Presents for the Pets

I am a big fan of fast crafts, especially in December. There is no time to hand make 20 or so gifts. Well, there is, but I would have had to start in June or something. Which, I didn't. Thank goodness for these cute Kraft Milk Cartons from Alpha Stamps! You could crank out 10 of these in one crafty afternoon. Then just fill the boxes with treats or a toy and be done (and still feel the satisfaction of having made something (and have free time to enjoy a nice Cosmo)).

So that's what I did. 

I started with two precious images from the Christmas Kitty Cats and Holiday Animals collage sheets to add to the front of the treat boxes. They were mounted on two scalloped circles with a bit of foam between them. The pine needle sprigs were cut from a die I had purchased with no purpose in mind. 

The sides of the cartons were covered with squares of Nostalgia Scrapbook Paper - Pet Postage Stamps. I love the green holly side of that paper! The other side is pretty cute too. After papering the top parts of the carton, I added a bit of ribbon and a tag to the butterfly paper clip and clamped the box closed.

I'll have to go pick up some dog biscuits and a catnip mouse to put inside. Standing in the line at the store will take longer than decorating the treat boxes... 

GO HERE to see the supply list.

Domed Glass Christmas Ornaments

I've been feeling the holiday rush lately, so when a spare moment presented itself, I quickly sat down to make little glass ornaments. They've been on my to-do list for a while. The bonus is all three ornaments were done in about an hour. (Minus drying time, but that doesn't really count!)

The assembly is nearly as fast as Santa's reindeer. 

Remove the cork base from the glass dome and paint it white. While that's drying, glue the Bronze Ornament Topper to the dome. By this time the base is dry, so you then add Dimensional Snow to the top, squoosh in whatever little decoration you have, then sprinkle the wet snow with glitter or Diamond Dust. Add a thin ribbon around the bottom of the dome and also to the hanger, and when the snow is dry, reassemble the glass dome. It's a cinch! 

I decorated a bitty Retro Bottle Brush Tree with Polymer Clay Christmas Slice Mix to put inside one of the glass domes. The other two are simply 3D Resin figures. These ornaments will be gifted to a friend that has a tiny tree, and I hope she enjoys them!

All of the supplies used can be found at Alpha Stamps right HERE.

Happy Holidays!

It is time to get ready for Christmas! I usually start hauling out the colossal collection of holiday decorations directly after Thanksgiving, mostly because it takes a solid week of deciding what items are going to be used, and where are they going to be placed, and...Jiminy Christmas, this year I'm demanding that the Harry Potter tree get placed in front of the window!

In preparation for the whole-house decorating, I decided to spend a little time making a 1:12 scale Christmas room box complete with a cozy fireplace. And a cat. Can't forget the cat.

I started with a 7x7 Corner Room Box and cute white wooden rocking chair from Alpha Stamps. The chair didn't need any altering at all other than a blanket, pillow, and the cat. I did assemble and paint the Candlestick Table Kit to match, but that's easy stuff.

The fireplace is a Deep Open Front 4.5 x 5.5 Shadowbox and a Fireplace Facade glued to the front. I added thin strips of lightweight card along the top, apron, bottom, and around the surround, then made a mantel from a rectangle of thin basswood. The inside (which was done before the front was glued on) is Red Brick Wall Scrapbook paper and an old pebble-y paper that has been in the stash for eons. I painted the fireplace a nice pale eggnog color before adding glowing embers, beautiful Victorian Andirons, and a sprinkling of actual ash from our fire pit. The andirons are heavy cast metal that I painted with metallic rust acrylic. They would look pretty in black, too!

The wee stockings only needed stuffing with candy canes, a present, and a tiny Santa. I removed the original contents from the red Mini Filled Christmas Stocking, reused the chocolate bar that came with it, added a hanging loop, and fluffed out the fur along the top. The Green Mini Stocking with Lace is so cute that I didn't do anything to it. I also made a festive garland and centerpiece for the fireplace using two Wired Pine Needle Stems. It was really easy to do, and the most time-consuming part was waiting for the glue to dry.

The Wired Pine Needle Stem was bent into a shape that I liked before miniature pears, oranges, and apples were glued on. Please ignore the super glue in this picture and use something like Tacky Glue to add the decoration since some superglue will leave a whitish discoloration on your project. I don't know if this brand will or not, but I decided I didn't want to find out and have to start all over. The gold walnuts are flower stamens. That's it. Instant golden walnuts. To make the bows, I made tiny loops of ribbon and glued all the loops together, making a fuller bow. The centerpiece is two lengths of the same stem with a metal urn glued in between with more fruit on the top. I didn't have it, but this white vase would look pretty in the center. 

Along the top of the fireplace is a folded square of paper to make a larger Rustic Star, a framed collage sheet image, and finally a few Retro Bottle Brush trees that are potted in white canisters. If I have a miniature canister, you can bet I am absolutely going to stick a decal or tiny sticker on it. And if I have FIVE canisters? Well, they all get stickers! (Pssst, I added a plant to a Red Canister that came with its own sticker!)

