Crafting together (the Italian project) - June

Last week our little craft club met again. While the temperatures outside were rising, we kept it cool while we each worked on our own project ;)
Jolinda added more stones to her Greek stairs and started cutting legs for a fancy fauteuil while Monique worked on a barbeque for her garden.
I started attaching the first leaves to my tree, which still might become an olive tree, but could also end up being a completely different kind of tree ;)

I'd spend the day before figuring out how to make the leaves. The paper punch that was most similair to the shape of the real olive leaves was the 'teardrop' but that one was too big. So next idea was cutting punched flowers in eight tiny 'teardrops'. Those are 5 mm, which is the right scale for the tree.

I had this green tissue paper, that I'd bought in the UK last year and I painted it with a mixture of ocre yellow, gold, brown and sap green acrylic to match the shade of the leaves. While painting the tissue paper wrinkles a bit. I just used the brush lightly so not every part of the tissue paper was covered, which made it look more natural imo.

The back of the paper might look a bit too light but it turned out good after punching and cutting the leaves :) I used cottage green with silvergrey for this side.

I had also googled for examples of old (Italian) paving, city square, old town streets etc and found this stockphoto, which I immediately fell in love with :) 

Why choose an easy paving when you can do it the hard way, right? ;)

Photo from internet

So, after Jolinda and Monique had left, I've started making a 1:12 scale drawing to test if it could work.

Also with the leaves I attached during crafting with the ladies. It may not look like much but adding leaf after leaf is so time consuming lol

I spend a big part of the next day outside in the shade drawing bricks. I loved doing that ;)

With the tree and 'mountain' on it. Already love the look of it and the real bricks will hopefully look even better ^^

The finished drawing. I enjoyed it so much that all my future projects probably end up with brick pavement as well ;)

I've cut the drawing in seven pieces because I have gotten an idea of making the brick pavement from air drying clay; not brick by brick but by making a flat surface, put a cut out section of the drawing on top and use a needle or something to puncture markings in the clay so I can 'draw' the bricks in the clay. No idea if that will work, but you never know untill you try, right? :)

Since I still wasn't all that happy with the 'spooky' colouring of the tree, I've spend some time dry brushing soft pastels on the bark.
I used the brown colours (mostly the one on the left) for the parts that were very dark and shadowy, and the greens (mostly the right one) over the high lighted parts.

For the metal wired twigs I added a drop of water with the brown soft pastel. After I was satified with the result I fixated everything very lightly with hairspray.
The colours look much better in reality imo but there you have it ;)

Making a tree for the Italian project.

This project - which I chose to practise making plants and flowers - is getting bigger and bigger and still hasn't got any greenery at all ;)
So, after deciding that had to change, I made a bigger and better base (plate) than the one I had.
I cut the corners on the back, following the mountain edge, and got a larger area for the bistro terrace, so I could plan where to put a tree. I used the cardboard tube as reference for the tree height.

I thought an olive tree would look great on that corner, so I searched for tutorals to get me starting (like I always do ^^).
Unfortunately I couldn't find any, only for trees in general. Or for olives :) The only YT tutorials I've found were in Spanish and were no help to me at all :')
Instead of searching a couple more days I decided to just start and make the trunk and larger branches and then see what kind of tree it would become :)

This turorial helped me with making the wire base: click
To get the right size I folded thin wire to a lenght of 30 cm, without cutting the ends (yet).

Because I ran out of the thinner wire, I used the green one for the roots, cutting pieces of 15 cm and folding them.

Then onto the fun part; figuring out how to shape all the branches and twigs :)

It took some time but I found it very relaxing, did it during a tv show ^^

After finishing the wire base, I switched to another helpful tutorial, which showed the technique of making bark: click
After I'd googled old olive trees I'd figured that tutorial would be great for a gnarly trunk, but in hindsight I probably shouldn't have used one of a Halloween tree for that (a)
Here I've put some tinfoil round the trunk of the tree and covered it with masking tape.

Then I covered it with tissue paper soaked in water & glue. I hoped the tissue paper might still make it bark-like, but a bit more subtle than paper towels or news paper.

I covered all the wire that was twisted, but not the ends because I didn't want those twigs to become too thick. Instead I painted them with nail polish ;)

When all the wire was covered, either with tissue paper or nail polish I started with the first layer of black acrylic paint with water mixture, as shown in the tutorial.
It took multiple layers because everytime I thought I could go on to the next step/colour, I noticed some tiny white spots in the cracks of the trunk or on the branches. No matter how much I rotated the tree or turned it upside down :)

I forgot to take a photo from the black tree, since I couldn't wait to start with the next colours.
After two different brown layers it looked a bit rusty. Which made me think, it wouldn't need leaves, if it was a dead tree ghe ghe
But it might ruin people's appetite, sitting at the bistro table under that bare and dead looking tree. It could be dangerous; a dead branch might fall down!
So, no chance to avoid making thousands of leaves :')

For the layers of paint I used, from left to right;

1. burned umber, just painted the surfase, not into the cracks

2. burned sienna, only dry brushing over the tissue paper, but painting the nail polish

3. yellow ocre mixed with sap green, again only dry brushing over the tissue paper, but painting the nail polish

4. to high light  I mixed off white chalk paint with a drop of gold acrylic and cottage green. I just used whatever I have lol

5. finally I added some green in that previous mixture, so hopefully it would look less spooky :')

I guess, that less-spooky part failed, right? :') Even so, I love the result, though I'm not sure if it'll be going to fit the Italian scene.

