Christmas house decoration, Free Printable

Hello, Just a quick mini printable before Christmas! This is a scaled down version of a lovely french card model that was posted on flickr by Patricia, this little house is called Chalet Suedois. I absolutely love her Flickr site, and have made up quite a few of the models she has very kindly scanned and shared.

I made this tiny card model a few years ago, but decided to put a printable of it up, which is a little different from that shown above. I've now put yellow in every window, so that anyone who doesn't want to cut the windows out will have the "lights on" in the house. I also darkened the colours in one version. I've printed neither of these new printables, but I hope they'll be ok...its almost Christmas Eve, no time, no time :D

The snow is a mixture of bicarbonate of soda and glue, with some glitter mixed in for sparkle. I'm afraid I have no ratio for that, it was a bit hit and miss as I remember.... and a few layers of it as well. 

...there are also no instructions per se, I'm hoping anybody that prints them out will be able to figure out what goes where, though I've a few pointers ahead. Oh and the finished one should help out if needed, I hope. I'm not one for tabs, but I've put a few in anyway. Just play around with it! You can do it! :D

Unfortunately my Christmas tree lights are broken and this isn't as pretty as it could have been...

Don't forget to score these and crease accordingly, I remember being stumped by this briefly.. One wall higher than the other? Oh I see....(refer to finished model). That is the balcony floating above the wall, and goes on the front of the house above the door.

And that's everything in the printable, a base, two rooves, the main building, the gable ends and two chimneys (which I wouldn't bother with :D), oh and a tiny fiddly balcony too.  Those arrows are everywhere that needs creased, do not cut! This is the dark version in this image. It's basically a fancy Putz house that you can add more to as you see fit.

You can remove the smaller roofed building so that it can be placed further back on the large roof, or just leave it as is.



Links to both printables below!

Light version

Dark version

Well this was a bit thrown together and last minute, as I'm sure you can tell. Have a great Christmas!

Sarah x

1:12 scale Garden Bench

This is a 1:12 scale customized Falcon miniature Park Bench.

The slats happened rather sooner than I thought.  I used lollypop stick wood for the new slats, which was treated with Pepper's magic silver wood solution, and then stained with Rustins Antique pine.  I was going to add bolts to the end of the slats, and also add some old flaked off paint and maybe a touch of lichen (as though it has been brought in from outside) but I haven't made my mind up yet...

The lollypop stick wood was a bit warped, which I think adds to the effect, though one slat was a little more warped than the others, so it casts a bit of a shadow. I wasn't too worried about precision, so the gaps are a little irregular, though it has been lying outside in all weathers! ;)

Think I'll have a cup of tea and a biscuit now! :D

Er..yes, I went against my own advice and messed about with that metal CONTAINING LEAD... I did sand it slightly here and there too. I got the jewellers saw out and (awkwardly) removed some of the "ledge" on either side of the bench ends. The metal is almost like butter to saw through, which is great, but you also have to be careful not to bend it, as after a few bends, it would snap right off.

I then painted it with Humbrol matt black paint, and didn't bother using primer :D

Next stop, tomatoes!

Thanks everyone for your encouraging comments in the previous post :)

Happy Halloween!

A miniature nightmare.....to make and photograph by the 31st of October, and it's still not finished!!! Maybe next year... :D  

Unfortunately I didn't have time to photograph individual items close up with details, links, materials, etc, but I will do that this week some time. 

It's still a bit too bright...

Extremely orange oranges :D

...almost night-time...

...is it dark enough yet? OI! Get that parrot away from the candy apples :D

(the parrot is by Falcon miniature, I think, though an old one)

Yay, time for the fireworks!!! :D Hope it isn't raining where you are.........It's raining here :D

Happy Halloween everybody!

A mystery cushion!

It was a 100% cloud cover day, somewhere on the teddy bear shaped isle of Ireland.....(no, really, it is, it's shaped like a sideways teddy bear!)

"♫...If you go down to the woods, today, you're in for a big surprise.......... a Teddy bears.....♫"

"What's that? A new cushion!! "

"Must..get...to...the..top....Damn it, I wish my knees could bend.....I wish I had knees to bend!"

Some time, A LOT LATER.......

"Flippin' eck! Next time I need to get a crate to stand on, that took forever to climb"

"Ahh, what have we got here then, THIS is definitely new!!! Looks a bit like it was made in the same manner as the rug actually, what was it called?...needlepoint!"

"Let's see if she has improved her stitches. Hmmm?,....er.......I'll just throw it down!! TIMBER!"

"Hello Bear. Is that new?" 

