The postman brought me some goodies today!

Very recently I won a giveaway on Little House at Pine Haven's blog. I won some adorable pajamas and slippers! Gail even threw in some beautiful notecards, too! Check out everything below. I've already placed them in the Glencroft bedroom. :)

 As you can see, she even included the Shoe Box! :)

Here are the lovely cards:

If you haven't yet, do check out Gail's blog. :) She makes some beautifully detailed miniatures!

I received another package too! I had made a small order from L. Delaney's Etsy shop. She has a lot of miniatures that would fit perfect in any historical scene. I bought some leather kid gloves and two Lincoln books. :)

Both are very detailed and lovely! I recommend her shop and she ships really fast! :)

Tutorial Tuesday: Quick Books!

I think each miniaturist has their own way of making books. Some skillful artisans craft very realistic books with tiny printed pages and beautiful binding that take a lot of time and effort (and look amazing). Others might buy some of the blank books that are out there in many miniature shops. But many of us, with less time, perhaps, need something quick (and cheap!) to fill up a bookshelf.

Today, that was my goal: to make some books that are quick and easy to fill up space in my historical society bookshelf. This is what I did (and I don't take full credit for this idea, as I am sure I've been inspired by others I've seen online - but can't quite remember who at the moment...). Anyway, here's what you need:

- a piece of scrap wood that you can easily cut to the size of books you need. I used the extra pieces of wood you get with art canvases. I never use them for whatever their intended purpose is...
- some white or off-white paint and brush
- brown Kraft paper (used for wrapping parcels)
- covers of the books you'd like to make shrunk down to size on your computer (I use Gimp photo imaging software - it's free and very easy to use, especially if you know how to use Photoshop)

Hint: If you have a color inkjet printer, you will definitely want to seal your book covers after printing - Mod-podge is a quick and easy solution. I have a color laser printer, so it's probably not completely necessary, but I do it anyway, just in case. (And it looks nice!)

Step 1: Measure the size of your book (using a cut out cover as a guide) onto your piece of wood.

Step 2: Cut the wood! Use what you have in your stash - a miter box and saw, an X-acto knife, or an Easy Cutter (my favorite tool!)

Step 3: Paint the edges of your block of wood. You only need to paint one long edge and both short edges. These are your "pages". :)

Step 4: Cover the book (except for the "pages" of course) with the Kraft paper.

Heck, you could leave it like this for school text books!

Step 5: Glue on your cover!

This tutorial is especially good for books that you plan to display as above, with the front covers facing out. I didn't put any printing on the spine of the books, but you could certainly do so. There are some great book printie sites out there where you can find some modern and antique book covers. :)

I hope this was useful! If you have any questions about something I did, I will be happy to add it in to this tutorial.

Cheers,
Linda

A crazy coincidence

So, I've been looking for a book that I got out of the library a lot as a kid (about crafting dollhouse furniture out of everyday items). I couldn't remember the name or author of the book,  but I could recognize it on sight if I had seen it. I've searched multiple used bookstores, antique shops, and the Internet to no avail.

Well, I was searching the 'net for local cool places the other day and found out that there was a neat used book store in Schuylerville, NY - about a half hour north of us. So we decided to check it out today. This morning, I woke from a dream where we went to the bookstore and I pulled the aforementioned book off the shelf. 'Awesome,' I thought! Then I woke up. Oh well...my brain likes to play tricks on me.

So, we drove up to Schuylerville, had good conversations and coffee from Dunkin Donuts in the car on the way there. There were a few things I was looking for on this trip: some miniature stuff, history, science, good fiction, etc. As soon as we got inside, there was the craft section, so I perused the books.   I pulled a few dollhouse books off the shelf - one I already had, one that  looked somewhat interesting. And then, wait for it, I pulled down a very familiar-looking book (and somewhat familiar title) from the shelf. I exclaimed, "Are you kidding me!?" Lo and behold, it was THE book, the one I've been looking for and just had a dream about not a few hours before.

Now I think I might be paranoid next time I have a nightmare - lol.

