Miniature Salad & HS Cottage Furniture

Between working again on the Lavender Cottage shingles (making a "little" progress), I am always doing a few other things. Oops! Thought I'd posted this, so some catching up to do!

 (* Click photos for full size.)

The 1" scale salad was an easy fun project I was determined to make as a birthday gift for my friend (Happy Birthday again Gigi!). I love making these salads! 

Also finally got some other furnishings done for the Lavender Cottage! 

This 1/24 half-scale ping-pong table kit (SDK Miniatures) turned out better than I thought it would! I'd had it awhile, then let it sit, so I figured better finish it before I lose the pieces! I think it's going to be that catch-all space in the Lavender Cottage attic. You know the one - exercise equipment, old pool or ping-pong, game tables, etc. I'll have to find things to pile on it. ha! 😏

These interesting books are not what you think!

They actually are book "drawer," kits from CastleCrafts. Perfect place to hide some jewelry or, hey--Chocolate! Turned out pretty cool, I'd say. I think I'll use the purple book in the cottage even if it's slightly bigger. 

Also from CastleCrafts is this French Easy Chair kit. I really love how this turned out. I have the chaise lounge, too. I might get another pair of these chairs for another project. I added a cushion and made the footstool from a stacked foam bead. I got a bag of different shaped foam beads a while ago from the dollar store.

Made more books. I've admired the different collections offered by Artsy Miniatures on Etsy. Yes, I make my own and it's simple enough to do with a photo program, but sometimes it's easier to just buy them so you don't have to hunt down and shrink photos. ha! This is the Home and Garden magazines/books. Pretty covers. (I reduced them for half-scale.) They're pretty small to fit a shelf, but I might print some a bit larger for the table. There's also a dogs and cats set that's rather cute. 

I also got these cute printable laundry crates on Etsy. I printed them smaller to fit in the half-scale house.

And added some impatiens to the cup and saucer feeder I made for the annual Half-Scale Swap. That looks better! I have a birdfeeder I might use as well and decorate the same. Have to decide what to put in the garden. Maybe make it seasonal to change out?

And lastly, I made a furniture set (SDK Miniatures) for the front of the cottage. I'll have to make some kind of chaise for the porch. I have other tables and chairs, too. It's a big porch, so lots of furniture (and plants!)

So, just some odds and ends. Back to my "favorite" part of miniatures - shingling! haa!

* Thanks again for visiting! Come back soon for more updates! *

Some Spooky Miniatures

 

The Before

No matter what, I can't seem to stay away from doing something spooky for long.

I'd seen this small corner vignette kit from The Covered Chipboard before the Spring Showcase show, but for some reason didn't think of reserving one. I got to the show and changed my mind, but the kits with the Gothic window were gone. (* Click photos for full size. And other kits I did get! See show post here.)

I decided to get the kit with the round spiderweb window and proceeded to see what I had in my stash to use. I figured the kit would make a nice half-scale background for photo taking and be a cute scene otherwise. 

After assembling and gluing, I covered the walls with lightweight Spackle (hole filling compound - you can get a small tub at the hardware store.) I like using this as it has a "frosting" consistency and can be tinted with acrylic paint.I also glued on some textured brick pieces to have exposed brick spots. I had to add in the two lights so they'd be under the wall compound.

I mixed in a mustard yellow and then -- oh! It came out more yellow than I wanted. 

No worry. I aged the walls with light washes of brown chocolate paint and touches of Wedgewood green. My friend came up with the great idea of adding some blue plastic on the window to give it a nighttime look and having rust lines streaming down the wall, like the window had leaked. I added the lines and spots by the window using burnt sienna acrylic paint. I also added the floor from a wood placemat and the painted wood shapes. I'm still deciding what chair to use, maybe a rug, and probably some scuffs on the floor.

I put in two small lights, one set in a 1/24 lantern kit from CastleCrafts on top the cabinet (hard to see here), and made a faux candle for the table using a skull bead. The LED light's wire and top of the bead are covered with an ivory puff paint to give it a waxy look. (Like the faux candle I made for the half-scale swap.) The table is from an old piece of furniture with legs I cut from basswood. I painted the cabinet taken out of a small Hobby Lobby room kit. The taller bottles on the shelf are handy acrylic shapes from a CastleCrafts kit. Very handy!

The flooring is painted and cut from a wood strip placemat. I'm sad that I only have a small piece of this left as it's made really good floors. I decided to add a strip of matboard to cover the lower opening (which was supposed to go on the other end. ha!) to access the battery. I folded the end so I can pull out the battery when needed. 

That's about it. A simple, fun and reasonably priced little kit with good results.