"Oh..It's you...er...yes, I'm just coming down to have a look at it, it was, er.. just lying there......"

"Ooooh, let's see it!! Oh, by the way.....don't tell anybody I can get off this wheely thing, I don't want to end up glued onto it forever, I like the freedom and, well, it is actually a bit cumbersome"

" Yes, sure Donkey, I SAW NOTHING, I KNOW NOTHING!! I hope your hooves are clean! Get a look at these stitches, they're unbelievably neat and tiny, which is strange, as Sarah's stitches are...uh...different."

"Oh yeah, you're right there Bear!"

"Yeah, look at that bit over there, by the wave thing" 

"yes...bit irregular here and there, stitches are a bit messy by that flower beside the border"

"I see that..."

"Yes..you know, do you think..... is it possible Sarah didn't make this new cushion?!"

"Where'd you get that from!" interrupted Becky

"Alright Becky, haven't see you in a long, long while! We just found this cushion, a bit earlier on. I see you're still not finished?" said Bear.

"NO, I am not!! But she needed an extra character. So far she has only managed to get my rear done, and a bit of the beard, leaving my profile looking a lot like Abraham Lincoln, despite the fact that I am a lady, and she said something about my back legs not being right, something about too fat, too stumpy, then she chopped off my ears as she said those were too thick." 

"Oh she did that to me too! She's going to replace them with fabric ones, they will look much better, honestly, look at mine, so much finer than fimo ones, that's how she did Bears' ears too"

"Easy for you both to say, you're finished.......well, except you Donkey, you've still to be glued on to your skateboard thingy"

"NO! NEVER!"

 "I wouldn't worry, she does takes her time getting things done, look at me, how many years has it been??....2? 3?...I'm freezing!!.........so, about this new cushion" said Becky.

"I love the design, it looks like a puzzle! It matches the rug perfectly, don't you think!"

 "indeed" "yes, it does, hmmmmmm yes " "absolutely"

"I really like the swirly border"

"and aren't the colours nice together"

"I think it looks like a flower"

"Yes."

"a Geometric flower"

"No, it looks like a maze, with a border of....maze"

"Looks a bit Moroccan to me, Tunisian perhaps?"

*inaudible*

"What was that, Becky?"

"....those stitches are much neater and tinier than this rug she made!"

"eh........yes, we suspect she didn't make this one!" admitted Donkey.

"hhhmmmmmmmm....well, if she didn't make it, who did?!"

"AARRGHH!! THE HEN!" shouted Donkey, jumping back, but remaining expressionless.

"Oh I am sorry, did I startle you? It's not my fault she forgot to take the photograph of my grand entrance into this story! So this is the new cushion, is it? Very neat stitchwork!! and a beautiful design, looks even better in person!!"

"and how did you know about it?!" asked Becky.

"Well, whilst you have all been in that practically abandoned house in the back bedroom, I have been in the much worked on conservatory in the front room, where she makes all of our possessions. She was busy in there making some seaside themed swap possessions for someone called Geneviève, in return for a needle point cushion for us!"

"Ooooooooo" cooed Donkey, Bear and Becky.

"Well then" said Hen, "this must be that needlepoint cushion from Geneviève, all the way from France. According to her etsy site, it is stitched on 56 count silk gauze so this cushion has approximately 3000 stitches, embroidered with real silk thread from Au Ver à Soie, so that is 56 stitches per inch, across and down, which means it has even smaller stitches than this rug on which we are all congregating, which is of 40 stitches per inch, across and down, so 56 count is 16 more stitches inside an inch than the 40 count rug...Do you follow?" 

".....................What's an etsy site?.."asked Donkey.

"Right, enough, could you please get your dirty feet off my cushion, Hen?!" shouted Bear,

 "and you can all bog off now! I have some very important sitting about doing absolutely nothing to do!"

"Don't be so obnoxious Bear!!  Who said it was your cushion anyway!" called back Hen.

"Well, it was on my chair, so it's obviously now my cushion" replied Bear.

"IT IS NOT YOUR CHAIR EITHER!" screamed Hen.

"IT IS, I was placed onto it, I am the only one here that is ever placed on to it, therefore.. IT MUST BE MY CHAIR AND THIS IS NOW MY CUSHION!" said Bear.

"Uhh...Goodbye then"

"Right, I'm off"

"Cheerio"

"Bye"

".."

WAIT.......not you, the story isn't over! :D

"It was a heck of a lot easier getting this down, it's quite heavy......what is it filled with, little glass beads or something!!"

I'm not sure, but I think so, said the narrator.

"I hope my leg doesn't fall off, it feels a bit loose on my right! I am never acting for you again!"

