Pink Makes a Friend

October comes packed with events, most notably the change in season. As the fall colors begin to appear, my love for Spring as my favorite season fades away and Autumn wins over my heart with all of her glorious color. October is also our anniversary month. We met on Friday the 13th way back in 1972 and have never been apart since that impromptu date--well, except for the seasonal hunting and fishing trips He takes and my few little excursions now and then. So here are we are 49 years later. We had dinner at a favorite steak house where the wait staff surprised us with a complementary desert and card signed by all the staff. Now that was special. 

    

 

My Daughters of the Revolution Chapter is back in full swing after having the summer off. I've been working a major project for the chapter to designate a little country church on a lonely highway in Northern Colorado on the way to the Wyoming border  as a DAR historical site. The application required a great deal of research, but it is now ready to be submitted. 

Next, October brings the DAR chapter's card making project where members gather in my basement to create hand made greeting cards for the veterans. We send Veterans Day cards to the veterans at the Cheyenne, WY VA nursing home and we will collect small gift items for them and make Christmas cards. We set our goal at 100 cards, though at last count last year there were only 17 residents in Cheyenne. The remainder of the cards are sent to an organization Cards for Soldiers in Michigan and those ladies ship thousands of hand made cards to US military serving over seas--for some their only source for greeting cards to send home.

Thus the mini workshop is converted to a card making workshop for the season. I'll pop in here maybe with some roofing progress and I'll be making dozens of mini flowers for the Manchester garden, so stay tuned.

In the mean time, Pink insisted on a photo shoot for the greenhouse. She is so proud of it--I don't know why she needs all the glory because I did all the work, but she does have that glorious head of pink hair, while I'm slightly gray. And she invited her Bee friend, who appears to be a bit reluctant to be photographed, so here is the grand tour: Scale wise, the lemon tree seems to fit nicely. The leaves are a bit larger than scale, but who's measuring?

Pink had to dress it up a bit with a hat. I purchased her basket at the Denver miniature show last month along with the butterfly house.

Bee was saved when I found her at my favorite potpourri gift store. She begged to get out of the dreadful sales display. She and Pink are just getting to know one another and I'm afraid the poor creature didn't know what she was singing up for when she teamed up with Pink, but they both put the lemon tree in scale. I ordered to pot from Molly Sue Miniatures, one of my favorite website artists who sells very unique miniature accessories. I always order a handful of little things since they are shipped from the UK. 

Heather and I flew out to San Jose last October where I found this birdhouse shelf, one of my favorite pieces. I gritted my teeth and glued it in place so that it would stay put, but photographed the back so that I could recall the artist. I have some small figurines to add.

I made the second birdhouse: very easy. a 1/2 inch square dowel with some holes drilled in and a couple toothpick perches. The clock is a wooden disk with an image collected for the web modgepodged in place; same with the posters. I ordered the shelf brackets from ministers.com and the fern comes artwork from Minatymama on Etsy. She is also on InstaGram as Lenakarin66. Makes beautiful, stylish minis.

I finally got brave and glued all the pieces in place, then glued the back wall to the sides and the floor. The brick wall is a piece of scrapbook paper from my paper stash, so the wall decor pieces are actually glue to paper so the wood won't be damaged if I ever decide to redo the wall.  For some reason, l've been very reluctant to permanently attach things for fear that I'll make a mistake, but if you don't glue items in place, things fall apart--don't they!

Buntings seem to be an English thing. As I follow my Birtish friends' blogs, they celebrate with elaborate buntings, even decorate their green houses with them, so I downloaded some bunting images from Pinterest and made my own. 

My favorite item has to be my violets that I made both from kits and from scratch. You can see the tutorial here: African Violets (you have scroll down some.) Originally the greenhouse was going to be dedicated to African Violet and orchids, but then I bought that little butterfly terrarium--there is only limited space. 

I had a couple of option for the floor. One was the black white checked faux tile floor that is Hobby Lobby offers, which looked nice, but in the end I opted for a rougher look by painting the floor cement gray and stippling it a bit to rough it up.

Some of my pots came from Molly Sue in an earlier order. 

