And the keys go to...........................

After a long, long time of swishing my hand about in the raffle bowl, trying to choose which bit of paper was leaving the bowl, I eventually managed to fish the three winners out.  I have this exact same "selecting" problem with a box of chocolates. I don't want a few, I want them all.......to win! :D

So, the winners are...

......Tatiana was out of the bowl first,winning her favourite set B, Catherine came second and had no preference, so heads for my favourite which is set A, flip coin and it's...tails, she wins set C and Natalie came third, she didn't have a preference either!, so with only one set left, she wins the set which is my favourite, set A...the one with the tiny key.

(Sorry about the lack of avatar Natalie, I accidentally deleted it when I was preparing the names for printing, I thought there was a high chance nobody would ever know, so I just left it....and then you won! I knew I should have fixed it! :D )

Congratulations to all of you, if you can send me your address, I will get those posted to you ASAP! :) Just go to my profile and I have enabled the email function. I'll also get in contact with you to let you know.

I really hate the part of the giveaway where people don't win, but thanks everyone for entering and for the birthday messages too. 

I'll be posting about how I made these too...eventually! :D

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

1:12 scale Potting table, Lavender, Buckets and Throws.

I've been really struggling to get motivated lately, it's been so dull here with mostly 100% low lying cloud cover, which has been reflected in the choice of colour of a miniature throw I've been crocheting, and everything else has been lying about for a month waiting to be photographed. It's been slow.........I have a "go at it hammer and tongs" attitude, which drained me for a month after this lot was made. I also gave myself some serious crick neck after a full day of crocheting....... :D I've been moping about, spying on you all, envying your productivity and enthusiasm over the Easter period, I assume everyone had nicer weather than me!!!!! :D On reflection though, I have noticed quite a few people have felt the same way as me in regards to miniature creating......YOU ARE NOT ALONE!! :D

I "needed" a potting table for the conservatory, and having decided that this room is going to be a junky, shabby, rustic, vintage, cumulative space (much like the rest of the house, really), then a washstand that has been "possibly lying in someone elses outhouse for years" would be perfect. My imaginary miniature homemaker does a lot of thrift shopping actually, hence why we have no idea what era this house is in.

This is a Mini Mundus Washstand kit. Before gluing together, each piece was stained and then waxed with beeswax polish, using a paintbrush, to ensure that all corners, nooks and crannies were coated. It sat for about a week before I got around to painting it, so the stain was dry and the wax had definitely hardened, though you probably wouldn't need to leave it for quite as long as that.

I applied a very quick coat of thinned humbrol paint, allowed to dry until tacky, and then applied a coat of emulsion. As the wax prevented the paint from adhering and seeping into the wood, I was able to gently scratch off the dried paint, in convincing "chips", sometimes using my nail, other times a needle, for the awkward corners.

Once I was happy with the wear and tear, I painted the whole thing in a light coat of beeswax polish, to help protect the emulsion paint from further wear and tear, though with this method it is still liable for further chipping, so beware! I used both humbrol and emulsion, because I changed my mind about the humbrol, but I think it might be important. The drawer is solely emulsion, and chips very, very VERY easily, in comparison to the rest of the piece. If you want to try this method out, do a test on a lollypop stick :D

I am going to blame the camera for making that right leg wonky.  I'm pretty sure it is the camera causing that. :D

I didn't like the drawer that came with the kit, so I made a new one, using lollypop sticks and veneer for the drawer base. I also didn't like the handles that came with the kit, not on this drawer anyway, so I used some from a pack I bought ages ago, I thought they were from Phoenix miniatures, but they don't have them on their website. I know they are 1:12 scale Swan handles, and if I can find them on the internet again, I will update here.

I think at some stage I will darken the handles, because guess what, I don't like them. :D

I'm also not sure about the overall colour, but I was using paint I already had, no more buying paint!!! It does look better in it's proper surroundings in the conservatory.

GUILTY! I got really fed up making furniture (and other things) from scratch, so I went on a mad online shopping spree awhile back, treating myself after all that hardwork on the conservatory. I reason really well with myself :D. A few other kits I bought are not shown here, some are made up, some are halfway there and have been tossed to one side.  Life is too short :D

I saw a cute little bucket very like this somewhere online. This one is made using card,  the same process as the watering can, etc. in the last post.

