Opening a Mini Gift

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

Today’s video is a bit different. A while back Judy, one of the lovely people that follow me over on Facebook messaged me. She explained that she and her husband were downsizing in order to start an adventure of a lifetime, traveling all around the United States. She said she had a set of mini luggage she had made and wanted to gift it to me. I was so touched that she would think to send me such a wonderful gift and I told her it would be an honor to receive.

A week or so later I received the wonderful box with not only the beautiful set of luggage but some other wonderful surprises. She had spent a good amount of time wrapping up some of her minis, blind bag style and each was accompanied by a note about the time.

I knew this was going to be way to much fun to keep to myself so I turned on the camera and filmed the opening so all of you could join in too. It was like opening gifts on the best Christmas morning ever!

 

 

 

Here is a picture of all the items together so you can see how wonderfully generous Judy was.

Now lets look at each item she sent

First has to be the beautiful luggage set, two of the cases are designed to be displayed open and the others are closed. They look so nice, like something out of a high-end luggage store.

 

 

 

 

Now a pair of outdoor planters/topiaries for the front porch. So cute and well help to set a very welcoming entrance to the doll family home.

 

 

 

 

This teddy bear is adorable, she/he is to cute and looks like the very best friend of one of the doll kid’s that are in my collection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cook book is perfect and I have same one in real life. I can’t wait to get the kitchen finished so it can have a place on the kitchen counter.

 

 

 

 

 

The heart shaped pillow is very sweet and would look wonderful on the bed in a little girl’s room.

 

 

 

 

 

The mice! I love them, although I admit one snuck away from me before I could take the picture. I know he’ll turn up when I clean my work table off though. I think I need to figure out how to create more of these because they are just so cute.

 

 

The silver bowl, I have a thing for silver pieces like this in real life so this will be the perfect addition to the dollhouse.

 

 

 

The glass candy dish, so delicate and I can’t wait to make some mini candy to put in it.

 

The fondue set, perfect to stage a romantic dinner or a fun party in the dollhouse and just think how perfect this will look set along side the meat & cheese board we made a while back and one of those bottles of wine from the blind bags…

So Judy, I am so honored to have received all of these items and they will be put in just the right places in the dollhouse and other mini displays. Thank you so much.

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.

Polymer Clay 101 pt 1 The Basics

 Watch the video here.

Today we are starting a new series on the channel covering polymer clay. To tell you the truth I thought I had already done this on this channel but when I went looking on my channel list of videos I discovered I had not. I do have a similar series over on my 18” doll channel but no one here. So we are going to fix that situation.

I wanted to start with a video that was very basic and explained first what polymer clay is. I get so many questions from people that are not familiar with this wonderful clay so I hope my explanation helps.

I did use this video in particular as an excuse to treat myself to some new blocks of clay. I wanted to able to show you all the new packaging and also share a couple of things I always try to do when opening a new block of clay. Also I didn’t feel it would be fair to compare the brands using clay that was old since it does get a little bit harder to work with as it ages for long periods of time.

I also want to be clear these are not the only brands of polymer clay on the market. These are just the ones that my local Michael's had in stock there are a couple of new to me brands that I really want to get my hands on and if I do I will share them on the channel.

The brands I do show in this video are all wonderful ones to start out with if you have not worked with the clay before and they are also the backbone of my polymer clay collection.

Once clay I did not cover and I believe is available at at least some Hobby Lobby locations is Kato Clay. That is one brand that you should stay away from if you are just beginning. It is beautiful but it is very hard so it is more difficult to work with. It is designed for jewelry makers and with experience you can get fantastic details using it. It also bakes at a much higher temperature so I personally would not mix it with other brands.

Polymer clay comes is a huge number of colors and you can mix them to create even more colors so you can work with any color you can imagine.

The brands I show in the video and other brands that bake at similar temperatures can be mixed with no issues.

By mixing clays you can get not only additional colors but you can create special effects. I will try to put a video covering that in this series later on.

Let’s talk about the clays I show in the video just a bit.

Original Sculpey- this is a very soft, white clay. It is usually cheaper by the ounce than other clays but only comes in larger packages. Fro my work on this channel I normally use it mostly in parts of my project that don’t show a lot. I do use it more in my larger scale items. It is easy to work with as far as hand strength since it i8s soft. But at the same time because it is soft it is very difficult to get good details in your project.

