More Christmas Miniatures

 

You thought it was over? ha! Well, I have some really cool things to share! (*Click photos for full size.)

I worked on this cute little Rolife Robotime kit (above), the Christmas Candy Stand, my friend Gigi got for us as a Chriistmas project. This is such a cute kit with lots of fun details! I added some sparkle on the roof and some sparkly snow around the front and in spots on the awning to give it more of a winter feel. It was a fun kit to do and actually got it done in one day!

It was a great Christmas for miniatures! My friend was pretty busy! She made this cute chocolate skull and cookie tray, which will look perfect in the Witch's Bakery window, And she made these dozens of fun little food boxes. So much folding!! Love 'em!

The gift I really got the biggest kick out of was this: a picture of my late 2008 Pontiac G5. I called it my Bumblebee car. I didn't think of framing a photo but she printed another photo for me, too, so I'll hang one in the half-scale garage I'll be doing soon.

But here's something really fun and sooo creative! She made these jars of some pieces of the car for my creepy bakery shelves calling it "Essence of Bumblebee." I'm going to add a shelf of "ingredient" bottles for the bakery chef, so it'll fit right in. I thought this was so cool and such a neat memento! It must be a memento year as I made her a mini memory box, too!

She also got me a very cool 4-poster bed set that will work with my later semi-modern Tudor project. I'll share more on that when I decide to work on it. The 2nd rare 1" scale kit I'll do.

We also shared the Miniverse Balls: I bought us the Books Series 2 and she got the Make it Mini Mini (the set that goes with the fridge.) Well.... the mini foods are pretty cute. And! Some of them would work with 1/12th scale. Uh-Oh!! ha! (The pizza has "nuggets" too which I forgot here.)

I also finally tried one of the Harry Potter Honeydukes balls, which have some intriguing dessert projects. I got a worm/snake mold so this one will be kind of fun to do. I'd really like to get those skeleton cookies or the skull cupcakes in that one.

Really nice was I got a couple kits, a garden kit from my friend Jean, and this vintage cabinet kit from Gigi. Both will be fun to work on. That's plus a few others I bought myself.(Shhhh!)

So it will be a busy year coming up with lots to work on. I have been thinking more on that garage, so that's probably what I'll be getting out next while I finish up the bakery exterior and fill the inside. I think I'm going to set the other building for the restaurant aside for a bit as I want to get back to half-scale. I can't stay away from it for too long! 

I even have been eyeing the long-put-aside smaller Raggedy Ann house which is all electric taped and ready to wallpaper. As both this and the garage are smaller, I just might do them together and make them coordinate on the outside until I do another house to go with the garage. I do have a larger country cabin-type house still in the box, too. We shall see!

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* Thank you for visiting the blog all year and reading my posts. I enjoy sharing my miniatures (and books!) and hope you keep following along next year. 

And so you know - I'm open to sharing any of your projects as well so email me via the profile box on the top of the blog. Or it might be fun to share ideas or things you are in search of. I can share a weekly running list of wanted items or things you need suggestions for if anyone needs help with something. **And who knows? In my giant stash I may have some things you are looking for!

* PS - don't forget: You can sign up for headline email alerts in the box in the left colum so you know when a new post comes up.

* Nope, this isn't the last post of the year. I'll have my Yearly Project Recap coming up so be sure to come back. 

* As the Golden Girls song goes, "Thank You for Being a Friend.!* 

Miniature Greenhouse

Still working on the Mini-Mini Greenhouse while I'm shingling the Lavender Cottage dormers. (*Update: The rows are done! Yay! Now to paint and paint and... ) (*Click photos for full size.) 

In the meantime, I also changed and finished the front flowerbeds on that house. Switched a few things around as I wanted to use these purple bushes on each end. That looks better! The center pieces are removable in case I want to change some flowers out for seasons later on.

