New mini punches!

I found some great mini paper hole punches this last week at Michael's.  Since I've been working on my dollhouse I haven't explored the scrapbooking aisles in great detail lately, but I'm glad that I finally did.  These are only $1 each so I'm hoping that Michael's will continue to carry a variety of them.  I want to start trying out some mini flower tutorials and I thought the two on the left might be able to be used as petals.

I also want to try out part of Kris' faucet planter tutorial.

http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-make-faucet-planter-how-to-make.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+1InchMinis+%281+Inch+Minis%29

  I love the tiny garden hose faucet that she made and I want one for my cottage.  As you saw in an earlier post I tried making one out of jewelry findings, but I haven't had much luck.  I hope to find a petal punch with a little bit more detail so I can try it out.

I'm not sure what I'll use the leaf and snowflake punches for yet.  Maybe some colorful autumn leaves to scatter across the cottage porch?  Or the snowflake could be used with aluminum foil to make shiny window clings for a dollhouse holiday scene?

So many ideas - so little time!

Happy Monday everyone!

My new minis treasures!

Today I wanted to share some great miniatures that I got from http://www.miniatures.com/

I can't remember at the moment how much I've shared especially since I am scheduling posts now, but I started a new job toward the end of April and I started Nursing school in mid-May.  I am every bit as busy as it sounds, so the obvious question is why am I buying minis?!

The answer is:  I don't know!  I just love them though and have been wanting these particular ones for my cottage for a while now.  I don't know when I'll be able to start working on them, but just the expectation of a new mini project makes me happy :)

Above is a mini modern bathroom set.  I love the details, especially the pedestal sink!  The toilet seat doesn't open, but I don't guess it's really all that sanity to leave the seat up anyway.  The only problem I have is that the dimensions given in both the catalog and the website didn't match up for the tub.  If you remember I cut out cardstock template pieces to make sure this particular set would fit in my cottage bathroom.  The only thing that I can guess is that the measurements they provided were for the interior of the tub and not the outside measurements.  This leaves me with one rather large problem as now all three pieces will not fit in my cozy cottage bathroom.  I am not at all certain what I will do at this point, but at least I've got plenty of time to think about it.

I also bought a bunch of Houseworks kits that I want to use for my cottage kitchen area.  I should have waited to build my cabinets until I actually had these in hand, but I think I will be able to modify them so everything will fit.  If not I'll just start over as building the cabinet was pretty fun in the first place.  Above you can see a sink kit and also a stove hood.

The other two kits that I bought were a stove top and an oven door.  Of course the door won't be working, but no one will be looking in the stove anyway.  I will take Kim's advice and do some practice with enamel paints before I paint these actual pieces.  I also like the look of stainless steel so I wonder if some of the pieces could be left as is?

Happy Friday everyone!

I won!

Today I want to share this beautiful print that I received in the mail.  tiny by design is a wonderful Facebook page that was shared with me by a friend of mine.  The artist Tracie lives in Michigan and her original artwork is all inspired by children.  She does lovely paintings and I have also seen some photos of wonderful wall murals that she has done.

A while back she posted the above painting and asked her followers to suggest a name for it.  I thought it was such a fun and colorful piece and I immediately thought of the name "bubble berry tree."  And lucky me she liked my idea!

Tracie had prints made and was sweet enough to send me one!  I can't wait to have it framed so I can brag to everyone who visits that I got to name a painting!

Below are links to Tracie's Facebook page and her website.  Take a look - she has some lovely pieces!

https://www.facebook.com/tinybydesign

http://www.tinybydesign.com/

Journal update -

I've been working on my journal a bit more.  Above you can see the inside pages once the front and back covers were removed.

In order to make tabs for additional pages I measured the portion of the pages that were inside the original journal spine.  They were approximately 1-1/2 inches in width so I cut cardstock pieces 3 inches wide in order to fold them in half.  I then used the original pages to judge where my holes should be punched.  And then to add stability I put reinforcement labels on each side of the punches.

For now I'm using 3 inch metal loose leaf binder rings to hold everything together.  So far they seem to be easier to work with than tying everything back together with string.

Here is a shot with the covers added back.  You can see how the gel medium helped to seal the front cover. Now there aren't any crumbling edges to worry about.  I may go back over it one more time just to be sure.

I think 2 inch binder rings may have been a better size to start with, but once the journal is filled with extra pages it may not look quite so bulky.  I actually kind of like the way the metal accents the otherwise natural look of the book.  I saw a Pinterest pin once where binder rings were used to make a book out of greeting cards.  I have boxes full of cards that I've collected over the years, things I couldn't throw away like birthday, Christmas, or congratulations cards from graduation.

Now I just have to start figuring out what I want to write about...!

Happy Friday everyone!

