1:12 scale Old rusty keys giveaway.

Today is my birthday, I am thirty years old today! Panicking, slightly, which I believe is normal and will pass :D

Anyway, to celebrate, I am doing a giveaway. I've decided to give away three sets of keys, as I am three decades old, and the blog is just over three years old, so it's quite fitting.

I am doing a post about the making of these keys, I just need a few more photos, before it goes on the blog. A gas soldering iron was involved and a cautionary tale to go with it, nothing too serious, just plain stupidity.......

The keys have a rusty brown colour in reality. My camera decided not to show that, at all, as it preferred a monochrome look :D You can just about make out the rust........I think! 

Giveaway rules:-

• You must be a follower of this blog.
• Leave a comment to enter (if you aren't entering, please do not leave a comment, this will only confuse me later :D ).
• State your preference of keys, beginning with your favourite set and ending with least favourite, ie. 1.a, 2.c, 3.b, first being your favourite, third being your least favourite. I like A best. :D
• Worldwide giveaway - anyone from anywhere in the world can enter.

When I draw the names, the first person will receive their favourite set, second will receive their favourite of the two sets left over, and third will receive the last remaining set. So please remember to state your preference, otherwise you will get whichever set is left over, which is fine if you don't mind or can't choose between them.

Last day for entering the giveaway will be the 31st of May 2014, the winners will be announced on the 1st of June 2014.

Each set has a fancy "Irish shamrock-esque" trefoil key and three plain keys, on a ring. The keys are not removable, but you can easily snip the ring, to remove the keys if desired.

Good Luck and thanks for entering :)

1:12 scale Rustic Shelf

I got the idea for this unusual shelf, after seeing one on the front cover of Caroline Zoobs' book, "The Hand-stitched home", which is full of lovely ideas, so if you see it in a library or book store have a flick through it.  The reason the shelf has that lovely weathered finish, is because I used the same stuff (vinegar and steel wool solution) that Pepper from Mitchy Moo Miniatures used on her shed here.. I have been dying to try it out since she posted about it!! :D

The shelf was made using wood cut to size from lolly pop sticks, tongue depressors and coffee stirrers, and stained before construction. The crate was made quite some time ago, using the wood of tongue depressors, and can be spotted in its original state here. The wood glue holding it together softened enough for it to fall apart (unintended :D ) after I put the solution on, so it had to be reconstructed again once dry. 

I noticed when I put the solution on, nothing happened, but once the wood started to dry, the weathered effect appeared. I used it undiluted and applied a few coats. 

Once it reached the desired patina, I put a coat of beeswax polish on, just in case it "rusted", because I assume there are steel particles in the wood now, though to be honest, I don't fully understand the "magic" happening here, but I was taking no chances.  :D

The glass jug is from My Tiny World and the key is by Tony Hooper

Happy accident. For some reason a few pieces of wood reacted differently to the same solution, so it looks like it has been constructed on the hoof,  from some old wood that was lying about. The nail holes are indents made using a needle, and then a tiny dollop of watery orange brown water colour paint placed over the top, and finally dotted using a fine black pen.

I use an Exacto knife to cut lollypop sticks length wise. Just in case it never occurred to someone, if you pop another lollypop stick under the ruler, it will help hold the ruler flush to the cutting line, otherwise the ruler and cut will slant at an angle. It also makes it that bit safer and more accurate to cut. This is probably a blindingly obvious thing to do, but you would be amazed at the blindingly obvious things I don't think of doing at first, so I'm including this for folk like me :D

A miniature version of a life size picture in my life size house!  This is a postcard, of what I think is an old Arabic painting of a Zebra, but I'm not sure (about the Arabic part, I know it's a Zebra :D )

EDIT! You can see it better here. :D

Made using wood, plastic sheet (some I had saved from packaging of an SD card), paper, metal and minature nails. The clips are made using the metal from tea light holders which is a material I would never have thought of using, so thanks to Monique of Fabulously Small for detailing that on her blog. I happen to have a lot of tea lights too! 

I made the little cup hooks, using wire. They were painted using black Humbrol paint, then a wash of orange/brown watercolour paint, to give them a rusty look. To keep the hooks a consistent size and shape, I've detailed the bending process below. The nails are just a short length of wire, with a dot of paint on the end, to simulate the head, albeit very subtle :D

For illustrative purposes, I'm using quite a thick wire. You will need a rod, preferably solid, unlike the one as show here :D (Normally, I would  use the end of a drill bit, anything with a small diameter). If you want to paint the hooks, you should run wire wool over it first, to give the paint something to cling to.

P.S. The rod I am using here, is one section of a retractable aerial salvaged from an old radio. I thought they would come in useful, for example it crossed my mind you could make a set of pastry cutters in different sizes, using a saw to cut them into rings..............I'll get there eventually :D

Holding the end of the wire against the rod, wrap it around until you have a circle. You can use pliers to create a tighter circle, though if the rod is not solid, be careful, as you may kink the rod and the circle.

Position the pliers (or tweezers) as shown, and bend the excess wire, so that it would lie roughly as the red line indicates.

You should have something that looks like this.

Snip excess at the end of the circle, to create desired hook shape.

And snip again. You will need a small drill bit or  needle to make a hole for the "screw" end to be stuck into. I dab the end into super glue before fitting it into a pre-drilled hole. Make sure you don't push the hook all the way in, as real cup hooks only go in so far. Leave, at the most, a millimetre before the curve begins.

If this is too fiddly, Phoenix miniatures have nice 1:12 scale brass cup hooks in their miniature hardware section, which I used on a shelf here.

I managed not to complain about the weather today! Well, it was sunny, briefly :D