Simple way to make mini candles

I've looked around on ebay, etc. and mini candles are expensive! It bothers me to pay for anything if it's possible that I can figure out a way to make it myself so I thought I'd give it a try.

You'll need:

thick thread (I used waxed jewelry thread that came from Wal-Mart)

different sized straws - soda straws, milkshake straws, coffee stirrer straws, etc.

a candle - tapers are the easiest to use

I took the straws and cut them into different lengths - pillar candles, taper candles, just whatever size I thought would look good. I used tape sticky side up to hold the straw pieces in place. Then I took a lit candle and let the wax drip into each of the straw pieces. Once the straws were filled I took a piece of the waxed thread and stuck it into the middle of the wax as it began to cool.

Once the wax is completely hardened then you can use something small to push the candle up out of the straw. Here's a pic to show you some of the finished candles. I bought a bunch of different colored tapers from the Dollar Tree (50 cents each) so I can make a little stockpile of candles for future use. One helpful hint is to let the straw cool down completely between candles or you'll melt the straw by accident!

Do you decorate your dollhouse for Christmas?

As you can see I'm still trying to upload all of the pics to show everyone what I've been up to for the last few weeks. I kept thinking that I wanted to decorate the saloon for Christmas - funny thing to do for a house that's not even finished yet! I saw a fabulous mini tree at Wal-Mart in the section where they sell those little Christmas scenes and finally decided to do it. A couple of weekends ago all of the Christmas decorations went on sale 50% off at Hobby Lobby. I had been desperately waiting for this sale because they have so many great ornaments that can be used as miniatures!

As you can see I bought gold garland for the tree, mini multi-colored round balls, and lots of sparkly candy canes. The tiny manger scene is actually a set of mini ornaments that I have had for years - I just removed the strings. And I had the battery operated mini lights from a few Christmas's ago as well. I hung a mini wreath beneath each window as well.

Here's a view from the side with the tree lit. It was hard to get a good pic because it's so small that you have to get very close in order to see the lights.

Next I want to show you one of the sets of mini ornaments that I bought from Hobby Lobby. I plan to hang the horseshoe over the saloon door and the pistols will probably be laying on a table inside the bar. I'm not sure what to do with the rest of them yet, but they all fit my old west theme so I'm sure they'll find a home. My Mom bought a few mini ornament sets for me, but unfortunately she says I can't have them until Christmas. One of them had this old looking shotgun in it and I think the other had a cowboy hat, boots, and gloves. She also bought a bag of faded metal gold stars for me that are meant to be hung on a tree, but they're the perfect size to hang on the front of a dollhouse.

My last picture is to show you something else that I bought. I got this tiny tripod from the Dollar Tree (I love $1 finds!). As you guys know I take a lot of pics of my minis and digital cameras are so sensitive that even the tiniest bit of shaking can make your picture blurry. This little guy is great and it fits my camera perfectly!

Updated pics of the saloon - check out the board and batten siding!

Here's a recent shot of the inside of the saloon. You may remember our dear friend Jack working tirelessly on the upstairs flooring a few weeks ago. Well I'm happy to say that both floors are now finished! For some reason in the picture the flooring looks dark, but these are actually just regular skinny sticks. I do sort of like the color in the photo though, so I may look for a stain in a similar shade.

And finally to show everyone what I've been working so hard on. A fellow Greenleaf member suggested that I go with board and batten for the outside of my saloon. After googling a few pics I really started liking the look and decided to give it a try. I think it turned out wonderfully, but boy did it ever take a LONG time!

The quote that I gave my Greenleaf friends was something like this:

"Siding strip, hot glue gun, burn my fingers, skinny stick, wood glue, glue my fingers together, curse and repeat."

And If you ask my b/f this is pretty much exactly what I did! I added the door and windows temporarilly to give a better picture. As you can see I had to remove the porch roof and posts in order to do this.

And here's a view of one of the sides.

