Making mini quilts - or at least my attempt at one :)

I've been seeing lots of topics recently on other blogs and also on Greenleaf about making mini quilts.  I will admit right up front that I am a horrible "sewer" (is that even a word?!) - needless to say I can barely sew a button!  I have my little handheld Singer and that helps a bit.  Anyway I love quilts and I'm always up for learning an new and easy way to make minis.  There was a great topic on Greenleaf that covered making quilts out of paper towels - http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1038. 

I haven't tried it with paper towels yet, but the topic also went on to explain that you could iron thin fabric onto wax paper and then send that through your printer.  I had some really thin cotton fabric that we used to practice tying bandages with leftover from first aid class years ago.  It ironed onto the shiny side of the wax paper really well, but I had mixed results when it went through the printer.  It would print really well on one side and eat the wax paper on the other side or vice versa.  So after wasting all kinds of ink I decided to try another approach.  I took a sheet of cardstock and cut the fabric just smaller than the piece of paper and then used masking tape to secure down all of the edges.  And voila it shot straight through my Lexmark printer and came out perfect!  The quilt pattern that you see below is a free printie from Jim's website http://www.printmini.com/printables/quilts/index.shtml - you should be able to click and make it bigger.  I just love the way it turned out and I am totally on the lookout for more quilt patterns now.  If you know of any great ones PUH-LEEEEEEEEEEASE share!!!  Once I have this one cut out, stuffed, and sewed together (with my Singer of course!) I'll post an updated picture.

Mini travel trunk

Amid the hustle and the bustle of the Christmas holidays I did find a little time to do a new mini project. I was pleased with the way it turned out so I wanted to share some pictures with everyone.

I started with one of those little wooden trunks that Micheal's carries. I liked this one because it had little grooves carved into the top and the front - one on each side and on each end as well. I sanded, stained with Minwax Provincial 211, sanded again, and then stained one final time.

I wanted travel stickers for the outside so that I could make it look like an old trunk that my Mom has. I found a great website called http://www.hellotraveler.com/ that had wonderful collections of travel stickers from all over the world. So needless to say I don't own nor do I have the rights to any of these stickers, but I don't plan on selling my travel trunk. I do though plan on buying some stickers from their website because they would go really great in my scrapbook. I used a sheet of plain address labels to print the stickers out with and then very carefully cut them out.

After placing the stickers I used Minwax fast-drying Polyurethane clear satin spray to finish everything. I did two coats and it really helped to seal the stickers into place and gave the wood a nice shine.

I then used some very thin leather/suede strips and glued them to the two inner grooves. I think it gave the trunk a nice finishing touch.

Here's a view of the top of the trunk. I especially love the "Endless Caverns" sticker.

And here's the right side of the trunk.

And the left side. On this side I love the "Reno" sticker and also the "Sunshine Lake" sticker.

Above is nice view of the front of the trunk. On this view I like the Indian sticker that says "Steak House" and also the "Yellowstone Park" sticker.

For the inside of the travel trunk I wanted to do something special. I used newspaper print that I found at Jim's Printable Minis to line the inside with.

Here is a close up of the inside top of the trunk. If you've ever been to Jim's website then you probably recognize this wonderful printie.

And this is a view of the bottom inside of the trunk.  I hope you enjoyed the pics of my new mini!

Christmas gifts from far and near!

I'm a little behind on posting (as usual!), but I wanted to post some pics of some lovely gifts that I recieved for Christmas.  The first one was from our friend Kim at Flowers and Art.  She sent me this lovely card and this beautfiul handmade ornament.  I'm not sure if she's an angel or a fairy, but I'm going to go with angel.

Here's a better view of the angel.  She has a beautiful red dress with fir trees and snow falling in the background.  She has lovely golden yellow hair and she's covered in gold glitter as well.  I think I'm going to call her Goldie, appropriate don't you think?

And here is a back view to show you her pretty wings.  Kim's initials are on her tiny boot, which I really appreciate because years from now when I'm decorating my Christams tree I can remember who gave her to me :)

I also wanted to share some minis that my Mom bought for me.  She actually let me pick these out at Hobby Lobby and I totally forgot about them!  So I was surprised by these twice!  I think they will look wonderful in the saloon.  I especially love the cowboy hat and boots.  The gun and holster belt will probably be sitting on the bar.  The gun on top may be a bit too big for 1:12 scale, but I think I can work with it.  The gold stars might look nice hanging on the outside of the saloon.

