A Little Maker Magic

 I couldn't share these before Christmas because I didn't want the girls to see them, but I probably would have been safe because I don't think they visit me here. I decided to make Christmas Tree ornaments for the girls, reflecting their horses and pets, all important members of our families.  I found the images in Design Space and sized them to 4 inches wide--rather large-- then cut them from 2mm chipboard, which took a very long time--24 passes for the chipboard.

Chipboard didn't hold up well cutting the fine, sharp pointed edges of the mane, tail and ears. I cleaned them up using sanding them with an emory board.

I always practice my new cuts on yardstick first. I wanted to deboss the pet's name on the image. With the Cricut Maker, I was able to use the same image for the chipboard with the design cover. I used the #21 deposing point--which I love.

For the horses, I chose a metallic card stock, using the deep cut blade (the black housing). The machine takes you though the steps, with the prompt to load deposing tool then the cutting tool.

Once the image was cut, I ran it through my sticker-maker 3" size Xryron

It works so efficiently.

I can see using the application for miniatures in deposing kitchen cabinets and others projects, though I've not tried to depose wood yet. I just received Spellbound Miniatures new book and I'm so excited to make her toy box herbs planter box.

The horses look great and the card stock covered up the rough edges. Next time I'll cut them smaller out of the basswood.

The dogs were next. I cut them from 1/16 inch basswood, really my preferred material. 10 pass and I was done.  With all the ornaments, I used the Dremel to drill the hole for the ring then I used jewelry pliers to attached the jump rings that would hold the ribbon hangers.

Old MO doesn't seem too impressed. I'm sure he's wondering why he didn't get an ornament. 

The girls loved their ornaments which they found Christmas Eve on our tree, impressed with how creative their grandmother is. I knew the secret: they would be getting their own Maker the very next morning. Already the oldest has the machine figured out and paired with her iPad and spent the day "making." 

Meanwhile Christmas was being celebrated in grand style in the Pink Farmhouse (you know the one--it used to be blue)

I used water slide decals to try to create my grandmother's Christmas dinner table. The water slide decals were fair. The film was thicker and didn't conform to the curve of the plate very well, so I may try to redo the plates. I found images of her dishes on Replacements.com, an 1950s dinnerware probably sold at Montgomery Wards. The pattern is a Currier and Ives theme by Homer Laughlin. I have the dishes, but they are packed up. I made the turkey using oven bake polymer clay and the candle sticks shown in the last post.

Grandmother's dining table was vintage 1940s with the large water fall wood buffet that I set out to recreate before I had the Maker. It is pretty rough, but now I have the Cricut and will be able to a better job of cutting cleaner pieces. Still it is a representation of my fond holiday memories. Again, I made all of the food. 

My plan for all of this includes making a boombox of Abbie's dining room with the table all set ready for the family to sit down and celebrate. Most of them are gone now, including 1 of the six cousins now in our 70s. 

A New Project Takes Shape

I really don't need gifts, so I am very hard to buy for, but I did suggest to my husband that I would like an addition for my next house. Yes, there is another house that I've not shared it with you yet that I will begin soon, but here is the teaser: A Real Good Toys addition.

I couldn't wait any longer, so I unboxed it last night and began the dry fit.

It's much larger than I imagined and it has pre-made flooring, which looks very nice, but will it match the rest of the house? Well, no. But often that is the way it is with additions.

And it comes with the nicest assembled window.

So let the adventure begin. I'm still working on the Fairfield, but I do need a distraction from it, don't I? Who works on just one project at a time, anyway?

After all, we are technically in a state of semi-lock down and certainly practicing social distancing. I need to keep my sanity.

I'll leave you with the birthday card that I made for my youngest daughter. 

 Thank you so much for keeping me company all of these months as we all have found ways to stay busy during a really challenging and grim time in our lives. It is a blessing to have wonderful friends far and near to cheer us on, to help keep our spirits high, and to share our have hope and faith that all will be well. Our miniature hobby has kept us going and it is wonderful to be able to support each other and to learn from each other. 

I say this from my heart, I love you guys. 

Happy New Year, Friends.

