What do You Do When you're Done with a House?

Well, what I seem to do is 1. put is away, 2. admire it for a while, then 3. take it apart for the joy of creating something new with it! For me it seems, it's the process, not the end product that is therapeutic so I just can't leave well enough alone for long. I've been enjoying making lots of little things lately that really don't fit in any one house so what should I do with the shabby chic, country style and child accessories? I'll put them in a flea market style shop with booth areas of various styles, a wonderful hodge-podge of things that I like that don't have to match each other one little bit. The Orange Blossom is no more! As you can see, the owners are still moving in and getting their things out of storage...

Antiquing Covers a Multitude of (Paint) Sins!

It's been too long since I last posted! I'll apologize with an antiquing tip! :) Remember the Colonial Blue Cabinet? It needed some antique redware plates to match!

These plates used to be the blue splatterware metal plates that are sold so cheaply at places like miniatures.com. I gessoed them to prime it and then used toothpicks to paint a PA dutch style design. Every paint mark was either a dot or a dragged dot to make leaf or teardrop shapes. Obviously painting is not my gift! Time to cover it up by antiquing it!I use Folk Art Antiquing Polish which does a wonderful job on wood too!

They don't look so pretty close up but with a little more buffing, wiping and placement in a cabinet, I've got antiques!

A little more character for my cabinet!

Colonial Blue Corner Cabinet

Still scratch building! This corner cabinet is was made from popscicle sticks and a door from a Michael's hutch. I love those things but they seem to be getting harder to find. I used Folk Art's Cayman Blue paint with a lot of weathering techniques, sanding and a layer of Soy Fruitwood stain over the top. The top and inner shelves (that you can't see) are Yellow Ochre. I may just have to give away one of my blotchy paint secrets soon if you're interested. :)
This trunk below is one more item made from the bottom of the o-so-versatile Michael's hutch with a little faux techniques on the lid and crackled and dirty French blue to finish it. The teddy on top was actually labeled as a "cat toy" at our local discount store and was dressed in Santa gear. What?? I think any normal cat would inhale and choke on it's little 1 inch height. So strange but I'm glad I found 2 for $2!

On a Roll with Scratch Building

Hello all! After a very busy few weeks, I finally decided to sit down and relax with minis! It was one of those days where one item after another comes together. I made this hall bench below that will have hooks for coats and maybe a pair of boots below. It's just popsicle sticks and a couple "slices" of chunky molding for the shaped brackets below. The real finish will come later...This little three legged table just flew together although still unfinished too. It is a round piece of wood, veneer that I cut with scrapbooking scissors and the ends of three bamboo chopsticks.

This little girl's trunk is far from finished but I'm having fun with the girly details. I may make a tutorial on the easiest way to make a decorative paper box like in the bottom right of this trunk, if anyone's interested.
The shelf laying on its side was fun too! I used easy to cut balsa for the curvy top and the bottom is made of part of a Michael's hutch. Now back to my corner hutch building...

Spring Roses

...or spring fever! I finally figured out why I've been fixated on flowers lately... it's spring, of course! I found some lovely paper roses at Michael's Craft store and decided I wanted to give them a blush of pink on the edges. I continued my experiment with wet chalks and found something better than water to use. Keep reading to find out...The flowers in the background are the original solid color; those in front have been colored.
Still wondering what works better than water? Rubbing alcohol! It evaporates quickly and doesn't soak the flowers. I just dip the brush in the alcohol and brush it across the chalks, using one or many colors.
One final picture of some of my yellow flowers on the front porch of the Beacon Hill. Happy Spring!

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!

Blinking Blog

If this blog is changing designs right before your eyes, there is nothing wrong with your vision! I had to change my background because of changes at Shabby Blogs, but I am having huge issues! Please forgive the random changes and unfortunate colors while I try to figure this out.