And a view of the other side. Once again I had to remove the balcony and the stairs in order to add the siding. I'll try not to be quite so overzealous the next time I'm building. Taking apart pieces that have been glued for months is no fun whatsoever. I will have to rebuild parts of the stairs myself when they go back on. I'm looking into a couple of different painting techniques right now as I do want the outside of the saloon to look aged when I'm done.

Incandescent light bulbs and mini liquor bottles

I touched on this subject many posts ago, but wanted to give an update. Inside of every incandescent light bulb is a tiny liquor bottle. And given that I'm building a saloon I'll be needing as many bottles as I can get. We've already switched to the new compact fluorescents at my apartment so I've had to get my Mom to save her old bulbs for me as she begins to switch over. This was much easier than my first try as I bought a glass cutter from Hobby Lobby (used my 40% off coupon too). I found a video on youtube where a guy gave step by step instructions on cutting glass, which was very helpful as well. I'm at work

This picture shows the bottle still inside the bulb and also one that's been removed.

This is a close up to show you the bottle after it's been removed.

Here's a pic with the label attached to show you the finished product. The label is a printie and it says, "Jack Daniels Old No. 7." I think these will look great once I have a whole shelf of them to put behind the bar!

Catching up on some of mini inventions...

I promised after disappearing from the blog for so long that I would show everyone what I've been working on. I hope to get most of my posts up in the next few days.

First I started working on a min dartboard. The board itself is a printie on cardstock sprayed with sealer so it won't fade. The wooden disc came from one of the bag of multi shaped wood pieces that they sell at Hobby Lobby and Michael's. I had to print a few different version before I was able to get the size right. I used my Easy Cutter to cut straight pins into half inch sections and I plan to use those as the darts. The problem I'm having right now is making mini flights for the darts. I got some suggestion from my Greenleaf friends, but I still haven't found the right one yet. I want to take 3 of the finished darts and tap them into the dartboard and then have 3 more darts that can be sitting on the bar or someplace - as if someone just walked away from a game.

I know Halloween is over, but I wanted to show you one mini that I made for the holiday. If you frequent Greenleaf you may have already seen these next 2 pictures. First I found these Halloween straws at the Dollar Tree. Forget the big purple straw - the middle plastic piece looks like a bunch of those orange pumpkin buckets that we all used to carry around as kids.

I admit it took some work to seperate the pumpkins, but once that was done all I had to add was a piece of bent paperclip for a handle and voila - you're ready to go trick-or-treating!

Goodies from Hobby Lobby - all minis on sale this week 50% off!!!

I took this pic and posted it here because I'm having trouble uploading on the Greenleaf site and I wanted to show everyone here and at the forum all of my goodies! If you have a Hobby Lobby nearby definitely check out the 50% off on miniature furniture and accessories all this Thanksgiving week. According to the forum some stores include their dollhouses in the sale and some do not. I'm not far enough along on my first dollhouse to even think about getting another...yet!

I'll probably stain the table and chairs a different color and use them in the saloon. I was thinking the large keg would be a great as a table for a checker board or my chess set as well. I plan on turning the two wagon wheels into chandeliers for the saloon as well. The pretty dishes won't go in the saloon, but I love them so much that I can foresee myself starting to collect tiny tea sets now!

I'm back! And welcome to some new followers!

I apologize first of all for disappearing from the blog, but I'm back now and I promise to try and keep my posts a bit more consistent.

We've had some new followers join in the past few weeks and I wanted to take a moment to introduce them.

First we have ida_pai who is from Thailand and has two blogs http://international-chat-room.blogspot.com/ and http://makemoney-onblog.blogspot.com/. Welcome!

Next is cristinalorite_bcn. I don't see a profile or a blog for her yet, but she is very welcome as well!

And next is Kevin Atteridge who is from Arvada, Colorado. His blog can be found at http://katteridg.blogspot.com/. According to his profile he likes writing and graphic arts. I'm looking forward to exploring his blog and seeing what he likes to write about.

Just to let you know I've been working on a bunch of different projects so I've got lots to update so there may be more than one post from me tonight. And I have plenty of your guys blogs to catch up on as well!