Check back often

Have you checked out all my blogs?


Dollhouse Minis: http://joannesminis.blogspot.com


18” Dolls: http://joannes18dolls.blogspot.com/


General Crafts: http://joannes-place.blogspot.com/


Cooking: http://joanne-kitchen.blogspot.com/





Also if for some reason I can't post I will try to give a head's up on the Facebook page so check there too.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Dollhouse Miniature Easter Gnomess

 

Watch the video here.



I have another free pattern for you to download so you make the project. You can find the file here. In the download there are 3 files: a PDF for hand-cutting of the pieces, a PNG to use with your electronic cutting machine and a text file with handy hints and tips (and the sizing information) to use the PNG.



As with most of these projects I cut all the pieces from medium weight white card-stock, the kind used to make cards and such. This is way more economical than having to purchase a bunch of colors and in my experience the paint colors are a lot more stable than the paper colors. I rarely get noticeable fading with the painted projects.


You are free to use the pattern as many times as you wish and even to sell the finished project. But, please don’t give away or sell my patterns. I spend a lot of time creating them and the only compensation I get is from people watching the videos and checking out the blog post. I really want to keep offering these for free so please if someone else wants to make one send them to the video and blog so they can get their own copy of the pattern.



 

As is the case with most of these projects the first step once you have you pattern prepared and cut is to glue the layers together. Just take your time and line up the edges as well as you can. Once they are glued I usually put them under a weight to keep everything nice and flat as they dry. Once dry we can prep to paint.



To get ready to paint I like to put all the pieces down on a piece of tape that is taped to my work tile sticky side up. This holds everything in place until I am ready to work with it. I did use a little piece of Washi tape for the single layer ear liner pieces.



I painted the pieces as follows:



 

 ear liners a pale pink

 

 

 


 

 Easter egg a pale yellow

 

 

 


 

ears white


 

 


 

 hair a golden yellow

 





 

hands and nose a flesh color


 

 


 

hat brim a medium blue


 

 


 

hat a pale blue



 


 

body/back a medium pink


 

 


 

and the shoes black



 

 

Once this paint was dry and I was happy with the paint coverage it was time to go on to doing some decorative painting.



I kept the decorative painting really simple just some lines for hair ties on the hair pieces, dots on the egg, and a very simple flower on the hat (which I then managed to pretty much cover up with the ears…)


Once dry it is time to start assembly.


The first thing to put together is to add those liner pieces to the ears. I like to line them up at the bottom of the ear and try to keep them centered side to side. Set those to the side to set up while we start adding to the hat. By the time we are ready for them they should be set up enough to add.

 

Start by lining the hair up the way you want it, I like to put mine on a piece of tape to make sure they stay where I want them. Then add some glue to the back of the hat at the bottom edge and place it on the hair pieces. Then add the nose into it’s little area just under the hat. Since this hat has a brim add that next. Then add the ears with the bottoms touching the top of the hat brim. Allow this glue to dry enough that the pieces won’t shift when we are adding this piece to the body.




 

 

Once the hat part has set up it can be added to the body piece along with the shoes. Again if you have time I recommend letting this glue set up before moving on.


 

 

 


 

 

The last pieces to glue on are the Easter egg and her hands then the project needs to dry completely before going on.


 

 

 


 

 

The last step before we display this little lady is to add a coat of a clear finish. I like to use Satin Mod Podge for this.


 

 

 


 

Once she is dry she can take her place in you mini scene. I think she looks right at home with the rest of our Easter decorations on the front porch of the dollhouse.



 

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.


Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Dollhouse Miniature Footstool

 


Watch the video here.




This is really a trash to treasure project since everything I used were found objects. I started with the base of the footstool, a 1” piece cut from the tube from inside a roll of aluminum foil. The tubes for aluminum foil are skinnier and made from thicker cardboard than other rolls in my experience. To cut this I used my miter box (the regular size one from the hardware store) so I could cut the tube easily without smashing it.


For the top I traced the end of the tube onto a piece of cardboard that was the backing for a tablet of paper I had used up.