I have some glue for that, if you need it, said the narrator.

"And we'll just set you down...here....there!... PERFECT!" said Bear.

That looks just right! said the narrator.

It's fantastic, I love it!! Thank you so much Geneviève!! said the Bear (and the narrator)

The End.

Needlepoint cushion by Geneviève

Spindleback Armchair by Colin Bird

Needlepoint rug kit by Bobbie Schoonmaker

Geneviève has an etsy shop, Les Broderies de Genevieve, where she sells her own charted designs in PDF format and some finished items made from her own designs.  She regularly tell stories using her growing miniature collection, on her blog, Genevieve's miniacollection.

A little visual guide for any budding needlepointers out there, who are curious about the finished result of the various counts available. I only have three to use as an example, but I think they also happen to be the most commonly used in 1:12 scale work. The 32 count bolster is a kit by Janet Granger, the 40 count rug is a kit by Bobbie Schoonmaker, and the 56 count cushion is by Geneviéve.

P.s. Thanks to all of you that let me know that Blogspot is having issues regarding the reading list not showing up, I now know it is not a problem with my computer software, which is usually the case :D

Summer standstill - not much happening around here!

We have had a few summer-like days this year, mostly cloudy, and unfortunately I was too lazy to get my passport renewed, so I was stuck, trapped and imprisoned here, though I believe the passport office was having difficulties issuing passports anyway, so it probably wouldn't have made any difference had I made the effort. Despite that, I still didn't bother much with miniatures.  Apart from the beginnings of a patchwork quilt, everything else was made a long time ago, but kept secret. Good job, I kept things aside for emergency blog content! :D  

I've seen a few people making patchwork recently, Ilona recently made one for a customer and kindly supplied a link for a very good  miniature patchwork tutorial here, which is by Gill of Make It Small. I used graph paper! I know Gill advised against this, but I am a rebel!! And yes.. it was fiddlier and more difficult to work with, but my fingers are quite good at tiny, fiddly manipulation and creasing, but I would definitely recommend her suggestion of magazine pages over my rebellious choice, the graph paper bends easily! :D I couldn't be bothered measuring and ruling! Also, because I am making this for myself and time taken is irrelevant, I opted for a 1cm square (I did consider 0.5cm........, then reconsidered back to 1cm). I thought 15cm by 15cm should be enough, so this one needs more squares.........................and the tacking is still in place which alters how it will look when finished.

This patchwork pattern is loosely based on an Amish design, Sunshine and Shadows.  The effect isn't quite as dramatic as a life size one due to the size of the squares, but I quite like it.  It looks a bit like a tile though doesn't it! :D 

When I started my patchwork quilt, I went off to the Little Trimmings website, only to find they were about to close the shop for the whole of August, how dare they, and there wasn't enough time to order anything, so I had to go with whatever I had in my fabric stash. Having no patience to wait until the end of August, the above fabric is all that I had to work with.  I had fully intended to provide links for each fabric, hence this photograph, but three were bought at miniatura, and I cannot find them online now. The second one down is possibly CF111 and the third is CF81 and both of those are from Little Trimmings.  Though I'm pretty sure I have seen the other ones at some point on the various online dollshouse shops and on ebay.

I also made some pillows, using cotton lawn (Batist) and filled with glass no hole beads. Rather than make a case to be turned inside out, I sewed the two pre-creased sides together, to get sharp corners.  I cut out a paper rectangle, (in scale, for a pillow) and folded the edge of the fabric over all sides, similar to the way the squares are made in the patchwork tutorial. This creates equal rectangles to then sew together.
 I intend to make little pillow cases for them, because I am mad and like the idea of removable pillowcases! Well, they have to be washable!

I also used a pair of hair straighteners in lieu of an Iron, for pressing down the creases. Much more convenient!

I made this bedspread sometime ago, with material and lace bought from Little Trimmings. The central and side panels are fine cotton lawn, the central cross is lace code CL2171W, the border is lace code CL184W/Iv/E and the side panel is lace code CL203W.  This is not true 1:12 scale due to the bed in situ size problem that I have. The bedroom is too small for a scaled down double bed, so I made it a bit smaller, now all bedding has to be made to fit THAT bed. Rather annoying really.

You can see it on the bed here.

This painting will not be to everybody's taste, but I have a forged smaller copy of it in real life, so I must have it in miniature. It is by a French artist called Jean Dubuffet, and is called Femme et Bébé. It also has copyright restrictions, that I can't make any sense of, so hopefully this photograph isn't against the law, I did manipulate the image slighty, so it could count as a derivative work, ie, removed the watermark :D Look, I really needed it!!. I, er.......stole borrowed it, resized it, printed it and then stuck it onto a piece of card. I am not very good at making squared frames so I made the card backing a bit bigger than the print, and stuck the frame sections directly onto the card.