I have always had a love for butterflies. My dad taught me to love them and he was a collector, mounting them in boxes, often cigar boxes. Now he didn't smoke cigars, but he collected the boxes and used them as storage. This little printable cigar box is a little tribute to my dad fashioned just as he would have: some cotton ball (that's what they had back then as his mounted butterflies were placed on top with a bit of glass cut to fit to protect them. Only I used clear plexiglas. Tiny butterflies can be sourced from a number of places: Search Pinterest for downloadable butterfly images at scale. I download the images then import them into Microsoft Word and scale them down to "tiny."

They do required hand cutting, so use short bladed, short scissors, there are  Etsy shops that sell precut 1:12 scale butterfly collections or printable ones that you can download and cut out like LDelaney that has beautiful butterfly collections, even a download option.

Often I purchase kits first to figure out how they are assembled--like flowers--then I can work out a way to fashion my own from scratch. The kits always are more authentic looking professionally cut and colored. Often the question is do I buy the more expensive kits or do I invest in the punches and other tools to create my own. Well, only you can answer that. For a one time project, the kits are best, but if you are mini nuts and want to make your own will make a lot of flowers then invest in good tools.

I tried to figure out lighting, but with the plexiglass covering the roof, it was just too cumbersome to add an electric light. A fan would have been nice, too, but I decided to pass on that. The greenhouse is now officially finished. I may add or take out items. I haven't decided about gluing the roof and /or the front in place. I'm thinking not incase I  might want to redesign it, I should leave at least one panel un attached so that I can easily move items in and out.

Here are some additional links. You can poke through my recent posts (this year) to find posts on how I made different things, including assembling the greenhouse. It's a fun project, easy and satisfying with so many possibilities. 

 The Cultured Dollhouse: Green House Kit

My Mini Front Porch:  tiny seedling trays

Factory Directory Crafts: Metal Chair: not currently available 

Minatymama: the fern wall art and others; group of six plants; she's on break now. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Too Many Projects

 I seem to be having a hard time focusing these days, jumping from one thing to the next. The speed shingles from Green Leaf arrived several days ago, but I've not tackled that roofing job yet, but it really must be the next project. I must get the Manchester house itself finished. 

Along with these good intentions, real life gets in the way. It's time to host the fall greeting card making parties for my DAR chapter. We make Veteran's Day cards and Christmas cards for the residents at the the Cheyenne, WY, so I went downstairs this morning to begin cleaning and organizing for the worship next week, but, of course, I got side tracked.

Last week I stopped at ARC, a local thrift store and found bags of dollhouse furniture. I didn't buy them because the time because the items that  were jammed in plastic bags looked pretty rough, but the next morning, I just had to go back to buy two bags. Of course, it was pretty much sight unseen and I was pretty disappointed when I got the bags home and opened them up, but I did manage to salvage one table, but it had to be rebuilt. 

This was my first attempt at piecing the table back together, using toothpicks and painting all the legs silver. But it didn't work.

The toothpicks didn't work, so I cut down some spindles to the correct length to make wooden legs: 

Well that didn't look very good either. The mid century (1970s) table with a glass top and chrome legs didn't work with wooden  spindle legs. I was about to give up.

I returned to the container where I put all the bits and pieces and found another leg, so I needed only one toothpick to put all the pieces back in place. I cleaned off all the silver paint that I had covered the chrome with to blend with the wood toothpick pieces, removed the old, excess glue, and drilled a tiny hole in the toothpick so that the counter part piece would fit.

Now with all but one of the original pieces, I was able to salvage the cool little table. I was beginning to really like it.  I used the LocTite glue so that it would set quickly, though I can't seem to keep it off my fingers. 

The tiny pieces have a bit of flange on one end that fits into a tiny whole on the other piece to create T-shaped legs, which the wooden leg doesn't have, but the LocTite seems to hold it in place.

Can you spot the toothpick replacement?

The Manchester Country Home now has a a mid century modern dining table that compliments the mid-century living room furniture. I like it. It's a departure from my real life decorating preferences. 

The bum leg doesn't show. 

I think I need new rug, though. This one went nicely with the French Country wood dining table and chairs, but not so much with this more modern look. 

What do you think? Certainly not a bargain for thrift store find. I left a bag behind. There are some other chairs that I'll be able salvage, too, but it certainly was not worth the the money I spent, but, gee, I like this little table.

