Seeing Spots....

I dug through all of my railroad plastic pieces yesterday.  I needed to furnish the latest mini mini. 

See those tiny brown things in the top left corner...Those are the benches to go with the table.  I used the smallest strip of white, second down from them, to make the legs.  Can we say tiny torture?  Everything has to be done with tweezers.

And the spots I am seeing?  When I take close ups of the interior, I can see spots on the wrought iron work on the roof, that I missed with the black paint.

Also in this photo.  The strip in the foreground is where I got the legs for the table.  The white inlay on the cabinet is the strip to the right...  I went over it all with the stain to knock down the white.

All of the interior wallpaper is Joe Hermes.  The exterior brick is Brodinax and the cobblestones are embossed paper from the train store. 

The wrought iron on the roof is a cast metal strip.  The window is also from the train store.  I think it's a Walmer product.  Not sure.

I still need to find some things to put in the cobblestone alley way.  Maybe some 1/4" high garbage cans?

Here it is with the benches in place.  They look a bit thick and clunky, but they are going to have to do for a first try.  After all, the interior is less than 3/4" wide and 1" from front to back on the window side! Maybe next time I will use veneer. I doubt that I will use the train station embossed paper again.  It is too thick.

At least we have something to eat...Turkey on the table and pie on the top of the cupboard.

I found those at a mini how a couple of years ago.  I think that it is meant to be for 1/4" scale, a chicken...It was white I simply stained it when I did the rest f the furniture. 

This one is by no means perfect, but now I can see the spots that I missed and will be able to fix them.

I put three more together last night.  Now all I have to do is the hard part.  The biggest problem is going to be choosing how to decorate them.

I flipped two of them so that the interior is on the left.  We shall see how long these hold my interest...

I have to go make the spots disappear now.

See you tomorrow.

Silly Me!

What with all of the gossip about Google Reader not working anymore, I jumped on the bandwagon without a thought and opened an account with bloglovin, even though I didn't really like the layout.

 Then when I signed on yesterday and went right straight to my usual site, everything was there....I went and looked in the nearest mirror and spoke sternly to myself..."Wake up, silly!  You read the blogs that you follow on Blogger Dashboard! You have never even seen Google Reader! Duh!!!"  So much for needless worrying...Sometimes the six year old takes over at the most unexpected moments...

Now for the business at hand.  Here are the plans for the mini mini  Indoor, Outdoor Box.

As usual, these are copyrighted and for personal use only.  They and their plans are not to be sold and no teaching classes for money! Free only!

Here we go.  The first photo is on quarter inch graph paper and should be easy enough to draw.  All measurements are included.  The project is made from 1/32" bass wood.

Second photo.  All of the pieces were measured onto the wood with a T square.  Then they were cut out with a metal ruler and Exacto knife with a NEW blade.

Seven pieces for the box.  If you are going to make more than one, it is easier to mark and cut all of them at once.  I cut 4 and it took about a half an hour to do it all.  If it is your first try, it may take a bit longer.

I decided to put a window in this one, so I simply cut the shape out of the wall where the arch was in the southwestern one was.  That is the only part that I leave off until I have the inside papered or painted.  I will paint the window separately, before gluing it in place.

As you can see, it is much easier to put together if you have a gluing jig.  This one is from Micro Mark and is about 20 years old.  It is still square and still going strong!  Worth every penny(and more) of the 16.95+shipping that I paid for it at the time.  It is probably one of my most used tools.

I am going back to work on this now...It's either that or cleaning the dreaded, dreadful workroom.

See you tomorrow.

The Monsoons Are Here!

This morning Walter and I went to see the new movie, "The Heat".  Great fun if you don't mind a bit of cursing.  We liked it a lot.

When we finished that, we stopped at April's house....Watched Amare do all kinds of fun things.

We just got home about a half hour ago, so I have not done any minis today.

I was wandering around, trying to find something interesting to put in the blog...

First I took the camera, went outside and pointed it straight up at the edge of the porch. Yup!  The monsoons have finally arrived.  It rained twice last night and it may just do it again tonight....Left to right, blue skies, puffy white clouds and icky black clouds rolling in.  It is thundering nicely now.  There are a few sprinkles starting. This will go on for the next couple of months, every few days. Personally, I like this time of year.  It cuts down on the water bill.

Another thing that didn't get done... The workroom is even worse than last week.  I really need to clean that up before I start doing anything else... Any volunteers?  Total silence from Tessie, Zar and the rest of the crew!  Walter is playing golf tomorrow morning, so I will probably dig in then.

