabric, give it a thin coat of modge podge and then glue a front a back cover cut from cardstock. I tried using parchment for the pages (browned in the toaster oven), and also plain paper pages with a gold edging. They both work very well.

I also made a trip to Micheal's on the long weekend and found these amazing little (5mm) pearly tiles. I just HAD to find a place to stick 'em. I think they'll make a nice "backsplash" in my kitchen cupboard. These come in about 4 different colors and one size larger too.

Welcome to all followers who have recently signed up!

Have a great day!

The Library Grows!

Been trying to learn to make books lately. With each one I try a new material or technique. I now have a wood block one, a couple leather ones, and some cloth covered ones, some with real pages that don't open and one that's laying open and can't close.

The redish one on the top is leather - I tried to paint some gold decoration on it. Maybe I'll have a steadier hand with the next one ;-) The open one is a journal with hand written pages in French that I found on the internet.

And - yay! - they fit on my tiny bookshelves!

Vanity...a work in progress

I've been working on my vanity. I'm not satisfied with it yet, but thought I'd share my progress. I'm also working on taking better photos, so I think I did better than my last post. I found a couple of websites with tips on photographing miniatures. Basically, I had the right settings - my main problem is keeping the camera still so there's no blurriness.

The beauty of photos is they really get you up close to see what the final product is. I'm really happy with the perfume bottles I've made - not so happy with the chunkiness of the tray, mirror and comb (and the ring - cute eh? but still too big like for those big fat "Barbie" fingers). I'll update you as I find (or make) improvements for these elements. Isn't the old bride photo neat? I got it from the Graphics Fairy, and the details are quite clear even in this small size - I love it.

      TTFN

No Wining!

Not doing too much mini-ing lately...I'm sure at my best I would have trouble keeping up with all you talented and productive miniaturists, but I sure enjoy your inspirations!
I am, however, quite proud of my little wine-bottling venture today. I had purchased three plain and empty wine bottles as I thought it would be fun to fill and label them myself. The pharmacist gave me a funny look when I told her what I wanted the syringe for, but who cares - it was worth it :-) These bottles are filled with real red wine, stoppered with a blob o' glue, and wrapped with tin foil (which I'm thinking I'll paint gold). Size-wise I think the bottles are a little too small and my wine glasses are a bit too big, but when I compared the difference to a 1:1 glass and bottle it wasn't too bad. I will however, be getting more bottles so I can try a little bit bigger and see how that goes.

Anyhoo, I also did some flowers from bits and bobs from Micheal's fake plant department (and used the cap off my syringe for a "frosted glass" vase! :-)

Have a great day!

Sweet Dreams

What could be better than a comfy bed, a glass of wine and a good book...?

Been doing a little antique shop browsing lately to see what kind of things I could find for minis. I was specifically looking for some old hankies to use for lacey sheets. Well I found a few nice (and clean!) ones and here is the result. The rest I can cut up for folded linen in the closet. I also found a cute little porcelain "Limoges" type of lidded box with a painted romantic scene on the top, which you can see more of in the picture below. I just love it.

I also recently ordered a bunch of picture frames which I need to touch up with paint and fill with pictures...and this little model ship which will adorn my more "masculine" library - cute eh?

Washstand

Yesterday I put together this washstand out of unused bits from furniture kits and (again) stair spindle legs. The carved bits are from a mirror kit whose parts I decided were more valuable than it's finished product. I think I may have made the wrong choice by painting the backsplash with gold paint, as it stood out more when dark. I'll mull that over...

Perhaps some accessories will again do the trick in making it look finished. I have so many little bitty things I need to make, it's hard to know where to start. Sigh, life is hard... :-)

 

More HOM Kits Done...

Well, I've been quite unproductive this last month...hard to find the energy for starting new projects sometimes - small as they may be. However, once started it's easy to get caught back up into it,
n'est pas?

Here are a few furniture pieces I've put together from House of Miniatures kits.

This is a little serving table that I think works well as a small desk for the library. I fashioned an inkwell from a couple of beads and a miniature feather pen which miraculously popped out of my sofa pillow last night. :-)

Here's a closed book shelf unit which sits on top of the cabinet I had already made. The one book I have is too big to go on the shelf so I need to make the next ones smaller, along with more thingamajigs to fill the shelves with.

