More Polymer Clay Food

Yes, there's even more clay food... all of these are 24th scale items - many made from leftover bits of clay and a little imagination :)

First off, two plates of fried agg and bacon (I bought the plates at http://www.homesinminiature.co.uk/)

Roast chicken and bowls of vegetables (potatoes, cabbage, green beans and carrotts)

The roast chickens separately

Beef leg joints ready for roasting

Roast beef dinners anyone?

Back to the fruit and vegetables... marrows followed by cabbages and leeks

And some bowls of fruit

I have no idea what happened to the photographs of the little plums (in the mixed fruit bowl)... still, never mind - I think that's plenty to be getting on with for now :)

I'll save all the cakes and bread I made when I start to take photographs of the cafe in 1:24th scale that I'm making.

Some Polymer Clay Food Creations

I thought I'd post a few piccies of some of the foodstuffs I've made in both 1:12th and 1:24th scale. Some of them I've not used - some have been sold and others are just gathering dust at the bottom of little cardboard boxes :)

I mentioned in a previous post about my fruit and veggies in 24th scale... so here they are:

Apples... how about some turnips?...

Or oranges...

Cauliflowers...

Beetroot...

Carrots...

I also made cabbages, potatoes (cabbages similar to the cauliflowers, and potatoes just too easy!)

How about... parsnips...

and pears...

I really enjoyed making these... and then Hubby bought me a market cart to build as part of my birthday pressie, and so I added the veg in crates to the cart - including marrows and leeks too!

Forever Christmas... And Pookie The Yorkie

Just a quickie post to show how the house is coming along. As I'm deciding on curtains and pictures for my dolls house, Hubby is stripping the walls of the stairwell in the real home and deciding on how he's going to redecorate that part of the house. Anyways...  here's how the dolls house is coming along - remember it's only 1:24th scale (1 foot in real life is equal to 1/2 an inch in dolls house reality) so it's all a bit... well, tiny really :)

It's a bit unclear, but I've added 'swagging' to the bannisters in the front room and the dining room, as well as above the doors in those rooms too.  I'll show a close up of the front room which you may be able to see the swagging in a little clearer... with a little true story about the dog laid in front of the fireplace...

This little yorkshire terrier with the bright black eyes has her own little woven basket, but I reckon she'd like the warmth of the fire instead... so that's where she lays out. On rearranging the furniture, I placed the doggie further back into the room one day - nearer to the Christmas tree. The next day, the dog was back in front of the fireplace. I thought that perhaps I'd moved her and forgotten about it... Another rearrangement of furniture a few days later, and I put the yorkie on the sofa, as I'd placed the coffee table closer to the fireplace. The following day, little Pookie (as the yorkshire terrier is now known) was squashed into the little gap between the coffee table and the fireplace.  I moved the furniture back into the original position, and placed Pookie on the floor, but facing towards the tree. Closing the front of the dolls house, I left the room and didn't return until the following day. I left it as long as possible before opening the dolls house... to find Pookie back in her usual place! I just leave her alone now... that spooky dog.

As an added note, I have to let you all know that a few weeks ago I found furniture knocked over in the dolls house front room, and Pookie 'sleeping' in the master bedroom on the bed. Now, Pookie had behaved herself for a while now and had not moved at all, so I suspected that there was more 'spirits' than 'spiritual' happening here...

I called downstairs to Hubby and told him that the furniture in my dolls house had been knocked over. "Perhaps the dog did it when it ran up the stairs to the bedroom" he replied. That's the last time Hubby is allowed any where near my craft room after he's been out for a drink with my dad!

Dolls House Tray Table

I had a bit of leftover balsa wood and a bit of spare time... so I cut it into a shape, hollowed it out using the blunt end of a paintbrush... and made a tray table.

The legs are cocktail sticks - and the 'handles' are scrap bits of wire. I cut out a photo of some flowers for the tray inner... then painted it black and hoped the glue would hold :)

The small bowl of fruit is all made by me (even the little white bowl) and the book was a gift.