The Manchester will have a garage, I decided. I ordered this kt from miniatures.com and couldn't wait to get it un boxed. The Houseworks kits are so well made and nicely packaged.

No pictures, though, with the the instructions.

The door and window are already assemble, but the working garage door will require some assembling. 

The dry fit reveals how big the structure really is. The Tesla and vintage Chevy pick-up fit nicely.

But where to put the garage?

The house will live on this 8 ft. table, so I have to decide where the garage will look the best.

It will be a fun project to build. I'm trying to decide what will go in the garage loft. 

We can't help but think in real life terms, so where would a garage logically go? Next the the living room side of the house? That's a long way to have to carry groceries!

Maybe on the other side of the house next to the kitchen. I like it there, but that's where the greenhouse was going to be. 

Looks a bit crowded here.

Nope.

Well, I'm not going to worry about it now. I'll build it first.

And yet another distraction

The Lemon Tree is coming along nicely. What a work intensive project, but a fun one and the tree will look great in the green house when I get it finished.

Taking a break from cleaning, sorting, organizing, and fiddling with a table repair, I worked on my lemon tree. I introduced you to the tutorial that I purchased online to learn how to make tiny trees. Here's the link:  Honey Thistle: Tiny Fruiting Citrus Tree Tutorial

After working with the tutorial, the lemon and orange trees are easily crafted, using readily available tools and supplies. Step by step, I fashioned my own lemon tree. 

Here are the first three branches, the main part of the tree. Lying next to the core tree is the next main branch. I'll make two of them.

These next branches are easily assembled.

Now the main branches of the tree have been combined, shaped, and fixed in place.

I've learned how to use floral tape to hold cover up the glued joints and create a smooth foundation for the next step: a realistic looking trunk.

The tutorial calls for air dry porcelain clay, but the package is very large and expensive, so I substituted this inexpensive air dry clay that I really like. It's a very moist clay that is easily molded.

I've textured the trunk; now I'll let it air dry over night and paint it. I will add the lemons and use glaze on the leaves to make them shiny and more life-like.

I'm so glad that you dropped by. Share your thoughts. I'd like to know what you are thinking. 

Plan C 😩

Sometimes it is hard to know exactly where to begin. Like when I decide to head to the basement to entertain myself or avoid house hold chores. I've got a few projects going, but for some reason this week I began a new one, making a lemon tree. I want one for the greenhouse. I've searched the online shops, but couldn't find what I had in mind, so I decided to make one--oh what a project. It's not done yet, so here is the start of the project.

To begin, I sought a tutorial on how to build a tree; not an easy undertaking. I found a solid tutorial online--one that I had to buy, but I think it was worth it because I will learn so much. Here's the link to the very long process of structuring a tree, along with other instructions on how to make a polymer clay pot for the tree and lemons.

Disclaimer: Please note that I am not promoting any sales for this website; I just need to be open and honest about the information that I share--or as in this case, don't share. 

Link to tutorial: Honey Thistle: Tiny Fruiting Citrus Tree Tutorial

It's simply a matter of artistic ethics to give credit where credit is due and not to use or claim as my own material any ideas that I have borrowed from another artist, so I always document my sources where I learn new ideas.

I have to add that this lesson has taught me how to build miniature trees, so it was worth the few dollars. 

Making lemons for the tree really isn't that difficult, even for beginners. I still consider myself a novice at using polymer clay. I generally use Fimo, but I have this Sculpey in my cache that I really like because it is so soft and supple, which makes it easier to work with.  

After conditioning the clay by working a small amount in your hands to loosen it and warm it, make a rope about 1/4" thick and long enough to cut more than a dozen lemons.

Use a ruler to help cut even sized 1/4" pieces.

The best way to figure out how to shape a lemon, look at one and try to replicate it. First roll an oblong ball then pinch the end to get that pointed lemon end. Flatten the other end where the stem will attach.

I really can't explain; you just have to do it. Not all of your lemons will be uniform, but they aren't all uniform on the tree either. We just think they are since the grocer always puts out the most perfect fruits. 

None of my lemons are the same; I'm fine with that.

