Dollhouse Miniature Trash to Treasure Half Barrel

 

Watch  the video here.

I had so much fun with the last trash to treasure project that I decided to do another one today. This time I am starting with one of the plastic tubs that cat food comes in (in this case the Meow Mix brand) and I am turning it into a half barrel like I see used in landscaping so much. I have seen these used as beautiful planters as well as small water features in gardens. I also saw a really cool coffee table made with one. I love the look and I think I may make myself some more of these so I can make multiple projects using them in the future.

Off camera I cut the rim off the container using a pair of heavy duty scissors/shears. It was a lot easier than I expected. I had decided to do this step off camera because I wasn’t sure how I would end up doing it. If I had realized how easy it would be to cut off I would have filmed it.

 

 

After the rim was off I cleaned the inside with some isopropyl alcohol to remove anything that might prevent paint from sticking. Then I gave the inside a good coat of black craft paint. Allow this to dry.

 

 

 

Next I painted some thin cardboard to use for the wooden staves on the outside of the barrel. This is one of the sheets of cardboard I have in my stash that was part of the packaging for cat food. It is about the same thickness as a cereal box, use whatever you have that is about the same thickness. I first painted with a base coat of a warm brown. I used a burnt umber paint. Allow this to dry.

 

Next I used a couple of colors of orange paint (Buttered Yam and Pumpkin both from Anita’s) to dry brush on some “wood-grain” over the brown base coat. This is really simple and once cut into strips and mixed up it really fools the eye into thinking it’s wood. Allow to dry.

 

 If you had any spots where your dry brushing left a blob go back with the same brown as earlier and dry brush that over to blend those spots. Now allow all the paints to dry completely.

 

 

 

Once the cardboard sheet was dry I cut it into ¼” wide strips then cut those to 1 ½” long. I coated the back of each strip of cardboard with tacky glue, added three dots of super glue to the barrel (1 at the top, 1 at the bottom and one in between) then added the strips of cardboard. I did my best to keep these all straight up and down. This means that they do overlap at the bottom a bit on most of them and I tried to keep the tops tight against each other. The next to last one had to be cut down in width then the last one added in to fill. Allow the glue to dry enough to hold everything in place.

I did get a lot of super glue on my fingers in this process and I did manage to lift a big chunk of the black paint from the inside bottom of the barrel because of this. It was to just cover up that spot with some more paint when I was done.

Meanwhile I had painted a scrap of medium weight card stock with some more black paint to use as the bands that hold the barrel together. Remember distance around the circle is just over 3 times the diameter so allow long enough area. (diameter times 3.14)

Once the paint was dry I cut 4 strips that were 1/8” wide and longer than I needed. I cut 4 because I was planning to use 3 for the bands on the barrel and I wanted an extra “just in case” (it’s been one of those weeks) but I ended up only using 2 of them. I decided that a 3^rd band would have looked too crowded on the side of the barrel.

Just add some tacky glue to the back of the strip and add one at the very top of the barrel covering the ends of the staves. Then repeat at the bottom of the barrel. Feel free to add an additional one in the middle if you like.

Once the glue dries your half barrel is ready to add to your mini world.

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 Trash to Treasure Bowls

 

Watch the video here.

I have a really fun, easy, and versatile trash to treasure project for you today. We are going to take something that would normally get thrown away or tossed in the recycling and make some bowls. The “thing” we are using today is a blister pack from some over the counter medication. But there are so many different items that come in this type of package. Not only can you find a large variety of round shapes that hold things like medication but there are other shapes too. For instance I know I have had gum that came in rectangular shaped ones, those would make some fun mini serving trays. If you look around I bet you can find a lot of shapes and sizes to play with. Really if you look hard enough you can make so many different things with this easy project.

The first step is to empty the blister packaging in a way that preserves the shape. I like to use a knife to cut the foil at each location and pull the foil off to release the contents. This is a habit I have gotten into over the years of making miniatures and trying to save all kinds of stuff to use to make things with. Once the package is empty peel off as much of the remaining foil on the back as you can. Concentrate on the areas around the openings.

Once you have reached this step clean out the openings if needed. The package I was using had some powdery residue in each one so I used a cotton swab to wipe them out.

I know some people like to cut the little containers free and then add the finish to them. I find it so much easier to add my finish to them while they are still connected. Once this dries I can cut them free and do any touch-ups needed.

Today I am using some nail polish to add the finish. You could use other things but I like nail polish for this for several reasons. First I know it will stick to plastic pretty well and it is fairly durable. Second it is cheap, well at least it is if you buy yours at the dollar store like I do. Also it dries pretty quickly and I have a lot of colors of it on hand.

So I like to start adding the polish to the outsides of the bowls. I did use 2 coats on the outside and then 2 coats on the insides of each bowl.

I had been planning to make the insides of the bowls the same colors as the outsides. However one of the tasks I was doing while waiting for the polish to dry was putting my dishes away. I noticed that the majority of the bowls I like to use in my kitchen have white interiors and colors on the outside. I simply like the way food looks in those bowls. So I decided to do the same when coloring the miniature ones today.

