Summer swap (garden shed) and a bit crafting together (July ^^)

I'm away behind with showing you the new stuff
I've made, so let's try to catch up :')

While crafting together with Jolinda and Connie
I worked on a chives plant. Another diy-kit 
from De Hobbyshop I'd bought through OMINIS.

I finished it the next day. Not that realistic
up close, but cute nontheless :)

Connie had surprised Jolinda and me with a homemade present. We
told her she should save it for our birthday swaps, but she didn't
want to ;) She has made us both a sewing kit box and a monopoly
game. I'm sure Penny will love to play Monopoly with her mother ^^

Kim and I'd agreed to do a summerswap 
 and I started working on it in June.

It was a tutorial from the DHN magazine and
I've made it with Balsa and stained it teak.

Made a couple of new flower pots because I liked
 doing them and tried to make bigger ones.

The terracotta pots are one of my favourites.

Though I liked these pots and jug even more :)

I tried to vary with different colors and structures.

Another favourite. Love cobalt blue :)

I'd also made a couple of metal signs for Kim,
featuring Harry Potter shops.
Again from the tutorial by Fabulously Small.

Another rug, a key cupboard and a plant ladder

After I'd finished the rug for the bedroom last month I also made one as a birthday gift for my friend Kim.
Due to the Brexit, Corona and/or heavy snowfall it took twice as long for the parcel to arrive, but now I can finally show you ;)

Elizabeth Stitch with Venne cotton 34/2, nr. 3039,
nr. 6003 and nr. 6044.

I also made her this key cupboard from Balsa and a little piece of a carved bamboo hand fan.

I cut the top of four needle pins and used three as hooks for the keys and one as a little doorknob. They are painted black with nail varnish. The hinge is just a single staple :)

This is how the rug looked in daylight (a)

Last but not least; I hadn't showed this etagère or plant ladder yet.
I'd seen a tutorial in the Dutch P&M magazine nr. 170 and thought it would make a nice Christmas gift for Kim. 

I imagine she'll use it for plants and other garden related things, so I tried to give it a weathered look :')
It can just as well be used to display other items e.g. in a shop, so I might make another one for my Italian project :)

Crafting together (October) - Santa project

Seems like the only time I'm working on miniatures is when the crafting group comes together like yesterday.
And unfortunately that's true :')
Due to corona and other issues it was only Jolinda and I, though Monique dropped by to give the birthday swap she made me.
She had made a gorgeous painting, a trunk and some pumpkins, and Jolinda had made a pretty candle stand table with four candles and two kinds of Harry Potter candy ;)

 

Very happy with all of the gifts and they will certainly be placed in the cottage or in some other scene!

With just the two of us there was still enough chatting going on, but we still felt like we had been  productive after three hours. Jolinda worked on the robe for her Scottish Santa, outer fabric and lining both Tartan. 
I had worked on better patterns in the previous weeks and had done some padding after I'd given the doll feet instead of boots (for his stockings) and hands that would work better for the half undressed, sitting Santa ^^

I started working on the trousers and finished them later that evening :)

They only need a faux fur trim and then they're done. Santa won't wear them, just has them laying in his lap after he came in after a long night and was too tired to go upstairs right away ;)

Crafting together - September (birthday swap and Santa)

I keep lagging behind in writing these updates, so I'll keep this short and simple ;)
In September it was Jolinda's turn to get birthday swaps. I knew she had been working on a cheese farm so I made her a cheese grater and some blocks of cheese :)

I also made this kind of ancient Greek/Roman flower pot, hoping it would fit in her Greek project or in either one of her houses :) It was fun to do and I was really happy with the result. Liked making the Caledium plant as well.

And here are all Jolinda's presents. A Christmas tree and some wrapped presents from Connie, and Monique made a  plant and flower pot as well and a pretty storage box.

Links to the tutorials I used:

• 4 Simple Types of Cheese by SugarCharmShop 
• Cheese Grater and other kitchen utensils by SugarCharmShop
• Flower pot by Casa Andalusa tutorials
• Printable leaves for Caledium plant

The previous crafting afternoon we'd talked about doing a little project together. Last year we did an autum scene, so we were thinking about something for Christmas this time.
Monique suggested we could dress up a Santa. We all liked that idea and Monique offered to make the dolls.

