Minis in the Tree, pt. 2

 I hope everyone had a lovely holiday. I'm making this short and sweet. It was a long weekend of driving for us.

Happy holidays!

Minis In the Tree, part 1

It's sorta busy around here right now. FH and I are busy taking it easy and trying not to stress about the holiday.

I need to get back to it, but first I thought I'd share some of the decorations in our Yule tree.

The first is a bag I put together especially for this tree. I used the piece of bag that I cut away as part of the interior decorations. I bought the fireplace and fireplace tools, but everything else cam out of the stash.

The colors fit in well with the new ornaments this year.

I was having so much fun seeing minis out that I haven't seen for a while, I scrounged up another small bag and put this one together. I made the wreath, but th other pieces were stashed.

I also went and brought up "Joy!" which has been in hiding since Artie like to steal minis that aren't behind plexi-glass. It fills up the largest gap in the tree's branches quite well.

I haven't dug out the tree skirt, or wrapped packages yet. But here's the tree, complete with some of Mercedes' toys underneath.

I have two more mini scenes to finish up and add. I'll post about them next week. Until then, I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday!

Quilting Commission, Mini Style

It's been a busy week. A friend of mine has a mother-in-law who quilts and love miniatures, so she asked me if there were any bits from the stash of items for the Patchwork Peach quilt shop that I'd be willing to part with. Other than a couple of fat quarter bundles, I really didn't have anything available. Luckily for her I love her dearly (I was there the day she was born as her brother and I were in kindergarten together) and had some time after the Festival of Trees dollhouse was done.I finally finished everything yesterday and can mail it out tomorrow morning. I'm so excited!

The big quilt's design is from the Venus A. Dodge mini needlework book.

I should say here that none of the printies are being sold, because the original images aren't my own. However I'm gifting them to my friend and what she chooses to do with them is her choice. I'm betting they end up in her mother-in-law's dollhouse.

One of my favorite quilting books in print!

Can't have a mini quilting studio without rulers!

I used scraps of white flannel for the batting. I tea-dyed it to be the right color.

 The rotary cutter started out being a charm for a bracelet.

This is my favorite... a hand sewing/quilting project in progress. The top of one pillow is sandwiched and basted while the other is still being put together. The project that I based this on is by Pamela Warner and is in her Victorian embroidery book for minis. I made a printie of the "pattern" for this using an image from the book. It's got her name on it, just like real life quilting patterns have, and on the back there is a tiny materials list.

While I waited on the last of the glue to dry yesterday, I started some orange springerle cookies. My neighbor gifted me for a lovely bunny-themed mold for an early Christmas and I wanted to try it out.

They're still drying, as springerles need to dry for about 24 hours before you bake them. I'll be baking them tonight and then tomorrow I'll start another batch of dough with another flavor.

That's all for now. I need to get some laundry done and perhaps have a chance to walk Mercedes in between periods of rain. See you next weekend!

Not Even Halfway

But it's a start! Here's what I'm putting into the storefront build. The boxes are from the blog,  Amber's House. She made the printies for personal use only. Poke the link to see her instructions and check out her other tutorials while you're in the the neighborhood.

For the icicles, I ended up using metallic embroidery floss. It's laid out evenly across a piece of double-sided tape, which is attached to a scrap of cardstock. The cardstock is glued directly to the piece of transparency film I used to close up the box.

The boxes of "snow" have a section of glitter-covered scrap booking cardstock showing through their openings. I thought the glitter looked enough like fake snow and I wouldn't have to worry about it leaking.

There are still more boxes to fill. Most of the others are made though. But I've got a long way to go yet. Only one box of lights is done and there are many more ornaments to make.

I doubt it will be finished by this Christmas, but it will be a fun thing to work on and maybe get finished in time for next year.

Right now, I've got a commission that is taking up my time. Quilting miniatures for a friend's mother-in-law. I'll try to have them finished by next weekend. See you then!

Illuminating Additions

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! FH are heading home today and it can't come any sooner for me.

I'd hoped to make this week's post about the minis going into the storefront, but that didn't happen.  Too busy getting ready to travel and we had company over Monday evening for FH's birthday. I did stumble across a quick project whilst cleaning on Monday and set it aside for Tuesday.

It's nothing fancy... and silly me forgot to take a "before" shot, but here's an aged brass candelabra that used to be bright and shining.

The destination? The Attic Corner Lamp. I also unearthed a tiny lamp made from a plastic "turquoise" bead as I cleared off the buffet. It had been living on top of the real lamp, but someone (probably Artie) knocked it down and it became lost in the clutter. Both pieces are safely tucked away now.

The candelabra is behind the old chair. Someone has knocked it into the chair leg. My money is on the squirrel that's in the fake Christmas tree. Check the picture above to see him. ;-)

Here's the tiny lamp. I'm not sure if it's going to stay there or not. I might re-position it.... or perhaps the squirrel will.

