Friday, February 20, 2009

Brenna's Nursery

It's been a while since I thought about this miniature. I built it for our friends, Adam and Tiffani, to welcome their first child into the world. This room was the first project I worked on in our house after we moved here. It sat in my dining room until a friend came to visit and was able to personally deliver it to Rolla, MO. Until I did Shabby Chic, Brenna's room was the most "girly" setting I had put together.

The room is set in a gift bag, a technique I learned from Fay Zerbolio years ago. Brenna's real room is decorated with fairies and butterflies. Her parents are both biologists and I guessed correctly with the photos of real butterflies on the wall. The border was pieced together in a paint program using an image from the bedding they chose.

The furniture was repainted and decoupaged to using leftover bits of the border and pieces of the bag's original front. All but one of the books are printies. The gift bags and boxes came from a wonderful free printie site located here, "Jennifer's Printables."


The growth chart on the wall is my own design and stitched on 14 count Aida. The butterflies are easy enough to recognize, but this picture doesn't show the caterpillars above and below the butterflies very well.

The duckie picture on the wall was made from a salvaged section of the gift bag's front. He's attached to a piece of mat board and the frame is built directly to the backing. The bunny pull-toy is made from several pieces of confetti, some bits of wood, and thread with a seed bead. The improvised jack-in-the-box was made with butterfly confetti. I found the perfect spring in the carcass of a broken pen.


I crocheted this blanket from tatting thread, using a size 14 steel hook. The pattern is my own design. The mobile is made from the same pieces of butterfly confetti as the "butterfly in a box" and some small cuts of wood.


Brenna will be a year old this summer. It's hard to beleive how much time has passed. This miniature sits on her dresser. Eventually they will move the scene to "higher ground" until Brenna is old enough to not drag it around as she toddles around.

I hope you enjoyed peeking into this room. It was hard to give up after I finished it. But her mother's reaction to it made all the difference. If you want to see more pictures, you can pop over here to my website's gallery and see more. I don't think Blogger would like that many pictures at once.

8 comments:

Leigh said...

I am so impressed with the amount of detail in these. They remind me of when I was a little girl and we used to go to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. They had a huge miniature castle that was fascinating to see. I always enjoyed that.

MiniKat said...

Leigh, you flatter me to compare my minis with Colleen Moore's dollhouse in Chicago. I love that castle so much. If you get up to Chicago again, head over to the Art Institute to see the Thorne Rooms. The next trip we take up there I plan on spending the entire day studying those rooms.

Miz Minka said...

Wow, just wow! What an artist you are! What incredible attention to detail! Simply stunning.

Just wondering -- I know nothing about miniatures -- is the bag reinforced in any way?

Brenda said...

It's very nice! Just the right amount of clutter to make it look real.

I never seen the Thorne Rooms in person, but I've seen pictures! My optometrist has seen them and he tells me about them every time I see him (he's quite old).

Debbie said...

Oh this is beautiful. I bet your friends were over the Moon, to receive such a wonderful gift.

MiniKat said...

Minka: Yes the bag is reinforced with foam core board.

Brenda: Thank you. :-)

Debbie: Thank you. They loved it. After the baby was born I brought them a tiny birth certificate in a frame that I filled out accordingly.

Alice said...

What a detailed scene! I love all the accessories, but I think that afghan is my favorite. I like how you used bits of the bag leftover from cutting to decorate the room. I have done one room in a bag, but it is nowhere as wonderful as this.

I am jealous that you know Fay face-to-face. I know her from a couple of miniature lists we both belong to. I wish I could see her dollhouse up close!

MiniKat said...

Alice, I'm lucky enough to not only know Fay, but she's one of my dearest friends. She and her sister, along with our other St. Louis mini-friends, came to my wedding.