The garden claw was made using wire, a silver bead, and a wooden handle which I made on the lathe. The "fingers" had to be held in position on a piece of sticky tape, because as the solder melts it has a habit of pulling the wires out of alignment. Unfortunately, this was REALLY fiddly to make, infact, I think this is the fourth or fifth attempt, as each time the solder pulled the fingers together, making them unusable and everything had to be cut and bent again........and then I tried to make another one after this near successful one (solder hasn't flowed into the joins well), and it went the same way as the failures. It was just too fiddly, maybe I need jewellery making tools?!?! NO, no more buying stuff :D

A lavender trough. The trough is made using card, thread for the rim, and tiny bead caps, beads and wire rings, for the handles at either end, then painted in humbrol paints.

The lavender foliage is Lycopodium moss, which I painted with a white wash, quite badly... :D
The lavender stems are painted wire, and the wrong colour.
I had seen a few tutorials, including this one, to make lavender using no hole beads or Flower Soft, but there does come a time, when you just can't buy anymore "materials" that you know you probably won't use again. So I used thread, and it works really well. I dabbed my forefinger in PVA glue and ran a long length of purplish thread between my forefinger and thumb, so that it was coated lightly. You can also colour white thread in watercolour paint, in the same way.

Once the thread was dry, I wound it around a few fingers so I would have a bunch of loops, which I then held together tightly, so all the strands were together, and then snipped away closely with scissors to create a lavender coloured flocking powder.  Using a bit of glue on the thread prevents the thread from fraying, and keeps the cut clean, so it is important that the glue is dry. Then you can just apply glue to the end of the stems and apply the flock.  I actually think this is much more effective at creating Lavender flowers, than Flower Soft and no hole beads, and certainly cheaper and more convenient. I just have to work on my greenery paint tones :D

No awards for the Lavender arrangement from this angle! :D But I thought you might like to see the handles. Those are made using tiny beadcaps, easy to get on Ebay, search for 3mm fluted bead caps, you can get them in bulk, about 100pcs for a few pounds. I use them alot, and they are worth adding to your collection of "materials" :D

Quite sometime ago, I bought a 0.4mm crochet hook, which I have only just dared to use properly. I had a few goes with it beforehand, and kept giving up. LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THE HOOK! Intimidating, isn't it?! This is the first time I have seen the hook too!!! Usually, it just looks like a needle point, in fact when I got it, I thought there had been a mistake at the crochet hook factory and a blank got through quality control, but it was grabbing the thread :D Anybody out there that dabbles in crochet, and finds this hook intimidating, do not give up! Once the first few time consuming rows are done, it does get easier. Wearing magnification glasses help too. Working in the foundation chain is a big pain in the BEEPING BEEP, but it does get easier, I swear! And I made a lot of foundation chains with this hook, before I got the all important patience! :D

I have this fantastic book of crochet stitches, by Betty Barnden, which I actually bought when I was going through a scarf making phase. Just thought I would do a little ad for it here, as I'm about to show a page from it.......

I think sometimes its difficult to decide which stitch pattern to use for 1:12 scale, due to a number of reasons, the more ornate patterns requiring alot of stitches would be too bulky for a miniature blanket, and its easier and faster to work into a chainspace, I think this one, Fancy Lozenge Stitch, works quite nicely. I prefer working from diagrams than instructions, and this book has both, including a photograph of it worked in yarn.

I'm making my first proper miniature throw, using this terribly, exciting shade of grey! I kept my stitches a little loose, using the 0.4mm hook, as I was afraid that the blanket would end up more akin to a rug. 

...and even then it still practically stands up on its own. Hopefully, when it is finished, I can stretch and block it so that the drape is looser.

This is a pink one I started before the much more interesting grey one....  Note the dirty pink shade of thread :D I have a very nice collection of old slightly dirty vintage threads in many colours, including dirty, which I inherited from my grandmother, who was a bit of a hoarder, probably a side effect from rationing in the 1940s. There were also a lot of yarn balls she made from old shredded up tights knotted together, which looked like mini escape ropes.  I decided not to keep those, as bizarre as they were. :D

P.s. I have quite a few new followers since I last posted, many thanks for adding me! There are a few of you that have no link for a blog, when I click on the icon, I have noticed this happening for awhile now with new followers, so if you don't see a black cat shape with glowing eyes on your followers list, please leave a comment with a link to your blog, thanks :)

1:12 scale Conservatory update

Finally, back to the conservatory. 

Almost everything here, was made using card, and some jewellery findings. About a year ago, I would have been considering making these out of metal, clay, etc. I have now decided, you can't beat card! :D Easy, cheap and fast.

This is a Chinese Evergreen plant, with leaf patterns from a real one, I have put the leaves for this onto a free printable sheet here.  Seal the ink before cutting out, either with hairspray or an appropriate sealer. There are enough leaves to make a few of the size shown here.