I've also made a large queen anne table with a marble (real!) top. I painted it to match the bedroom furniture and it will be the vanity to place in the hall between the bedroom and bathroom, which will serve as a dressing area.

I'm quite proud of the little upholstered bench I made to go along with it - again from wood scraps left over from the house build, including stair spindles for legs.

Once again I need "stuff" to put on top of it, but I have started making a bit of jewellery, perfume bottles, etc. I want to hang the mirror on the wall but it's quite heavy and I'm not sure the putty will hold it - any ideas? How do you hang your pictures, etc. on the walls?

Have a happy day!

Spinning for Joy!

Look what I got! I finally picked up a proper display table for my house. It's from good ole' Ikea and has very long legs so it's more at eye level now. I also picked up a turntable from Home Depot and put it in between the two table tops - so it spins, yay! 

It's so much easier to work with the house now - both back and front at the same time with no lifting and turning (bumping, banging, breaking, cursing and swearing), etc.

Now I can finish off the outside of the house with steps, grass, flowers, etc. - what fun!

 

Drumroll, please...and the winner is...

The winner of the Wonderful Followers Spring Flowers Giveaway draw is....

Cheryl of  A Miniature Place

Cheryl, I hope you can enjoy these bits and pieces in one of your projects.

Congratulations and thanks so much for following my blog!

Also, I an overwhelmed by all the new followers that have joined recently! I'm so happy to have you all aboard and look forward to exploring your blogs as well. Happy mini-ing!!

 

Wonderful Followers Spring Flowers Giveaway

(try saying that 10 times really fast!)

Well, I'm not that good at keeping in touch and up to date with everyone...but I try. In any case I do very much appreciate all you wonderful folks who have included me in your little obsession and cyber-chatter thereof. It's very addictive indeed, and has caused me to discover a whole new way to share an interest with other like-minded people!  To show my appreciation I'm giving away all these items pictured in a draw, open to any of my first 105 followers who enter. I had planned to use the sofa as a prop only as it's not upholstered yet as planned...but if you like it - it's yours too!

A mention on your blog is much appreciated, but to enter simply make a comment on this post. I will make the draw on Friday, June 11th, so have your comments in to me by the time I get up Friday morning (who knows what time exactly that'll be).

Here are some closer-ups of the items. The "painting" is Nature's Glory by Albert Williams and is printed on fabric. You can see the grain of the fabric (like canvas) if you look closely. The basket below was woven by me and has seven peachy pink roses in it. You've probably seen these before in various photos of my house.

The hatbox has a fabric flower applique on the lid, lining inside the bottom and lid, and a millinery store label on the bottom, courtesy of  Karen, The Graphics Fairy. I didn't take a close-up of the pillow, but it's made from a printie I got from Linda of Simply Silk.

Best of luck to all!

A Lonely Dinner for One...

...and hungry, since there's not much food around here. I'd say I'm not nearly finished with this set yet. I really like the lyre bits (upside-down, of course, 'cuz I liked it better this way), but I don't think the dark walnut stain is working in the room with the lighter tone of the trim and baseboards. Either a different stain, or a paint color of some kind??? Chair seats need pads too - just trying to decide on a fabric. The plates are teenie Chrysnbon plastic ones which I hope to paint or apply a paper printed plate design onto...and of course food and many other details are needed for the room - soooo much work to do:-)

Oops - WAY too dirty!

Well, I took Annie of Obsidian Hall up on her challenge to add patina. I assumed that meant antiquing my furniture so I took the plunge and applied some stain. I guess I went overboard and the armoire looks a little like I pulled it out of a garbage dump. The bed looks good, though.

So... to try to fix it I went over it with the original color again with a dry brush.

I think it looks much better and I might lighten it a bit more. Anyway, I think the furniture has much more character now, don't you?

Here are the million pieces from a House of Miniatures kit for six lyre-back chairs, with two coats of walnut stain. I actually managed to get them all together this evening but was way too traumatized by the experience to take more pictures, so stay tuned for more.

Here is the table I made to go with the chairs. It was supposed to be two leaves bigger, but my dining room is too small - fortunately I can fit all six chairs around it, anyway. Will add some gold accents to both table and chairs and then show you when it's all finished.