A little of this...a little of that...

First, I wanted to share a couple of pics my DH took the other day. It was a beautiful sunny day, just after the storm we had, and our frequent visitors arrived once more - and actually stayed still long enough for a couple of photos.

These Bohemian waxwings love the small berries that this tree produces - not that I know what kind of tree it actually is. On a bright sunny winter day they arrive in droves...well, about 30 to 40 of them at a time, at least. Here's one little guy who turned around as if posing for us. Isn't he gorgeous?

These birds may be one of the smaller varieties but, when you have 30 of them at a time flitting around in your front yard - what a cacophony of sound!

So - what else do I have for you today? Well, I have been working on a few small things. Marijke H. generously helped me learn how to make another type of flower - a hydrangea. I decided on a white one. Marijke very rightly pointed out that I shouldn't use just white but also sprinkle in a little off-white or buff since no flower is just a single colour throughout. I love the way it turned out although I still have to put a little pale green or yellow colour in the centre of each of the little "flowers" that make up the hydrangea head.

I also made some tulips, daffodils and irises. I need to make a lot more of these to get better at them.

While I was learning to make these flowers, I took great interest in watching Marijke produce her incredible plants and flowers. She made these perfect little roses as well as the two adorable bird houses. Take notice of the various shades of one colour she uses in a single flower. How realistic it makes them look! They will probably all be used in her latest project of a shabby chic florist shop. You can see it on her blog at Pulchinella's Cellar.

Other than that, with the very busy St. Patrick's week I had, I only had time to work on a couple of little things (no pun intended). I decided to work on something for a friend's birthday. She is planning on an slightly unorthodox version of a house for a rather famous couple. As such, I wanted to make her a special bed -- in 1:24th scale. I started by looking at one on Kris Compass's site. She doesn't have a tutorial for it but I am trying to build a smaller version by referring to her pictures as I go.

I decided to make it a queen-sized bed so, in 1:24th scale I made it 2.5 inches wide. I made it a little longer than a regular queen-sized bed because I knew I would have to allow for the foot board to "roll" over the end of the mattress. Here is the start of it.

For the curved head board, once I decided on my shape, I cut it out of three layers of card stock, and glued the layers together with wood glue. I wrapped them around a bulbous-shaped air freshener, just like Kris Compass did with her French chaise longue, to make it curve and to provide a slope for the back. I held it in place with elastics until it was well and truly dried so it would hold it's shape and harden. I left it for several days but probably could have taken it off after 24 hours. I used two layers of 1/4" foamcore to make the mattress base. Then I made a small tufted mattress and glued that down as well. It's difficult to see the tufting here but, trust me, it's there.

Once this was done, I cut three layers in the shape of the mattress form, but long enough to give me the sleigh bed footboard shape. I glued these together with wood glue then, while they were still wet, I glued them to the base then curved them up with the use of a marker and taped things down to hold the shape until it dried. Unfortunately, I used the wrong tape and, when I removed it, some of the paper came off the card stock so I will be adding a thin piece of paper to cover these areas. Small problem, easily repaired.

I now will make runners for the bottom, instead of legs, and sew up some bedding to finish it off. I'm hoping to have it finished by Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

The only other thing I've done is to start making my tidbit for our club meeting on Tuesday. I am making a set of 1:24 scale kitchen canisters. I used a pencil for the smallest, the top of a pen for the middle size and a small marker for the largest. Once the strips of cardstock were wrapped around and glued with fast-grab glue, (make sure they don't get glued to the forms!), I left them to dry for about 15 minutes or so, then I spread a light layer of glue around the bottom edges and stuck them to small pieces of card stock. After they were well dried, I used a pair of cuticle scissors to trim the excess paper from around the base.

I'll finish these off and have them ready for the club meeting, I hope. If not, I'll give something else as my "tidbit" or provide something from my "stash". Let's see how it goes, shall we? TTFN! - Marilyn