I did get something accomplished.  I made these with some new findings that I ordered on line.  I have been seeing infinity bracelets all over, on line.  They are all too thin for my taste, so I decided to make some that are a little more substantial.  I used leather for these and just macrame-ed them right from the infinity ornament.  Worked like a charm....Pardon the pun.

Back to the mini side of things.  I don't think that I ever put measurements for the mini version of the inside/outside box in the blog...

I am working on directions now.  I will make a pattern and put it up for you to make. 

See you tomorrow.

Indoors and Out....

We are finished!  Here's the outside, which you saw yesterday....It was finished then, but I had to chase down the bird and Tessie to really have it finished. 

I took the toilet bowl brush away from her, before she could get to the birdbath.  So...One problem solved.  Then I went to the kitchen and hid all of the saltshakers and unopened salt containers too....She is adept at getting into things and if she can't, she calls Zar.  No more bird catching!

Here's the inside.  I added a painting of the Grand Canyon.  No...I didn't do it.  I have a whole notebook full of all different kinds and styles of paintings that I have cut out of various sources over the years.  I actually had a choice of five grand canyon paintings.  This one fit the space and color requirements best.

I mounted on a piece of heavy card stock and framed it with plain picture frame molding.

I had the pillow and the rug in my stash too.

The floor was rather boring without something layered over it and this rug had the right colors and a kind of tile feeling in the design. 

The pillow was made from an old silk necktie.

As you can see, the cacti garden is still doing well...We shall see how long it lasts now.

I am closing the book on this one.  On to something else tomorrow...I don't know if I will go backward or forward.  It depends on the mood of the six year old.

Tessie is still annoying me about the hairdo.  I may just have to fix that before I go onto other things.  Let's face it.  She won't quit until I set it right...

See you tomorrow.

Forgot to add, today is the last day of Google reader...I just transferred all of the blogs that I follow over to bloglovin about 7 this morning....I am not sure that I will stay with it, but I wanted to make sure that I could still follow the blogs that I do now...As I understand it, Google is no longer going to support blogs that aren't blogger.  I transferred over by joining and then one click copied all of the ones I followed to a site there.  It is similar, but not quite the same...I guess I will have to get used to it or find another one.  There are several others out there.

The Blue Jay Has Landed...

My friend Joan gave me a blue jay in mini, from a show a few weeks ago...He has now found a home of his own.  He didn't show up very well in the trees at the craft cottage.  Here, he is a stand out.

I did the landscaping this morning.  I won't go into all of the details, because I did a lot of that in the craft cottage yard.

I will tell you how to make a mole hill out of a mountain though.

I started with a block of dry floral foam and got what is in the corner, covered with white glue...Yup.  All of the green stuff is leftovers....thus the mole hill...

I painted that white to keep all of the sand the same color and then smeared it with lots of white glue.  I sprinkled on some of the sand and shook off the excess.

Then on to the landscaping goody bag.  I used the heavenly bamboo, Nandina, for the branches of the tree.  It turned out kind of mesquite looking...

I used clumps of the railroad, reindeer moss for the foliage.  Then I went to the backyard supply house for rocks.  My back yard is full of desert stones and I don't think I am going to have to buy stones anytime soon.

I had cacti and other vegetation left over from the craft cottage, so that was done in no time...

Then Tessie got involved.  "It needs life!"  I knew that she wouldn't let up, so I told her to go find some...

I thought that would keep her out of my hair for a while....Wrong-O.

She was back in a flash. She had a salt shaker in one hand and the blue jay sitting on the mesquite tree, just as nice as you please....

I asked her how she did it and she replied, looking down her nose at me, "Honestly!  Didn't you ever hear that the way to catch a bird is put salt on his tail?". 

I looked a little closer and saw that the poor bird was just covered with salt...I doubt if he could lift his wings to fly away...

The last time I looked, Tessie had him in Eskiaga's patio birdbath.  He seems to have survived the ordeal, but the birdbath is now a salt water vessel and no self respecting bird but a sea gull is going to use it again.

I am off to supervise the cleaning of the birdbath....I see Tessie sauntering that way with her toilet brush....Gotta go now!

See you tomorrow.

Faking It...

OK, only one vote for white.  Way more for adobe, which by the way is most always covered with plaster/stucco, so is not the most popular choice for color.

I do like it though.  I used my favorite Trail Tan Ceramcoat.  Not bad at all...

Last night, I faked a chest to go inside the cigar box.  I looked at a lot of real Mexican furniture.  I have an Artes De Mexico catalog from 1967.  They have been reproducing early Mexican Colonial furniture for many years.  The catalog is one of my favorite books.  The painted cabinet in the upstairs of the Southwestern room is a copy of one of theirs. The catalog itself is put together with real wrought iron nails and the cover is floppy pieces of rawhide.  Really cool.
 