Leslie gave me my Christmas gift early- Tiny Round Christmas Labels to put on tiny round things like this Half Scale Round Cookie Tin. Thank you!
Now that my mini Christmas decorating is finished, I think I'm going to pull out the Harry Potter tree and put it in front of the window before anyone realizes what is happening.

Happy Holidays to you!

To see a list of the supplies used, GO HERE.

Pocket Christmas Shrines

How wonderful are these Little Niche Shrines from Alpha Stamps?! 

   

They are versatile little things; make them as ornate or playful as you wish! Or do what I did and stuff them full of Christmas miniatures.

The inside of the niche is pretty narrow, only 1/2" deep, but I managed to trim some pieces of basswood to create a toy shelf and slanted cookie display counter for my two bitty Christmas shops.

There are a bunch of toys for girls and boys inside the toy shop. Look at that adorable wee gnome! The second shop is full of holiday treats for everyone. I used some Miniature Red Tinsel Garland  to hang cookie cutters inside the Sweet Shop. The Itty Bitty Christmas Cookies Buttons Set (pssst, that set also includes the mini cookie cutters) were perfect for the corners of the mitered straws. 

Both of the shops were created the same way: covered with paper on the inside and out, striped paper straw "window" frames, decorations using Polymer Clay Christmas Candy Slice Mix and tiny rhinestones, and collage sheets for the lettering and images.

Hope you enjoyed these teensy Christmas Shops!

Supply List can be found HERE.

Castle Snow Globe

I have a small obsession with miniature cast metal items. They are fun to paint, can be finished in no time (for the most part), and can be used for many different things. Most of the time I have one or two planted in a dollhouse scene, but the last one I painted ended up in a miniature glass snow globe. 

There are a few flying bats in the snow globe because, hey, there's no reason why this can't be a vampire castle, right?

Normally, (if you aren't a die-hard hobbyist) the prep work for painting metal miniatures is nothing more than giving it a quick scrub with a toothbrush and some dish soap before painting with acrylic paint. I have done this plenty of times without using a primer or sealant of any sort and have had no issues with chipping. Most of the finished minis aren't handled too much anyway, so there's no need. This little castle, however, was going to be submerged and therefore required all the steps. 

The castle was cleaned as usual and afterward, a coat of white gesso was applied. I think it took three coats to completely cover. A few different colors of regular acrylic craft paint were used to detail the castle, including a final dry-brushing of black. 

I used the glass dome to cut out a polymer clay "stopper" for the snow globe. Once it was baked, it was painted and the finished castle was super glued to it. Some sprigs of green poly fiber were also glued to the base. It cured for a day or so before I coated the entire thing in several coats of matte varnish. 

To finish it off, I filled the globe with distilled water and tiny splash (real measuring here) of glycerin. The glycerin helped the bats float slowly through the water. Glitter would be nice too, or any other polymer clay bits. The castle/stopper was then placed in the globe, and I applied aquarium sealant around the edge to prevent leaks. It was left upside down to dry before it was glued into the snow globe base. Mine could have used a tad more water. 

A special thanks to Alpha Stamps for supplying me with all of my mini metal treasures!

Look at this supply list:

Miniature Glass Snow Globe
Cast Metal Castle
Polymer Clay Halloween Slice Mix (bats)
Green Poly Fiber

Happy mini crafting!

Fun with Miniature Things

Hallowe'en is creeping up, folks! It's scary to think there's less than two weeks left to prepare before the big night. I still have costumes to finish, ghoulish food to bake, monster movies to watch, and projects to do! Eeeek!

This project, which was frightfully difficult to photograph, is a weird one. I had bits and bobs all over the craft table and I decided to take a sec to throw something together. 

It started with a 3" Tall Apothecary Jar with Lid from Alpha Stamps, ceramic She Devil and Large Skeleton beads, and a snippet of a Creepy Tree.

These two are tying the knot in a spooky cemetery, so they had to dress their best. 

The fence is the bottom half of the one found in the Small Haunted House Windows and Trims set. I used thin wisps of wool roving for cobwebs as well as "invisible" thread to hang those ridiculously tiny bats from the tree. I'm legally blind now.

Hope you enjoyed this weird wedding project! Happy Hallowe'en!

Supply List can be found HERE.

Kid Friendly Monster Row Houses

Here are a few not-too-scary Monster Houses that can be done in an afternoon and not take up much space. My kind of craft!

 I used a set of Chunky Coffins - Small plus a handful of chipboard windows and doors to create three goofy houses. Alpha Stamps has many, many different styles and sizes of doors, windows, and houses, so creating your own would be easy!

This guy was covered in green scrapbook paper that I dabbed some paint on, and then gave it wiggly tentacles. The teeth are actually Little Crowns (I chopped off the ends of some and used pieces of others for fangs). The doorknob is a brad with the bendy-bits cut off, and the eyes are from the Eyeballs collage sheet. All of the doors and windows were painted black and backed with black cardstock or part of a collage sheet image.