Back to the *&^% shingling on the Lavender Cottage then. I'll get it done yet! Next I want to work on the garden for the front of the house. 

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

Half-Scale Lavender Cottage Dollhouse Roof, Stairs

 

Yes, I've been slacking off on the project. I started the top roof, which is going slooooowly. But as I mentioned before, the lower roofs are done, and I think, look really good! (* Click photos for full size. Wow, the last update was early last month with the third floor and when I showed the shingles started.) 

Not much else happening on this, for the moment, but I wanted to show the roof results. (*Click photos for full size.) I finally just put the brick foundation paper on and am working on the edge trim now - and done! It looks much better. At least one trim part done.

It'll also look less bare when I decide on what flowers to put in front. It's different as I've never done a white brick foundation (and white stairs) before, but I had a lot of that color left (now only one sheet) and it went with the color scheme.

Thanks to my friend, who had the right width wood, I finished the stair treads, too! I want to add some greenery next, and then wisteria and vines along the roof, porch edges, and posts also.

In the meantime, I can't stay away too long from doing something spooky! I started this spooky little kit  (the corner room) that I got at the dollhouse show, so that's turning out pretty good.

 Here's a hint: I had enough leaves left from the Poison Ivy plant kit (SDK Miniatures) to make some more plants. This project will need a pot! Other pix coming soon. 

So, a short update! 

* For fun, I came across this free printies page at the Mouse Mansion with some schoolroom items and Christmas cards. While you're there, be sure to check out the impressive Mouse Mansion project! 

*Thanks again for visiting! Come back soon to see what's next!* 

Annual Half-Scale Dollhouse Swap

Easter items - so cute!

Always look forward to this! Been doing it for years. At one point it was a huge swap - one year I think it had 60 - but it's tapered off. This year was only 16 participants but I still enjoy getting and making items. Here's last year's swap and links to others. (* Click photos for full size.)

This year's theme was Holidays, which is nice as I figured there'd be both Halloween and Christmas items. I made a bird feeder stand with a cup/saucer, a small skull candle, and added in a Christmas box printie. It does look better than this photo. The skulls come out really realistic, just a toothpick, puff paint, and a snip of black thread. I thought later I maybe should've added the hill with flowers to the planter but I figured people will put it where they want. It can be "planted" in a small  mound of air-dry Crayola Model Magic, paint and cover it with grass and/or moss, and add small impatiens petals. I'm going to use purple for the Lavender Cottage  garden.

The Easter items were really neat. Cute little Bunny basket (Paula W), great teensy filled basket and blue bunny (Sydney H), amazing woven baskets (Glenda D), and that incredible egg dying scene (Cyndi M). Great idea using those little beads as cups for this. I have a ton of those and put fake handles on for mugs.

Christmas too! Great flags from Jen W, a tabletop tree (and orange cake in other photo) Adrian C, all kinds of fun ornaments (even a dog bone! Oops that peppermint is actually a "plate", great idea, with a gingerbread cookie on it. I put the wrong side up!) Sharon J, tree in pot, Bea.

Being a Halloween fan, I love this! All kinds of cool signs, jars, a mini table and even a plate of Gingerbread cookies, Gail. The Halloween mat is perfect, and the cool candlestick, great way to make this, Amy H.

Then some fun additions!

A great little flower stand for the porch (Ruth G), that incredible teensy Christmas gnome! (Annilee T), perfect little pies , Mary W, and that darling dollhouse, Peggy F.

Hopefully I didn't miss anyone. All great items that I'll add to my dollhouses. Always so much fun opening the surprise box each year!

****

** Update: Yes! The small roofs on the Lavender Cottage are shingled, painted, and done! PIc coming! Working on the top roof. What a job! If you didn't see them, in-between I did make some cute carrot cakes and Easter baskets. (More fun than shingling! haa!) 

** Thanks again for visiting!  Scroll down for other posts or see left column archives for my show-seen posts. *

New Miniature Kits I'll be Working On

 

 Miniature plant kits

Still on a miniature high, I think, from recently attending the annual dollhouse shows! LOL

Had a good time this year and found some cool things I'm excited about. (* Click photos for full size.)

I don't buy too many finished items as I mostly like to work on kits and finish them myself so it's great when I find something different and new (to me). Now I have to decide which one to work on first!

A favorite vendor is CastleCrafts from South Africa (and shipping from Pennsylvania). Belinda McWilliams is always fun to talk with and I always learn something new! I spotted this Protea kit on her website and was interested as I thought it would fit into the (rare 1" scale) Tudor project I eventually want to build. I didn't know it was S. Africa's national flower and it is HUGE!  It has giant blooms and can grow to a 5' tall bush. * Also got the vegetable plants that I thought would fit the kitchen of that project. I am brainstorming on it!