A beautiful holiday decorating idea!

I saw these and I thought they were just beautiful!  The first one is a scan of a Christmas card that I recieved and the second one I cut out of a Wal-Mart flyer.  I think this is the cutest idea ever.  It's a little late for me to do this year, but I think next year I will try this.  I think a pretty glass bowl sitting on the coffee table filled with shiny Christmas ornaments would be so pretty.  What do you think?

45 followers - wow!

Did I ever mention that you guys are the best?  I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks for reading my blog and also thanks for sharing yours with me!

Today I want to introduce and welcome a new follower.  Her name is Lisa and her blog can be found at http://schererart.blogspot.com/.  Take a minute to look around her blog, it is well worth the time.  She does amazing paintings of angels and she is very talented.  She also sells through etsy so I had to bookmark that as well.

And I wanted to show you some lovely Christmas bags today as well.  You should be able to click the pictures to make them bigger.  My Aunt Sandy who lives very far away would send us wonderful gifts for Christmas when my sister and I were little.  She would send them wrapped up in these cloth Christmas bags.  I had completely forgotten about them until my Mother and I were going through Christmas ornaments the other day.  They are very easy to make - cut the cloth to the size you want, fold it, sew up the sides, and then take a matching ribbon and sew it into place to use as a drawstring.

My favorite is this one with the celestial angels - it reminded me of Lisa's blog.  I bet she would like this one as well!

M&M Babies - Heavenly Handfuls - just a "little" something to put you in the holiday mood!

It's super cold and snowing outside here in Tennessee - so I thought I'd share some pics of my M&M's doll collection - to warm your hearts!

The display is made of of ornaments that I borrowed from my Mother.  The tree and all of the little cars, etc. are little metal replicas.

"I Melt For No One"

"Gimme a Break"

"Never Let 'em See You Melt"

"There's a little nut"

I just love the little drums!

These are my favorite pics.  I added a little sparkling Christmas light to match each doll.

Another great one of the little Radio Flyer.

Heroes In A Half Shell - Turtle Power!

I have been "attempting" to spruce up my blog a bit.  I read a couple of tutorials and think I have finally figured out how to widen the reading pane.  It always baffles me that blogs are so narrow and there is all of that wasted space on the sides.  I also added a google translator because I am always thankful for those when I find a great mini site that's in another language and I really want to read what it says! 

I also found this adorable little widget (or at least I think that's what it's called) that I added as well.  Right now you have to scroll to the very bottom to see it but I may move it to the side instead.  It's a little turtle tank with two hungry turtles inside!  You click on the tank to feed them and they rush right over to you - it's just like the real thing!  I've seen other cute widgets on blogs with hungry fish and even one with a hungry hamster :) 

I got to thinking about it and I don't know if I've ever shared any pictures of my turtles with everyone or not.  So I went searching for some pics of my real turtles and found some of Herman when he was just a baby.  He is a Red Eared Slider or RES and this was when he was only about the size of a quarter.  He was such a cute little guy!

Here he was posing at the side of the tank so I could tak his picture.  This was back when I could put gravel in his tank.  As he got bigger he started to eat it (bad idea) so we had to gett rid of all the pretty rocks.

And here he is on his little land area.  This was a very tiny tank - maybe 10 or 20 gallons at the most.  As you can see he had a lovely background to look at.  He had some fake plastic plants for decoration (had to get rid of those because he munched on them as well!) and also a sort of gargoyle guy in the background to guard his stuff.  But he really just liked to sit right there in front of his palm tree.  It was with him when I adopted him so I guess it reminded him of home.

Aren't turtle behinds just so cute?!

And here's a long view to show you his swimming area.

And finally an overhead view while he was taking a nap.  Too cute!!!

I'll post some pics soon, you'll never believe how big he is now!!!  Oh, and I almost forgot - "poke" the pictures like Casey always says on her blog to see them bigger!