Vintage Black Friday - miniature black dress

Since it's almost Halloween, I figured I'd share the miniature witch doll I dressed, now part of a miniature museum exhibit.

The little witch's dress was made from a piece of vintage black silk. It looked like part of a corset. It had hem lines sewn in it. I reversed it and used the "wrong" side to use as the hem and for a design in the dress bottom.

The hat also is black silk.

See more miniatures at my miniatures gallery.

I will be sharing more Halloween miniatures during the 12 Days of Halloween in Miniature from Oct. 20-31 so be sure to stop back!

** More Halloween Fun:
It’s him vs. them…. Who will win?

Excerpt from THE WITCH TREE by C.A. Verstraete:

What he noticed first was the sound.

Jimmy Grayson lifted his head from the grimy pillow, stared at the open window, and cringed. The onslaught seemed to come from every direction. He placed a hand over his ear to try to block it out. No such luck. High-pitched screeches, nonstop chattering, the endless wall of freaking sound was making him crazy.

In one swift motion, he threw off the dingy, worn quilt, catapulted from the bed, and rushed to the window. "Shut up!" he screamed, not caring how unhinged he sounded. "Shut the hell up!"

It stopped.

Ahhh. A deep sigh escaped him; an appreciation for the quiet filled him. He exhaled in a soft whoosh of air. The muscles in his neck relaxed as the tension left. His eyes closed almost of themselves-then popped open as the cacophony started up again.
The endless, unendurable shrieks, chirps, and chatters surrounded him from all sides like a blanket. With each passing second, the sound from hundreds of blackbirds increased in volume.

** I dare you to read on! Turn the lights low, or fire up the laptop and read THE WITCH TREE. Oh, don’t forget to lock the door!

* Buy THE WITCH TREE at Fictionwise

Kreativ Blog Award

Thanks to Katie at Katie's Clay Corner for this new Kreativ Blog Award. I'm with her; hadn't seen any for awhile and now they're going around again. Fine with me! I like them and it gives me something else to write about and suggest new fun, blogs to read.


The rules for this award are:
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it in your blog.
3. Link the person who nominated you.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know.
5. Nominate seven 'Kreativ Bloggers'
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

7 things about me:
1. I have miniatures all over my house.
2. I have birds in my living room wall. (a built-in aviary)
3. My favorite doll is Thumbelina, a baby doll the size of a real baby from the late 1950s-1960s.
4. If miniatures were money, I'd be a millionaire. Ok maybe a billionaire. haa!
5. I procrastinate.
6. I hate spiders.
7. I'll run into a busy street to rescue a lost animal.

7 blogs I nominate:
1. Grace at TreeFeathers. Great books!
2. Marsha at Sassy Mini Dolls. Fun dolls!
3. Christina RodriguezGreat artist!
4. Morgan Mandel at Double M's Take Great promoter!
5. Kitty at Minis by Kitty Great minis!
6. Tracy at Minis on the Edge Great houses!
7. Charlene at MiniBella Great creative ideas for remaking things inexpensively!

Have fun everyone!

A Merry Miniature Christmas Tree! Already?

New Hampshire miniaturist Michelle Riley sent this adorable photo in response to the story on Alice Zinn's miniature dogs.

Michelle won one of Alice's dogs as a prize in a contest at The Camp miniatures list and shares this fun Christmas scene. Love the colored bones on the tree!

Hey, it's not too early for Christmas. In fact, this year this would be considered late! (Stuff is already out in stores. Some places like Harrod's even had Santa come in for a true Christmas in July. Can you believe it?)

Margaret Grace Book Winners!

I want to again thank Margaret Grace/Camille Minichino for her great visit and her fantastic how-to. (See previous two days posts. Scroll down or see archive list at bottom of right column.)

So here are winners of her free book giveaway:

Lynne Landygo

Glenna - (blueuni47)

christina rodriguez

** If Camille did not contact you, please make sure you email her at her website with your mailing address so she can send your books.

Congrats!

Miniatures Monday: New Miniature Food Book

Now you can appreciate food in a new way. You can enjoy it anywhere - without calories!

I've long admired the work of polymer clay artists who have a knack for making miniature food that is not only perfect for the dollhouse, but is wearable, too!

How fun to wear hot dog earrings or PetitPlat's fun layer cake or tart earrings, or rings with little cupcakes? There's even a breakfast plate necklace by KishCrafts on Etsy.

Well I didn't realize the trend was popular enough beyond the dollhouse collecting crowd to warrant its own book! (Here's a clue: do a search for miniature food jewelry on Etsy and over 2,000 items come up!)