The greenhouse kit is almost done. (In case you're wondering, the greenhouse measures 6" h and 6" square.) Deciding on interior layout. The furniture pieces are filled. It's a greenhouse shop, so visitors can buy plants to products. PS - there's a mistake on one of the stands that I noticed (and fixed) after the photo was taken. (Of course!) Can you spot it? 😅

The various plant food, bug stuff, etc. canisters are from the potting bench project on Joann Swanson's DIY site. Some good printies and ideas here. I wrapped the printie labels around dowels or you can roll the paper as she shows. The tops I used are made from a 1/8" punch. The seed box I made was cut from mat board, with a label printed out. The kids' and gardening books are front cover printies of books I found online. I also made a small chaise that I wanted to put in the corner. 

A fun, simple project.

Speaking of greenhouses, here's a small potting shed that I made before, attached to my half-scale Country house.

I hopefully will be painting the Lavender Cottage roof soon and then can begin playing and setting up inside. That will take awhile... then what do I do???? ha! But... I am already envisioning changing it all around for Halloween! 

* Thanks again for visiting. Stay tuned for more projects and updates! * 

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!

Birthday & Advent Calendar Miniatures

The "birthday" cake shop

Had some pre-birthday fun with good friend Gigi. This year was a first as we also decided to make each other a miniatures-filled advent calendar. What a fun idea!

First I have to share the so-cute little scene (above) that she made for me from a kit. These are so cute (and she has more patience than me in working in this size.) The little scene is 4.5" high.

She also gave me two of these really cool Tudor-inspired wood benches she made from a kit (country benches kit, The Daisy House), and I made another two. They will go in a Tudor-flavored loft house I'll be working on soon. I have a great batch of Tudor-Medieval style food I got years ago in swaps that I've been saving to eventually do this kind of project. It's one of the very few 1" scale projects I'll be doing.

The adorable Raggedy Ann box is part of the Advent Calendar we are exchanging with each other for the first time this year. Fun thinking what to make and what to fill it with! 

The box is actually a trunk she made from a Dragonfly Intl. kit. I have admired the kit, but never got around to buying one. Sooo cute! And while 1" scale, I'm still going to put it in the half-scale Raggedy Ann house (to be finished at some point.) The photo shows it up lighter, but here's the inside: So cute and so detailed!

My photos are not too great, but I admit I'm too lazy to do the right set-up for the lighting. ha! Bear with me!

We opened the calendar days 1-4 since our get together was on Day 4. The funny thing was she had mixed up the dated boxes, something I didn't expect when I opened it! For some reason, I thought they'd be in order! So I had to re-shuffle my dated boxes around for her  too. ha!

She also gave me these teensy paper Halloween houses for the fireplace mantel and these really cute Halloween decorated plate shelves.

We'll be opening individual days on our own and then are getting together again two times before Christmas. It's always fun as it forces me to get some things done. ha!

This week I worked on a small kit I found at Goodwill of all places (Hobby Lobby Delightful Den kit). 

The bookcase, which I have to repaint, is about 3.5" high. I remade what was an odd-sized loveseat to turn it into a smaller chunky chair. I loved this print I found and thought it came out pretty well. I'm hoping both fit in the Lavender cottage or another house. I usually end up bashing these kits and taking out pieces to use in other projects instead of building the actual room.

Another holiday-themed project I'm working on is a half-scale Christmas house. I found one of these smaller plastic kid's toy houses and for $1.99 I couldn't pass it up! It'll work out well as a Christmas house since I didn't have a half-scale scene set up. So we'll see how far I get on it. I'm repainting it now and doing some wallpapering. I'll show the progress soon. 

That's it for the moment! Stay tuned for more Christmas miniatures and projects! Thanks again for visiting!

Next: Half Scale Miniature Cottage & Show

 New cottage!

(website photo)

Yes, yes, I still have other projects but I couldn't resist and got a new 1/24 - half-scale house. This time I got the Abriana Country Cottage from Laser Dollhouse Designs, a rather "cute" 3-story cottage. I liked it as it's not super big but still enough room to decorate. It's 14" w x 10" d x 19" h. (*Click photos for full size.)

