My Mini Shop's Blog

The Little girl inside of me must really want out because this project is actually flowing totally according to my plans. Last night I went to bed very late (or early depending on what you call 1 am). I had my music pumping and I was going with the flow. Sometimes, when I am thinking too hard about other things (real life things), my creative juices goes into overload.

First, right before I went to bed last night, I started on this bed for the upstairs room. The rooms in this kit are very small so I wanted to utilize the space and give the impression that there is more space in here than it actually is.

I have always considered my style of artistry to be more on the side of an Impressionist. The definition of Impressionist is * <b>a literary or artistic style that seeks to capture a feeling or experience rather than to achieve accurate depiction.</b> Through my blogging of this cottage, I wish to share with you new inexpensive ways to achieve the look of some expensive things that we buy in miniature. You will be able to do this with card board scrap pieces of wood and dollhouse wallpaper or even scrapbook paper. My goal is to try and help YOU, learn how to achieve the look of realism by applying skills of an Impressionist.

I already knew that today, I would do a tutorial. After I started making this bed last night, I wish I had been more awake so that I would have thought to take out the camera to take pictures of <b>How<i></i></b> I created it. Here is a shot of the Bed I started on last night and at the end, you'll see what it ended up looking like when I completed it.



Today's tutorial will be on how to make a Cornice. You will need:

cardboard, scissors, tacky glue, wallpaper (or scrapbook paper), balsa wood and lace trim. First, you need to take your cardboard and cut it a little bit wider than the width of your window. I will not use measurements because, every window has different sizes. You can also cut your wallpaper pattern. It should look like this when cut:



Next, take your tacky glue and spread glue over the entire piece of cardboard. You can then glue the wallpaper to the cardboard. You can use a credit card to smooth the wallpaper down to be sure there are no bubbles. It should look like this:



Next, you will take your lace trim and glue it to the bottom edge of your wallpaper



It should look like this when that step is completed



Next, you can take your wood and cut it a little bit shorter than your Cornice piece like this:



Bend each end of your Cornice and glue the wood block in place to help keep the shape of the Cornice when glued in place. Turn your Cornice over because once the glue is dry, it is ready to be attached. It should look like this when completed:



You can even add an extra step by adding some lace curtains. I just used some lace found at Hobby Lobby or Micheal's. You would do this by gluing the lace to the backside of the Cornice before you attach it to the wall.



This is what the room looked like at the end of today:


Upstairs



Downstairs



I did my workout this morning. I totally believe that having a healthy body & mind helps me be the Best person I can be for myself & my family and I can share my best and most creative work with my clients.

Today my workout consisted of Shoulders & Arms & Ab RipperX (P90X) . I hurt all over but, it feels great because it's a "good" hurt. Thought Of The Day ~ "Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be" ~ Thomas à Kempis

Many times, we look at others successes or accomplishments and think we can never reach our individual goals because we view the other person as someone not human. Each of us are just plain human beings. Set you Goals and work towards achieving them! Keep them in front of you! So many of my friends are working out to get healthy this year. It's so fun to share Minis & healthy living with them. Feel free to join us too. You are not alone!

Thanks for stopping by to read my blog today!

Today,I realized that I have not blogged since November. One of my goals is to keep up with blogging at least weekly. Today, I'll not only blog to let you know "I'm sill here" but, I'll give you a little tutorial that I hope you will enjoy, use and share your "Eye Candy" with me when you use it for your own project.

As a child I had the typical pink bedroom that most girls my age had. When I grew up, I decided to keep my walls a neutral color in my bedroom because I LOVE to change the curtains & comforters to create a "New Look".

Being a Creative person, I get bored with the same surroundings. Lately, I have been craving that girlie room in shades of white and pink but, I know I don't want those colors in my real house. Once again I was able to create this special desire in a Miniature form .

The house I picked this time is from the 2009 Greenleaf "Contest house kit". I wanted to do something fast so that I could move on to my newest idea (A Castle Tower which I want to start on before this month's end). So this morning, I woke up at 3 am with the idea that I would do the "Girlie Get-A-Way" house first. I choose wallpapers from Itsy Bitsy Minis. I Love her patterns and I am so happy one of my Clients introduced me to there fabulous wallpaper designs.



I started building the basic kit and decided I wanted white wood floors and decided to share this "How to" with you.

