Dollhouse Miniature Statue

Watch the video here.

Remember the Christmas light bulbs I showed you last week on Trash to Treasure Thursday? Well, after I got that one all filmed, photographed and the video done I went to clean up my worktable so I could go on to another project. As I was picking up the little plastic ends that I had removed from those light bulbs it occurred to me that they really could become something too. The first thing that popped into my head was that they looked a bit “art decoish” and would make cute little statues to sit on a shelf. They are the perfect size for that too. I bet if you think about it and really look at them you can come up with something else to make with them. If you do be sure to post a photo on the Facebook page or email me a copy. I would love to see what you do with them.

To make my little statue all I did was to use some Brushed Metal spray paint from Krylon in the color Satin Nickel. I think that you could also use a brush on craft paint to color these too. Especially if you either use one of the ones meant for plastic or give them an under-coat of Mod Podge. You can make yours any color too. I bet these would look awesome in a high gloss black finish. I chose the color I did because I needed it for another project that I painted at the same time. Since I had the paint can out and was already using it I figured I might as well do this little piece too.

So what do you see when you look at that little plastic piece???? I want to know your ideas.

Dollhouse Miniature Pizza

Watch the video here.

This week I decided to take on the task of making both dollhouse scale and 18” doll scale pizzas with videos. It was interesting moving back and forth to make the videos. Hopefully it worked out okay and I got everything in both videos.

If you want to see the 18” doll pizza that video is here.

Since I am trying to stay really simple on the 18” doll blog projects and I wanted to try doing both at the same time I simplified this scale a bit too. I think that will help those that are just beginning to do clay since I especially tried to limit the number of colors of clay I used. The entire project only uses 3 colors of Fimo brand polymer clay!

You will need the pizza pan from the Trash to Treasure project a couple of weeks ago. Remember that is the end of a crescent roll package.

For clay you will need Fimo in the following colors:

Sahara

Translucent Yellow

Light Flesh

You will also need: something to roll out your clay, a work surface, a baking surface, artist chalk in: ochre, reddish brown and dark brown, a brush to apply the chalk, a craft knife, a clay knife, a brass brush and an eyeshadow brush, Tomato Spice Acrylic paint, lemon yellow and white shiny Scribbles paints. (I'm really hoping I didn't miss anything I that list)

Basically you are going to fill the bottom of your pizza pan with the clay, brush it with the chalks to “bake it” make the toppings and brush them with the same chalks to make them looked “baked”. Then you will bake off all your clay pieces, add the tomato sauce paint and allow it to dry. Add the “cheese” paint and use it to glue on your toppings.

You can make any toppings you want. I chose these because they are among the easiest to replicate with the polymer clay. If I get enough interest I might show you other pizzas in future videos. 

 

Dollhouse Miniature Bottles

Watch the video here.

First let me apologize if my voice sounds a bit raspy this week. There is a wildfire about 15 miles from us and the smoke is really bad (has been all week) Don't worry unless there is a dramatic change in the wind direction we are very safe just very smokey.

Now for today's project. We are making some bottles out of Christmas light bulbs. I have had this project on my list since the beginning of the Trash to Treasure series and never remembered to do them when you could actually get the bulbs so you could make some. This year I actually put the sack containing the non-functional string of lights that I saved a couple of years ago right where I have to work around it. I figured that was the only way I wold remember to do the video. Now I can put the bag away, hopefully next time I want some bulbs to craft with I will be able to find it again.

So this is another of those projects that is so easy and you can use it in so many places. Just please be very careful since these bulbs are glass and rather thin glass. They will break easily and they will cut your fingers so BE CAREFUL!!! They are worth the effort though because they do make really cute bottles.

Use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull out the ends of the wires.

You can easily make labels, use thin paper- like regular printer paper or for designs I love origami paper. Cut the label in any shape you like and glue it on the bottle. You can even draw a design either by hand or on the computer for whatever you want in your bottles.

Use whatever glue you have that will stick the paper to the glass.

You will have to glue your bottles in place if you want them to stand since the bottoms are just a bit round. I found the Amazing Goop type glues (one part epoxies) work the best but I think your hot glue gun would also work.