Oh Tannenbaum

One of my miniature goals has been to make a Christmas tree, a pretty, traditional Christmas tree. I began making ornaments last year just before Christmas as I decorated the Bellingham farmhouse, but there were too many other things to do, so I vowed to work on my tree over the summer. Sure. 

I began by ordering my tree on Etsy from a local vendor, Dave Nelson who used to manage his mother's dollhouse store in Denver. He continues to build houses and refurbish dollhouses and attend miniature shows, but we know how that business has been this year. He announced on Instagram and Facebook that he was opening up an Etsy store, so I purchased his tree and the sweet little ginger bread girl ornaments. 

Before I did miniatures, I tried my hand at making jewelry, but that was a passing phase. I have the tools, wires, beads, and findings, so I got busy.

The ornaments are easy to assemble: string beads and bead caps on a head bead, add a dab of jewelry glue in between each element (E6000 or similar jewelry labeled glue--not super glue because it will cloud glass beads). Cut the head pin about 3/4 of an inch long, then using jewelry needle nosed pliers bend the head pin into a hook to hand the bead on the branch. If you have to shop for beads, look through  the jewelry findings for bead caps that simulate the caps on ornaments. Use your imagination.

I use head pins with a small gold bead top at the bottom of the ornaments to hold them in place. I have also used head pins with a looped top and flathead top, but I think I like the one with the bead. There are a variety of ways to design you ornaments. Pinterest is full of great ideas.

I took the remainder of the head pin that I cut off to make the hangers for the ginger bread girls.

The ornaments below have gold seed beads at the bottom to cover the end of the head pin.

I had the gold beaded garland in my stash along with the little candy canes. I found a card of beaded angles so added them to the tree, too.

But I really wanted candles on my tree. Candles this size are rather hard find online and I wanted candles NOW not next year, so I made some using oven bake polymer clay.  

Candles are very easy to make: roll a thin rope of clay. I used white, but wanted to add some translucent

but mine just crumbled, so my candles are just plain white, but I think a translucent candle would be nice.  I wanted a dozen candles that were less than inch tall. I rolled extras and made some longer ones of candle stick and sconces. 

 

I purchased a toaster oven to bake my polymer clay downstairs so that I didn't have start the kitchen oven for just a few little candles and let's face it, to save trips up and down the stairs. 

I'm not crazy over this oven because it is very hard to set the temperature and time, so I used an oven thermometer to gage the temperature, and set the timer on my watch. I had to monitor the gage so that the clay didn't burn. I also had to adjust the temperature. I had to guess where 270 on the temperature  was on the temperature dial then I had to lower the temperature because the gage went to 350.--Anyway. The candles came out perfect after about 20 minutes of baking.

I made 12 candle holders using bead caps and I glued the candles in place. It was a challenge to get them to stand and dry straight. You have to make sure to get the candles to stand straight because after the glue sets, the candles can't be straightened.

I think they turned out okay and they look great on the tree. I used the jewelry glue to attach them to tree branches.

Using different bead caps, I created table top candle sticks. 

I had plans to place the tree in the Bellingham, but it's is a bit too large, so I moved out some of the toys in the toy store and placed the tree there. Santa (an ornament) seems to be having quite a conversation with American Girls. They are a handful and I'm sure that he has lengthy notes on their year.

I had such fun with this little tree. I've seen such beautiful miniature tress and hoped that I could one day make one for myself. 

Source List for supplies and tools

Hobby Lobby

Michael's

JoAnn

David's Dollhouse on Etsy

Fire Mountain Gems and Beads

Bindels Ornaments

 (located in The Netherlands, but they have lovely product, kits, tutorials, and will gladly answer email questions. While deliver takes a while, it's worth the weight. I'm got a chandelier kit and some sconces that I'll be making after the holidays)

So from our home to your home, Merry Christmas. May your holiday be merry and bright.

Thank you for stopping by.  I'll see you after the New Year.