I can fit three of those fruit bowls onto a  one penny piece... 1:24th scale may be tiny and fiddly - but you don't have to worry so much about fine detail!

My Perfect Kitchen?

Well, no... my miniature dolls house kitchen is something I'm quite pleased with, but by no means would it be my perfect kitchen. No washing machine, cupboard space or electric kettle :)

Still, as I said... it's almost complete and I'm quite chuffed with how it's turned out. All I really have to do is add a few touches and some curtains to the window...

I decided on having no coving in the kitchen, and only painted the walls in magnolia with some added texture. The tiles made a nice statement on the far wall... and most of my time was spent on the floor as far as decorating the room is concerned. I liked the paper effect of the flagstone flooring, but wanted something a bit more tactile. So I used ModPodge (satin) and when it was almost dry, I went around each flagstone with a cocktail stick.

Polymer Clay

I have found the delights of polymer clay... hello Fimo, Sculpey... and Liquid clay that smells so addictive *lol*.

I've discovered that I can make a whole range of 24th scale foodstuffs - vegetables mostly - and do it quite well. The advantage to 24th scale is simply that, although tiny and fiddly at times, you don't need to add the amount of detail that you really have to in larger scales.

However, there are rules...

I have been using oven-baked clay. This type of clay needs to be slowly baked to harden at a temperature of 110 degrees celsius or 230 degrees fahrenheit.

You DO NOT forget whether your oven is celsius or fahrenheit, and promptly put your clay in the oven at 230 degrees Celsius. OOPS! By the way... important information here... polymer clay fumes are poisonous if the clay is heated and burnt!

When making small globes for the centre of cabbages and also tiny candles with itty bitty wicks, you really don't want to spend hours making them, only for your oven (with a bit of added utter stupidity) to do this...

At first, I thought that the speed of 'cooking' and hardening was just because the objects I'd painstakingly spent hours making were so tiny... NO! It was just a few 'senior moments' and forgetfullness. Well, until hubby said "It's a Celsius oven... silly moo!"

Just to prove that I eventually got something right, here's the candles with a few other things I made...

Now THAT'S better! The christmas pressies had bows and ribbon made out of paper. The box is a cigar box (printed from Jim's Printable Mini's) with tiny cigars inside it too! The newspaper is a copy of the Martha Tabram Jack The Ripper story (I am fascinated with Jack The Ripper). The 'marble' rolling pin and board were made from leftovers, as were the tiny candy canes - which I will have to make again in red and white instead. And then there's the candles... unburnt and uncharred :)

Dollhouse Kitchen

The kitchen is different to all the other rooms in the house, as it is painted over a paper base, and has no coving. I decided to tile the back wall, as this is where the range-oven will be. All the other furniture will probably be moved around... I have no idea exactly where anything is going yet :)

World Globe

It's not brilliant... but I am sort of pleased with the way that my paper and bead world globe turned out.

I didn't have any beads that were green and blue - but thought this one would be just fine.

Electric!

From some of the previous photographs in posts, you may have guessed that the electrics in my dolls house have all been wired in. I am not an electrician! However, I did marry one, and thought that this would be a HUGE help when it came to wiring and electrics. That is not how it happened.

"You're an electrician..." I wheedled at my Darling Hubby

"And the dollshouse is YOUR project" He replied bluntly.

I had to sand grooves in the floors of the dollshouse (I am also NOT a carpenter!), drill holes through the walls, and wire up tiny ickle little wee lamps and bulbs and plugs. It took me two days in all.

I had to strip the larger 12th scale plugs from the lights, and replace them with tiny 1:24th scale plugs.

The tiny wire had to be split and exposed at the ends, threaded up the middle of the plug and folded back into the holes where the pins were to be put in. ARGH!!! This was only slightly more difficult than putting the 2-pin bulbs into the itty bitty lamps.

I also had to build the fireplaces for the 'working' coals and logs, back them with heat-proof paper and thread the bulbs in through the back of the log-effect.

When it was all finished, I plugged in the mains.... and two of the bulbs didn't work!