Anyway, sidetracked as usual. Sorry about that.

As I said, I faked it.  The front and top are real, the rest is just supports.   I cut the front 1 1/2" high by the width of the box.  The top was 1 5/8" by the width of the box.  The side and back supports were the same height as the front.  The back one was the same size as the front.  The sides were the same height, but less in width, to allow for the depth of the front and back.

I didn't plan for the scroll bottom...No floor tile underneath.  Now I have to patch it. 

Nothing is glued in yet.  I just did a dry fit an thought that you would like to see what direction I am headed.

When I did this as a class, I gave people the option of a very simple version of this bench.  No scroll bottom and just panels faked with chair rail.

This one, I carved the panels and then trimmed the edges with 1/16" double bead molding to give it a more finished look.

I like it except for the white streak on the right panel...It was a flaw in the wood.  When I finished carving, it wouldn't take the stain the same as the rest.  You can see it just a little in the next panel over and on the right foot.  I am going to go back in and fix it.  Most irritating.

Oh!  I almost forgot.  See the little cactus garden?  I found the terracotta pot(small saucer for under a starter pot).  I filled it with potting soil when I got home and grabbed some shoots that the squirrels had dug out of one of the dish gardens.  I don't know how long it will last, but for 28 cents, I am going to see.  Hey!  It's lived for about two hours, so far.  There is hope.

See you tomorrow.

Gesso Again, Then Tile...

You will be able to see the second coat of gesso on all of the photos today.  I didn't want to bore you with plain white photos of blank walls.

I left the jar ajar last night so that it would thicken a bit.  This morning I applied it with a stiff brush and used a cheap foam rubber stencil pouncer to see how it would work....It did.  In fact, I think I like it better than the regular bristle stencil brush that I usually use.

On to the floor.  I decided to use the gold paper with trim on the edge.

I laid the paper in the corner and held it there while creasing the outer edge.  Then I cut it about a quarter inch outside of that and cut Vs In the bent part about every half inch.  This eliminates a lot of excess overlaps.

I wanted the interior of the porch to be higher than the sand, so I simply cut another layer of the foam core to fit the space.

That brought it up another quarter inch.  You can also double up on the walls if you want them thicker.  I do sometimes.  I didn't this time, because I wanted to make it as simple as possible.

I used the border to trim out the step in the arch and more to run along the edge of the curve.  I don't like edges just painted or not covered.  It looks so much better if you take that extra step.

As usual, Tessie helped....She stood on the door way tile until it dried nice and flat.  Oh.  I used Yes glue to do the main part and plain white glue for the boarders.  The white glue holds quicker and is stronger.

I found out why Tessie is being so helpful... She announced that, "I want my old hair back.  These silly ribbons are getting in the way and my bangs are all messy again.  Reverse it please."  This must be serious.  She never says please...But I did have to promise not to take any bald photos when I do it...No fun at all.

I am now trying to decide if I want the adobe white or if I want it more of a natural tan adobe color...Opinions?

I am now looking at my cigar box collection and trying to decide if I want to do more.  I think that I have a bad case of box pox...Stop groaning...

For Giac.  Here's the book case....All fixed...No minis were harmed in the fall.

I repaired the glass with caulking compound and the shelf is back in place....The only way that you can tell that it was broken is, There is a pile of books exactly the right height under the middle now.  That will keep it from happening again.  It is by no means perfect, but it works.

The one at the top left broke a long time ago because of the same situation...the glass shelves are supposed to slide into a slot where the light sources are...Sometimes they don't stay put and then they drop in the center...

I don't want to get rid of the unit.  The shelves are way deeper than normal book cases and perfect for mini rooms and houses on top.  They don't see a need for making these anymore....The center unit, where the southwestern room box is, used to be for a big old TV.  Stupid flat screens made this obsolete.  Don't get me wrong.  I love the flat screen TV.  I just miss the depth that used to force manufacturers to build deep units like this one.

Anyway, the one that broke this time was the bottom one on the right.  I put in a lot of books that I don't read anymore, then put an antique photo in front of them.  Thank goodness I didn't carry out my plan to take those books to the used book store!

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Icky First Coat....

Day Two.  This could mostly be done in one day.  I used to teach this class in three or four hours and a lot of people went home with it mostly finished.

OK...Here we go.  I used the infamous Walmart sand, from the floral department.  With the Craft Cottage and this, I haven't even used a half a sack. 

I first sat the box and lid where they would be on the board and traced around them.  That was to determine where the sand would be. 