The Shape of Things

 I am so proud of myself today. Last summer as I worked to remove wallpaper from the half scale Fairfield, I broke the arched door jamb for the large living room doorway. This morning I decided to wallpaper the living room and began assembling the pieces to put the room back in order,  but I couldn't find the broken piece. I worked on the little house out in the garage during the summer and thought that I had moved everything back into the basement, but I couldn't find the missing piece, so I decided to make a new trim piece one on my Cricut Maker. Of course I could have just traced a new pattern and cut it out by hand--certainly would have been quicker, but clean, precise cuts are worth the time that it took me create my new piece. 

 I relished the challenge.                           

I began by scanning the broken wood trim and saving as a .jpeg, then uploading it into Cricut Design Space, as you see it on the far left of Design Space. Technically, I could edit that scanned image, but I've not trained myself in the skill yet, instead, I found it much easier to build my new piece from scratch using the tools that Design Space has.

I measured the left leg on the real piece from the point where it attaches to the arch down to the bottom, using millimeters: 11mm. The I measured the distance between the inside of the arch from the left leg to the where the inside of the right leg would join to the arch. In the Shapes tool on the left, I grabbed a square and sized it. I made two using the duplicating tool to copy the 1st one.

As the image shows, my first arch wasn't wide enough, so I remeasured the inside width between the legs the made another rectangle  (the horizontal one) to get the correct inside width. 

Next how to create the arch? Design Space doesn't allow for free-hand drawing. I wish it had the flexibility, so to create curved lines takes some imagination. The Shapes tool has a variety of common shapes can be stretched and sized to create custom images.

 I grabbed a circle from the Shapes toolbox and began to flatten the circle until I had an oval that fit between two legs. I used the Attach tool to "glue the 3 pieces together, but I didn't have an arch yet. As the last image shows; I had an oval with legs.

This image shows how I duplicated my oval (I always duplicate extra pieces so that I have the original piece in tact incase I need a do-over) Instead of attaching the new oval, I placed it on top of the black oval, leaving the top edge of the first oval exposed. 

This photos shows how I used the Slice tool "cut away" the excess black oval. 

Next I drag the arch away from the sliced ovals. You can see the oval left.

The first jamb that I made--still in the work space--wasn't wide enough, it was back to the drawing board 

to remeasure and rebuild. The second try was successful. I printed my door jamb to make sure that it was the correct shape and size.

Perfect. I was shocked.

Time to cut the wood.

• Purple tight grip mat
• 1/16 inch bass wood (Hobby Lobby) cut to 11 inches wide
• Knife blade

In the Maker screen the photo on the left shows the machine's placement of the door jamb, but I want it to run with the grain of the wood, I am able move the piece to align it with the wood grain by grabbing the circle arrow to rotate the piece's position.

The machine makes 14 passes. I usually stop at 10 passes to keep from cutting my mat. The shape is not an exact duplicate of the original, but it is close enough. 

The good news: I finally found the missing leg and it will glue back in place perfectly. So which piece  would you use?

I still have so much work to do on this little house, but this was major issue solved. I'm now contemplating making new windows. Now I know that can recreate pieces if I have too.

On this Thanksgiving Eve, I wish you all Happy Thanksgiving. It will just be the two of us. We had plans to have dinner with one of the girls and her family, but the the 12 year old tested positive last week. While she has been symptom free since her test, she is on mandatory quarantine (as ordered in an official letter from the Health Department followed up with a phone call) along with her sisters and parents.  The 8 year old came home from school Oct. 30 sick but tested negative, yet the rest of the family got sick--sore throat, sniffles--typical COVID symptoms. Since we saw all three of the girls once again since the 30th, we are hiding, now, too. I am thankful to have my mini projects to keep me busy and my mind occupied. 

I'll fix a traditional meal tomorrow, except I'm roasting chicken instead of the 20 lb, turkey still in the freezer. Despite the roller coaster ride that 2020 has taken us on, we are cheerful and thankful for our blessings, especially when I think about the journey that my distant great grandparents, John Howland and his wife Elizabeth took 400 years ago on the Mayflower. Their journey and the reasons for it were remarkable and remain so today.

Have a wonderful celebration in your home. For my friends out of country, I am thankful and blessed to have you as friends, for you have enriched my life and bring me joy. I hope I do the same for you. 