At the time I am writing this blog post prices range from $13.99 (US) for a 1 pound package to $32.99 (US) for a 3.75 pound package.

Craftsmart Clay- I believe is a Michael’s store brand but I am not positive, it is much softer than most of the clay I work with. Very similar to the Original
Sculpey if not maybe even a bit softer than that. It does come in many colors and seems to be a bit cheaper than the big name clays.

At the time I am writing this blog post the price is $1.99 for the standard 2 ounce block.

Sculpey III- probably the clay most of us started with when we first started working with polymer clay, this is soft clay that works up nicely for most projects. Since it is soft you won’t get the really fine details we try for in some of our mini projects but definitely a good clay to work with.

At the time I am writing this blog post the price is $2.59 for the standard 2 ounce block.

Sculpey Premo- this is the more high end offering from the people at Sculpey, so it is a bit firmer. You can get wonderful details with this clay and the colors that it come in are wonderful.

At the time I am writing this blog post the price is $2.89 for the standard 2 ounce block.

Fimo Soft-Traditionally all of us clay snobs swore by the Fimo line. Even the soft is capable of fine details and it is a fantastic clay. The people that make Fimo have several lines of clay, I just got the one block of soft for this video. When we talk about special effects that you can achieve with clay I might need to treat myself to some of their more specialized blocks.

At the time I am writing this blog post the price is $2.89 for the standard 2 ounce block.

For most colors of clay I purchase the standard 2 ounce blocks. The exception being white and translucent. Those I prefer to get in the larger 8 ounce blocks so I use so much more of them than other colors.

When you open a new package of clay I suggest you find the information on the label that needs to stay readable and cut in such a way as to preserve those areas. I showed my favorite places to cut the packages of clay open. You will want to be able to still read the color name, the brand, and the baking temperature in the future. For years I just cut the packaging open wherever and didn’t think about it. It wasn’t until I watched a tutorial by someone doing some jewelry and saw her purposely open the package to retain those pieces of information that I even thought abut it. It was truly an “oh duh” moment.

Once you clay package is cut open you will need to have a way to safely store it. I put each color into a zippered sandwich bag. I have used these since I started working with the clay over 30 years ago and I find it is the best way for me anyway. The bags can be reused when you use up the clay in them.

Those bags I store in the plastic shoe boxes you can buy almost anywhere. In the 30 + years I have been working with this clay I have never had the plastic in these boxes react with the clay.

Speaking of which you do need to be careful because polymer clay will eat right through some types of plastic. It is always a good idea to clean all the tools you use with your clay with a wet wipe after each use.

To bake the clay you can use the oven in your kitchen or a dedicated toaster oven. I really prefer to use my regular oven because I feel the temperature stays more consistent in that over a toaster oven. If you are worried about the fumes it is perfectly safe to bake you clay in a baking bag like these from Reynolds.

So let’s talk about safety as it pertains to polymer clay. The clay is nontoxic but you still do need to be careful. You don’t want to ingest it.

Anything you use that comes into contact with the raw clay can not be used for food again. So plan carefully.

Also do not leave your raw clay in your car or sitting in the hot sun as it can bake/cure in those conditions.

The last thing I want to touch on in this post is a short comparison of polymer clay to air dry clay. I know a lot of people are more familiar with air dry clay.

Polymer clay comes in many more colors than air dry clay,

Polymer clay is much more durable than air dry clay once cured.

Polymer clay remains workable until you bake it in the oven unlike air dry clay.

Polymer clay holds its shape better while you are working with it.

You can get much finer detail with polymer clay.

Polymer clay is waterproof.

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.

Dollhouse Miniature Wrapped Sandwiches

Watch the video here.

Today we are using some of the items we have made in previous tutorials to create our wrapped sandwiches. In case you missed any of the tutorials for the items I used today here are the links to the video tutorials for all of them:

Flour tortillas are here.

Salad is here.

The tomatoes and cheese are in the taco tutorial here.

The slice meats can be found here.

The wrapped sandwiches are really simple to make and take just a tiny bit of each item. We aren’t really filling them just adding a tiny bit of filling at the open top so they look like they are full.

 

 

Start by pre-rolling the tortilla around a toothpick. This will make it a lot easier to roll the sandwich later when you have the filling inside.