So what kind of things do your dolls have in their bottles?? Potions? Wine? Oils? ????? You tell me what yours are holding.

Dollhouse Miniature Pizza Pan

Watch the video here.

This week's Trash to Treasure couldn't be any easier, you just need to go the grocery store and buy some of those canned biscuit things. I picked up a can of crescent rolls this last week and these make the perfect pizza pan.

The hardest part of this project for me at least is remembering to not throw the ends of the can away. LOL This time I actually wrote myself a note and taped it to the package.

I have the best luck using small nosed jewelry pliers to pull the cardboard out of the ridge at the edge of the disk. I pull as much out as I can then I soak the lid for a while, let it dry and then pull more. I just keep repeating this until it all comes out. It seems like it would work to use something sharp to force it out but I always manage to hurt myself doing it this way and it takes longer.

If you want to make Barbie a pizza pan try using the ends from the larger cans that hold the cinnamon rolls, large biscuits or the pizza dough.

We will make a pizza using this pan in the near future so watch the channel/blog for that.

Dollhouse Miniature Peanut Butter Cookies

Watch the video here.

This week we are going to make a really simple polymer clay project. I get a lot of requests for simple projects and thought this one would be a fun one for both beginners and those that have worked with clay before.

One of the beauties of this project is that you only need one color of clay, a light beige. I used Premo Ecru this time but I have also used Fimo Sahara in the past. The Ecru is just a tad bight darker in color and I prefer it for cookies but either one is great. If you can't get either of these colors just pick a light beige color, I am sure every brand of polymer clay has a color (or multiple colors) that will work.

You will need a few tools and supplies but if you put your mind to it you can probably round up most of them around the house.

You will need a work surface. I most often work on a ceramic tile from Home Depot but you don't have to use one if you don't have one. Use any smooth clean surface. You can even work on a sheet of clean white paper. Don't work directly on a wood table though because polymer clay can mar the finish on many woods and don't use a plastic surface for the same reason.

Next you will need a pointy tool of some kind. I love to use a dental pick from the dollar store but you can use a sewing pin, a safety pin, a thin toothpick, a piece of wire, really whatever you have. This is a simple beginner project so I want you to use the things you have so you don't feel you have to spend a ton of money on tools and supplies.

To texture your cookies you will need either some sandpaper or an emery board. Both of these items are probably going to be somewhere around the house already.

To bake on I prefer to use a paper plate which I have talked about many times. They are perfectly safe to place on the rack in your oven remember the clay will actually burn at a lower temperature than the paper will.

To give your cookies a baked look I use some inexpensive chalk (soft) pastels. These are easy to find almost every where that sells craft supplies. You can also use matte finish eye shadow as a fine replacement. The three colors you will need are a golden yellow (ochre) a medium reddish brown and a dark brown.

To apply this color I use an eyeshadow brush from the dollar store. If you don't have one of these feel free to use a paint brush or a cotton swab. I have even used my fingers to apply the chalk on some projects but that would be difficult on these cookies because they are sooooo tiny.

And that is really all there is to it. After you bake the cookies, following the directions on your clay simply place them on the serving plate of your choice. Gluing them is a good idea if you want them to stay put. I like Beacon's 527 glue for this job.

See how easy that was! You just made your first polymer clay project and it was really easy.

If you would like to see more beginner level polymer clay projects let me know and I can do more of them.

Dollhouse Wallpaper 101

Watch the video here.

This week I got another message asking about how I had created the painted walls in my Harrison. The viewer had watched the video photo tour of my dollhouse and liked the look of painted walls. She had tried just painting her walls but they didn't give her the look she was after. So she asked me what I had used. Since this is a question I get on a fairly regular basis I thought it would make a good topic for a video.

Dining Room in my Harrison

The papers I show you today are from the only choices. There are many more papers you can use. I am only showing/sharing with you my favorites.