POLYMER CLAY COOKBOOK: Tiny Food Jewelry to Whip Up and Wear by Jessica and Susan Partain (Watson-Guptill Oct. 20, 2009) includes instructions to make 20 realistic food charms. The "cookbook-style" book is said to be aimed at the "beginning miniaturist chef." I don't know if the pieces are exactly dollhouse scale, but I'm sure those skilled with clay can scale down the sizes if needed.

The "recipes" are grouped by category: fruits, breakfast, lunch and dinner, sweets and snacks, and holiday foods. Each recipe has a list of "ingredients," step-by-step directions with photographs, and suggested variations. Finished pieces are shown as a particular jewelry item, but readers can adapt the item to whatever jewelry item they choose. The book also includes a real recipe in each chapter. How fun!

* BUY at Amazon.com: The Polymer Clay Cookbook: Tiny Food Jewelry to Whip Up and Wear

* A good addition to Sue Heaser's FOOD DISPLAYS - BUY at Amazon.com: Food Displays: Step-By-Step Instructions for over 40 Projects (Dolls House Do-It-Yourself)








** Plus the NEW Angie Scarr MINIATURE FOOD MASTERCLASS - BUY at Amazon.com: Miniature Food Masterclass: Materials and Techniques for Model-Makers

New Author Snapshot Column at Mysterical-e

My latest Author Snapshot column in the winter issue of Mysterical-e is now up.

See "snapshots" of some great new mystery books by authors Gayle Carline, FREEZER BURN; Joseph R.G. DeMarco, MURDER AT CAMAC; and Mary Welk, THE RUNE STONE MURDERS.

In the Pink on Pink Saturday - Love those Pink Miniatures!

It's another Pink Saturday, so I decided to come play again with Beverly and the crowd.

First stop, I checked out two blogs, hello to Barb at Dogmom Diva (love that name!) and Tricia at Altered Schoolmarm.





First Goal: Click for Breast Cancer!


Just go here and click to provide free mammograms to women in need!


What else is Pink this week?


I'm featuring some fun pink miniature foods I came across - many you can wear, too!

There's something fun about miniature food. Besides being calorie free, it's attention-getting, charming, and well, I have to say it, just plain cute!

* Etsy.com is a great place to find unique miniature food made mostly of polymer clay that you can admire - and wear. There seems to be a lot of people who like to wear their food as earrings, rings, brooches and pendants, etc. A few examples I found:

* Paris Miniatures' pink cappuccino cup earrings.

* French miniaturist Stephanie Kilgast (PetitPlat) does some yummy miniature food in pink! How about this wonderful "Princess Delight" pink layer cake? (see photo above) and a yummy looking pink tart ring.

* Now this is cool! Danzdzynes' makes scented cupcake and donut charms! How fun! (Don't wear when you're hungry. ha!)

* I scream, you scream...Dirtroadsouth offers a fun ice cream cone pendant, 1 1/4" tall.

* Beadpassion has pretty items like this pretty Strawberry Fields cupcake pendant. I Love the details.

Are you hungry yet??

Hope you have a great week!

** Now that you have your dessert... how about enjoying it with a cup of coffee or tea, and a copy of one of my books? **

Perfect for Halloween! - "The Witch Tree" - Will it be him... or them? Jimmy Grayson thought he found utopia - and then they came.

A spooky short story. Buy at Fictionwise.






* In Searching for a Starry Night, A Miniature Art Mystery, Sam and her bff, Lita, along with a mischievous Dachshund named Petey, face a dog-hating gardener, an angry housekeeper, and an ancient family curse in this middle grade mystery.

(Available in print, ebook, and Kindle - ages 8/9 and up.)

October is National Dollhouse Miniatures Month

I surely want to tout my favorite hobby since October is National Dollhouse Miniatures Month. (Pictured: My wizard dog)

I've been collecting for more than a decade and unlike some things, I still haven't tired of miniatures. My problem now is not finishing things!

If you haven't seen it, take a look at my collection at the Verstraete Miniatures Gallery

The nice thing about the hobby is you can try all kinds of crafts: dressing miniature dolls, painting, decoupage, clay modeling, and more.

Here are some sites with fun easy projects. Try one! And have a look around. Maybe you'll get inspired!

* Misshelly's Zoo has some fun how-to projects like making your own craft table and scrapbook scene.

* Ha! Check this out: These miniature clay dolls sing! Beware they sound like mice on speed, but they're cute - and animated!

* Check out Jim's site for the best selection of dollhouse printables (printies).

* I also have two pages of miniature book printies on my website.

Have fun!

First Graphs: Crossing the Centerline by Allan E. Ansorge

Welcome to Allan E. Ansorge, author of CROSSING THE CENTERLINE (Echelon Press, July '09), the first in a six-book mystery series set in Wisconsin.

Someone is trying to kill Carl Fletcher, and for the life of him he can't figure out why.