Meanwhile Jolinda looked through her stack of dolls house magazines and found patterns for six different Santa's. You can also find them online.

Jolinda had done the first one (in white) in the past and chose the Scottisch this time. Monique went for the Russian version and Connie chose the classic one (second one in the top row).

I decided to go for this nice seated Santa (DHN annual number 62 from 2010);

So, Monique had made the dolls. The hands and boots not yet glued, which is a good thing since my Santa has stockinged feet ;) 

Other than clothes he'll need some padding, a face paint, and a wig. (I've only given his face a thin layer of Gesso so far).

The four of us had an enjoyable afternoon working on our Santa's. I started on the ... uh, well 'onesie', I guess? Can't find a (good) translation for 'hansop' ^^

Unfortunately the pattern didn't match my Santa's size so I've been making new patterns these last couple of weeks. 

I'll show you after our next crafting afternoon though :)

Crafting together - August (birthday swap)

Last week Jolinda and Monique came over for another afternoon of mini crafting :) And our group has now four members because Connie has decided to join us. It's also the month of Monique's birthday so Jolinda and I had made her something.
So before we started crafting, we exchanged gifts, enjoyed the cherry pie Monique had brought and chatted a bit to get to know Connie and visa versa.

For the birthday swap I've been inspired by the little painting we've made in June. I know Monique has made lots more so some art supplies and artists' materials would be a nice addition and fun to make.

With the finished painting I've made in June.

Jolinda has made two vases with beautiful flowers for Monique;

Monique's photo

Some links to the tutorials I used:

• Diy miniature paint brushes
• Diy miniature paint tubes
• Printable labels for the paint tubes

Mini-knitting

I totally had forgotten to talk about my New Years resolutions on crafting projects :)
After one failed attempt a couple of years ago, I'd decided that this would be the year to finish a knitted miniature o.O
Instead of the Venne Shetland wool I used the first time, I now choose Venne cotton (34/2), in the hope it would go better with my dry, rough skin, which it did.
Of course me being me, I started the first weekend of January with a very difficult pattern. So that didn't work out well (a)
A simpeler one, with just knits and purls, worked better and I thought it would make a nice cushion cover.

Because I had 'plans', I went ahead of myself and ordered some new Venne cotton in colours matching the (Harry Potter) Hogwarts Houses ;)
The plan was knitting something else for the birthday of my friend Kim the next month. Hardest part was not to tell her about my progress and pretend I kept failing and trying again and again ;)

But the next miniature knitting went even better - probably because of the lighter colour. I found a tutorial and taught myself how to maze, so it would look like a Hufflepuff scarf in progress. The wrapper reads 'Never-tangle wool', and was designed by me.

Because there was still plenty of time before I had to send the parcel, I wanted to try the ultimate (for now at least); a sock.
It's kind of a joke between us that Kim would ask (nag :P) for socks and I would tell her that would never happen ;)
I'd found a pattern in an old Dutch P&M dollshouse magazine for socks, using only two needles, so I tried. And succeeded! Yay, So proud of myself. And excited, but of course I couldn't share for another couple of weeks :')

It all arrived exactly on her birthday and I was so happy with her surprised and enthusiastic respons! :)

Beewax candles by accident :)

A good friend (not miniature) has asked me if I could make something fitting for a display of Lemax Scary Town Theme figurines. I'd already promised before realising that those are 1:32 scale :')

Photo from Lemax site

I suggested some dripping candles on pumpkins and skulls, thinking that would be the easiest to do something like that for that scale. Fortunately she liked that :)
I've made the candles just the way I always do; learned from a tutorial in the DHN (Dutch) magazine by Marike's Magical Minis, with translucent white and a scrap of cognac fimo.
After baking them however they'd turned out yellow-ish and had tiny cracks. Not sure what I did wrong; the mixing or the baking.
A friend told me that they look the same colour as church candles, the beeswax ones. The colours were not the worst though, I was worried about the cracks. Didn't want the candles to break.

The 'original' candle on the left, unbaked clay on the right.
I've painted some tiny pumpkins I had a brighter orange than I
normally would since that seemed to fit the Lemax style better.
 I also added some washed down paint on the skull(bead)s.

I think I didn't like them much because of the previous candles (in the back); they look so much better.

But the next day I discovered that the candles looked so much better in daylight :)

From the left over clay I've made some 1:12 scale candles, since you can never have enough of those ;)