I had to re-wire those two... but it's all lit up now when I plug it in :)

I know that a multi-coloured lit-up Christmas tree isn't partiularly victorian... but it looks kinda sweet in the corner.

Little Bits Of Paper

Using quilling paper and PVA glue, I made a few pots and bits for the dolls house...

A Close-Up Of The Rooms



A close-up of each of the rooms will show the wallpaper I have chosen, the furniture I've been bought (and bought myself) and some of the staircase construction. Hardest of all was the hallway, as this had to be designed from scratch, and I am an absolute amatuer at this kind of design and building work! Mrs Ames, I'm sorry I didn't think I'd need all that stuff you tried to teach me about angles in Math class! *lol*

CONSTRUCTING THE STAIRS



THE STAIRS IN PLACE



BELLA IN THE LOUNGE - SHE'S NOT ACTUALLY PART OF THE PERMANENT DECOR :)

Getting Decorated

How quickly a month races by!  Of course, with Christmas taking up my time for most of December, I haven't had much time for any crafting whatsoever!  The New Year feels awfully strange - like I'm still trying to get back into the rythym of 'normal' life... maybe everything will be back on kilter by about March? *lol*

Well, the outside of the house was finally completed!

I haven't yet put 'panes' in the windows, and this photograph doesn't show the little letterbox I've since bought and added to the front door. Where I blocked one of the doors, I shall probably make of buy a miniature holly bush... or a winter-white rose bush.

I've also decorated the inside, and have discovered that the wallpaper I design, make, and print off myself is a LOT easier to handle and stick up than shop-bought papers. The only shop-bought paper I used was for the lounge - and there is a HUGE ripple in it at the bottom of the staircase. I tried all sorts of glues - from proper wallpaper paste for dolls houses (not brilliant), watered down PVA (not very adhesive) to just normal, cheap PVA spread as thinly as possible(excellent!).

Peace Lily

Years ago, my Mum bought me a Peace Lily - which I love (lillies of all kinds are my favourite flowers)... I decided I wanted one for my dolls house. It was actually a LOT easier to make than I first thought it would be. After constructing the leaves and flowers from paper that I coloured (when needed ) with 'Whispers' markers, I used ModPodge to 'seal' everything, and make it a bit pliable.

The pot I made with strips of parcel paper cut into very thin strips. It's constructed the same way as you make paper beads, but with no hole in the centre. When the paper is all rolled into a flat disc, you simply push the middle down to make a bowl shape. This amazing new way of making bowls I recently discovered can also be found on the internet... yes, this is something else people have been doing for a while. However, I've discovered that a lot of these people use quilling paper... so that was my latest purchase, to make more bowls and suchlike for the future.

Anyway, here's the Peace Lily I made, as well as something that started out as Hyacinths, but is so tiny it could really be anything at all...

I couldn't wait to take a photograph, so the ModPodge is still wet in the smaller pot *lol*

Christmas Hearth

Hubby gave me some balsa wood leftovers, and so I got down to making a hearth for my fireplace. Some cheap white paint from the childrens craft section at Tesco and a soft pencil, and my piece of balsa was looking a little like marble. Bit of parchment paint in gold, a spray of glimmer mist and a coat of Glossy Accents and the hearth was almost finished. I decided that a couple of cocktail sticks coloured black with copic marker, with a few beads for 'finials', and the finished product wasn't half bad. Well, I am a beginner at all this tiny stuff :) I don't have any miniature tools or even a set of tweezers... yet :)

I bought a mantle-piece Christmas kit, but decided that just cutting out the shape of Christmas stockings would not do at al... I wanted proper stocking I could put something in if I wanted to.  My sewing skills are... how can I put this.... naff, seems an appropriate word - and the phrase "bloody useless" is very apt :)

But I did remember Mrs Huggins at school teach me blanket stitch... seemed like a nice idea, so I used that to sew my stockings together.

The vase is made from a little bead, and filled with the little stamens you can buy for the centres of paper flowers, as well as some strips of colours parcel paper for the leaves and some tiny carnations.

