#AtoZ 2016 - B is for Mini Baba Yaga

Today is day 2, the letter B for the 7th annual A to Z Blog Challenge in April! 

Check out the 1000+ blogs on the list!  If you like books, etc., I'm also doing the same on my GirlZombieAuthors blog. I may even share a spooky mini or two there!

If you don't know who - or what - Baba Yaga is, I wanted to share a unique miniature project made by talented miniaturist Alice Zinn.

I thought this was incredible and so realistic - a mini Baba Yaga, (1" scale, 1" =1', 6 inches tall) - accurate down to the feet! Now I'd heard of the Russian "witch woman" before, but never saw her with chicken feet until I looked it up.   Pretty amazing, huh? 

According to Wikipedia, “in Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is a supernatural being (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) who appears as a deformed and/or ferocious-looking woman. Baba Yaga flies around in a mortar, wields a pestle, and dwells deep in the forest in a hut usually described as standing on chicken legs (or sometimes a single chicken leg). Baba Yaga may help or hinder those that encounter or seek her out. She sometimes plays a maternal role, and also has associations with forest wildlife. According to Vladimir Propp's folktale morphology, Baba Yaga commonly appears as either a donor or villain, or may be altogether ambiguous.”

A Mini A Day 2016 - #AtoZ Blog Challenge Begins!

Today is Day 1 - the Letter A - for the 7th annual A to Z Blog Challenge in April! 

The idea is to blog daily (except Sunday) from A to Z.  So expect lots of minis, maybe a few guests, maybe even a giveaway or two - you never know! Now I may repeat a pic here and there that I've shown before but there'll be a lot of new visitors this month, so bear with me! 

Check out the 1000+ blogs on the list!  If you like books, etc., I'm also doing the same on my GirlZombieAuthors blog. I may even share a spooky mini or two there!

I'm going to share various minis for the month like....

A is for.... Assorted Minis

Don't be put off by today's plain, boring photos. It'll all make sense soon and yes, I'll include the "real " miniature projects. 

For now, I figured, why not? Decided I'd show a bit - just a bit - of the stash I have. And I know I'm not alone....

If you don't know what this is... it's a bit of the things that us collectors save or have on hand to use in that next project.

These containers hold some of the mini gifts I got this past Christmas from my two collecting friends, Gigi and Kitty. I'll show some of the items along the way.

This basket has items I'll be using in other projects. That pink item is a neat woven paper basket made by Alice Zinn that I won a while ago. It'll probably go in one of the Ladies Shoppe projects. 

And this? Well, let's call it chairs in waiting... I seem to have collected quite a few different chairs and tables... they always come in handy. The room is my Teddy Bear room I made a while ago...

Be sure to come on back for the rest of the daily mini tour!

New March 16 AIM Dollhouse Magazine

Read or download it online here. (You may have to sign in to Scribd.)

A to Z Minis in April!

Yes, I'm crazy and going to again enter the 7th annual A to Z Blog Challenge in April! 

The idea is to blog daily (except Sunday) from A to Z.  So expect lots of minis, maybe a few guests, maybe even a giveaway or two - you never know!

Check out the 1000+ blogs on the list!  If you like books, etc., I'm also doing the same on my GirlZombieAuthors blog. I may even share a spooky mini or two there!

Here is the letter schedule for April:

It's Curtains! Ideas...

Found an interesting book for $1 at the Dollar Tree.... all kinds of images of different curtains.

I keep making the same ones so this will give me some new ideas. It's only images, no instructions, but lots of pictures! Once you have your basic pattern, it provides some inspiration to change things up. 

Half Scale Beach Cottage Dollhouse

(Half scale cottage - Terri Correll photo)

I've been toying with the idea of doing a half scale Sea Captain's House. Originally the idea was to set it in a large boat-shaped shelf. But... I also happened upon this dollhouse kit that was sold as part of a North Carolina NAME project organized by Terri Correll so I might have - probably - changed my mind. 
The half scale cottage by Laser Tech Designs was a good deal (probably a special for the club) with the kitchen kits and a few tote bag favors included. One I couldn't resist. ha!
I asked Terri if I could share some photos of a few of the finished cottages. See below.

I may not get to my own house for a while yet but I keep thinking it would be a cool Witch's Cottage too. Still, I'm leaning toward the Sea Captain's House.

The house likely will have some kind of story connected with it. I have a love story evolving in my head about the sea captain's discovery and love for a mermaid that'll fit into the house plans and design. I wanted to make another half scale mermaid so now I have a reason. Plus, I have some great art and shimmery design ideas in mind. 

Furniture KITS: 
I got the beach house idea as I had this half scale sea captain figurine and then I saw these different kits from Mini Etchers at the Spring Three Blind Mice show in Schaumburg and also at the Online Miniature Show. (Coming up March 17-20). 

 So I have some of Mini Etchers' kits already like the cute boat shelf, sofa and cottage table. I see a few more to get, too.

 I also got the sink, stove and want to add a couple more cabinets to do the cottage-style kitchen. (She has several styles you can mix and match.) And the Eastlake furniture is  something different you never see. I got the settee (so far! ha!0 for the HS Victorian House.  

 So far I did find these two fabrics, also, that I posted earlier and want to use in the Sea Captain's House. I think the color scheme is perfect to fit into one of the rooms. I loved the designs of the fabrics! -- I'll keep you posted on updates!

OTHER FINISHED COTTAGES:

Here are some photos of the interior of Terri's beach cottage: 

House 2 by Donna Deal:

House 3 by Gayle Hansen - barn and farm!