Mini treasures from the flea market :)

Today I thought I'd share some pics of new minis for my cottage.  I'm still broke, but I have a loving boyfriend who indulges my mini hobby sometimes.  I actually just recently started a new job about two weeks ago, which I am extraordinarily thankful for, but it will still be some time before I am caught up.  David and I took a trip last Saturday to the local flea market and there is a lady who runs a miniature booth there.  David of course goes to find old records, comic books, and video games, but he also waits patiently while I peruse down the mini aisles.

My mini finds included two Chrysnbon kits full of bathroom accessories, a set of metal kitchen canisters and a set of cutlery, both International Miniatures by Classics, and a small wooden rolling pin.

Here is a more detailed view after all of the parts have been removed from the plastic trees.  I still need to trim the flash off of some of them.  I adore the cutlery!  I really want to find a dish drainer to sit on my kitchen counter to fill with just-cleaned dishes.  And I have lots of printies pinned on Pinterest (woah, that's a mouthful!) so I can find some great labels for the canisters.

The bathroom accessories include one small and one large towel bar - I'd like to spray those with some brass colored metallic paint like the ones in my Mother's house.  The large Chrysnbon kit also includes a bath brush, a toothbrush holder with four toothbrushes, a wall-mounted soap dish with a small bar of soap, a hanging bathtub soap dish with a large bar of soap, a waterglass holder, a toilet paper roll and dispenser, a wastebasket, a plunger, and a hot water bottle.  The smaller Chrysnbon kit contains a pale with handle, a comb, some more soap dishes, and a couple other things.

I've never painted Chrysnbon before so I think I will search out some tutorials before I go any further.  I saw a lovely Chrysnbon plastic clawfoot tub that was painted with a copper belly and a perfect porcelain inside.  It looked like something straight out of a glossy magazine page!  Hopefully I can turn my pieces into something almost as nice :)

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Quotes by Me...

Sometimes I think I'd rather move than dust. ~ J. Manuel

Journal Inspiration!

Thanks to my wonderful friend Kim at http://flowerkim.blogspot.com/ I have been inspired to start my own journal.  Kim saved a beautiful old photo album that her Mother gave her and has turned it into such a treasure!  Check out this link to her post - scroll down towards the bottom -

http://flowerkim.blogspot.com/2013/04/plugging-along-while-waiting-for-garden.html

Kim is a fantastic artist and she incorporates pictures into her journaling.  She told me, "don't worry about anyone but yourself when you write or draw in it. When I start worrying about what people will think when they see mine that is when I get blocked-but if I remember it's for myself and my own happiness first and foremost then it stays fun."  Great advice, huh? :)

What I picked to use as my journal is a photo album as well.  It was gift from my sister.  She bought it for me years ago at the beach and I never quite knew what to do with it.  It appears to be all handmade and was a bit delicate so I sealed it in a bag and it has been tucked away ever since.

This is the nifty binding on the side.  The braided string is wrapped around a funky looking stick on the front side.  The front middle section is a picture painted onto sand.  It has a cute turtle on it, which I'm sure is one of the reasons my sister picked it for me :)

I always worried that it needed to be sealed somehow, but back then I wasn't quite as crafty (or should I say didn't have time to be crafty) so I wasn't sure what to use.  As you can see the front and back cover is done with natural leaves.  Along the edges the leaves have begun to crumble.

The inside pages are a thick ribbed material and are double folded.  The strings are for inserting pictures.  There is tissue paper tucked inbetween all of the pages.

The back cover still has the original color of the leaves.  The front has faded to brown over time.  There isn't any way to bring the color back to the front, but at this point I hope sealing the entire book will help preserve the rest of the color.

The string is tied in the back so it was easy to take the album apart.

I think there will be room between each of the album pages to add cardstock tabs just like Kim did for her journal.  That way pages can be added by gluing them to the tabs.

Kim also gave me suggestions for sealing my journal.  I tried some tacky glue and regular glue, but didn't have much luck.  Kim suggest gel medium so I bought this at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon.

I'll post again once I've sealed the journal and added the tabs.  I can't wait to get started!

Happy Friday everyone!

More printie love and some wooden fruit and veggie crates :)

By the time you read this I will have made these weeks ago.  Seriously why didn't I start scheduling posts from the beginning?  Way less stress!

Anyway, I'm still working on a zero dollar budget so this was a perfect project.  I wanted some cute little outdoorsy stuff to sit on the porch of my cottage.  I don't know what you call these things - just wooden fruit crates?  These are all made from wood squares of various sizes that I had on hand.  I've bought them by the bagful in the past from Hobby Lobby.  And of course skinny sticks - you can never have enough of those!  The labels were free printies found online, printed to cardstock, and sprayed with clear acrylic sealer.  There are plenty of wooden crate tutorials out there too, but all you really need is a picture to look at.

I found lots of seed packet printies.  My scrapbook paper cutter made these much easier to cut out.  The printies themselves were detailed with the little flaps and fold over parts, but I just cut them square and fold the pictures front to back for simplicities sake.  After all no one will be pulling them out of the crate to inspect.

And my wheat penny for scale, I am always forgetting to do this!

Happy Wednesday everyone!