After what appeared to be a hit-and-run accident that cost the life of his fiancée, the full use of his right leg, and his career, Carl seeks a new life as a charter boat captain.

While he is out of town, another failed attempt is made on his life. His ex-partner in the Wisc. Sheriff's Dept. learns nothing is being done to find out who's hunting Carl, so he and Carl's internet-addicted, gun-toting mother, set out to find who wants Carl dead and hopefully stop them.



Excerpt from CROSSING THE CENTERLINE:

Chapter 1 - Things Do Go Click In The Night

It wasn’t what Detective Michael McCaffery heard that woke him, but rather what he didn’t. Something familiar was gone. He had been living on this boat for three weeks now. The groans of the lines, the squeaks of the dock bumpers, and thumps of the hull had given him many sleepless nights. By now he was used to all he should have been hearing and wasn’t.

He lay in the queen-size bunk in the aft cabin and tried to figure out what had changed. Mike really didn’t want to brave the dew before the sun was high enough to drive the chill from the air. There was something wrong, though; he could feel it.

Mike was a transplant from New York’s Hells Kitchen, a true Irish copper. He claimed to be what his grandfather called Black Irish, which prompted most people to think he was Italian. Whatever his inherited traits were, they did not include a love of the sea. He never cared much for water of any sort, especially if it wasn’t in a glass and couldn’t be called a chaser. But when a friend asks you to keep an eye on the one thing left in his world he truly loves, you compromise.

For the last month someone had been vandalizing boats in marinas up and down the Lake Michigan shoreline from Port Washington to Kenosha. The timing couldn’t have been worse for Mike’s friend Carl to leave his boat unattended for a month.

** Buy: Amazon.com

Miniatures How To by Margaret Grace, author of Mourning in Miniature

For Part Two of our visit with Margaret Grace, author of the Miniature Mystery series, including the just released MOURNING IN MINIATURE, we're featuring a special post today: an easy miniature how-to.

Make an Easy Miniature Hat and Purse Set - By Camille Minichino/Margaret Grace

I'm not your typical miniaturist—infinitely patient, with a large dose of perfectionism.

I'm the quick and easy kind of miniaturist, much like the main character in my Miniature Mysteries series. Like Gerry, I'm thrilled when I can make something in less than half an hour and have it look good!

Here are some examples. The hats and purses pictured are so easy to make, they're day-care projects.

Easy Handbags

Materials: FIMO or other craft clay; pieces of thin chain (rummage through your jewelry drawer for those broken necklaces); embellishments (trims, flowers, beads, feathers); varnish or glaze.

Tools: Toaster oven, craft knife, scissors, small paint brush, tile or work surface.

1. Choose a block of colored clay and break off a piece that will be about the size of a regular marble when rolled between your palms.

2. Knead the clay until it's a workable ball.

3. Roll out clay (tile surfaces work well), as you would a pie crust (not that I've done that) with a pencil or dowel until it's about 1 1/2 inches wide on the long axis of an oval.

4. Use a sharp craft knife to trim away edges, leaving a rectangle.

5. Fold the bottom third (approximately, depending on the style purse you want) over the rest of the rectangle, leaving the top third to fold over for the purse's flap.

6. Before pressing the layers down, insert a piece of chain to make a strap.

7. Seal the edges and bake in a toaster oven according to directions that come with the clay – generally about 250 degrees for about 15 minutes.

8. Make several purses in different styles and colors, some wide, some deep, and bake all at once for efficiency. When cool, purses should lift off the tray easily.

9. Paint the entire surface of the purse with varnish or glaze to give a more realistic texture.

10. Add embellishments for a "clasp" or elsewhere on the purse. On the purse shown, I sprinkled shredded foam for a whimsical effect.


HATS

1. Start out the same way, but with a larger ball that can be rolled into a circle from 1 to 2 inches in diameter. A smaller circle will give you a cloche-like hat; a larger circle ends up with a brim.

2. Pick up the circle of clay and form it using your finger or another bowl-like object. Allow the clay to droop over the tip of your finger. The floppy part will be the brim, which you can shape any way you want: turn it up, trim to make even, or leave it as it is, crimping it into folds.

In this case a scissors works better than a knife-to protect your finger! The hardest part is getting the "bowl" of the hat to look right. If you've rolled the clay too thin at that spot, it will split and any patching will show.

3. Bake and handle as in above steps 7 through 10.

Use the hats and purses to accessorize any shadow box or room in a dollhouse. Or make dozens and open a hat and purse shop!

**Fun - and easy. Who can beat that? Thanks, Camille!

** Read about the Miniature Mystery series.

** Read about Camille Minichino/Margaret Grace and see her miniatures in part 1.


** Buy: