January 05, 2025

First 2025 Miniature Projects

 

What's on the worktable this year?

Made some new furniture (above). (*Click photos for full size.)

Awfully cute pieces so far. The empty shelves will have books, lots of books. It's all part of this Magic Library book nook kit I got for myself and my friend for Christmas. I have to say, it's a nice kit. Cute stuff, goes together well. No maker name on it but I got it on Amazon.

Then this got started:

I mentioned in November that I got the half-scale Abriana Country Cottage from Laser Dollhouse Designs, which I'm calling the Lavender Cottage. (website photo).



So far, all the windows are painted (22 larger, 2 small, what a chore!) though I still have to fill in the line around the window. Was trying to decide what color would look better? Leaning toward a darker green (marker).



Here's the base and first floor level  - so far. I know... real exciting. ha! This is a much smaller house (14" w x 10" d x 19" h) and funny as I didn't realize it doesn't have the exterior scribing for siding like the Witch Cottage has.


 I don't want to glue on siding, so I'm going to try something different - I'm thinking of using stucco (lightweight spackle from the hardware store) - in Lavender to match the theme idea. It can be tinted with acrylic paint. I'll share how that goes when I get to that point. I stuccoed a small house, the bakery, previously, which turned out fine. 

 I might have to change the name of the cottage as I am hoping to add a lot of wisteria vines to the outside. We'll see if I can do Lavender plants, too. Some plant ideas: SDK Miniatures has an ageratum plant kit, which could look nice in clumps for a border; 


I could also add purple pansies, some delphinium (but in purple), (website photos) and I've made some African violets before. We'll see what I have on hand and what I find at the Spring shows. I also have a lot of punches if I can figure out some other flowers.


There are always lots of decorative things to make when doing a house, so I'll be working on various kits and other things as well.

I shared earlier about the first two pieces I made for the Lavender Cottage, this chair and a plant, along with the clematis trellis, which really came out pretty. There are other pieces set aside as well.

An interesting find:

Found these nice 1/24 LED lights on ebay. Reasonable too ($6.49 pair) and they have a bright yellowish tone light to them. Ordered some more in black and a coach-style light. Going to use these on the front of the cottage. They come with a 3-volt battery pack (2 AAA batteries) but will probably run an electric tape line and use a small 3-volt transformer as you can go through a lot of batteries over time.

Just a small update. That's it for the moment! What are you working on?

Here's to more miniature fun this year! Thanks for visiting and your interest in my projects!