The easiest way to color polymer clay is to use pastels, or chalk. I scrape a bit of pastel dust on to my ceramic tile then use a small paint brush to color the already yellow lemon.

I like to mix colors to create different shades that might represent the ripening process of the lemons. 

I just sort of experiment. I don't think that there really is a correct way. I've also watched a lot of Youtube tutorials on making fruit. The one step I've left out is texturing the tiny fruit--not good at it.

My tree will have plenty of lemons. The tutorial artist makes note that limes are smaller. Here I wanted lemons in a variety of ripening stages. I probably won't use all of them, so I'll have some left for lemonade.

Baking the lemons completes the process. I baked theses for 15 minutes at 275 F. in my kitchen oven. The package says 30 minutes for 1/4" thickness, but these are so small I didn't want to over bake them. Always  check package directions for baking.

Fumes and other concerns when using polymer clay: A while back when I first began working with polymer clay, I was concerned about it toxicity. I was working at my kitchen table and worried that the dog might eat some scraps that I might drop on the floor and worried about cooking fumes in the over.

Good news. Polymer clay is not toxic, though I still don't want the dog to eat it. The fumes, while noticeable, are like food cooking fumes, they dissipate and are harmless. 

I will finish the lemons by giving them a glaze coat using Fimo glaze.

Next, I began the actually tree, following the tutorial by cutting the branches varying lengths. The instructions show how to cut the required 140 leaves, but I used my punch instead. These leaves will be a bit larger than what the tutorial created, but I had a hard time hand cutting suitable leaves. This is a lengthy process that I'm still working on. Once the branches are cut, I shape the leaves and glue them on the stems, according to the tutorial instructions. 

Hopefully I'll have the tree completed for the next post.

😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩

Plan C

Certainly this is a "Woe With Me" moment.

The roof for this house will the bane of me yet. I worked to get the two main sections shingled and they looked okay, but when I did the left peak, that large acute triangle was just too difficult; it did not turn out the way I wanted it. End of story. 

I set about removing the first few rows of shingles that I had hot glued direct to the roof, using my old Cricut spatula. It easily slid under the shingles because it is a very thin blade and popped off some shingles, but left the hot glue in place. 

A quick google search solved that problem. Using a soft cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol, I dapped the glue globs to soften them and eventually they peeled right off.

Plan A: faux tin roof: fail; Plan B: wood shingles, a bigger fiasco; now Plan C: Green Leaf speed shingles ordered and on their way. 

So, yes 😩

These last couple of days I've been working on the the landscaping for this house. I have great plans for the Texas Farmhouse for a vegetable garden, but I just never sat down to plan it, so I decided to work on this one. 

I've had this initial drawing in place for sometime: a generously wide flower bed that would require a good many plants.

You by now should now how fond I am of making templates, so using 8.5x11 card stock I fashioned "grass."

I even added my tree that I've been pondering a long time, but thanks to the lemon tree tutorial, I now know how I'll finish this tree, a flowering crab perhaps. 

The more I studied the outline of the garden bed, I realized that it was far too spacious and decided to resize it. I like the narrower bed much better. It's now  1.5" wide, or 18" in real life.

Let me back up here for a moment: The house sits on a nice 1/2" thick pine board that we purchase at Lowe's Home Improvement center that was 5ft. x 24.in. Gerald cut off some of the excess length to make 48.5 in x 24.5 in.  I don't want to attach the garden directly to base incase the house should be moved (well it will be moved some day). So the garden will grow on a piece of 1/4" thick foam board that will sit in place.

Here you can see the difference between the two designs. I laid the original garden template over the "grass" to show how much I reduced the size of the bed.

Finally, what to use for grass? I did some research to see what others use, and it varies. One post on a Facebook group uses this "grass," so I thought I'd try it. It's Walmart's Holiday decoration grass. It comes in a 6"x20"roll with a very stiff plastic backing. I tried a hot iron with a towel over the top of the plastic to see if I could get it to flatten out. No.

And it sheds. Definitely no.

While it's not lush and grassy looking, I'll be using this faux grass that I purchased at Michael's--at least until I find something more suitable. It lays flat and will cut nicely. 

So. How many plans do you have to complete difficult projects? 

What would you use for grass?

Stay tuned for the next installment, hopefully a completed lemon tree.