One More Addition-Reviving A Long-Forgotten UnFinished Object

And I think that the Shabby Chic Shop it completed (for the moment) now.  I found a forgotten, neglected, and unfinished Chrysenbon clock kit in my stash.  I had painted it pale yellow and tried (valiantly) to paint ivy on it.  Needless to say that failed miserably and it sat in my stash for the better part of a decade incomplete and unloved.  The brass cover for the pendulum had vanished somewhere in that time.  Apparently I had decided to no use the brass piece that the clock face is supposed to sit in.  Instead that sticker was directly on the plastic.  Happily it came back off and the brass clock front had not joined the pendulum cover.  Here's what it looks like now.  I must apologize for not taking a "before" picture.  It was late at night when I finally found it and by then the plan just took over.

When I found it again I rubbed a light coat of gesso over the original paint and then wiped it off.  I only wanted to tone down the previous colors.  Then coated the whole thing in a thick coat of crackle medium.  After ten minutes or so I slathered on some white paint.

When that was dry I dry-brushed a little bit of pink onto the sides and decorative edges.  Then I reattached the clock face in the brass cover and glued it in place.  A rare stroke of genius told me to glue a sea shell in place of the brass pendulum cover. 

So now it is finished, loved, and in place.

 Once I finish catching up on real housework I'll get back to the Porch.  I'm waiting on an order from miniatures.com with some necessary bits in it but there's still plenty to do without it.  My mom was here for four days, so I'm running behind with getting things back in order.  She's an enabler... I pointed at a roombox kit in the HBS catalog and told her my idea for it and she handed me money to order it.  *sigh*  One more project in the pipeline now....

Hopefully I will have something to show you tomorrow or Thursday.  See you then! 

New Additions

I was rummaging around my stash in search of possible bits for the Porch and found some treasures.  But not for the Porch... for Shabby Chic. [link goes to most resent incarnation]

The yellow chair and table were pieces that I repainted when I was still in college.  It was a club project and they never had an intended home.   Fitting them into the room required some rearranging, but I think it turned out well.  I added a couple of small bits (a shell, a chunk of amethyst, and a basket of flowers) to keep the "cluttered" look of the place.

I still need a couple more things for the walls, but I know there are more hidden treasures in the stash somewhere.  I just have to keep searching.  In all the excavating I did find some bits for the Porch.  But those are for another post.  I have to head out to a Guild meeting.  See you later!

A Trifecta of Progress

First here's my progress on Rose Cuttings.  I've been slack in taking my usual progress pictures every day.  I figure the actual stitching is more important than a nightly picture.

 

I'll be stitching more on it later.  I'm hoping to get the last leaf and the rosebud finished.  Then I can do more of the background shading and the yellow rose.

Tonight I finished both the interior trims and the faux slate on the Porch.

I also put together the skeleton of some steps that will lead up to the Porch.  Tomorrow I plan on starting to cover them and the base with faux stonework.  The step under the door needs some kind of detail work too.  At some point I need to make a chair to put inside the room.  There will be an order from my favorite mini supplier in the works soon.  My mini lumber yard is fairly depleted and I'll need so sort of porch railing.

Then since I finally found the last bit of my rose fabric for the second valance in Shabby Chic I got the window treatments done and installed.

If you look closely at the second window you'll see one of the signs Katie made for me.  Thanks again, Katie!

Painted Plus

With the help of my committee (FH, Brad, Castor) I picked the green.  One coat was put on last night and a second one this morning.  The door is stained with rosewood.  Its frame needs at least one more coat of white though.

I also cut some foam board to see about using it for the interior back and side walls.  I'm honestly not too sure about it, I'd much rather use wood.  But that comes with it's own issues too.  For the moment it's nice to use for placement of interior details.

I'm adding these two doors on the inside to give the illusion of the house being bigger.  The door on the back wall may get centered on the middle window.  Still playing with that one.

I have wall paper picked out but haven't decided about either the inside or outside floors.  Of course I can't do anything with it until I decide what to do about the back wall.

I saved the best for last.  Katie sent me a little something in the mail.  Two adorable signs which I have homes in mind for already.

The cupcake sign belongs in a bakery.  It's too perfect!  The other one will either go into Shabby Chic or the inside of the Porch scene until the Big Dollhouse is finished.  Thanks so much, Katie!  These really made me smile today.

Shabby Chic in 1 inch scale, pt. 5

Many of you may recall that last February I was working on this Shabby Chic roombox and that I wanted a different container for the room. Originally I had planed on using two hats boxes to make a round room, similar to one I had seen in an issue of Dollhouse Miniatures several years back.

I had a stroke of inspiration that not only allowed me to be incredibly lazy in my efforts to re-room Shabby Chic, but also gave me an excuse to play with some really nice scrapbook papers.

Here's the original room in the old setting:
I started with a standard display case for a football (an American football, not soccer/real football). I had a piece of thick craft foam that was cut to fill in the hole for the ball, which allowed for me to use a paper floor.
Then I used the scrapbook papers to hide inserts of foam-core craft board. I thought about painting over the wood to make it white, but decided against it.

I was able to add a second window to this room, but right now I still cannot locate the remaining pieces of the fabric I used for the first set of curtains. I also need to find some scenery to put behind the windows and figure out where I stashed a thin strip of veneer to put across the top of the window dressings. If you look closely there is a frame of foam-core board behind each window. I did that so the standard dollhouse windows would sit correctly against the glass side.
The furniture is all strategically placed to allow the box to lift off the base without disturbing the layout and without any wall decorations to catch on the furniture.