I only found out this plant's name last week, after spending a long time searching for it online, despite having had this plant for many years..... It turns out it likes damp, dark corners, which is lucky, because that is where it was living in real life.

 I photographed a few of the leaves, holding white paper behind each one.

 I uploaded each photo to MS paint, and used the white paint bucket tool on the white page part, so that the leaf, would hopefully, be isolated from the page, then I could resize them. Though I only did that so they would be clearer to cut around, it probably wasn't necessary. I had about four good photos, and each image was flipped using Ms Paint, to give the illusion of having eight different leaf patterns.

I cut them out with nail scissors, and lightly scored down the middle of each leaf. I overdid the stylus tool cupping.... the leaves should be flatter than these ones....then each leaf was glued onto short lengths of pre-painted silk wrapped wire, and to add sheen, I painted slightly watery PVA glue onto each leaf. I put the wires into bundles of 12 - 14 leaves, wrapped some pre-glued tissue paper around the base of the bundle, and then used tweezers to manipulate the leaves into shape.
My real Chinese Evergreen, doesn't follow natures tradition of newest leaves smallest and oldest largest, and just seems to send them out in all sizes, whatever it feels like.  I hope it's alright. Following its plan, which is so convenient, I just bundled all the sizes together randomly. 

All of these were made using 220gsm card. I used the cone making generator from this great site, Template Maker, to make the various patterns for each object, which I was then able to print onto card.  The wire handles are thread, and the funnel spouts are tubing, the watering can "arm" is a piece of plastic tubing from a cotton bud. I painted all of them with Humbrol silver paint, then before they were fully dry, I painted over them with watercolour paint, to give them a slightly rusty, old finish.

A very verdigris copper watering can, and three pitchers, again, made using 220gsm card. The watering can has a spout made using brass tubing, which also makes it topple, I had to use tacky wax to hold it in this position. It didn't even occur to me that the tubing would be too heavy for it.... I had some copper leaf which I covered it with, and it was ridiculously shiny, and it was a bit messy, so I dabbed white primer paint over most of it, and used a wet paint brush on a verdigris green chalk pastel, and painted over the white.

The three pitchers, are made from a pattern and tutorial from the blog Bricolages and Compagnie. If you click on the first photograph there, that will take you to the PDF file. I made mine rather small.. I didn't realise pitchers were quite big in real life until afterwards :D

The Candelabra was made using lots of bits and pieces. The candle holding parts are from the top down, bead, paper punched card circle, 3mm flower bead cap, crimp bead, then wire, which are all glued (with Araldite) into a fluted bead. The column from the top down, is a model boat column, another bead, earring bullet and the base is a funnel (from miniature marvel).  I dropped it a few times, by accident, which has bashed it out of alignment slightly, not that it was ever aligned perfectly, in the first place. There was rubber inside the earring bullet, which was taking up the space needed for the funnel end to go into, so after trying to drill it out, I lost patience, and burnt it out, which worked perfectly. I just held the bullet with tweezers over a flame and all that annoying rubber oozed out.  I bent the wire for the arms all at the same time. I took four pieces of wire, bent them around the handle of an exacto knife, then held the "ends" in pliers to create the bend that goes into the bead, and trimmed the ends at either end so they would all be exactly the same in length.

I am so pleased with the brackets. They were made using wire and brass strip.  I copied these from some that I saw on Pinterest, here. 

The brackets were painted with white primer paint, and then I used a fine paint brush, to dab spots of reddish brown watercolour paint to create little rust patches.

Making miniature brackets. The finished one here, is a fluke, and neither of these are the finished ones. Originally, I tried using the ends of  paper fasteners to create the bracket, but I couldn't get a good 90 degree angle, so maybe these ones not working out was a good thing.

I ended up using a thin strip of brass, bent into a perfect angle. The wires for the scrolling had to be bent into shape, individually, using needle nosed tweezers and thumbs and fingers. It was boring and more than a few of those curly, whirly bits went into the bin. I had drawn up an actual scale template (not shown here) to work from.
Before cutting and bending the wire, I took the long length of wire to be used and ran wire wool up and down it a few times, which helps the solder "grip" onto it later. After the pieces were formed I washed them in hot soapy water, dried them, and handled with tweezers from then on, and painted them with a light coat of flux.

 I arranged them as shown onto something metal, I think this is aluminium, with a 90 degree angle. I painted a bit of flux onto the surface first to help hold the pieces in place. After carefully using tweezers to place each piece so that they were touching each other, or as close as possible, I used a scalpel to cut tiny pieces of solder which were then placed onto the "join" of each piece.

Then the fun bit.