I hope my blog is not removed, because of a tiny forgery! :D

P.s. I have been having problems with blogspot recently, frequently seeing an empty reading list and apparently not following any blogs, according to blogspot. Has anyone else been experiencing this? It used to happen the odd time when I logged in, but now it happens nearly everytime.

Vintage copyright free images!

Today, I discovered an amazing flickr site, "Internet Archive Book Images", which already has over 2 million copyright free, public domain images, which I thought would be very useful for future miniature printable projects. It's quite difficult to find images that are safe to use freely these days, so I am over the moon about this site, and the best part is, it is searchable, though a little bit hit and miss, you can still find some great images relating to your search word.

Image courtesy of Internet Archive Book Images.

Each image links to the book, from which the image was scanned. By searching for "doll-house", I found the above image, which linked to a book published in 1905, which has instructions and plans for building the above dollshouse. The book is available to read online here, and the instructions for the miniature house begins at page 71.  On page 109, you will find some instructions for tiny furniture too. There are even plans and instructions for a working miniature elevator on page 95. It is a lovely book to "flick" through!

P.s. When searching for images, make sure you have checked Internet Archive Book images in the drop box, below the search box. Flickr is a little confusing and you may inadvertently search all uploads to Flickr.

You can read more about the project here. 

!!Thank you Mr Leetaru and to everyone else involved!! 

1:12 scale Key tutorial

For this tutorial, I will be making a simple key, with an oval head. All the heads were made by wrapping wire around needles. The oval is a more common key head, though you can get keys with circular heads. The fancier key heads are created using finer wire, with some of the loops opened out, by pushing a bigger needle through, to create "C" shapes which were then positioned to create trefoil shapes, etc.

You will need:-

• Gas soldering iron
• Wire
• Solder
• Flux (I used Templers Telux in a tin, the only flux in the local hardware shop :D )
• Pliers
• Tweezers
• Tapestry needles (aka big needles)
• Superglue
• Card
• Cutting blade

Before doing anything, run the wire through some wire wool, or lightly sand it with sandpaper. Bend the wire across the back of the needle as shown. Wrapping the wire around the Eye of the needle will create an oval shape.

Use pliers to gently squeeze the wire ends, so that they cross over, as shown.

Either use the nose of the pliers or your fingertip, to push between the wires so that they cross as close as possible to the eye of the needle 

The way the wires cross will dictate which way to twist the ends. Twist the ends tight and close to the needle, one or two turns is sufficient.

Clamp the wire loop between pliers to secure the bend, and to flatten the loop.

I took this photo before doing the clamping. After you have clamped the loop, snip off the excess as shown.

Finished loop.  Could have snipped that a bit more neatly......

I used a Dremel Gas soldering iron. This one is a Dremel 2000-6 Versatip. I use it without the tips. When I bought mine, I found the instructions a little hard to follow, especially refilling it. So here is a really good video showing it being filled. I was still a bit confused though, as my cigarette lighter fuel can came with lots of nozzles! You don't use any of the nozzles. Just stick the "straw" into the hole at the base of the Dremel.  I think all hobby gas soldering irons require you to use the lighter refill gas, I used Swan universal gas lighter refill, which has a lovely picture of a swan on it :D

Regarding soldering tiny things, here is another good video. My method was quite a bit different, but I did find her explanation useful.

You can also see how I made a bracket, using a gas soldering iron, in this post.

P.s. I am not a soldering expert, far from it. Anything I am doing has been picked up from others on the internet. I still can't solder using a tip, but the gas soldering for me, is working very well, so if you're worried about "not being good at soldering", don't!  And the flux IS important!

I painted a bit of flux onto the back of a baking tin, to help hold the pieces.  I then positioned a piece of straight wire, with the oval at the top. All the wire that you use, must be washed in soapy water and dry before this stage, then use a paint brush to lightly coat with flux. I have a paintbrush that I use for flux. Just set the wire down on the tin, dab the paintbrush with a bit of flux and dab the wire.  I find flux quite difficult to remove from the paint brush, however using an abrasive cleaner or something like Cif removes it from this stainless steel baking tin.

