Coupon Minis

I am a couponer, don't laugh.  I am one of those people that you see who has one of those big binders to organize all of my sales ads.  I don't think I've ever shared pictures before, but I have a large industrial metal shelf that I use to stockpile all of the stuff that I get from couponing.  I don't have enough money to coupon the way I'd like to so most of the stuff I have was free with a coupon or cost $1 or less.  Things like shampoo, soap, toothpaste, mouth wash, etc.  I have enough shaving cream to last for years...

Anyway, every time I go through my coupon book I notice that there are all of these miniature size pictures of products.  Not all are quite to 1:12 scale, but they are very close.  I've started scanning some of the pics into my computer so that I can resize them later and print them out on cardstock.

Right beside the Snyder coupon were all of these tiny little potato chip bags.  I cut them out and I think I could crinkle the page up just a bit to make it look realistic.  Since I always buy 2 newspapers I have both front and backs for these bags.  The newspaper page is shiny so it already has a more realistic look to it.  And if they are hung up on a chip stand in some mini scene then it shouldn't matter that the fronts and backs are the same.  I could also crumple up some paper to stuff down inside before I glue the two sides together.

I cut this Scott tissue label out of an ad and decided to see if I could use it to make a mini.  I then used pieces from a real roll of toilet paper to make 9 tiny rolls.  I put the label on top and used a clear plastic sandwich bag to wrap it all up like the ones you see in stores.

These pictures are not to scale, but these are a few of the coupon ads that I have scanned in so far.  These toothpaste boxes are double packs, but I think they could easily be folded in half that way if they were sitting on a shelf or a sink you could see both the front and the top.  I could use cardstock to make the other half of the box or use a small piece of basswood to make them solid.

The fruit snack boxes could be made more realistic the same way.  And if they are sitting inside a shelf then you would only need to see the front anyway.

I could fold up a piece of red construction paper and add this label to the front.  Then I could use Mod Podge to put a shiny coat or use saran wrap to make it look more like plastic wrapping.

These tiny battery packs were on a coupon that had already expired.  I need to cut the edges off a little more closely, but I think with a piece of thick cardstock added to the back these could be hung on a store shelf.

This is a first sloppy try off adding a Scope cut out onto a piece of matboard.  It made the mouth wash more 3-D and helped it to stand.  I think I could also use green clay to shape a bottle and then glue the label on to the front.

The Olay bottle is made with cardstock to make it stiff, but I could also use white clay and shape a bottle to make this more realistic as well.  Then I could paint the top of the the clay yellow to match the lid all the way around.

I love these Irish Spring bottles.  I think this will be the next mini I will try and I plan on trying the clay bottle option on these.

The salad dressing bottles aren't very clear after scanning so I may just cut the original out of the coupon since I have two anyway.  I have seen perfect salad dressing bottles sold on miniatures.com that are just this size.  If I was better with polymer clay I could make my own bottles with Easy Cast epoxy to make clear bottles to add the labels to.

And tiny Yardley soaps.  All I would need is to fold a small box out of cardstock and add labels to each side.

So many new things to try!