First I painted the floor a peony pink. I did this because sometimes, you can see in between the cracks and the natural wood color would not look professional or clean peaking through the cracks. You can paint the floor what ever color you will use as your accent color in your room. Sometimes, I even use black on the base floor when I am creating a dark wood floor for a room.



Then, I took a bag of the Greenleaf Thin Siding Strips and cut them different lengths and glued them down to the floor. I cut them in a staggered way because that is how "Real Life" hardwood floor. You <i> <b>don't</b></i> want the <i>cut lines</i> to align.





This is how it should look when completed.



Lightly sand the wood floor with sand paper. Wipe off the excess wood dust. Take out your Paint brush, white paint and about 1 ounce of water. Saturate your paint brush with your white paint and then, dip it in water. Brush the watered down paint evenly on  the wood flooring.







You want the wood grain to peep through! This is what it should look like when dry:



Next, take a small stencil pattern and stencil a border around the perimeter of the floor.  It should look like this when this step is complete:





Next, you'll want to seal your floor with varnish. I used a "flat" finish. You can use a glossy or a flat varnish finish depending on the look you desire. This is what the room looked like when I finished today. Tomorrow, I'll start the outside of my "Girlie Cottage"!



Remember these are just the basics! You can change it or alter it to fit your own special plans for your dollhouses!



Thank you For stopping by to read my Blog!

Thought Of The Day ~ "If you don't like how things are, change it!  You're not a tree." ~Jim Rohn

I know, I have been quite here on my blog. It's because I have started back working on a fabulous house. I am doing the Brimbles Mercantile kit by Greenleaf Dollhouses for a customer of mine. It's not much to look at right now but, here are some shots so you all can see it. I love the wallpaper colors. I love just about every shade of blue!!! The shade in the wallpapers the customer gave me just looks wonderful.

I'll upload more shots later. These are down stairs shots:




This is the upstairs:



Putting the stairs together was a killer! My customer is happy so I am too. I hope to have this one completed by the first week of February.

This is what the plain kit looks like:


I will have stone on the outside of this one.

This scene has everything you need to make your miniature scene complete! This scene has a hand made pink climbing rose that is climbing up the side. There are hand sculpted & painted stone that has moss growing in the cracks to add that extra level of character. The "iron" gate has a verdigris aged finish. This scene also has a little blue bird taking in the beauty. There is also a purple flower tree growing along the other side of this scene. The Lion Head Fountain scene has water pouring from it's mouth. This tranquil setting is ready for purchase! It is OOAK (One Of A Kind) and this is the only one I made (Not from a kit at all but from my imagination). It is 1" scale and the size is 10"H x 8"W x 7"D This fountain is for sell in my CDHM Store http://www.cdhm.org/.../minisontheedge

These are more pictures:

My Family & I (Minus David) met with Teresa (Minimadwoman) her husband and her little sister and Beachpeach (Sharon) for a fun filled day! We were on a mission to see Coleen Moore's fairy castle at the Museum of Science and Industry. I have been to the museum so many times but I could not remember actually "Seeing & Appreciating" the Casstle (I must have seen it while I was NOT into miniatures).

First we ate a Lunch and were on our way to view the Castle! We thought were were not gonna be permitted to take pictures but we were able to snap away! It was very dark and they had there own spot lights so this is why the pictures are not the best. Also, the castle was incased in glass so I got some pretty bad flash shots.
Enjoy these though:

The porch has been added and so have the tower brackets. I used some upgraded brackets for the tower roof.

I added a Burnt Umber wash over EVERYTHING (Shingles & Stone) and wanted you to see what it looks like with that added. This blends all of the colors together:

I started adding the Gray paint to the stones, bricks and roof:









I took this picture before I painted the tower roof here. I just wanted you to be able to see and notice the differance it makes by  adding another color to the roof:



I also added brown on the stones & bricks

I started the Brick painting. I watered down "brown Iron Oxide" on my paint brush to start the first coat. Now this brick will have a "fallen Plaster" look (except on the tower). I paint all of the bricks because sometimes the "plaster" peeks through so I'll need all of the bricks painted correctly so that they will look accurate and realistic.  The brick work will give a bit more charecter to this house. I could stay up all night a paint!! This is my favorite part!!