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Deb

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Deb last won the day on March 5 2023

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About Deb

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  • Website URL
    http://www.debsminis.com

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  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    Maricopa, AZ
  • Interests
    I love minis! I love everything about them, but mostly I love building dollhouses, custom dressing furniture, and designing new things in almost every scale. You can see all my mini work (oodles of eye candy) at http://www.debsminis.com

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    Born to Bash

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  • Dollhouse Building Experience
    Five or more
  • Real Name
    Deb
  • Country
    United States

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  1. I'm heartbroken as well. Wolfie had a special place in my heart and it's sad to think of a world without her in it. Here's the link for her member of the month article in the Gazette: http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/dollhouse_news/FEB2008/feb2008-mom.html
  2. Deb

    Selkie

    I'm heartbroken this evening. Tracy called to tell me and I'm just at a loss. I can't think of any words to say, but I think Selkie would like me to share this. She chose her name here on the forum based on the legend of the Selkie Woman as told by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. I found this recording of the story for you. https://sarahsutcliffe.com/2014/09/28/march-2014-seal-woman/ It meant a lot to her.
  3. Yes ma'am, it sure is! In fact, I think it's part of the original description. LOL!
  4. @Samusa, Lynette used three 16x20 canvases to paint night skies and tree landscapes to go behind her quarter scale Christmas village and it looks amazing! It's like having a wintery forest behind the houses.
  5. Thank you! I just realized that the description doesn't match the painting. This is a macro shot of a sunset painting less an one inch. The backdrop I did for Tracy's micro house is in the other album. I'm so lost these days that I didn't even realize I'd created two albums. LOL!
  6. <wrapping my arms around you in a huge hug> Selkie, my sweet friend, if you were ever to pop over for a paint date, I'd probably try to keep you forever. LOL! That would be most awesome! <grinning> And what a wonderful rabbit hole it is too! The best painting paper is Canon's watercolor paper and I think the 140lb cold pressed is the one most recommended for acrylic painting. To help cut down on the curling/warping, you can tape the paper down to a flat, nonabsorbant surface with frog tape which peels cleanly off the paper after it's dried. Of course, it doesn't matter if it does warp since you can glue it to a piece of cardstock to frame it so either way, it can be made to lay flat. Michael's often has the pads of watercolor paper on sale and in the size we do, one pad of 15 sheets would last a lifetime!
  7. Jane has only done the one micro specific tutorial (so far), but as Samantha has discovered, a lot of her 1:1 paintings can be done in mini. Can I recommend a couple for you to try to get started? This one is a cherry blossom branch in front of a serene mountain background and it would be easy to do in mini. Try it in a 2x3 size first (that's sofa sized for a 1:12 house) first to get the hang of it. When she gets to the cherry blossoms, if you're not comfortable using a brush, use a toothpick instead. Or dip the end of your brush handle in paint and gently dot it on the painting to make clusters of blossoms. See? You can do that! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74EF1QocZ5A&t=1052s Then there's this one with ghosts that's adorable and would be soooooooo cute in a haunted house! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TopU85bhYE Try them in a larger size first to get comfortable and work your way down to whatever size you want to hang on your walls. I can't wrap my head around the math today, but poster size paintings are what we like to hang in our real houses and a 2" x 3" would be about right, wouldn't it? Oh, there's also this one of flowers in front of a wood fence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB38PTpN6uk and a different style fence with a sunflower here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGqPkbuPYRc <grinning> I love these because I get to paint wood and in the immortal words of our founding father, "Wood is good". If I can't paint on wood, then I'll paint pictures of wood instead! LOL! But those last two would be gorgeous still lifes in a dollhouse. Oops, I got excited and carried away with the links, but those are definitely four that could be done in mini with no problem and you'd have so much fun. Paint the little ghosts first Tracy and you'll see that you know more than you think you do. They're done by dry brushing and you already know how to do that! <chuckling and hugging you tight> It's been way too long since I learned anything new to share so this makes me very, very happy. You need to give this a try too Holly. Try that cherry blossom tutorial and see what you think. Oh, and Jane is just starting to teach watercolors too. <happy grin> I saved my pennies for a set of Dr. PH Martin paints and I've been petting the pretty bottles with such vivid, vibrant colors in them. I haven't had time to open them yet, but I took to watercolors like a frog to water. LOL! Bruce got me a nice sketch box and easel that I can take to the patio to sit in the fresh air and paint. I haven't accomplished anything but abstracts so far, but for me that's the joy of watercolors. I deliberately try to make the "mistakes" that everyone else is trying to avoid. hehehehe Yeah, I'm your sister.
  8. LOL! Yep, she's been called the Bob Ross for this generation and I'd agree. She's very calm and serene (although she has a killer sense of humor) and her teaching skills are superb. You know my scrambled brain has a hard time processing information but there's something about the way Jane teaches that gets thru all that static. Oh Holly, when I discovered that I could understand it, I broke down and bawled like a baby because it had been so very long since I'd been able to learn anything new and a life without learning anything new is torture. But the way she teaches connects the circuitry in my head and I can do it. I may not be able to remember a technique from one painting to the next, but I'm still learning and it makes me able to create again and that's the most important thing. I don't have pics of the paintings I've done posted anywhere to show you but I'll see if I can get them uploaded to my website soon so you can see. I just did three versions of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" that I think you'd really like. LOL! If it does, then put two yellow dots slightly left of the white one and add a blue line down the middle and voila! You've just painted an abstract! Seriously Tracy, these tutorials are so simple and if you don't like what you've painted, paint over it and start again. But I think you should try one just to see what you think of it and you might just surprise yourself. (But you won't surprise me coz I already know you can rock this painting thing) Girl, you rocked that cabin painting!!! Whooooooooooooooohoooooooooooo!!! It didn't take you any time at all to do it either! Awesome!!! Which one are you going to do next? Sarah! Hi sweetie! Hope you're doing ok! <blissful sigh> It's felt very good to be back here talking about miniatures with you guys. I'm having to stay in one thread to keep from getting overwhelmed with too much input but even this small amount is soothing to my soul. Y'all are my tribe and even if I'm hiding in shadows, this is still where my heart lives.
  9. Deb

