My Journey begins....

Well, I have finally taken the plunge! After "lurking" around the fringes of the "mini" world for a long time I am not only going to start to actually build something, I have decided to write a blog about it as I go. I am actually a very busy person so will not commit to anything more than a weekly posting (on Tuesdays). Anything more than that will just be by chance. So - to begin with I will share a couple of pictures of the one and only mini project I have actually done - a representation of my good friends' B&B in Ireland - a place we have spent so much time sitting around their picnic table (which is actually at the back of their B&B, not the front) sharing a bottle of wine (or two) and thoroughly enjoying each other's company. The vignette was made in a regular size teacup.

The "stones" are torn apart egg carton, painted in several different colours to look like rock, and applied over the built up sections of floral foam that I covered in thin cardboard painted with a sloppy mixture of greys and slate colours to look like mortar betweent the stones. I built the picnic table from popsicle sticks, the little birdhouse (just like the one in their back yard) from a tiny scrap of wood. The small blue plant pots are small wooden screw covers that carpenters use. The little spikes of pink and purple flowers are made with tiny no-hole beads rolled onto short lengths of florist wire that have been dipped in glue. The leaves were made by cutting lengths of florist tape, doubling it back unto itself, fringing it with closely spaced slits and twisting it onto the wire under the "flowers". I then curled the tips to make them look more "leaf-like". I copied the style of my friends' front door and window and printed off their sign from the internet which I then installed using black stiffened thread and a painted piece of paperclip. I also installed a small interior wall with tiny pink-checked "wallpaper" since it was possible to see inside the window. Learnings from this first project?? (1) Take pictures during the construction, not just the finished product and (2) spray a fixative on your coloured papers - they fade over time!

So, I'll post soon with my "wish list" of projects I want to tackle in case anyone is interested!