Making Little Bottles

I keep going through my stash of crafting items, looking for anything I might be able to use to make things for the house.  Recently, I found my collection of beeds, and thought that some of them looked like little bottles... Flat-topped pins at the ready, a dollop of super-glue and my beads were looking quite perfume-bottle like...

Of course, since my amazing idea, I've looked on the web and discovered that 'minituarists' have been doing this for ages... Don't think I'll be making my fortune this way then :)

Get Painting!

I've laid flooring and have painted the outer of the house. Everything had to have a base coat first - cheaply done, as Hubby had a can of Magnolia Emulsion just festering away in the corner of his shed. I wanted the outer colour to be a blue-ish grey sort of colour... so I used re-inkers (Weathered Wood and Vintage Photo) to colour the paint. The cute little brickwork at the edges of the house and at the top windows was also done by me - I bought a stencil and some of this mortar powder that I had to make up into a paste. Talk about messy! Apparently, these little corner bricks are called "quoins"... what an adorable word *lol*

I'm trying  set the house out as though it were a truly livable space - so I've blocked off one of the doors and made a hallway inside. This has made the kitchen a lot smaller - but it won't have a lot of furniture in that room anyway - though I am pleased with how that flooring turned out. I bought flagstone paper, and then covered it in a few layers of modpodge, scratching out the outline of each flagstone tile with a cocktail stick before the modpodge was fully dried. I thought it was quite effective...

Learning All The Way

The house is coming along nicely - although I've had no chance to do any blogging at all - on any of my blogs! Seems I have a bit of catching up to do all over the place.

My furniture collection is increasing somewhat...

How gorgeous is that Range Cooker? Personally I think it's just a wee bit too big... but I'm using it anyway - it's metal, heavy... and the door opens too!

The choice of "Forever Christmas" in my dolls house means that I can buy all the fun stuff - like the little red sled. Hmm... "Forever Christmas" ... I like that - may even choose that as the name for my dolls house.

I'm altering the screen, as I need it to be black and gold for the bathroom, and that grandfather clock just screams out for a nice round face instead of the square one it has right now.

The jam pot covers I bought as a bit of an impulse really - I just thought that the pattern on the material might be small enough for me to make a few things with. Of course there will be no sewing involved... fabric glue is easily bought *lol*

More Furniture

Just a quickie peek at the furniture that Hubby bought me... well, I say he bought it - actually I bought it ... I just used his bank card to pay :)

I couldn't resist the little grandma sat reading her book! And of course there's a Christmas tree too...

Buying Bits Already

I haven't any set idea on what sort of era I want my dollshouse to be set in - so I'm winging it... just buying stuff that I like when I see it (if it's cheap enough!). The only thing I've decided for definite is that, in my little house, it's going to be christmas all year round! Shocked? Nope... nobody else is either *lol*

Here's the selection of a couple of things Hubby and myself have bought - and the house isn't even base-coated or glued together yet! *lol*

 Nursery furniture in white - so sweet! It's so hard to see, but there's a robin sitting at the open birdcage, and that little bear is the cutest! These pieces weren't cheap - but they are amazingly detailed and so beautiful... and of course I had to have a robin... it's going to be Christmas in my house!

Here's some closeups of the robin and bear from Tjay's (the creator) website:

These aren't the smallest pieces she does either - she makes 1:144th scale bears and pandas... and the most amazing little toadstool scene that fits on a pintack head.

It All Starts Here...

It doesn't look like much at all right now... just some bare chipboard pieces, cut into strange shapes and stacked together into a rough-looking house shape:

... and it's not actually a house... it's two shops, but I liked the double-front opening, and thought I could make something personal and unique - a dolls house just for me!

Bearing in mind, that I have never owned a dolls house before (even as a little girl), and so everything I attempt to do will be trial and error (with less of the 'error', I hope! *lol*). I don't know what special products I'll need, or where to buy them either... but I have done a little bit of 'scouting' on the internet to see what I might be able to do, and where I may be able to buy things in the UK.

The two shops are supposed to end up looking a bit like this:

It's going to be interesting to see just how alike or different my version will be :)