That's all for this week. Hopefully I'll recover from the holiday fast and can get back to work on the store and its contents by tomorrow.

New Build!

I've started on a new building. This project is just for me because it sounds like fun. Something to celebrate being done with the Festival dollhouse and ease the disappointment of not finishing the Aquarium quilt in time for the contest.

As for what it's going to be, I'm saving that for next weekend. ;-)

See you then!

And Done!

The charity auction dollhouse is finished! This is the basic layout for the "set dressing" for the auction, but without the holiday decorations.

Now for the fun part! I may end up doing a tutorial on the angel tree topper at some point. She was fun to do.

And there are plenty of other furniture pieces for fun and imaginative play!

I'll be moving the house and its contents to the auction site tomorrow. I'll get some pictures with the extra accessories and whatnot then. For now, I'm finished!

Four out of Five Ain't Bad

With the exception of baseboards, four out of five of the rooms are redecorated!

The lack of flash doesn't do the colors justice, but I'm happy with how this room has come out. Putting down flooring in one piece, on a tight budget, was maddening  but I finally found some wall repair paper at the hardware store that had a bit of texture, was wide enough, and is paintable. There are a few bubbles, but some gentle rubbing flattens them out without wrinkling.

The bathroom furniture is still being worked on.... and not all of it is going to fit. But this is a house to be played with, so being able to switch out furniture is more fun.

The bedroom had the neutral paper when the house got to me. I kept it as a focus wall and brightened up the room with paint and flooring that coordinate with the border. I cut the border strips from a piece of real-life, striped wallpaper. The threshold is a scrap of "wood" flooring paper that I kept from a previous project.

The bed is now fully dressed. I played with Casey's no-sew pillow design to create the larger shams.

The living room is very neutral. This room will have the option of being decorated for Christmas or being an everyday room, so I wanted plainer colors to let the accents shine. I cut another threshold for this doorway, but it won't be installed until the kitchen is finished.

Once the sofa and chair are in place, you can see just how small the interior space really is. Again, there is more furniture for this room than will fit. But "play with-able" is the key.

This is the bathroom sink. I used a different strip from the same wallpaper I cut the bedroom border from to accent the doors.

Kitchen hutch. This is a Michael's hutch that I dressed up with some real-life wallpaper scraps. The design is the same blue that's going into the kitchen.

Yet another strip of wallpaper from the original striped piece. The directionality of the hearts works well in this piece.

Medicine cabinet. I decided on the same strip used on the sink for this piece and only did the sides.

There are also some more ornaments ready for the mini tree.

That's all I've got, picture-wise, for this week. There are seven pieces of furniture left to embellish/finish painting. The bulk of it is staying "plain" to allow the eyes to have a resting place. Then it will all get clear coat later in the week when it's warm enough (hopefully!) to let it cure outside.

I need to get back to work, so I'll see you next week!

Forward Progress from the Top Down

This is the front of the charity dollhouse. Whomever built this spent a great deal of time and love in doing so. The front door does work, but the windows are all painted on. I'm leaving it as is, but I will be making removable Christmas decorations for the outside.

I forgot to get a picture of the inside before I started slathering everything with gesso. The back wall of the attic room was papered with life-sized plaid wrapping paper... two coats of gesso finally got it hidden enough so it won't show through behind the new wallpaper.

Speaking of the new wallpaper, here it is:

I had that wallpaper lingering in my stash and thought it would be perfect in this dollhouse. And this is the tentative layout for displaying the dollhouse at the auction. The walls need another coat of paint. I'm using Delta Creamcoat's 'Bamboo' for the walls.

While the paint was drying, I hopped over to Casey's blog and searched through her tutorials. I thought I recalled an easy way to make nice bed pillows and I was right. Hop over there to see how she does it. 

I started with some scraps leftover from upholstering the sofa and chair (further down) and played for a bit. Cookie came out of the Trading Post catch-box and decided to test them for softness. 

I ended up needing to trim a bit off the selvage end of the fabric (see her instructions) to make it look right on the single bed, but overall I was pleased.

Then I got serious about dressing the bed. One of my friends who's been helping with the furniture kits had the twin bedroom set in her stash and donated it to the cause. We;re only using one bed, the dresser, and the night table here though. Not enough room for the vanity table or second bed. But the second bed means a side by side before and after photo.

Now the upstairs room will be completely finished once the walls and floor are done! 

I mentioned upholstery earlier. The soft bits are done, but the frames needed one more coat of paint when this picture was taken. As of this afternoon, the frames just need sprayed with sealer and allowed to cure well. Then the cushions can be glued in place. I'll be making some contrasting throw pillows too.

I should get back to it while the weather is nice enough to use sprays. Lots to do today, so I'll see you next week!