For the look of painted drywall I like to use a paper from the manufacturer Canson. They make lots of papers that artists use and are well known and well thought of in that area. The particular paper I like for my dollhouses is called Mi-Teintes it comes in large 19” by 25” sheets. I can find a limited number of colors at my local Michael's but online I found over 50 colors available from one art supply store (Dick Blick) The paper is made for use with a variety of artist medias including: pastels, oil pastels, chalk, pencils, water color and acrylic paint. Because of this it is able to handle the process of gluing it to the walls very well. It is heavy (98 lb) so it is durable. It also has different textures on the two sides so you can get slightly different looks from it (just remember which side you are using on the particular project LOL) I usually find this priced somewhere from $1.25 to $3 per sheet so it is not bad especially when you consider how large the sheets are.

I also like this paper for covering the ceilings in my dollhouses again because of both the texture and the size of the sheet. For this I normally go with a white.

In the video I also talk about two different choices if you want to have the look of wallpaper. The first is regular dollhouse wallpaper. Again it comes in a largish sheet, usually 12 (or so) by 18 (or so) this will vary depending on the manufacturer. Again it is made to stand up to the moisture of gluing. It comes in designs specifically for dollhouses so the scale should be correct. However because of the fact there are only so many manufacturers the selection can be limited. If you don't have a dollhouse store near by you might have to order it online. Also it can get very expensive, very quickly.

The other choice I discuss is scrapbook paper. The sheets are smaller 12” by 12” is common so you might have to piece to get longer walls covered. You may run into trouble matching the design where you have to piece it since this was not what it was designed for. It is usually made of a lighter weight paper so it is a little bit harder to paste without getting wrinkles.

In my Harrison I used a mix of all three of these papers. I love all of the ones I chose to use and was able to base the decor of each room around the papers I used. In that house I decided to go with a plain “painted” wall in the living room and dining room. I used real dollhouse wallpaper in both kitchen, nursery, bathroom and study. And if I remember correctly the rest is all scrapbook paper. It is not convenient to go look right now so I am relying on my memory for what is actually in there.....

I also talked a bit about Yes! Paste since that is what I always use to glue paper wall coverings or floor coverings in my dollhouses.

There are so many other types of wall coverings so maybe we can cover some of those in future videos.

Another Dollhouse Miniature End Table

Watch the video here.

Yes, we are making another end table today, I know I did one a while back but this one is even simpler to do. 

 

As some of you already know I do a lot of sewing so I go through a lot of thread. Depending on the brand of thread you can usually make something with the empty spool if you think about the possibilities. This particular spool is from the company Guterman and I love the shape. I happened to run out of my large spool of white thread so that is what I am using today. This spool was actually in with my mom's sewing stuff since that was the brand she almost always bought. They make a few different sizes of spools and most of the ones I have are smaller in diameter than the one I used today I think this one was the 540 meter size. I will try to post a picture at the end of this blog of some of the sizes I have. All of my spools are 2 1/8” tall. The large one I used today was 1 ¼” in diameter, the middle sized one (green in the picture) 1” in diameter, and the smaller one is ¾” in diameter.

I did try a couple of ways to clean the lettering off the rim of the spool. I found that 99% Isopropyl alcohol from the pharmacy worked the best for me. Try what you have on hand. If you are going to paint your spool you might even be able to get away without cleaning the letters off, I would still wipe it down with some alcohol to remove any grease from your fingers that the plastic may have picked up, remember it usually takes a while to use up a spool of thread so it has probably been handled and stored for a while.

Now at this point you can stay really simple like I did or you can go all out and paint your table base with whatever technique you want to. I think this would look great in a 60's room if you painted the base with a chrome finish. But any color that you like should work.

Now for the top. I pulled some samples out of my stash of wood pieces but you are not limited to wood for this. A lid from a jelly jar (you know the ones that have the gingham print) would look really cute. Or you could find a similar lid and paint it. Use your imagination and look for possibilities. Remember you don't have to stick to round or square either, how about an octagon shaped table top??? Or a star shaped one???

I used hot glue- I know I seldom use the stuff. I really don't like hot glue but for a project like this it is fine. It does have the advantage of being able to set up almost immediately and it will bond the plastic to the wood or just about anything else you want to use. Also it was an excuse to check out the new glue gun to make sure it works. My daughter had asked my yesterday if I had gotten to try it out yet, so now I can tell it works just fine. It really is handy to have a daughter that works at the craft store. LOL