She also had this cool acrylic bottle kit. I had something similar in half scale I'd love to find more of. They make great shelf items. I like the vintage look.

My other favorite vendor, SDK Miniatures had a great hall tree and furniture kit. I might save these for the half-scale farmhouse when I get to that or use the patio kit on the Lavender Cottage lawn for now.

I also was tickled to get these kits from a new favorite vendor, The Covered Chipboard. Teri was doing her first show and had some great stuff to offer! Couldn't resist this small room setting which I thought would be perfect for taking half-scale photos and Halloween photos. It's only the room itself, but I have kits to set up something similar. I got the wall with a round spiderweb window. (Photo: TCC website)

Here are a few items from her great furniture pack and the finished items in the cottage she made. (Rooms from TCC website.)

And... while I have quite a few dogs, this little guy's cute face hooked me and got me to take him home.

I know, it's not all real exciting, but stuff I'll be happy working on. Will share what I do with the kits when I get some done.

* Thanks again for visiting! More updates coming soon! (Yes! The Lavender Cottage small roof is done and looks good!)

 I also got the Half-Scale Swap with some really cute stuff! Pix coming!* 

Seen at the Dollhouse Shows. Part 2

Gorgeous little cabinet (Big Man Small World Miniatures)

Had a lot of fun visiting the annual dollhouse shows and sharing some of the interesting things I saw in Chicago and Schaumburg, Ill. (** See part 1 here .  and kits I got.)

There are tons of international artisans at the Bishop International show, simply too much to show here so I take photos of things that I might like or catch my eye.

Such pretty feminine items. Love all the detail. (Individually priced, the bed is $268.Dollhouseland)

Cute vacuum! They also make some other amazing real-life appliances. (Mini Fanaberia, Poland)

So cute! Animal dolls (L.A. Miniatures,  Laura A. Lysowsky, Toronto, Canada)

This was incredibly cute. An Alice in Wonderland set (1/4th quarter-scale kits) from Raptoor Crafting (Finland)

Incredibly realistic vintage bathroom from Chris Toledo Miniatures. (Check out the slideshow at the link.)

Nice Vincent Van Gogh scene, Shannon Moore, Shannonsminis.com 

Loved this mad scientist lab scene, Scotts Miniature Lighting

Had fun sharing these and I hope you enjoyed the tour!

* Coming up: what'd I buy? Some fantastic kits I found and more... Thanks again for visiting!!  

Seen at the Dollhouse Shows! Part 1

One of my favorites. Details of an Egyptian room for sale 

I'm back! Fun, tiring day of shopping and looking with friend Gigi, and meeting up with old friends like Tracy and Peg. 

So what did I see? Many, many miniature wonders to behold!! 

Found some great items, too, mostly at the and the Spring Showcase show at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Schaumburg, Ill. I'll show my finds later.

For now, here's a sample (part 1 of 2 posts) of some of the things I saw at the Bishop International show at the Marriott O'Hare in Chicago. (*Click photos for full size. Photos: (c) C. Verstraete. candidcanine.blogspot.com)

This Egyptian scene was pretty amazing. Loved all the gold and decorations on it. I've had an Egyptian room idea in mind for a while, too, if not this elaborate. (From Debbie Heard of Estate Dollhouse Miniatures/Ebay.) And if you're in the market and can't read that sign... it's $6,500. 

For a fun bit of whimsy, look at these teensy nail clippers and other makeup items. (Itsy Bitsy Mini)

I loved the way Art of Mini (Germany) use these fascinating vintage photos as backdrops. That would be another easy project making little vignettes with vintage images like this.

These were intriguing mannikin forms. (Ignore my hand in the mirror.) 😄

 

I didn't catch the vendor name but that's a whole lot of bears, oh my! And this was only half of the display.

Another pretty and detailed vignette from Debbie Heard (Estate Miniatures). All the cases are filled.... $450

Yes, the show has a lot of expensive, artisan pieces but there are some kits and moderate priced accessories, too. These are cute kits from Dragonfly Intl. - and they're all fashioned from paper! The results look great. I have one of these sets to try yet.

Erik Goddard  makes some interesting architectural models and scenes, a lot in half-scale (1/24th). He also has a mystery novel out, The Kidnapping of Sarah Easton. (So many miniaturists also write it seems.)

I thought this was an adorable roombox at the NAME (National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts) table.

Wait... there's more!  I took enough photos, so come back for part 2 tomorrow.

* Thanks again for visiting! More to come!! *