I then glued a piece of a cotton ball onto the top of the cardboard circle to give just a bit of padding.



Once the cotton ball is glued on it is time to cover the parts of the footstool. I used some plain white 100% cotton fabric. You can use any fabric that is lightweight, I do recommend using 100% cotton but any color or even small prints would be fun for this project. I didn’t have the energy or time to dig through my fabric stash so I used white with the intention of painting my footstool later in the project.


For the top cut a piece of fabric that is big enough to fold under the edges. I like to trim as I glue so I have enough fabric to work with. Try to make the fabric tight enough there are no wrinkles and the edges are as smooth as possible.


To cover the base I used a piece of the same fabric cut to about 3” by 4 ½”

Fold over one edge (on the shorter side) to form a hem and glue in place onto the tube being sure one long edge is lined up with the bottom of the tube. Once this is in place cover the outside of the tube with glue and wrap the fabric around the tube. There should be some overlap where the piece meets the spot you started. Glue this in place. Allow the glue to set up enough that the fabric won’t move around.



 Now carefully fold the fabric down so that there is a fold at the top edge and there are two layers of fabric. Add a small bead of glue to hold the hem/seam in place and allow the glue to dry a bit.


 

 


To finish off the covering of the footstool spread some glue on the inside of the tube and neatly tuck the excess fabric up into the tube. This will give the footstool a nice finished appearance on the bottom and inside.


Then run a bead of glue around the top of the tube and add the top cushion to the footstool. Make sure it is centered and looks the way you want it to look then let this dry.



 

The next step is to add some cording to the spot where the top cushion meets the side of the footstool. I used some kitchen twine on mine but you also use yarn. The yarn would be the best solution if you are using a colored fabric or a patterned fabric and aren’t going to be painting the footstool. If you are not painting your footstool you are done as soon as the glue dries.



 

If you are going to paint your footstool do that at this point. I wanted a light beige color which of course I didn’t have so I mixed up a color that I liked. I did need to give mine 2 coats to get a good coverage.



 

 

Once dry you are done and ready to display the footstool in your mini scene.




 

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.




Sunday, February 25, 2024

Dollhouse Miniature Saint Patrick’s Day Gnomess

 

Watch the video here.


I have another free pattern for you to download so you make the project. You can find the file here. In the download there are 3 files: a PDF for hand-cutting of the pieces, a PNG to use with your electronic cutting machine and a text file with handy hints and tips (and the sizing information) to use the PNG.



As with most of these projects I cut all the pieces from medium weight white card-stock, the kind used to make cards and such. This is way more economical than having to purchase a bunch of colors and in my experience the paint colors are a lot more stable than the paper colors. I rarely get noticeable fading with the painted projects.


You are free to use the pattern as many times as you wish and even to sell the finished project. But, please don’t give away or sell my patterns. I spend a lot of time creating them and the only compensation I get is from people watching the videos and checking out the blog post. I really want to keep offering these for free so please if someone else wants to make one send them to the video and blog so they can get their own copy of the pattern.



Use a nice thick glue to glue the individual pieces together to form the units that we will be using to build the gnomess. Here is a picture of them all glued. These will need to dry completely before I move onto the painting step since I place mine in a piece of sticky tape to hold them still while they are being painted and drying.



Once dry tape a strip of masking tape sticky side up to your work surface and put the units we just glued together on it in groups by the color they will be painted. I also used a piece of wash tape taped sticky side up to hold the pieces to the rainbow.


 

 

The braids got painted with a golden yellow.


 

 


 

 

The shoes with black.


 

 


 

 The nose and hands with a flesh type color.


 

 


 

And the backing/body and the hat with a green.


 

 

 

 


 

Then the rainbow pieces got painted with the colors of the rainbow.


Allow the paints to dry.



Once the paints dried I added a line to each braid to represent the ribbons holding the hair in place. For this I used the same green that I used for the other green areas.