Switch the gas blow torch on, and torch it. I started off heating it slowly from a distance, before moving the flame in, I saw someone in a fine jewellery making video do it like that. To be honest, I don't really know what I am doing, I think I might have overtorched it, I am sure the wires were close to burning, but since they were being painted, I didn't worry so much. To attach the ornate swirly piece to the bracket, I did something slightly unconventional.... I used masking tape to hold the bracket onto the edge of this metal corner thing in the photo, positioned so that this ornate section would be attached right down the centre of the bracket. I lightly sanded the inside of the bracket, and washed etc. as for the swirly bits. I again used tiny bits of solder anywhere where the wires would be touching the bracket. Then torched it. The cellotape does burn. But it holds out long enough to get the job done, and open a window and keep a glass of water nearby :D Everything must be supported in some way or another when using this method of soldering, otherwise, you will end up with a mangled mess, as the torch melts all the joins made previously.  I had been using pliers to hold the ornate section in place, the first one worked, the second one crumbled....the brackets that worked where the ones that were supported at all times.

 I also used the back of a baking tin as a working surface, this one is stainless steel. It does heat up a bit, wherever you are working the flame, but it is a cheaper and easier alternative to obtaining a fire brick.

Many thanks to Pepper of Mitchy Moo Miniatures for her advice about getting one of these gas powered soldering irons and her video tutorial for using it as a torch. I still  CANNOT SOLDER via soldering tips, I have killed many soldering tips.... However, I can torch things! Believe me, if you can't solder, you can torch. And it is fun and I can think of so many things I can now make with it. An iron bench, is my big project for it.

FINALLY THE CEILING IS FINISHED! :D I added Tie bars, which in reality, would not be affixed as shown. I think I would get a demolition order for this whole build actually, if it were full sized, because those rafters aren't in the right place either. But since this is fantasy land, we can do what we like here :D Because space is limited, I want to be able to hang things from these overhead rods, and my old Falcon miniature parrot needs a perch too, for when he moves in. The "outside" is a picture in a garden book...the perspective is just slightly off :D

Pretty much the same photo again, this time with my real back garden outside, the top of a box plant looking very conveniently like a hedge, just by the window. The candelabra fell over because my crazy cat ran past to fight with my other cat, I hadn't noticed it had been knocked over, during her rampage. Must be all this sunlight making her crazy. Thanks Lisa, for ruining my scene!
The brick wall was made using pieces of card cut into Victorian sized bricks (in 1:12 scale, 1.8cm Length, 0.6cm Height, 0.85cm Depth ) each piece was stuck onto card that was cut to fit the wall. I left a gap of about a mm, for grouting. I used Unibond Quick fix and grout, to grout the bricks, using my finger tip to work it into all the gaps. This made the card warp slightly, so I placed it under a heavy book. I then used a small round wood file, to score grout lines. I put a piece of  heavy duty sandpaper face down onto the bricks and used a hammer on the back of the sandpaper to put some texture onto the bricks, admittedly it is very subtle, but I am happy with it.  I was going to have this as a red brick wall with lime wash, but it looked too fussy and closed in next to this tiled floor, and was much more convincing painted white too. The brick pattern is English Double Cross bond.

I also used the Unibond (similar to Polyfilla) on the terracotta pots, which are also made with card. I first painted the card pots, with thick watercolour, then smeared slightly watery grout onto them, you can use a paint brush to paint it onto the inside. Once the grout sets, you can lightly sand the rough finish off. This method also makes them quite tough too, and very convincing as terracotta.

My against building regulation tie bars and the blue sky, not seen for months, viewed through the roof. MUST PAINT THAT BRASS HINGE! The tie bar boss is a circle cut from wood, using a jewellers saw, with a 3mm bead cap stuck on for detail, the rods are 3mm brass tubing, with beads at either end. All held in place with drilled holes and pins.  Note to self, always paint things first, before sticking them into awkward places. What you can't see, is a very bad paint job! :D

1:12 scale opening Suitcase tutorial Part 1

The template in this tutorial is for the suitcase size and shape on the right (the one emblazoned with travel stickers, which I didn't include in the printable, due to the nicking from the internet nature of them, sorry...)

I have divided this tutorial into 3 parts, so that anybody visiting my blog, does not suffer a browser crash caused by picture and word overload :D 

The main part of the suitcase, is in this part which is Part 1, Parts 2 and 3 are embellishments, such as handles and straps, etc.

1:12 scale opening Suitcase tutorial - Embellishments Part 2

Suitcase Corner guards

You could use foil card instead, if you want metal corners.

Use a circle template, on the lid, to work out which circle you will need, depending on the size of how big you want your corner guards. I chose circle 7.