    Misty Mountains

    I realized that I got the measurement wrong in the description. This is a 2x3 canvas board and the boards have way too much of a noticeable weave in the canvas. (they're intended for students to practice on) Regular canvas or watercolor sketching paper works much, much better.
  10. Sam, now that you've done one, you're catching on quickly to how easy it is! This took about fifteen minutes and I was using paint left on my palette from another painting I'd just finished.
  11. Here's an extreme close up of the micro painting I did this morning (sorry about the quality but I didn't have my macro lens and light box set up). You can see that the canvas weave I was talking about is smooth enough to not be too distracting. That's a 3/4 x 5/8 section so it's not too bad. http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/?app=gallery&module=gallery&controller=view&id=131139
  12. Deb

    Miniature paintings

    I've been doing whatever I can to stay creative and painting on canvas has become my new outlet. Of course you know it wasn't long before I tried scaling it down to miniature because I have lots more space on the walls of my dollhouses than I do in my real life house. LOL! But mainly it's because miniatures are still my passion so whenever I can, I paint something tiny.
  13. I'm really excited about painting in miniature and it makes me happy that you guys might enjoy it too. It's insanely easy once you realize that it's just as much of an illusion as anything else we do in mini.......it doesn't have to *be* something---it just has to look like it. LOL! I wish I'd discovered this years ago and all the walls in my dollhouses would have fabulous artwork. As for canvas, walmart has cute little 3x3 stretched canvases (the ones on board frames). I think they sell them together with an easel that's definitely not in scale, but still cute and they're super cheap. The wood is irrelevant since it's the canvas that I'm going after. It's very smooth and supple and the grain of the canvas hardly shows at all. it can fit about four of these micro paintings on one, then just peel it off the wood and cut out the paintings for framing. Super, super easy and it's going to give you the thin canvas you're after without all the hard work, and for very little money. If you want it a little smoother, give it a light sanding and that's all it'll take. Kathie, if I use the heavier body paints, I thin them with liquid matte medium or glazing compound to get a better flow with the smaller brushes, but I've also used craft paints with equally good results so I'd say whatever is in your paint stash will work just fine. IMO, if I want it to look like an oil painting with more texture, I'd use the heavier paint but for everything else just the craft paint. I forgot to show you pics of the mini paintings I've done so far. <hanging head in shame at violating the eye candy rule> Here's a link for the album: http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/?app=gallery&module=gallery&controller=browse&album=8129 <hugging Holly and Kahtie> It's good to see you guys again too. Love you both!
  14. Deb

    Miniature Paintings on Canvas

    Acrylic on canvas paintings
  15. Hey all! I know I've been MIA for a very long time, but, well, it's too much to go into. Physically I'm still having problems and not able to do much of anything, least of all my minis, but there's been one thing keeping me sane.....I'm learning how to paint on canvas. <wry grin> All it requires is one hand and that's about all I've got left in the way of working parts, so it's my creative outlet. The artist I follow is Jane Font, who provides free video tutorials on You Tube under the name "Painting With Jane". Jane's a sweetheart and her teaching skills are so excellent that even on a bad brain day, I can easily follow along. She makes it all simple with step by step instructions. The reason I popped in is because this morning Jane released a surprise video............how to paint a micro miniature canvas! Well, technically, it's more like 1:12/1:24/1:48 depending on where you hang it, but at 3/4" x 5/8", it could be a sofa sized painting for a micro mini. I know that one of the biggest complaints we have as miniaturists is finding affordable art work for the walls of our dollhouses so when Jane released this, I begged her for more of this size! Trust me, this is so simple that anyone can do it and you don't need to be able to draw or have the slightest bit of painting ability. Just follow along and it comes out gorgeous! She's using acrylic paints for this one, but you can use craft paints just as easily and we all have tiny brushes right at our fingertips, so give it a try! You can paint it on cardstock, or you can get little 3x3 canvases at walmart and simply cut out the size you want. I can't recommend this too highly because it's simple and easy and you can make gorgeous paintings for your dollhouses without spending a fortune! Here's the link for Jane's mini "Golden Hour" sunset painting. I have the life size version of this on my easel now so it was fun to just knock out the mini version in about ten minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Wc-hH9hLk&feature=push-u-sub&attr_tag=o87GMCQ1cJ2pnGkY-6 Hit like and subscribe so you don't miss any new ones she releases. I was talking to Jane this morning and she said that if there's a big enough demand for it, she'll do more. :-) Hugs and hugs and hugs to you all! I love and miss you more than you know!
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