Then I took the box and lid off and did what you see in the first photo.  I used plain old tacky glue, straight from the bottle.  Then spread it around with my fingers.  Then sprinkled the sand on and patted it down so that more of it would stay.

 If you are new at this, I would suggest that you do about a quarter of it at a time....

But first, I spread the glue around where I wanted it on the edges.  I had to go back and do the left back edge that isn't covered in the first photo...Yup.  I forgot it.

The only part I didn't do is where the tile is going to be.  That's the curve in the foreground of the second photo.

This is kind of messy, so work on news paper or paper plates.  That way you can dump the excess back in the sack.

If you are using good (like Elmer's) foam core, and a good thick glue, you shouldn't have any problem with warping...Sometimes it is essential to spend more than a dollar for foam core.  I do use that too, but not on something like this.

Next, you glue the bottom of the box in place and follow that with the lid, trim pieces and the outer wall.

I use an exacto clamp to keep the lid and box in line.  That assures a square corner also.

When I got the clamp on, Tessie showed up with a pile of tile paper....I vetoed all but a couple. 

She seems to think that she is going to get her pick of the decor in this one.  I like both of these.  If I use the bottom one, I will cut off the boarder and use it along the edge of the floor curve.

The blue and white one will have to be faked as tile.  It is really 20 year old wrapping paper...Yes...I save everything.  I have used this for floors and walls several times.

I kicked Tessie and the tile to the curb and did the first coat of gesso.

Tessie's only comment was, "Icky first coat."

Hey!  The first coat just had to cover everything inside and out.  The pretty part comes later.

I have to stop now.  The Wednesday Witches are meeting today.  Not here, thank goodness.

I have a kitchen table full of books and other stuff from the big bookcase.  One of the shelves broke the other day and I am in the middle of patching it.

It happened once before and I fixed that one with silicone sealant...It has held up pretty well.

I should know by know that you can't load glass shelves with books...and more books, without them breaking.  Actually, it wasn't that.  The back panel came loose and dropped the light bar down so that it wasn't supporting the shelf like it is supposed to.  Oh well.  It will take a day or two to set it right.

I need to go get ready for the witchy meeting.

See you tomorrow.

And the Winner Is.....

KATIE!  That is the Katie of Katie's Clay Corner blog. http://katiesclaycorner.blogspot.com/  She is an avid miniaturist and does lots of different things. I am an admirer of her aging and woodworking.
Congratulations Katie!

Now on to other things.  I'll bet that you thought that the boxes were something new that I just thought up.  Not quite.  They started with a kid's cardboard pencil box back around 1990.  At least that is when I started doing them.  I taught a class on how to do them back then.

You can still find the cardboard pencil boxes on line, but they aren't nearly as nice as they used to be.  Not as thick.

I woke up about 2:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I thought about what I could do to make it easy for the rest of you that were interested, to build your own box.  I decided to show you how I did the original one.

You can take it from there. It can be made into anything that you want. 

I am going to do it the way that I did it originally for the class.  Only this time I am using a wooden cigar box that I had handy.

You will have to take your own measurements and make your own plan, but it is really simple.

The first thing that I did was sit the box on a piece of GOOD foam core.  Not the kind that you get at the dollar store.  It needs to have a hard finish so that it won't warp as much.

I lined the back edge of the box up with the edge of the board. Then I used the lid as a compass and drew a semi-circle on the surface of the foam core.

As you can see, the first blade that I found was not exactly sharp.  No worries.  The surface will be covered. 

With this box, I had to cut off the lid and treat it as a separate piece.  Your box may not have to be done this way.  With mine, the lid fit down inside, flush with the top edges of the box on both sides.

I cut it off and slid it into the side at a 45 degree angle.  If your box top overlaps the box all around, this step is unnecessary.

I cut a piece of wood to fill in the far edge and two small pieces to fill beneath the sides of the arch.

I cut out the arch by making a paper pattern.  The paper was cut to the size of the lid and folded in half.  The arch was cut from that.  Then I traced around it on the lid and, in this case, I cut it out on the jig saw.

The only one of these that I have left is the mini, mini one that Tessie is holding in the second photo....Did I mention that, when I was taking that photo, she hissed at me.  "This one is MINE!" 

She wasn't talking about the little one she is holding... She is keeping the big one she is standing in.  Typical Tessie.

Anyway, here's the little one up close.  I will start doing the spackling, landscaping and flooring next.

As I said, the indoor outdoor thing is nothing new.  You can do it many different ways. You can put a door or window in the wall, instead of the arch.  You could possibly make it two rooms by using two box bottoms.  It is really easy and a lot of fun. 

Back to work.  Again, congrats Katie!

See you tomorrow.