Did you notice the real leaves under the tree? 

They're from an olive tree! I'd forgotten there's one in my backyard :D

That would have made a great reference.

I'm thinking about making a new tree for this project and keep this bare and spooky tree for a Halloween scene, but I'm not sure :)

Anyway, here's the tree in front of the trattoria. With some props already in place :)

The cute little rabbits are made by my dear friend Kim, from BibbidiBobbidiBooCo.

They will find a nice place somewhere between the flowers on the mountain or at the bottom of the tree :)

Long overdue update on the Italian project!

It's been months since I've shown you the progress on the Italian project. Even though I've met with the miniature club twice since February, and I've been working on it at home as well :')
So this is mainly a quick photo update, so I can move on to the next thing ;)

I finished the awning and then I could
finally put the front of the trattoria in place
(which wasn't as easy as it sounds ^^).

Next, the ballustrade got glued to
the mountain wall. Because of all
the tweaking on the front, it
didn't fit as well as when I made it.

So I filled the gap with a piece of card-
board that was left over from cutting the
door opening :)

I've made two table clothes and pinned the planter under the
window, just untill I've made flowers (a)

I've put together some bodyparts for
a waitress and got this wig from an-
other doll.

Started sewing the trousers.

Made an apron from the same fabric I used for
the awning. Then I made the bistro tables, so
now there's four bistro chairs on my to-do-list ;)

And of course a neat collar shirt :)

She's still a w.i.p. and need shoes, arms, a face
paint and a better fitting wig but I'm very happy
with the clothes! 

I've used this photo as a reference for the apron: click
This one for the bistro tables: click
For the shirt this tutorial by AkameruKawaii was very helpful: click

A coffee table

After I'd finished the sofa, I needed to make a coffee table of course :)
I didn't use a tutorial but found inspiration from these images;

I needed to do something a bit out of my comfort zone, because I don't want only oak stained furniture in the cottage. This might seem hardly different but it was for me lol

For the legs I drew a template first. Cut the four legs from
Balsa. 4 mm if I remember correctly. Then I stacked them all
 up and sanded them together in the hope to get identical legs :)

The top is from Balsa 2,5 mm, but the legframe is from
cardboard, because I didn't want that to have wood grains.

The top got an oak stain coating and leg frame a layer
of Gesso (primer). For a little sturdiness I'd glued thin
Balsa strips on the inside of the cardboard.

With a layer of black acrylic paint, and a bit of
sanding some edges for aging.

I then drybrushed some gold paint
on the sanded edges and glued the
top onto the leg frame.

Time for the furniture removers, I guess ;)

Though Penny is already getting comfortable outside
the living room.

Just a glimpse of the living room because photo's are either 
too dark or too bright inside (a) Still a work in progress.

A sofa for the cottage living room

It's been awhile, but I've finally managed to make some time for another blog.
I've made this sofa three weeks ago. It has taken me forever to find the right style, design and fabric. I kept doubting myself and changing my mind, so I was very happy when I'd made a choice ;)

I used this semi tutorial from Kitty and Kat Miniatures, but with a few twists of course.

I used Balsa 2,5 mm and 6 mm dowel (not a half dowel) for
the wood base. Mine is not as wide as the one from the tutorial.

Againt the advise I went with a stretchy fabric with an
abstract pattern :) I went through my fabric stash but couldn't
find something fitting for the living room, so I ended up
taking a shirt from my wardrobe. It had been my mothers
at one time, so now it'll be a sofa with memories ;)

I adapted the leg assembly with an extra
piece of Balsa to make it a bit more sturdy.

And gave it an oak stain finish.
It would almost make a nice
coffee table, right? :)

It took some time to figure out which part of the shirt
to use where on the sofa but I love how it turned out.

The back looks totally different, as do the sides, 

Tho photo is a bit too yellow from the candles but
I wanted to give a better look of the leg assembly :)

Moving the sofa around to see where it'll
fit best. Penny has made herself
comfortable already :)

Next piece of furniture will be the coffee table.

A scratching post for Blast.

While planning the furniture for the cottage living room this weekend, I also wanted to craft a little something, so I had some fun making this scratching post.
The coulours will fit the living room, though it might end up in one of the other rooms ;)

I got tips & tricks & inspiration from the following sites:

• this Dutch tutorial, 
• this French photo tutorial, 
• these photo's for inspiration from SillySisters
• and this Youtube tutorial by SugarCharmShop:

Credits:
The half cat/half Kneazle was a gift from my friend Kim of Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo for Penny.
The name 'Blast' comes from my all time favourite Harry Potter fanfiction 'Secrets' by Vorabiza, in which Draco's daughter gets a little white kitten which they call Blast.

The living room rug - April

It's been awhile since my last blog. I haven't been able to work on miniatures for a couple of weeks so I thought I start motivating myself by showing the progress I've made on the rug for the living room. The progress I've made was mainly done in the beginninh of March; I haven't done any cross stitching since then :')
Still the differece is visible and makes me want to continue ;)

20 februari

More octagons being filled