Just a Little.

I am taking a break from the Colonial Kitchen today. I spent the morning reading my friend Gina's blog. This is the link. http://moreminis.blogspot.com/ I went back to the start and worked my way forward. I am nowhere near being finished.

Gina's blog is great if you are just starting to work on minis or if you have a lot of years under your belt. She starts with a house kit and ends up with a beautiful house. She has a great deal of valuable information on her blog and also on her Newbies blog that you can get to from that same site.

I think I got up to June of 2007 this morning. It is great fun watching her houses grow. It will take a while to get through it all. Therefore I don't have much time for minis today......Good excuse?

So I am going to show you what you can do if you only have a little time to do minis. These are shadowbox vignettes that I have scattered around my house.

This one and the next one are both key cupboards that I got on sale at Wal Mart for 2.00 each. All I did to them was take out the four cup hooks that were at the back to hang your keys on. I painted the inside and stuck some things that I already had inside.

The quilt in this one was a cross stitch pattern in the old Mc Call's craft magazine years ago. The tulips were some that I made and just had hanging around without a home other than the greenhouse.

The second one has a cross stitch rug that I designed and made hanging on the back.

I kind of wish that they had had more of these. The front opens with a magnetic catch and they are about 2" deep. It doesn't take long to fill them. I had these sitting on a table to take the photo. They normally hang on the wall.

The cat is one that I got at Pic 'n Save years ago. He is another one that moves around. I think he finally found a home here.

The third one is a shadow box that I also got at Wal Mart. I think that these were about 4.00 a piece. I got several. They weren't meant for miniatures, but they are about 8" square and 2" deep so they are ideal.

This one contains a George Becker harpsichord. He was a pretty famous miniaturist back in the 80s and someone talked him into doing some of his furniture in limited editions. It even has strings inside. This one is #173. I'm not sure how many were made. I am thinking that it was 200.

I got it at a mini garage sale for 25.00! That is a fraction of the original price. I was lucky. The painting on the wall is a watercolor that a friend did.

The only bad thing about these shadowboxes is that they open from the back. The insides slide out that way and sometimes it is a nuisance when something falls over to take them apart. I have a few more of these that I will show you later. They are great if you have a collection of something that you want to show off without a whole room.

Now go over to Gina's and read for a while. You will learn a lot about dollhouse building!

See you tomorrow.