House 4 by Lynn Frank

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Latest Miniature Finds

The latest finds...

Saw an interesting set of Victorian-fancy furniture on ebay and decided to check it out.

It's 1/24  - half scale and yes, it's plastic.  But it has nice detailing and thought it'd be interesting to see how it looked painted and covered. And it was only $4.50, free shipping from China. Not bad, I thought.

I also found this fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby and while I have a lot of fabric already,  (you know how that is) I liked it and thought it'd be perfect for a seaside/beach theme. Found the trim and matching ruffled ribbon, too. I'll do another post on the ideas surrounding this and the eventual project...

Winter Fun! Snow Sculpting

Just went to the national championship snow sculpting tournament in Wisconsin. Always such incredible work. Amazed at the detail these artists achieve. Thought I'd share some pix for your enjoyment. 

2nd place winner from Minnesota

Below - the champion entry, from Wisconsin

Third place winner from Illinois

Clay and Dollhouse Molds

This is something I want to try one of these days. I've bought mold material, but haven't done it yet.

(photo: Angie Scarr)

Just found that Angie Scarr has an octopus mold.  I've always loved the way these look - such great ideas for spooky projects, I'll have to look for this at the next show! I can see adding these to some Halloween scenes!  (Love those arms coming out of the bucket!)

Cool! She also has a how-to video!  (Sorry, can't embed it here.)

New Miniature Finds!

Some new mini finds from Michael's that I thought would work great with the half scale garage:

The doghouse is only 1 1/2" high to the peak in the front. (Only $5 for the house and dog.)

I also found these two figures at Goodwill. Thought they were cute. The one half lady can be propped behind a counter or something. I guess that one is some kind of plant or shelf sitter. I'll have to make a pool for the other one! The seated lady is about 3 inches tall as seated, head to toe.

Half Scale Garage Update!

Remember the Half Scale Garage I started a while back? (See first photos).

It's still going along. Making some progress!

Might have to add some more trim to the side door, but that wall and the front are done. (Yes, missing a doorknob and curtain yet!)

Side wall: 

The back wall is a now attached and the paper clay foundation is ready to be painted. I'm using some items I had for another project. A counter is going under the shelf. It has a garden scene on front, but hey, this is a lady's garage! There will be some tools, of course.

Here's  the inside of the back wall with the art. (Art is also glued to mat board for dimension.)  I also shrunk down some photos of license plates and glued the strips to mat board. They're glossed with gloss varnish and glued to the dividing strip of wood. I colored the edges with black Sharpie marker before gluing them down. (Ignore that piece of Styrofoam (TM)  that got stuck on the wall for the moment!)

Full interior - floor is painted and glossed.

Below - outside foundation ready for painting, then adding wood strips. Wood strips have to be added to other side yet as well.  

I like the results but hate doing it! Stay tuned, more updates coming!! 

Congrats to Joanna - HBS Mini Honorable Mention!

Congrats to fellow miniaturist and writer Joanna Campbell Slan, whose mini project, "Big Wave Dave's Surf Shop" got an honorable mention in the 22nd annual HBS Creatin' Contest. See the winners and entries here. Friend her on Facebook to see a few more pix of her project.

She did a great job - loved all the accents and the colors!! Way to go!

HS Victorian Dollhouse Curtains

It's curtains! Well, almost.

An example of a decorating dilemma for the Half Scale Victorian House. (see beginning pix).

There are 10 windows in the tower, so when I made some curtains and put one in.... argh! I realized they should be longer. 

Well... no way was I remaking the nine I had already done. So, how to fix this? Time for some clever piecing except I didn't really like the solution I came up with. The hearts didn't really fit (but I may use them for the girl's bedroom if I do one.) Cute, but too cutesy for here. Back to the drawing board.

I never seem to find a solution the first time. Oh, no. It has to be, let's see, about four different tries... Then a friend on Facebook suggested some beads. No, not right, but the color gave me an idea.

I found the lace bag I should've looked in the first time and found a dark maroon lace. Folded over and glued, it works to look like a tie. Not perfect, but I think a better solution in keeping with the room style.

So, on to finishing them. Have to get the rest of the trim in first, which is kind of tricky. This really should have been done before it was built. Oh, well.

Then on to the next problem... because I know there'll be one or two, or...

How's your project going????

New Angie Scarr Miniature Clay Food Books

This is a great idea! Angie Scarr has a new collection out of her miniatures magazine food-making series!  Great that it's all in one place.

Print copies on her website. (10 pounds plus shipping; about $14 US)

Kindle ebook compilation: Angie Scarr: Miniature Challenges Parts 1 & 2: Magazine Articles 2000-2005 In Polymer Clay

Half Scale Country Victorian Dollhouse

This is a house that was started a loooong time ago, I'm guessing at least 10 or more years ago! We're working on it again. 

I believe it started out as a Country or Colonial Dollhouse kit, and then we added on to it  (the end tower) to have more rooms. It's not perfect construction as it was started so long ago, but we'll see how we can fix some mistakes now.

We sanded the front to diminish some of the lines between the siding. It's being repainted a vintage yellow  (Martha Stewart chalk paint Tomatillo - not shown here) with more of a greenish tone.

A few photos of the rooms papered so far.
First floor: from left, kitchen, (below)  (hall - not shown), dining room and parlor.

 Dining room - below. I'm resanding and restaining the floor.

Got the windows in - so far. Color still a little hard to tell... The windows originally were all cream with a lilac line inside... too light so I repainted them. The inner frames will be a matching green in the tower area.

Parlor and tower (plants) room. 

Giant wall fireplace in parlor, Own design and handmade.