 

Once the polish dries we can start to cut them apart. I used a pair of regular craft scissors to cut the packaging into strips then to cut each bowl apart. It is much easier to cut around the individual bowls if they are cut apart.

 

Off camera I did play around with different tools to cut the bowls free and found that the one thing that really worked the best for me was a pair of inexpensive curved cuticle scissors. I tried with a couple of different craft knives and found they were just too difficult to get the shape the way I wanted it.

Once you have your bowls (or whatever you are making) it is time to color the rim at the top, this will finish off the bowls and give them a bit more visual thickness.

To do this I made a small pool of nail polish on a piece of parchment paper and placed the bowl into it top down. Allow it to sit for a few seconds and carefully remove, turn it right side up and allow to dry.

 

 

 

 

And that is all there is to this project.

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 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.

Dollhouse Miniature Trash to Treasure Coffee Table

 

Watch the video here.

I had so much fun with the Trash to Treasure project last week that I decided to do another one today. This time I have a lid from a bottle of orange juice and a thread spool. I loved the design of the lid and it kind of reminded me of some of the fancy stone/concrete tables I have been seeing in yard decorating photos. Since I had the empty spool on hand I decided to combine the two to make a coffee table.

The first step was to cover the word Tropicana on the top of the lid. I first thought of filling it with some spackle but I found that wouldn’t stick to the plastic. So I decided to add a layer of white card-stock. This is a scrap from making the Cricut projects on the channel.

 

 

 

Since I was going to coat the plastic with some Mat Mod Podge anyway I used that to glue the card-stock on. It kind of worked. It helped just fine for the most part but lifted on one side. So off-camera I used some Tacky glue to glue that side down.

Now the fun part to transform the plastic pieces to stone/concrete. For this I mixed some gray paint with some baking soda to thicken the paint. This does a couple of things first it gives the finished piece the texture I was after. It also makes the paint stick much better to the plastic. Put on a rather thick coat of the thickened paint and allow to dry completely. This will take a while so be patient.

 

Once the paint was dry I glued the spool inside the lid to make the table leg. I was planning to use some e6000 but my tube was dried out so I grabbed a tube of construction adhesive I have on hand and used that. You will need a glue of some kind that is made to work with non-porous surfaces. Allow to dry.

 

 

Next I took some the same color of gray paint along with some black and white and used a make-up sponge to dab the paint all over the surface of the table. This makes the table look a lot more realistic. Allow to dry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now you have a fun outdoor table for your next miniature 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.

Dollhouse Miniature Trash to Treasure Metal Flower

 

Watch the video here.

First I want to talk a little bit about this project and the whole trash to treasure concept. In this project I am using a hair clip I found in a street. Although I am pretty sure that this one probably came from somewhere like the dollar store you might not be able to get the same item. And that’s okay because you can do the same process with whatever hair clip) or similar item you do have and get a fun finished project. The idea of these projects is to inspire you and get you thinking outside of the box a little bit.

So this hair clip, I remember when my daughter was little and my mother in law would buy similar ones for her. She loved them because they were so cute, I hated them because they wouldn’t stay in her hair. We almost always lost them somewhere. I’m pretty sure that was the case for whoever had this one in there hair also. I found it in the middle of a street as I was out walking. There were no other people in site and I figure it was better to grab it to make a project for you guys today than to have a car drive over it and smash it.

The first step I took (off camera)was to was it thoroughly with soap and water and allow it plenty of time to dry.

Next I trimmed off the extra stuff I didn’t need for the project I wanted to make. In this case the back of the clip and the little thingy on the back that is supposed to hold it closed.

Once trimmed I used some poster tack to attach it to a craft stick which I could use a handle while painting. This is important if you want to get the paint to adhere.

Once it was safely on the handle I used some 91% Isopropyl alcohol to clean off any oils that may have been transferred to it from my handling it. I sometimes use distilled vinegar for this step depending on what is handy at the moment. Both work really well. Once you have wiped it down really well don’t touch the plastic again until you have all the finishes on it and they are dry.

On a flatter item I would have sanded the surface but this flower was just too detailed to sand so I skipped that step. If you want to sand do it after the item is washed before you stick it to a handle.

 

 

Now my next step was to coat the flower with some Mat Mod Podge, on the areas I am going to paint. In my experience this seems to help the regular craft paint to stick to the plastic better that if I skip ti. Allow to dry completely. If the Mod Podge is not allowed to dry completely the paint over it could crack.

 

 

 

 

Now a good coat of a black craft paint. This is the base color and will give the finished piece most of its color in this project. This needs to dry completely.

 

 

 

Now I added a thin coat of Brushed Silver craft paint over the black. I was trying to replicate the finish on a necklace I used to have that I loved. I believe the label on it had said it was a gunmetal finish. Allow to dry.

Once dry your metal flower is ready to hang in you mini scent. I am seeing a lot of metal art like this in my neighborhood while out walking and I love how this came out.

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.