Well here is the book. It's called There's a Decorator in Your Dollhouse by Melanie Kahane. She was an interior decorator in the 1960s, I understand. Here's a link to an article about this book and Ms. Kahane (which I found now that I finally know the name of the book!)

This book is great for kids and teaching them how to look at everyday items and using them for crafting. It's also a great idea book for adult miniaturists as well. You may see something here that could spark an idea for a project...who knows! I want to sit down with it and read it like I did so many years ago and hopefully get some fun ideas. :)

By the way, the bookstore we visited was Old Saratoga Books. Here is their website.  (And, yes, we met Sam, their feline mascot! He was delightful!)

PS: Hmm, 97 followers! Only 3 more until I announce the grab bag giveaway! Here's a photo to entice you - a box that's full of crafty goodies that I will be giving away!!

Mini books and a sidewalk

I am starting small (no pun intended!) in getting back to crafting minis, so I made up two books I got in a kit I bought from minikitz.com that I had in my stash for a few years. They are a medieval manuscript and an herbal. Both would fit in my herbal shop, so that's where they shall go.

Speaking of the herb shop, it needed a sidewalk leading up the door. In the picture below, you can see that the line where the two sheets of grass meet and, well, that won't do.

So, I took a thin piece of basswood, cut it to size, glued on some Paperclay and carved in lines between the flagstones. Once that dried, I painted the walkway and added a coat of varnish. Here's the finished product.

The paint and the cracks in the paperclay give it a nice weathered look. I need to go to a craft store and pick up more landscaping materials, so I can fill in the space along the sidewalk. Maybe I'll do that this weekend; we'll see. I really want to do some work on the Glencroft.

Lots of inspiration this evening though, much of which will result in a few blog posts in the very near future: an entry on Dutch Colonial houses (for inspiration) and some book reviews (as inspired by this entry in the Greenleaf forums).

Here's most of the dollhouse/miniature books on my shelf, which I will start with, if I do some reviews...(this will make me sit down and carefully read these instead of just looking at the eyecandy inside. ;) ).

I have a few others (The Big Book of the Dolls' House by Jean Nisbett, to name one) that don't fit on this shelf.

Battery's charged, so here come the pics

Here's the Glencroft bedroom, currently. I haven't done a thing with the ceiling yet...I am trying to figure out how to finish it and whether it should have trim (my thought is yes, it should).
I got this little brass bed with a mini lot of furniture. I am very pleased with it, but I think I will paint it...now to figure out how to do that. I will also add a piece of foam to make a more lifelike mattress and dress it well.

Also in the lot was this highboy. It provides a lot of storage space, but I haven't figured out which room it belongs in. I am tempted to put it in the bathroom as I have no cabinet.

What I really like about it is that it matches the hutch I had posted about earlier (the one I got at Reed's Antiques in Maine).

I've finished putting the chimney together. Now to figure out how to finish it...brick? stone? hmmm.

The brackets are on. The one thing I thought I'd have covered are the holes in the shell...I assume that Greenleaf assumed one would stucco this house? Time to get the wood filler and repaint.

Thanks to the new sheet 13, I was able to finish the half-timber on this side! :-D

And now for something completely different: I fell in love with Re-ment. Look how adorable! Newbury Comics sells these items in blind boxes. I got a breakfast set, sushi set, grocery set, donut set, and cookie set. Now, some are the right scale, others are too big...strangely enough, this variation happens in one box. *shrugs* I am keeping a display on a shelf in our dining room. Some of the 1:12 scale stuff may find its way into the dollhouse when it's finally completed...we'll see. I just adore the cuteness. :)

Our local Barnes and Noble carries Miniature Collector, issues of which I do have. But when I took my sister and nieces to Earth and Tree last Wednesday (a week ago? Really?), I picked up an issue of each Dollhouse Miniatures and American Miniaturist. One of the magazines has an adorable chaise lounge which looks easy to make.

And our local used bookstore had this treasure:
This is perfect because my project for HBS will require me to make a garden. ;)