I added a few more minis that fit the theme and plan on adding more as I find or make them. Petunia has migrated from the Trading Post into this room. She seems to fit better in here, but I am giving serious thought to making her a "sassy" room to live in. For a better definition of sassy, visit my friend, Marsha's, blog. Until then, Petunia will reside here in much more girlie surroundings.

I wish I could say this is the last of the Shabby Chic room, at least as far as posts go. However until I get the curtains to match, find the veneer strip, and get a few more things in there I think there will be at least one more post in the future. Especially since the dress form still irritates me...

The best part about getting this project going again was it provided me a great excuse to take a break from the holiday cleaning and play. The empty display case and all the papers kept migrating around the living room and dining room. It became necessary to stop cleaning and play long enough to consolidate everything into its present form.

That's all for now. I've got multiple mini irons in the fire, so to speak. I will try to get pictures soon, but I'm balancing miniatures with the house hunting. ;-)

Finally the Sewing Cabinet

A picture is worth a thousand words so this post will be as picture heavy as I can make it. I'm going to show you how I used some wallpaper and paint to turn a craft store cabinet (don't remember if it was a Michael's hutch) into my sewing cabinet.

Here's the wallpaper I used:
Here's the original cabinet, inside and out.

I popped the original knobs off the door and filled the holes with wood putty. At this point I wasn't sure how I would decorate the cabinet so I wanted the holes filled in.
The interior painted and with the extra shelf I built from scraps.
14-count Aida cut to fit the inside of the doors. Did this while the putty was drying. After the putty was dry and sanded I coated the whole thing with off-white spray paint.
Blue paint for the top and trim based on the blue from the wallpaper. Had to mix it since FH had the car and none of my blues came close.
Crackled over the blue with pink.
The wallpaper has been cut and decoupaged in place.


Here's the finished product with as many goodies as I had ready tucked inside. I made the bolts of fabric. The notions, patterns, and tape measure are printies. I will be cuttig more of the printies out later on.



It's kind of Shabby Chic. I think seeing pinks, blues, and creams together in other people's projects has had an affect on me. But I really like the paper I used and those are the colors that fit. Now I get to decorated the BD's sewing room around this cabinet. But at least I have an idea of what to do with it now. ;-)

I still have to make the handles and cut a few more printies. I got myself so excited over this that I just had to share now. ;-)

Shabby Chic in 1 inch scale, pt.4

Here is the next-to-last installment of Shabby Chic. The additional items were all in my stash or put together from found items for this project. I think my favorite additions are the jewelry findings and shells on the windowsill and the white elephant on the shell-shelf. That elephant once graced a necklace belonging to my mother's best-friend. When she passed away and her family told me I could pick through her costume jewelry for anything I could use for my miniatures, I latched onto that necklace. It felt right putting the elephant in this piece. The shelf seemed to be waiting for him.



The final piece on Shabby Chic will be a while in coming as I must wait for me to find two identical hatboxes or decorative storage boxes that I can use to build a structure to house the scene. I have to keep paws, little fingers, and dust out somehow. ;-)

Promises, Promises

Here is the promised photo of the picture on the in Shabby Chic. P.T. did an absolutely wonderful job with them. The center was different in each one. It looks like a sparkly, little insect of some sort, doesn't it? Whatever it is, it's adorable.

Shabby Chic in 1 inch scale, pt.3

In this installment of pictures the lovely tote bag favors have been added to the scene. In my haste to get things together I forget to ask the ladies if I could mention their names. So in order to give credit and keep privacy, I will credit with their initials.

The gorgeous picture on the wall is from P.T. I'm kicking myself for only getting a placement shot and not a photo of the actual piece. I shall remedy the situation when time allows, I promise.


The hassock was made by P.V. I'm glad she made those since I was trying hard to decide between a hassock and the pillow. Of course you all already knew which direction I chose based on an earlier post. P.V. also provided the lovely basket next to the bench. I filled it with white roses from my stash.

M.W. gave all of those tiny Valentine cards in the open drawer of the dresser. She also provided the books on the dresser. The friend that went with me, E.G., drove us there, so I made the little fabric baskets for her give as gifts.


It never ceases to amaze me how the addition of just a few items can really start to bring a miniature room alive. The next post on Shabby Chic will feature the final arrangement of the room with the addition of items I had in my stash. I'm not sure if I will get them up tomorrow or later in the week. I have to scale them all down and get them posted in my store's gallery as well. We shall see how much time I have for such things. I hope you are enjoying the blossoming of this particular room.

Shabby Chic in 1 inch scale, pt.2

I decided the best way to show off the three different aspects of the Shabby Chic setting was to do three different posts with three different sets of pictures.

This post will have pictures of the items made in the class only.

Below is an overview of the entire room. The window was not actually part of the class but is very hard to remove for the sake of a picture.

The bench was made from a kit provided by Joyce. The table was actually provided by one of the participants but the painting technique was covered in the workshop. Also I thought the flowers and bunny cookie jar would look silly on the floor in this picture.


The dress form was constructed from the torso of an "el cheapo" doll from the local dollar store, some cardstock, a piece of wallpaper, fabric, and trims. the quilted pocket of posey on the dresser is polymer clay that was stamped, baked, and painted. Joyce provided the baked clay pocket for the class. We filled them with dried flowers.


The center of the floor is supposed to look like an oilcloth had been incorporated into the flooring. I'm wishing I had either trimmed around it or simply attached on top of the carpet as opposed to cutting a hole in the carpet.


All in all it was an awesome workshop. Joyce is a wonderful instructor and a great hostess. I'm very much looking forward to the next time she hosts a project.

The next installment of Shabby Chic will show off the gifts the participants exchanged.