 

 

Now add a bit of glue to the top of the tortilla and add some lettuce leaves. Try to add the lettuce so it sticks out past the tortilla just a bit and it it has a bit of a ragged edge it will look even more realistic.

 

 

Add a bit more glue and a few bits of the cheese. Just a couple.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then some more glue (if needed) and add a chunk or two of the tomato.

You can now glue in a bit of the meat if you like. In the ones I made some have meat and some don’t.

Now fold up the bottom of the tortilla add a drop of glue to help it stick if you feel it is needed.

Add some more glue to the tortilla and wrap the tortilla around the filling.

Take a look at your sandwich and decide if you want to add any more of any of the ingredients or if you want move anything around. Now it the time to do any major changes to how the fillings are setting.

Once the glue dries you can always add some more bits of the cheese or tomato or any of the other fillings.

I think it looks like the dolls are getting ready for a party with all those wrap sandwiches.

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.

 

Dollhouse Miniature Rail Planter

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

I decided to celebrate the beautiful weather by making one of those planters that fit over the railing on the porch of the house. I have always thought those were really a great idea.

The planter we make today is super simple just a box that fits over the rail so it will stay put. I can imagine it with some wonderful plants in it. In real life I am horrid with plants so I love them in the dollhouse since I can't kill those.

The planter I made is small but you can size yours to any size you wish.

The first step is to determine the width of the rail on your dollhouse porch. Mine is just a tiny bit narrower than a regular craft stick. If yours is different just sub in a piece of wood the correct size for yours.

The craft stick is cut to the length of the planter in my case I made my planter 1 ½” long, so the craft stick was cut that long. You will also need two pieces that are ½ long for the two ends. For the sides of my planter I used part of one of those giant craft sticks from Walmart and cut two pieces 1 ½” long and then trimmed them to 1” wide. I felt the full width of the craft stick was just too wide to look good on the porch.

To assemble the planter first glue 1 end to the bottom of the planter, I used my Lego jig to make sure I had the angle correct. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then add the other end.

Once the glue has dried enough to handle it add one side, lining up the box piece at the top and ends. Allow the glue to dry.

Then add the other side.

Now all you need to do I paint it as desired. I did avoid painting the parts of the planter that will be in contact with the railing just to be safe. I didn’t want to have any paint transfer onto the railing.

Once the paint dries you can add a decoration of some sort to your planter. I debated doing that but I was running out of time to get the video finished so I left mine plain.

Now all that is needed is a coat of Satin Mod Podge to seal the paint and make the planter look finished.

Now it is all ready for the dolls to plant their favorite plants to enjoy.

A huge thank you to Plaid for providing the paint, Mod Podge and brushes used in today's video.

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.

Dollhouse Miniature Dad’s Toolbox

 

Watch the video here.

Today I decided to make a toolbox to honor my dad. Now he has been gone for around 20 years at this point but he has been on my mind lately. I think because one of my cousins posted an old photo of my dad carrying him on his shoulders going out to get the cows. I’m pretty sure the picture is older than I am. But it got me thinking. And there are a couple of things that come to my mind when I think about my dad and one of those is his old toolbox. He had several toolboxes but this one in particular he usually kept in his car for any repairs to anything that he might need to do. He was one of those men that could fix anything and he really enjoyed that.

I wish I still had his old red toolbox, I have no idea what happened to it after he passed away. But it does live on in my memory and now it can live on in all our dollhouses too.

So this toolbox we are recreating today was far from new when I remember it, it was fairly small and red. Well, at least it used to be red, when it was new, when I remember it was red with dents, grim, and who knows what else. I think I captured the spirit of it in this mini version.

The mini we are making today is meant to sit in a corner or on a shelf. It doesn’t open, maybe one day we will make an opening version too.

I started out with one of those Tumbling Tower game pieces from Dollar Tree, it was a little too long so I cut it be 1 ½” long. Then I needed a lid for the toolbox. I didn’t have any strip wood the size I wanted so I used part of one those giant craft-sticks from Walmart. I cut 2 pieces that were 1 ½” long by the width of my block. 

 

I then glued the two lid pieces together. If you have some 1/8” wood the correct size you can use that and skip the gluing step. If you do glue this really thin wood be sure to use lots of clamps to keep it from warping as the glue dries.

