Shabby Miniature Bureau Tutorial

I made this bureau for my Orange Blossom and it's still one of my favorite pieces I've ever made from scratch! I'm going to let you know the secret of how I made it from a very ragged block of wood. Ready for the transformation?

I adore the crackle finish and the very chipped patch was a happy accident which is, of course, the very best kind! The open drawer is fun to drape items from and adds to the illusion...

because the drawers are all faux!

Here is the original block of wood that I salvaged from an ugly mini sofa. I cut a piece of basswood a little larger than the top and then went to work with my budget savvy molding method: I cut very bumpy case molding and cut it into long thin strips of various widths. It's the perfect scale for detail trim!

I then used precut wood rectangles and applied them as false drawer fronts, outlining them with my mini-molding from above. Next trick: the open drawer is simply held out with skinny strips for the side and bottom to give the impression of depth.

Here's where it looks as if I've lost my mini mind: I painted it shades of orange and red, using the deepest shades for inside the faux drawer to add the impression of depth. It is all very blotchy and smudged which adds to the realism for the crackle finish.

I applied the crackle finish according to directions and painted the whole thing a lovely shade of white. Add feet and a little hardware it here it is in it's proper home. Who says drawers have to open? :)

Sunny Flowers Tutorial- How to Make Mini Paper Flowers

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day! Actually, I'm in Florida so we rarely have those days, but for those of you who do, you can bring a little sunshine to your miniature scenes with some little pretty yellow flowers. The picture below is the finished product that I made today:Jolee's by You is a brand of 3 dimensional stickers for scrapbooking that have lots of mini uses. They even have the right scale fabric dresses, football uniforms, the works! The picture below is how my yellow flowers came packaged; flat and 1 color, but just right in size!
Flat just will not do! It's time to get out the round tipped stylus and add some dimension to bring these pretty flowers to life! Here's how it's done:

1. First, you will need a stylus (or something rounded like it) that you can press into the paper without tearing it.
2. Then you will need to have a soft surface that has a little "give" to it so that when you press the paper, it will cup into the surface. I used a scrap of craft foam but an old mouse pad is great for this!
3. Flip the flower upside down and press into the back of each petal. Play around with this step to get just the right amount of bend in each petal. Flip it over and your petals are beginning to take shape!

Before............................ After

Next you will want to add color. (You can do this earlier, if you like.) I really played around with this step. I found that paint was too wet and changed the texture of the paper. Chalk pastels were too dry and didn't add much. But wet chalk pastels? They were just right! I dipped my tiny paintbrush in water, rubbed it on a chalk and got a sort of a water color texture that wasn't too wet. See how messy the bottom flower looks? That's from the paint... not good.
The petals were still just a bit flat still, so out came my trusty stylus again. This time I pressed it right in the middle and made a tight circle motion, swirling around several times right in the center. As I did this, the layers of petals started to separate and lift and became (I thought) more real.
Time to make the centers of the flowers. Flashy gold foil centers weren't going to cut it for me. :) I wanted the centers to be dimensional and a little fuzzy so I looked around my work area and found green felt. I didn't mind a little green showing but I pounced some red and yellow paint on it to change the color to my liking. I then took out my hole punch from scrapbooking and punched out holes in the green-now-reddish felt to make my centers. A little dab of tacky glue completed that step.
Last, it was time to add stems and leaves. I know some talented people in blog land that are wonderful at using floral tape and wire; I am NOT one of those people! In my local craft store I found a fake floral arrangement that had leaves like the ones below. I simply cut it apart into sections, snipping just below each pair of leaves. That gave me 2 leaves and a length of stem above it! Wow, that was easy! I trimmed the leaf length a little, put a dab of glue at the top of the stem and put the flower on top.
Voila! Easy flowers and a little sunshine for my mini house. Have a wonderful day!

Shabby Chic Shelving Tutorial

I've heard other miniature artists talk about how they use graph paper to make their designs and they won me over once I tried it for myself. Since I can't ever seem to cut on a straight line, using paper that takes care of that for me sounded perfect! The fence that I turned into shabby shelving in my Orange Blossom was created using the technique below.

