Talented F.A.M.E. Members

We had our monthly F.A.M.E. meeting tonight and had a few of our finished projects on display. Hopefully we'll have them all on display together at the Moncton Show next month but - you lucky readers - you're going to get a little preview right here!

First up, we have Sharon B.'s beautiful piece titled "Blue on Blue". Sharon has been collecting blue and white ceramic and pottery pieces for several years. She has certainly shown them to great advantage with her Group Project.

My favourite piece is the large blue and orange piece on the table just to the inside of the door.

A view of the items on the top shelf.

I also really love the blue and white plates on the wall...and the blue tile floor...and the blue wallpaper. It may be a lot of blue but it goes together perfectly!

Sharon used jumbo craft sticks to make her own siding. I think they look great and will think of doing this myself next time I need siding for a project.

For those of you who also follow Marijke H.'s blog, Pulchinella's Cellar, you have seen the progress of her beautiful Group Project, titled: "Floriana". She brought her completed project to share tonight and we all oohed and ahed at the skill demonstrated in all of her beautiful plants, flowers and accessories.

A view through the open door:

What a beautiful display window - all decked out for spring. Marijke has the whole display tacked down to a single piece that forms the window shelf. This way she can remove the whole spring display and replace it with a new display for every season. What a fabulous idea! I'm going to steal that idea too! I'm such a thief!

This is a good view of the pots of succulents on the etagere just inside the door. Marijke made the plants from offcuts of scrapbooking card, coloured with colouring pencils to get the different shades of the plant. She also made all the pots. Great display.

Here's an overall view of the back wall - and also the shelf that runs over the whole display. I love all the little touches like the birdhouses, the wind chimes, the hanging plants, the watering cans....this is a flower shop I would visit every day if I could!

Louise McS.'s project, "Lynda's Fabric Shop", was made as a present for a favourite aunt who is a gifted quilter. This is one of the best uses of a "perspective photo" I have seen in a long while. It certainly looks like this little quilt shop is way deeper than it actually is.

Look how the shelving unit in the room box blends right in with the rows and rows of shelves in the perspective photo. Doesn't it work wonderfully?

The black and white tile floor in the room box blends into the one in the picture. What a great effect.

Of course, for any of you who have come to know Louise through this blog, you would recognize that this is her room box, simply because of the sign on the side.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Louise has never met a flamingo she doesn't like - and want to take home with her!

Speaking of which - yes, I am still working on the sleigh bed I am making for Louise's tropical getaway for Mr. and Mrs. Claus. The bed is made and painted. Now I have to make the bedding. So, I decided it had to feature flamingos somewhere. Unable to find a fabric with flamingos that were small enough for minis, I decided to try to make it myself. I took my ironing board out on my deck because it's a good height to work on and because I didn't want to be spraying glue indoors. Then I laid out a strip of parchment paper to protect the top of the ironing board, and placed two sheets of printer paper, side by side, on top of the parchment paper. I then used a can of spray adhesive on the printer paper, let it try for five minutes, then smoothed my chosen 100% cotton fabric onto the paper which, by now, was nice and tacky. I left this whole thing to dry for an hour or two while I prepared the document on my computer.

I searched for flamingo prints and found a wallpaper sample for real houses. Of course, the picture only showed a small square so I copied this into my PowerPoint program, made the background colour transparent so all you could see were the flamingos, not the blue background, then I copied this one square over several times on the page, making sure to overlap the squares so they lined up properly with the repeat of the pattern.

Once this was done I then went back to the fabric pieces and cut them out to the size of the computer paper they were glued to. I put one sheet of this fabric/paper into my printer. I set my printer to best quality and selected high-quality photo paper with no border, hit "print" and held my breath! It went through just fine! Alas, once printed, I thought the first try was just a little too small so I put the second sheet in the printer, went back to my program and enlarged the flamingo print, and the three cushion prints I was also printing, and hit print again. This time I was satisfied with the result - right size, colour is good - works for me! Here you can see the final product on top of the first try. You can really notice it with the cushion covers - the resize really makes a big difference for them! (Click on the picture if you want to see a larger version).

If you want to try this method yourself you MUST have an ink-jet printer, not a laser-jet printer. The ink-jet literally "shoots" the colour into the fabric. Tomorrow I think I will iron these pieces from the back and then the front to hopefully heat set the colour a little more.

Then, of course, I will get Louise's bed finished. Honest!!!! I will have it finished!!! For which of her birthday's I'm not really sure.....right now - I'm going to bed! TTFN! - Marilyn

I'm nothing if not cheap....

... or, in more polite terms, I'm frugal. So, I followed up on an email on the Canada's Minis Yahoo Group that told about a new product that Dollarama is carrying: LED mini strip lighting attached to a battery pack that holds 3 AA batteries. For $3.00 you get a full metre (39") of strip lighting. This is the kind that you can actually cut shorter lengths - as long as you cut across the middle of a set of 4 copper connectors. You would then need to be able to solder a new set of wires to the piece that has been cut off - but many of us do this anyway.