 I got several other houses from them: first was the Park Ave. Mansion that I added a diner to; then the Jasmine Gothic Victorian Cottage, which became my Witch Cottage; then the Alisha Dollhouse, which is set aside and will be a kind of country cabin. (It may sound like a lot, but I've seen how kit prices have gone up, so it's good to buy these, paying them off over time, and buying them when they're relatively cheaper. I can see the price difference in kits I bought quite a while ago; and some kits I bought years ago. Besides, I don't drink or smoke, which is costlier. ha! )

I really do like the nice details this company offers in their houses. Great doors, and nice stairway and porch railings. Though all those tiny parts to paint always looks scary at first. ha! But I like the building challenge, the planning, and especially the decorating!

This time, I had to plan out the colors to see what would work. Decided on Lavender walls, Hauser Green (a darker sage green) window frames, Antique White windows with a purple in the line around the windows. I'm thinking of adding shutters in African Violet.

I'll have to make wisteria and work on that clematis kit I've put off every time I look at all the tiny petals! (kit photo - SDK Miniatures.) 

I may do a kind of 1940s-flavored interior, a mix of old and new, I think. Still deciding how I want the inside to look. I was going to do a sage kitchen in the other house, but I think I'll do a sage/yellow/white kitchen in this one. Here's a 1940s style kitchen (Daily Mail) a woman did that's pretty close to some of the kits I have. 

Maybe I'll use this sink and cooker kit I bought last year (or use the stove kit I have that looks like the one in the link):

I found some neat vintage linoleum patterns to make flooring:  I kind of like this one with yellow and green in it. 

Probably going to do some brick walls inside. I seem to do that in all the houses as I like the brick look and the paper has great detail. I have quite a bit of the textured white brick paper left that I used in the Park Ave. Mansion, (Starboc2/Etsy), so I might experiment putting a light coat of paint on it. 

I'll sort some kits soon to see what I might use in the house. 

Show Stuff: Here are a couple new kits I got at the show which I may or may not use in this house depending on how they fit in.

 

I liked this resin table for a hallway or near the front door inside.

Here's something fun: I got a kick out of the teensy dumpster and garbage bin. Going to dirty them up. Guess I'll have to have a doll or skeleton arm sticking out of the dumpster at Halloween. (I watch too much Blue Bloods on TV.) ha!

I also found a set of 3D printed pumpkins that I can paint and put lights in. Love the scary faces!

Another different garden statue and urn.

That's it for the moment! Thanks for visiting. Come back soon for more updates!

New Halloween Project: Abandoned Room

 

Hey, it even has a ghost already! haa! (Click photos for full size.)

While I'm working on furniture kits here and there, I've been deciding what larger project to do next.

I am leaning toward starting the half-scale country cabin kit I got awhile ago  - the Alisha Country house kit from Laser Dollhouse Designs. I have an idea of turning it into a more contemporary house, kind of black and white, which would be very different for me. But... I will put touches of color. I can't help it! Eventually, as I have to do some planning first since I want to change some things around in the house and it'll probably be the winter project. 

I'll also start setting up the small Halloween display in the real house. Will be nice to have something up and lit. In the meantime while I work (yes, still!) on decorating and filling the Van Buren dollhouse for Halloween, I thought of doing something smaller as an in-between project.

The box looks better painted gray. (Excuse the light on the glass.) (* See the room update here.)

I had another photo box sitting around, (this one is 5 1/2" h, 8 1/2" w, 3" d) that is smaller than the one I used for the Tiki Bar. I buy these things at Goodwill and set them aside until an idea hits. So.... once I saw my friend Gigi's teensy abandoned room, part of the Robin Betterley 2023 calendar club kit project, I realized the photo box would be perfect!

Here's the club kit:

Here's Gigi's teensy abandoned room which is sooo cute!