 We certainly live in uncertain times. Saturday, we had a small family get-together--just the two daughters and their 5 children. It had been a while since we had been together. One daughter lives an hour and half away on a light traffic day, though there isn't such a thing anymore. She brought to the two boys and left the youngest, Nathan, 11. So this week I am the distance learning monitor. I certainly have mixed emotions about this role, though we love having the little guy here and he is much happier than being at home alone all day. I do hope some learning is taking place. As a retired teacher, I certainly do have my own thoughts about the plight of educators and their students today. Still, I know that many are doing the best they can, given these unusual circumstances. 

It seems, too, that we be going back into hiding--or social distancing. Colorado counties' virus cases are surging and once again we are waiting out a quarantine. While Nathan has been distance learning since last spring, the granddaughters have gone back to their school part time. So, two weeks ago we were waiting on a COVID test for 8-year-old which came back negative and this week the 12-year-old sister is in quarantine since the girl she sits next to in school tested positive over the weekend. And we were all together over the weekend. 

I'm not too concerned that we will all get sick, but we can't be too careful.

Good thing for hobbies! Before I begin here is the link to Bindles Ornaments--a site that I love for making lamps and chandeliers. <https://www.bindelsornaments.nl> Keep in mind that it is located in The Netherlands, so it takes a while to reach the USA. Which brings me the Fairfield, which I moved in from the garage. I hate moving. It took a bit of time reorganize, find everything, and get reestablished in the rhythm of working. I began with the dining room flooring, trying something new.

These are my options for the Fairfield floors: One builder suggested paper floors, so I ordered this paper floor from Itsy Bitys Minis. I like it, but it just does not have definition or depth that a floor should have. I had created a craft stick kitchen floor but felt that the coffee stir sticks were too thick for the half scale and the stain that I used really didn't penetrate the wood or add enough interesting color. I may have gone back to the craft stacks then by chance I found a package of Cricut wood veneer at Michael's, so here is the project. 

Using Cricut Design Space I create 1/4 x7 inch boards. After measuring the floor to get the correct length, I created on board then used the Duplicate to create the rest of them. I knew that my floor was six inches wide, so I created enough that would fill a six-inch-wide space--though it doesn't look like that here and my measurement is set to centimeters. 

Your layout in Design Space doesn't have to be perfect because the program will lineup the cuts to fit for the efficient use of space; however, you can move the pieces around, especially when cutting on wood and you want pieces to cut with the wood grain such as floor boards. 

I use this very thin walnut veneer, (two sheets to package), the deep cut blade (not the knife blade), taped it to a hard grip purple mat, and let the machine do the work.

While the wood does tend to splinter a bit, I did get nice, clean cuts that are so much more accurate and faster than trying to hand cut it all by hand. I'm left with an interesting scrap, wondering how I could put it to good use.

I've never used clear varnish on my flooring, but have always been frustrated because my floors don't have a pretty shine. Somewhere either in the blogs that I follow or the Facebook groups that I belong to I read to use clear varnish. Wow. The varnish took my wood from a pretty dull looking surface to putting a nice sheen on the wood, after I sanded it, of course, to get rid of the splintering.

I'm getting ahead of myself here, but one of my main considerations that once I adhered the flooring to the template, I needed to make sure that it slide into place. I could have been in a lot of trouble if I had glued down my floor on the replace and it would slide in. 

I made a removable floor because of the electrical line that runs along the front of the room. I just didn't want to glue floor boards on top of the electrical tape. I am also using printer bricks. I love the brick paper that I ordered from HBS (miniatures.com) because it is textured, heavy, easy to use, and looks realistic. 

I also use double sticky tape instead of glue because I just was not sure of how the floor would look. Seems to be working.

I'm liking it.

The edges will trim nicely with a pair of sharp scissors.

                   

And there you have it. I have to use the clear varnish on the floor, glue the grown molding in place, add the door jamb, and the windows, and the chandelier. Right now I'm working on the living room floor, so I'll be back when I have that floor installed. 

Today I will be working on the living room floor. I've built the fireplace, now I need to figure out the embellishments for the little fireplace. Results in few days.

                   

Thanks for joining me today. I hope you are well. 

PS: Floor finished. Now for the clear varnish.