Now it was time to glue the rainbow together. I did make an error in gluing mine by lining the biggest arch up with the edge of the backing. I really should have let it hang off a bit to give a bit more surface for the last arch to have a bit more room. I was still able to get it glued on but it would have been better to have more surface area for it.



 

Next we are going to add the braids to the hat along with the nose. I like to use another piece of Washi tape to hold the braids in place while I am gluing the hat in place. Be sure to add the nose now too. Allow this glue to set up enough that the pieces won’t shift when being added to the rest of the gnomess.


 

 


 

Normally I like to glue these projects in more stages. For me that works better because then I know none of the pieces are going to shift on me. However, this week I am running way behind schedule and I needed to get the video done as quickly as possible. So I added all the pieces at this point. You will need to let the glue dry enough that there is no visible cloudy glue remaining when you add the clear finish in the next step.


 

 


 

 

Once all the glue has dried to the point you see no cloudy areas on it go ahead and add a coat of clear finish on both the back and the front of the project. I used Satin Mod Podge but you can use your favorite clear finish.


 

 


 

 

Once the clear finish dries your gnomess is ready to display in you miniature scene. I think she looks right at home with our other Saint Patrick's Day projects.



 

 

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Dollhouse Miniature Temu Haul

 

Watch the video here.



I really wasn’t sure I would get this video up this week. It took forever to get shipped and then it sat after it cleared customs for longer than I have seen packages sit in the past. Then according the tracking it took a really round-about trip to get to me. Then it reached Fargo where I live and tracking stopped. UPS said they had turned it over to the USPS. Meanwhile the USPS tracking said that UPS still had it. Then out of nowhere I got several messages from the various tracking systems that it had been delivered. Now the made dash to film and edit and upload this so you can all see what I got.


So I have been thinking about getting into UV Resin for several months and I decided that it was time to just dive in.


So what did I get??


 

The UV Resin itself, I got a smallish bottle since I am not sure what I want and how it works or if I will like using it. The bottle I got is 100 g and cost around $6.75. This one says it is crystal clear, non-yellowing and fast cure. I guess as we use it we will find out if those things are true or not. It also says it is odorless, again I guess we will discover that for sure soon.




The light, the other important element of this adventure. I do know in a pinch you can cure UV resin with sunlight but I have heard that takes a very long time. I picked a small light that is charged with a USB cable so I don’t have to plug it in while I am using it. I paid $2.19 for the light. Is this a good light. I have no idea at all. Again this is all new to me and I am going to learn as I go. I figured to start I would get this one and if I find it necessary I will upgrade later when and if I feel the need to.



The gloves, anytime you are working with any kind of resin you should be wearing gloves. I decided to try this set to see how they fit and what the quality is like. As you saw in the video I tried one on and it fits exactly like I hoped it would. I did get a size medium in case you are curious. I paid $1.48 for a package of 10 gloves (5 pair) but now that I know I like them I will definitely be getting a much larger package. And yes they are food safe so the same gloves for in the kitchen and the craft-room is a nice thing.



The tweezers, these are not really part of the resin haul other than I ordered them at the same time. I needed a new pair of tweezers and I happened to see these and just ordered them. They come in 3 colors- the purple, a pink, blue, and white. They cost was only $1.48 so I wasn’t sure how they would be but so far they seem really good. They feel good in my hand and they spring back really nicely.


And the last item the resin pigments I got a set that has 24 colors hoping that I will be able to make anything we decide the dolls need. The bottles are tiny about 5ml each and I have no idea how long they will last. But again this is all new to me and I need to learn more to even know what I need to get. The cost of this set was $5.39.


I decided to take pictures of the bottles grouped by color so you could see what I got.



The neutrals-

 

The yellows and oranges.


 


 

The greens.


 

 


 

 

The purples.



 

The reds.



 

And the blues.


 

 

So I am super excited for this purchase and I hope to be getting some food tutorials up on the channel soon. I was hoping that I would get started with those in January but life happens and the best plans don’t always work out.


So let me know if there are specific foods you want to see.




As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.