And the Kitchen Sink

That’s what this update is going to be…everything AND the kitchen sink. I can’t believe that it has been over a month since my last post. If I keep this up there will only be 3 more posts before the Creatin’ Contest deadline. Eeep! I’ll try my best to have more posts before December. This time of year starts to transition into warp speed and before you know it we’ll be wishing each other a Happy Valentine’s Day.

So, lets see… what’s happened this past month? I kept thinking that I hadn’t done much mini wise, but it turns out I have gotten a lot done. It’s mostly details and accessories. That’s my favorite part.

First, I finally have my own work space. It looks like a mess, but it’s wonderful. I spent a full 2 days at this table after it was delivered. I’m sharing the office space with my husband (his idea). I was able to condense all of my dollhouse/mini supplies into one space that I don’t have to clean up when we want to eat. Yay!

For the tent, I made a work table. It’s a made with a piece of walnut I found at our local dollhouse store, tiny dowels, and toothpicks. The legs are painted with silver nail polish to try and get a metal look. It’s not done. There are a few more details I want to add (hardware, weathering, and aging).

The work table now has some papers, notebooks, pencils, and butterflies in jars. You can see the stereo microscope I mentioned in my last post. Hard to believe its made out of a couple of those dental flosser things and a few other odds and ends. The papers, charts,  and pictures are images that I found on google. After their size was reduced, I printed them out, cut them out, and wrinkled them to make them look like they have traveled around Africa.

The butterflies are also made from pictures I found on google. They were printed out, glued together, and cut out. I used a ball stylus to give them a little bit of dimension. They were glued to small sticks from my yard and then glued into the jars. The glass containers were found in various places (miniatures.com, Michaels beads and jewelry department, and the scrapbooking area).

The butterfly net, that is hanging from the center pole, was made with a toothpick, some thick wire, and fine tulle. Fast drying super glue gel was the trick to making it work. My fingers stuck to everything, but it was worth it.

 

The leather satchel was finished today. I went through so many different ideas to make this thing and they all kept failing. Fabric was too stiff, too thick, too thin, wouldn’t take glue, and on and on. I gave up and wouldn’t work on this project for about 10 days. Sometimes a set back will do that to me. I need to let it roll around in my brain to come up with a solution. Today while I was working on something unrelated at my messy art desk, I noticed a material that I hadn’t considered before, masking tape. It’s backed with a single ply of paper towel, glued together, and painted. The leather straps were found at Joanne Fabrics in their jewelry making department. The masking tape has a great leather look, is nice and thin, and will hold the slouchy shape I want.

I think that’s about all I’ve gotten done. I’ll be starting on landscaping soon and finishing up the outside supports and roof. Some details on the furniture, another rug, and finishing the second butterfly chair are also on the agenda. There are roughly 88 days until it needs to be done. While that seems like a long time, I can’t get too comfortable. There is Halloween (I always make the costumes for my family and we all dress up), Science Fair for my 5th grader, Thanksgiving, my 7 year olds birthday, getting ready for Christmas, all of the school/work/life commitments that pop up during these next few months in those 88 day also. Plus my “real” job, which I have sorely neglected the past few months. WooHoo!

I’ll end with some more eye candy. I was having too much fun taking pictures.

 

 

Hopefully, I’ll be back before October is over. Maybe even before September is over. Can it be possible?