I like doing haunted houses and that, but I also like the messy, abandoned look which I haven't done yet. Believe it or not, it's really hard to totally mess something up, especially after you put a lot of work into making it!!

So that is the plan here: a fully abandoned half-scale room. I like the idea of building up the floor, too, to have the ground showing underneath as above.

  Some supplies to start:

First, I painted the whole box gray and will add some black over it for aging. I cut a false wall out of mat board and cut window holes in it. I have a couple Grandt Line plastic windows I've had awhile that work well since I'll be wrecking everything. I got them cheap so I won't feel bad messing them up. I put some LED lights behind the wall to light it up, dimly, of course! I also put a magazine landscape on the back wall behind the windows. I put wood sticks behind the wall to provide some space behind the windows.

Here's the wall so far (not glued in and paper not glued yet): Yes those are lights behind the windows. I had a two-light string and battery set on hand. (Evan Designs has all kinds of different sets.) I have to wallpaper the wall, and add some moss around the window and on that tree branch. I'll put the floor in after the wall is done and the paper in. 

The wallpaper (scrapbook paper) is cut in strips like real life, then dirtied, torn, pried up, and whatever else. I'll put up dingy ripped curtain remnants too. Might add some falling plaster and have visible brick patches, too. So far, so good!

Accessories will vary as I see what looks right. I have a plastic Victorian couch that will be perfect to break and wreck. I cut part of that bookmark and dirtied it up. (Gasp!) It'll work here. The other part can be a small rug in another room.

It's been pretty fun working on this! Believe it or not, it's actually harder to make something messy. It's hard to decide to wreck kits or furniture on purpose and decorating-wise you don't want to go too far. Or is there really such a thing as too far in an abandoned room? We shall see!

I know, not a lot to show yet, but I think it's turning out pretty good so far. Sometimes a small project is a nice change,  though it often can take as much time as a larger one, right?

Making a list for myself of things I could add in:

* Mice, gotta have mice! Or rats... either way.

* Spider webbing cobwebs     * Broken lamp and end table

* Old picture frames and pictures   * Forgotten toys?

* A discarded suitcase or crate?    * Broken chair?

* A stack of old books and magazines, some with pages torn out.

Other suggestions are welcome. I'll share more pix as I get things done.

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* For fun: Get free mini Halloween cross-stitch patterns (black cat, pumpkin, bat, etc.) I use 22 count cloth for smaller results.

Thanks again for visiting! I appreciate you stopping by! Come back soon for more updates.

* PS -  Don't forget, you can sign up for the headline email updates in the left column to let you know when there's a new post.

Miniature Take Your Dog to Work Day

 Photo: Workspace in Fairfield Dollhouse attic. See top tab, My Dollhouses, for other links and photos.

While I'm still working on the Half Scale Witch Cottage, thought I'd share a few photos for some of the more unusual holidays. (Click photos for full size; see other posts in left column archives.)

Today is national Take Your Dog to Work Day, and if you work at home, your dog is there, of course. The 29th is also Work From Home Day. See calendar for other dates.

Funny that I never put a dog in all the miniature stores I've done, but I do put them in all my dollhouses, so I'll share those instead.

Another "work", crafting space in the attic of my Country Victorian house, with a companion. See video on website Miniatures page.(Scroll down past blog link there.)

Dog toy also in the Country Victorian house.

Another dog in my larger yellow Victorian dollhouse. (Video also on the miniatures website page. Scroll down past blog link there.)

Dog in my vintage doll Christmas room.

And of course! A corgi for my Tudor Tea Shoppe honoring the Queen!

Speaking of dogs....  Well, if you want to sit and work with a laptop in this room, good luck finding somewhere to sit! haa! My Dogcatcher's House has about 100 dogs. The fun was the theme and  finding all of them!

That's it for now. I know there 's more but it's finding the photos. ha!  I should have some new updates soon. I'm working on several things in the second floor of the Witch Cottage. Tricky stuff like papering the top tower....

Thanks again for visiting. Come back soon for new updates!