I found them in our local Dollarama yesterday, about half way down the craft aisle, and I bought 3 packages. I didn't want to be too greedy so I left several packages for others to take advantage of.

Here is what the packaging looks like:

So here's my other experience this week. I wanted to try my hand at making more flowers. I really enjoy it every time Marijke H. and I get together and she teaches me how to make a new flower type. Did I mention I have the BEST mini friends!?! Anyway - I was out shopping and decided to stop in at Staples - a large, international, business supply store, to pick up a variety of different coloured sheets of paper that would be appropriate for flowers. I went to the printing section and asked if I could buy two sheets of paper in every colour they have there. The clerk said no, they couldn't sell them that way. I had already explained what I was going to do with them - use them to make miniature flowers. She told me I could buy the different colours in packages on their shelves. I explained again that a single piece of paper would be enought to make dozens of flowers and I couldn't see buying 10 or 12 full packages of paper in order to get all the colours. She apologized and said, that's what I would have to do. So, then I said, okay - how about I pay you to photocopy a blank page onto each of the coloured pages. Again, she said no, if I paid for photocopying, she would actually have to copy something onto the paper. Why??? I have no idea!!

So, needless to say, I left there and drove to Covey's, a stationer/business supply store that is locally owned and operated and has been here for as long as I can remember. I went to their print section and repeated my request. The clerk there said absolutely! She then proceeded to go to the print shelves and pulled out two pages of each of 10 colours. The 20 pages cost me, with tax, 69 cents!!! Lesson learned - - deal with your locally owned and operated businesses first! The big international stores just don't care!

Okay - enough ranting for one day. So, I worked at the Irish Room today so didn't have a lot of time for minis but, I did put the second runner on the sleigh bed, installed twisted trim around the head board and foot board, and put on two coats of gesso.

Next will come the actual painting, then it'll be time to make the bedding. I promise, Louise, you will get your birthday present soon - it won't be any more than a month late!

Tomorrow, Louise and I are off to Montreal for the Miniature Show and Sale - whoopee - went to the bank for some cash, checked to make sure I have my credit cards packed - - I'm ready to go!!! The next time you hear from me it will be with news from Montreal. TTFN!! - Marilyn

Wednesday Weather Watch

Okay - it's official - I am completely fed up with winter when it's supposed to be spring. While I am incredibly happy to be living just outside of Fredericton, New Brunswick, where the worst of any weather patterns seem to pass us by more often than not, and I am sorry for people in the other Atlantic provinces who are continuing to get pummeled, I am, nonetheless, more than ready for spring! It is, after all, officially 9 days into it. It's time it started acting it's age!

So - knowing how quickly things can change in our neck of the woods,I have decided to occupy myself by tracking the changes once a week until spring finally well and truly shows up. Here are two pictures - one taken from our patio doors out to the back deck, and the next taken out our front window up the road.

As you can see - this weather sucks!!!!!

I'll post two more pictures next Wednesday just to compare, then the next Wednesday, and so on.

Now, on the miniature front - things are looking a little better there! The sleigh bed I am making for Louise's birthday gift - yes, she knows it's coming - once her birthday had come and gone I thought I'd better show her what I was working on so she wouldn't think I had actually forgotten her special day.

The last time you saw it, I had the foot board curved around a marker to try to set the shape properly while the glue dried. It worked! Once I took the tape off and repaired the places where the tape had pulled off some bits of paper, I cut and glued on 1/4" strips as trim around the edges of the bed. That turned out quite well but I still have to apply a trim to cover the edges of the paper layers on the head board and the foot board.

The next step was to make the sleigh runners that would take the place of regular legs for the bed. I toyed with a few different ideas, including making them from wire, or having someone cut them from wood with a laser cutter. In the end, I cut Bristol board (poster board?) into 1/4" strips, glued two strips together for the thickness I wanted, then started to work with the strip before it dried too much. I drew the shapes I wanted on graph paper, using a heavy line from a black marker. Then I placed wax paper over top of this so I could still see the lines but wouldn't inadvertently glue the runner to the paper pattern if there was some glue seeping out the sides of the doubled strip. I started with the long, main part of the runner then started to fill it in with the smaller curlicues.

Here is the beginning of it:

This seemed to work fairly well so I continued on, trying to make sure I kept the space even between the bottom of the bed and the bottom of the runner. Okay - I may not have been entirely successful with that part but I think it's fairly even. Once all the curlicues were in place, I cut off the extra length on the bottom runner and left it to try for a few days.

So - tomorrow I will be flipping the pattern over to get a mirror image, and start on the second runner. Once that is done I only have to add the extra finishing trim I mentioned above, apply a few decorative elements, gesso the whole thing, paint the runners and trim with metallic paint, paint the body of the bed with a pearlized paint, amd make the bedding - 2 Euro pillows, two bed pillows, sheets, comforter..... That's all!!! Don't worry Louise - I promise you'll have it before your next birthday!!! But, if so, I'd better get back to work! TTFN! - Marilyn

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