If you have straight wire, use it. If you don't have straight wire, tools will be needed. Awhile ago, I saw a youtube video for straightening wire with a drill and a vice, I have both, so I gave it a go. I used my dremel rotary tool as the drill.  You put one end of the wire in the dremel jaws, and the other end in the vice, pull tight-ish, and switch on, briefly. AND WEAR GOGGLES. The wire occasionally, snaps and flies off somewhere, never to be seen again. If you have neither a drill device or vice, you could probably just straighten the wire with pliers. Such a small piece is required, you could probably get away with it.

Using a sharp cutting knife, slice a tiny bit of solder off the solder wire, about the size of a grain of "granulated" sugar, and carefully place it over the join. This is easier said than done.  I use a needle usually, a bit of a knack to it. You can use your flux paintbrush, but its quite hard to get the solder bit to transer, when you're working this small. It needs to be lightly picked up. Persevere, you'll get the knack! If it drops off in the wrong place or it moves the two pieces, just use a needle to push everything back into place.

Switch the gas soldering iron on at full blast, and come in at the piece slowly. I heated from a short distance, so that the flame wasn't visibly touching the piece, then as soon as I saw the solder "blob", I moved the flame in quite close, until the solder flowed into the join. I also moved the flame about as though I'm using it as a tiny hairdrier. I don't know if that affects anything, but it feels right! :D Once the key body is finished, wash in soapy water and dry, before gluing and painting.


Oh yes! The cautionary tale! Cause of death = Burnt house down whilst making miniature keys.

 Sometimes when soldering, the pieces will move away from each other, so to combat this, I was using a long needle as a tool for pushing them back together, or holding them in place, whilst using the gas flame. It was working fine, until I held it there too long. It doesn't take a genius to know that metal things can get hot! And it got hot....fast. I don't quite remember what happened next, but I know that when I jumped the soldering iron left my hand briefly, and twirled around, how I managed to catch it without burning myself, I have no idea!  I suppose as a lesson for the inexperienced, ACCEPT A FAIL RATE, and don't try to fix it, by coming in with metal tools to poke it about! :D  I am thinking about making a wooden handle for a needle...........non conductive! Anyway, I thought I should mention this, probably nobody would be as daft as I was, but you never know what you might do to save a miniature in the making :D

For the key teeth, I used a strip of card. This one is approximately 3mm high, the measurement is not compulsory at all, but I thought I should mention it, probably the smallest easiest size to work with. Using the tip of your cutting blade, cut two lines, easily done by just pressing the tip into the card.

Er......slightly off centre. Aim to have the tip of the blade in the middle and gently press down, in order to create a tiny cut to remove the excess.

So there are the teeth, looking a bit like a "C", which is fairly simple to achieve, a bit hurriedly done here though. You can make up your own, or just copy the shapes I made for the keys in the photograph at the end of this post. They reminded me of Tetris when I was making them, I even had the theme tune playing in my head when I was cutting them all out.

Dispense a small amount of superglue onto something unimportant...and carefully dip the "red" edge into the glue. It's important not to use too much as you can accidentally make the teeth stick to the tweezers, but enough so that it sticks to the wire. I applied too much and too little quite a few times. If it happens, try again, and again, and again, luckily it's only inexpensive card!

Another fun fiddly bit! Still holding the teeth in the tweezers, attach as shown. You can either try attaching it while the key body is laid on the surface just by sticking it to the wire and then using a needle to gently push it over so that it is flush with the work surface, or you can attach it whilst holding the key body and place the teeth tab roughly in the right place and then set it down on the work surface and gently push down the tab with a needle. There may be a chance it will stick to the table, once it's on the table, push the key body gently to ensure it hasn't stuck. 

Once the glue has set, you can paint the key. I used Humbrol enamel paint. If you want the keys to be rusty, you can use a bit of brown water colour paint on them, before they fully dry. Pastels would probably work too. If the paint is tacky it will hold the pigment. Once the key is dry, you can snip just below the teeth, and use paint to touch up the clean cut.

I made an Oz key for fun. Return to Oz is one of my favourite childhood films, I still enjoy watching it even though I am 30 (still getting used to that!). In the film, Billina the Hen (belonging to Dorothy), finds the key to Oz whilst scratching about in the yard. It had fallen to earth the night previously via a shooting star. Dorothy then uses a twig to poke the soil out of the holes at the top of the key, revealing the OZ monogram, which I always found incredibly satisfying!
My Billina is possibly an old Falcon miniatures hen, all I can be sure of, is that it was made in America.

I wrapped wire around a needle to create a circular loop and then set a tiny bit of wire diagonally, with a bit of solder at either end, to create the OZ monogram.
I made two of these, but I think this is the one that is in the photograph above, its a bit messy around the teeth here, I hadn't noticed the paint blob until later.



If you are really bored, you can play "Spot the Oz key" below :D