Once the glue has dried I covered both pieces with some thin black paper. This is some black paper that is about the thickness of printer paper. I did this for several reasons. I wanted to hide the wood grain as well as the seam where the two lid pieces were glued. I also wanted a black base to sand back to that would nor reveal any wood color. And I also wanted to have uneven surface that I got by painting the paper that was not glued, it appears that the metal surface has dents in it. That is why I only glued the paper on the surfaces where the box and lid would be glued.

Once the glue used on the paper was set up I used the darkest red paint I had to give the toolbox a good coat of red paint. I ended up doing 4 coats to get good enough coverage. I think the paint I used was possibly semi-transparent.

Once the red paint was dry I sanded back some of it to expose the black under layer in places that would receive the most wear.

Next I added a brown wash of paint to some areas using a cotton swab and rubbing back any areas I felt had too much of the wash.

Now it was time to glue the lid to the box. I used some tacky glue and did my best to line up the lid with the box.

Now using some more of that thin black paper I formed a tube that was 1” long to make the handle for the top of the box. I then painted this snake along with a small piece of the same black paper and allowed to dry.

I used my pliers as a guide for bending the handle into shape. It was then glued onto the lid as close to centered as possible.

 

 

 

From the piece of paper we painted I cut two small rectangle shapes and glued them to the center front of the toolbox to look like a latch.

Once this glue dried I gave the entire box a coat of Mat Mod Podge. This will give the toolbox a nice finish and also prepare it for our next round of aging.

Once the Mod Podge dries used some oil paints (a yellow ocher and a black) to add some grim and grease looking stains. You only want just a very tiny bit and use a paper towel to rub it in and to remove any excess until you are happy with the level of grim you have.

There wasn’t that fun? Now you have a properly aged toolbox for you 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.

Dollhouse Miniature Pan of Lasagna

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

 

This week I am going to start by making a simple casserole dish. They are so simple to make and can be made in any size. The one today is sized to represent a 13” by 9” dish but by changing the out the bottom part of the pattern you can make any size you need.

I like to make these from white card-stock then paint just the outside of the pan. And I try to make a bunch at one time. That way I have them ready whenever I need them. All I have to do is paint the outside when I am ready to use it.

Start by marking and scoring the lines that we will be folding and cutting on. My lines were as follows- 1/8” from the edge of the paper, ¼” from this line, 1 1/8” from this line. ¼” then a last line at 1/8” away. I like to draw a very light line at each step then score on the same line. I find this makes the process go much more smoothly. If you want you could cover the entire length of the sheep of paper in these marked scored lines.

Now going the other way we score and mark as follows- ¼” from edge, ¾” away and ¼” away. The last line I mark darker and don’t score it. Then just repeat the lines all the way down the strip of paper. Now I can cut on all the darker lines and I have all my pans ready to fold.

The next step is to pre-fold on all the lines, cut the extra bits at the corners off and then snip the tabs free. I also cut slight angles on the handles and tabs.

Now just glue the tabs to the inside of the casserole dish, clamp and allow to dry.

At this point I paint the areas of the dish that I want to have colored. If you want to have a white dish I would suggest painting with white paint on the outside just to add a bit of sturdiness to the dish. Allow to dry.

Now we can start adding our filling to the dish. The first layer is just a filler layer use whatever clay you wish. I used some Original Sculpey rolled out to fill the dish about halfway. Use TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey) to “glue” it in. Bake at the recommended temperature for 10 minutes.

Once cooled we add the filling. For this use a reddish brown clay and chop it into very small bits. Then using more TLS on the surface of the baked layer add the chopped clay to fill the dish.

Now take some very light beige clay and roll it as thin as possible and add little bits of it in places around the edges of the dish. This is to look like the lasagna noodles are sticking up a bit.

Now mix some TLS with some oil paints to make our melted cheese and red sauce. Be sure to use just a tiny bit of the oil paint. I mixed Titanium White and Yellow Ocher for the cheese and Burnt Sienna and Vermilion red for the sauce.

Spread the cheese mixture over the top covering most (but not all) of the top. Then add tiny drops of the sauce mixture in a few areas where the sauce bubbled up during cooking.

Bake at recommended temperature for 15 minutes and allow to cool completely.

Now we can give just the casserole dish a couple of coats of Gloss Mod Podge so it will look like it is made of ceramic.

 

 

 

 

Once this dries give the lasagna a thin coat of Satin Mod Podge and allow to dry.

Now you have a dish of lasagna to serve next to the salad we made last week.

 

 

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.