Stained glass project tutorial

Hi all,

I thought I would share with you a simple tutorial for making fake stained glass windows for your dolls house projects.  

As you can see they can be made in a variety of designs and can be framed easily. 

You will need: 

Graph paper

Scissors

Craft knife

Glue

Black card

Permanent markers 

laminating punch

Ruler

Masking tape

Pencil

Laminating machine

Step 1: 

Sketch your stained glass designs.  It's helpful to do this onto graph paper so you can be sure your lines are straight.  

Step 2:

Use your craft knife and ruler to cut some 1mm strips from black card.  They may curl up when you cut them but they straighten out easily when stretched.  

Step 3:

Open up your laminating punch and stick it over your chosen design.  You need to have the inside surface of the pouch uppermost as you will be creating your stained glass design inside the pouch. 

Step 4:

Start sticking the black card strips over the lines of your design.  Use your ruler to make sure your card lines are straight. 

Your design will take shape quickly.  It's better to work from right to left and top to bottom.  

Keep going until the lines of your design are completely covered.  

Step 5:

Use permanent marker to colour in sections of your design.  You can add as much or as little colour as you like.  

Step 6:

Close your laminating pouch and put it through your laminating machine.  Make sure it is at the correct temperature or setting for the pouch you are using.  

Finally enjoy your finished fake stained glass....

You can trim your laminating pouch and put it into an existing window frame or make your own frame by sandwiching the edges of the window in wood pieces.  

I hope you enjoy this little project.  Please let me know if you try it out.

Take care

Natalie x

Ebay listing

Hi all,

It seems like ages since my last post but I have been working on a project to share with you all.  Hopefully I will get it completed and photographed this week during half term.


In other news my sister encouraged my to list something to sell on eBay today.  It has been a long time since I listed anything so I only put on one item to see how it goes.  I thought I would share it with you too.

I turned the miniature wand by hand and also made the wand box myself.  The potion jars you can see in the background were also made by me.  

I hope you like them all.

Take care

Natalie x

1/12 basket and thermos

Hi all,

I thought I would share with you a project I ran at my dolls house club this week. We made a 1/12 basket using a project from Jane Harrop.

http://www.collectors-club-of-great-britain.co.uk/Dolls-Houses-and-Miniatures/Features/Miniature-Basket-Making--Make-a-dolls-house-shopping-basket/_ch27_ft1569

I adapted mine to include a lid and wire handles and designed the thermos flask to go with it.

Natalie x

1/48 scale attic

Hi all,

I thought I would share with you my latest mini make. I designed and built this entirely myself. It is a 1/48 scale attic room box.

It is made using balsa wood and card and has been aged using Tim Holtz distress inks.

Hope you like it.

Natalie

Shabby cabinet

Hi all,

It seems like ages since my last post but I have been busy decorating my full size house. I wish I could say it was all done, but at least i've done a couple of rooms.

I also had a major dolls house disaster, I fell off some ladders and managed to pull my toy shop down on top of me as I fell. Though I was bruised and battered with a black eye to boot my toy shop came off worse, almost every tile came off the roof, the attic window came off as did a bay window, it really is in a sorry state. Many of the bits inside were also broken in the fall :0(

One of those bits was a display cabinet, this is what it looked like before the fall.

It had come apart into all it's component pieces but was remarkably not broken. As I looked at it trying to decide what to do inspiration hit. I used my trusty mini drill with sanding bit to sand each piece back to the bare wood as well as good old elbow grease and sandpaper.

Then I painted each piece with ivory emulsion paint. I sanded again and used abranet to give it a smooth finish. I covered the base with a patterned paper and cut a piece of card to fit the back which I also covered with the same paper. Then I put it back together..... that was the hardest part!

I used some jewellery pins I had to replace the gold knobs that came with the cabinet and I also replaced the front Perspex as it had become scratched.

It has a little wobble, but I love it. :0)

I hope you like it too.

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