Pudsey fair buys

Hi all,

I have finally got round to posting about the dolls house fair at Pudsey at the weekend. I had a really great time. I helped out on the children in need stall which made £600 for the charity, a really great amount. We also had lots of interest in our club display, some people even asked if they were for sale.

Here is my display, my shabby chic luggage shop. Everything in it is hand made by me!




Of course I also bought some minis from the fair, from some new stalls as well as some old favourites.

The first thing I bought was this cute wire garden seat from a stall called mini jumble. It sold a mixture of vintage and retro items.



Then I bought some bits from the charity stall, some wood platters, a turned wood bowl and a pottery dish with some sweet flowers painted on it.



I also bought a little Venus de milo type statue and parrot from the same stall. These were in the 20p basket so both real bargains.




I bought the most perfect blue glass decanter with removable stopper from glasscraft.



I also bought some fabric, findings and flower soft for making, but my favourite purchase was this tiny toy monkey from a lovely stall (called y hunt for miniatures) which had a menagerie of perfect little animals. He is only 1 inch tall when seated




The stall holder gave me the little bear as a free gift with my monkey, he is really cute too.


Well that's everything I bought from the fair, hope you enjoyed reading about my mini buys.

Keep an eye out for future posts as I will be having a celebratory give away for finally reaching 100 followers.

Take care

Natalie xx

Pudsey dolls house fair tomorrow

Hi all,

I am looking forward to pudsey dolls house and miniatures fair tomorrow. It is being held at pudsey civic hall.




Our dolls house club are having 2 stalls, one which is going to display all of our projects and another which we man that sells donated items for children in need.

I how to take some pictures of our club display so will share them with you and my mini buys after the fair.

Natalie x

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Wizard scroll box

Hi all,

I have made a wizards scroll box for my wizards scene. It is made from mount board and covered in snake skin effect paper with leather hinges and metal pieces for the corners. It has brads for the handles.




I want to fill it with scrolls, so if you have any tips about how to make them I'd love to hear from you. Especially the type of paper to use to make them look old.




Hope you like it.

Natalie x

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More canisters

Here are my latest canisters, made as before.




Hope you like them.

Natalie x

Mini biscuit mould DIY project using a paper punch.

Hi all,

I had been told that it is possible to use a paper punch to punch fimo shapes. Well I have been completely unsuccessful in using the fimo in the punch until I hit upon this method for using the punch to make a simple and very cheap mould. Following this method you can make lovely biscuits like the picture above.




To make this project you will need:
PVA Glue, cereal box card, a paper punch, glue spreader, plus fimo and talcum powder.




Start by cutting 4 squares of card approx 3cm x 3cm from your cereal box. Use your punch on three of the four pieces of card. NOTE: you should probably trial this method on a simple punch shape before you try more complex ones. I have also made successful moulds for bears and ducks and stars.




Glue the back of the card (you want the interior of your mould to be the waterproof side of the card) and stick to the unpunched piece of card.



Repeat the process with the remaining two pieces of punched card, making sure you line up the holes as accurately as you can. This should build up the mould to the correct depth. You can make it deeper or shallower as you wish by adding more or less layers of card.




Now you need to seal inside the mould to prevent sticking and smooth the interior edges. Run some PVA around the interior edge and rub in. You may want to use a brush for this step.





Let the mould dry thoroughly before you try it out........

To use it first dust the interior with some talcum powder. NOTE: this step is really important, I have learned to my peril that without the talc the fimo gets stuck inside and the mould is wasted.





Then get some of your conditioned clay in your desired colour and push into the talc coated mould.



Don't worry if you use too much clay as you can simply trim off the excess.....



If the mould is a simple one then you can pop it out using a sharp pointed tool OR you can cook in the mould following the polymer clay instructions. Ensure the mould is thoroughly cool before you remove it. More complex designs should be cooked in the mould.

You can make several moulds or simply repeat the process until you get the number of biscuits you want.




You can decorate the biscuits too. I have used liquid sculpey with a dab of white oil paint in to represent icing with no hole beads for decorations. This was cooked again in order to set the liquid sculpey.




Hope you like the project, please let me know if you are successful.

Natalie xx

Tea, coffee & sugar canisters

Hi all,

I can't believe I have 99 followers.  Thank you all so much for sticking with my blog and the lovely comments you leave me. I am currently on my easter break from school so looking forward to some miniing and will hopefully upload a DIY project for you to have a go at too.  

My latest mini is a set of tea, coffee and sugar canisters.  They are made from cardboard tubes and open so you can put things inside.  I have covered them in a Cath Kidston style paper for that shabby chic look.  

Hope you like them xx

P.S In case you think you are experiencing deja vu I have resubmitted this post as it mysteriously disappeared :o)

What can you do with a box file?

Hi all,

Our latest club project involves using a box file to create a scene.  Hence the question.... what can you do with a box file?

Everyone was given a box like e one above.  After much deliberating I decided to make a shabby chic scene inside mine.  I chose some suitable wallpaper and stuck that on.  I used lollipop sticks to make a shabby tongue and groove along the bottom with some wooden trim as a small ledge. 

All of the wood has been painted and then sanded back  to give it the shabby appearance.

I tiled the base and intended to continue tiling the rest but came across a problem in terms of opening and closing the box so I used a piece of white felt to represent carpet to cover the remainder.  This way I can close the box for storage. 

It also struck me that this would be a good way to make scenes for photographing minis for sale.  You can fold away the box file and store it easily, plus the scene will not get damaged. 

I need to make some more bits and pieces for the scene so will let you know how it comes along. 


Natalie x

Wizards Trunk

Hi all,

At our recent club meeting we all started to make trunks.  We were given a pattern and a piece of 1m thick card.  I was a bit unsure about the card at first as it was quite difficult to cut, but after I put my trunk pieces together I found that it could be sanded like wood.  It also takes paint really well and sticks well too so I will be using it again, if I can find some more that is!

I only finished the basic trunk at the club so after I brought it home I continued to work on it.  It was supposed to have a domed top but I didn't really like how that looked so I made a flat top.  I decided to cover it with some lovely snake skin effect paper I bought a while ago and I trimmed it with pieces of brown leather.

Here is the finished trunk...

It has a leather buckle at the front to keep it closed.

It has handles on each side for carrying.

As you can see it opens up and there is a place to hold little items in the lid. 

There is also a tray which fits snugly into the top of the trunk which can hold little bits and pieces.

I will show you some more pictures when I have made some things to put inside the trunk. 

Hope you like it for now

Natalie  

Dragon Rug

Hi all,

I havent really made many minis recently, not helped by the fact I broke my finger last week so it is all strapped up.  Luckily I can still type, and use my camera.  My sister made me a rug for my Hagrids hut a while back and I have finally got round to taking a picture of it to show you all.  I tried to take one in situ but it didn't come out well so here is the best picture I could take.  I hope you like the rug.

Natalie x

1/48th Scale sofas and stuff

Hi all,

By the time you read this it will probably be 2012 so HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!  I hope it brigs you everything you wish for.

I bought a 1/48th kit at the Pudsey fair in November from Petite properties.  It is my project for 2012 so will show you my progress as I go along.  This is what the completed project should look like from the outside (from the petite properties website), though I will probably make some changes.

Having never made anything in 1/48th scale before I had a play around to see how I would cope with making furniture for the interior.  Here is what I have made. 

Though they are small they were fun to make.  Hope you like them.

Natalie x