First, I got out my paper, double sided tape and some wonderful shaped cocktail sticks that I once found in a dollar store. I then drew the curve for the top of the fence section on my paper. since the graph paper is marked in quarter inch increments, I could guarantee I was making it the exact size I wanted. I also used those marks to evenly space the fence posts. Two strips of double sided tape across that paper made sure everything stayed just how I placed it!
I wasn't worried about the bottom of each post not lining up; I simply drew a line using the graph paper as a guideline. I waited to cut the posts until after gluing the cross pieces but that was a mistake! So awkward to cut. Next time I will cut first and glue second. Below you can see that I created different size sections because originally they were to be fence sections for a particular area. I like them so much better for shabby chic shelving!
With a little paint and weathering, the were just right! Not bad for cocktail sticks, double stick tape, and a sheet of graph paper. :)

A Tale of Two Chairs

Sometimes two aren't better than one! I got these two little chairs for a dollar in a bargain bin at a craft store. Cute but dull and the flowers weren't quite my style. While looking at them side by side, I thought that they would make a cute little child bench for the children's nursery in my Beacon Hill. First I worked to the saw to try to cut off the legs that would be touching but that was just too much work! So...
7 seconds in the microwave did the trick! The heat made it easy to pull the chairs apart. If you do this, PLEASE stay close and only do it a couple seconds at a time. Minis aren't worth a fire or burnt fingers! I finished with my saw again, used glue and bits of molding and dowels and finished my shabby little bench.
Here it is, rather rough and unfinished but I love it :) I'll scrape off the extra bits of glue and paint the whole thing again, but this shabby look is perfect for now. I even love that it is a little "bottom heavy." I think it adds to the childish feel, just perfect for the kids' room.

The Secret to Making Antique Paper

I LOVE antique books and collect antique school books. Nothing can match the mellow, rich colors of vintage papers and books, but I sure can try to recreate it in miniature. Below is a House of Miniatures desk kit that I just stained and finished (although the hardware is still giving me fits). But while I had the wood stain out, I decided to do a little experimenting...

I had printed out several book covers from one of those printables sites but they just didn't look realistic enough for me so I grabbed a few of them and started painting them all with the same wood stain I was using on the desk! I even used the same Ceramcoat Satin Varnish. Here they are:

Much better! When making books for bookshelves, I usually fold and glue the paper covers around a piece of white foam (like kids use for crafts). Fast and easy! This time I decided I wanted pages, real paper pages. I folded the newly stained covers as usual and put a nice smear of tacky glue in the binding part and started tucking pages in. I thought it looks much more realistic for a setting like on this desk:

Of course, white paper in an antique book? That just wouldn't do! I also think that good old copy paper can look a tad thick. I made a ton of antiqued paper for the books and also stuffed the drawers! Can you see the subtle shading of tans in the papers below and how "to scale" the thickness of the paper is? They look even better and more antiqued in real life. The Secret of Making Antique Paper is below....

Parchment Paper!

Yup, the cheap stuff you buy in the grocery store for baking.

(**You CANNOT use wax paper for this!!**)

1. I used my paper cutter to cut long strips.

2. I then cut those strips into paper size widths.

3. The antiquing magic happens when you take all those pieces, put them in a pie tin

and bake them until you have the right color!

Parchment paper turns the most wonderful shades of antique tans when cooked. I have baked whole sheets at a time thinking it would be a shortcut before, but it mostly browns on the edges. Cutting them first is the key.

Just be ready to explain to your family why there aren't any cookies being served afterwards :)

Happy Baking!!

Checkered Floor Tutorial

I love Swedish design, with painted wood floors and the light and airy whites, greys, and blues! It lends itself so well to the shabby chic style that is so popular now too. I decided I wanted to do a painted wood floor effect in my Orange Blossom that was inspired by that look, using a blue-grey color and a whitewash effect. Here is how I did it:

1. Instead of applying individual wood strips, I decided to score plank lines into the plywood for a wood floor effect. Since I wanted a rougher look, I carved pretty heavily in some places. If you look carefully at the picture below, you can see the lines I carved in. It you want a solidly painted two color floor, this is the time to apply the lighter color paint over the whole floor, then let it dry completely. It wanted a white washed look so I started with the plain wood.

2. Time to get out the painter's tape! I find it best to start with the center strip. Take a piece of painter's tape and apply it from one corner to the opposite corner. Just line up the edge of the tape with the point of the corner and you will have a perfectly straight and centered tape line.

3. Label another strip of the same tape to use as a spacer (see the picture below). Line it up exactly with the first piece and then put your second strip down, also touching the spacer. Keep moving the spacer and applying tape across the entire floor. Turn the wood and repeat the whole procedure going in the opposite direction. You now have a perfectly spaced tic-tac-toe board. Almost there!4. Now it's time to cut out the overlapping areas so that you will have a perfect checkerboard pattern! Everywhere the two strips of tape overlap will be cut out. Gently use a craft blade and just follow the edges of the tape... the nice straight lines are right there for you to "trace."
5. Now peel off those overlapping pieces of tape.6. It's a perfect checkerboard now! Make sure all of the remaining tape is still sealed down tight before you move to the next step: painting. I used French Blue (although it looks white in the picture below). Since I wanted the wood to still show though, I brushed it on lightly with a foam brush and wiped off any places where it looked too thick. Let it dry.
7. Time to peel tape again and you are done! I added a whitewash effect over the whole finished floor for the effect that I was going for. For a really aged effect, you can sand in front of doorways and in high traffic areas. Voila, complete!