This monster house was given bat wings (Victorian Bats collage sheet that has been colored) to match its unibrow. The shingles are rectangles of cardstock glued in a haphazard way. Both of the tombstones are laser cut wood pieces, which make them very sturdy and they take paint very well. The skull received two googly-eyes because where there could be googly-eyes, there should be googly-eyes.

Monster Houses require only a few pieces, some glue, and paint. It would be a perfect kid project for Hallowe'en! Don't forget the spider webs!

Supply List can be found HERE.

Little Witch's Wall Shelf

I have been going through all of my miniatures from Alpha Stamps and turning them into spooky little things. The latest miniature being this very sweet White (!) Wooden Wall Shelf, which can also work well for Christmas- no painting needed! Hmmm, Christmas. Might need to get another shelf...

This one was painted black with a coat of regular old black acrylic paint, then a coat of crackle medium (PVA glue works too), and finally a coat of brown paint. I glued tiny drawer pulls along the bottom of the shelf. After that, the shelf was stuffed with bottles, skulls, jars, and a frog!

Pretty much everything used on the shelf was given a wash of watered down acrylic paint and antiquing fluid to give it a nice grungy look. 

The candle holder is a Gold & Bronze Earring Back glued to a metal bit and the candle is made from Stockmar Modeling Beeswax with a snippet of sewing thread for the wick. And oh whoa look at those impossibly small skulls on the bottles (an upside down Tiny Black Acrylic Coffin, seed bead, and plastic skull). There is an incredible amount of detail for their size. How big, you ask?

Holy Halloween, Batman! That's small! (I love it.) The Mini Mason Jar - Large worked out well for a water slide decal from the Tiny Halloween Icon Decals. There's a short tutorial down below.

If you squint really close you might can make out a crystal ball between the mason jar of powdered death and the bubbling green potion bottle. I pressed some polymer clay into the crystal ball on the Witchy Props Mold, baked it, then chopped off the ball part. The base was painted silver and a 12mm Glass Cabochon was glued to the base. I had filled the ball portion of the mold with resin and mixed in some glitter, but I got too impatient waiting for the resin to cure and used the cab instead. 

You can find a list of all the supplies I used for this little witch shelf HERE.

Now, on to the water slide decals! These brought me back to when I built model cars as a kid. 

First, cut out the decal and remove the protective covering:

Soak decal in water for 20 to 30 seconds:

Slide decal to the edge of the paper:

Place edge of decal on surface:

Slide paper off the decal and poof! Instant Hallowe'en dishes for your minis.

Only 36 more days left; better get back to crafting!

Here is the SUPPLY LIST again in case you missed it. 

A Creepy Crib and Carriage

Today's project was a collaboration between Leslie and I; we were talking about Hallowe'en, of course, miniatures, and babies?? I can't quite remember exactly how babies became part of the conversation (demon spawn may have been mentioned...) but next thing I knew, there was a package from Alpha Stamps in my mailbox. Inside was a plastic bag with some parts and the words "crib?" on the outside. Hmmm, well okay!

Inside the bag was a Bagatelle Box - 2x3 Inches, a few Miniature Gothic Fences, and four Short Cabriole Legs. That was the perfect start to a very creepy crib! I added a Miniature Reliquary as a headboard and a few claws...

Morticia Addams would be pleased. 

The construction was incredibly easy. I used the back of the Bagatelle box for the bottom of the crib and cut one Gothic Fence to fit the foot end of the crib. The other two fence pieces fit without trimming. Everything was painted black and the fence sections were glued to the Bagatelle back. The Miniature Reliquary headboard also was painted black. I stamped a skull from the Poison Rubber Stamp Set onto a piece of cardstock, colored in the background, and glued an eyeball to the top. The eye was cut from the Eyeballs collage sheet, glued to a metal bit I had laying around, and then a glass cabochon was adhered to the top. All of that was then glued to the crib.

The mattress was made exactly like the Witchy Chaise Lounge from a few years ago. I cut a piece of cardboard 1/8" smaller than the Bagatelle back/crib base:

Cut a piece of felt and wool batting (polyfil fiber works too) the same size as the base, and finally a piece of fabric that is approximately 1/2" wider than each side of the base. Layer the pieces, wrap the fabric around the layers, and glue the fabric to the back of the base. Glue the newly made mattress to the base of the crib.

To make the legs a little more stable, I chose to trim off the top portion of the cabriole legs. They were painted black and glued in place. The claws on the legs are tiny, tiny polymer clay bits. I made 20 or so of them because they're so small and I knew I'd drop a few while attempting to glue them to the leg.

The last thing added to the crib was a fun mobile made from wire, bent filigree, three rubber bats, and a pewter spider charm. I just painted everything black that wasn't already black, glued the wire to the spider (which is stuck on the headboard), glued the filigree to the wire, and tied the bats to the filigree. Like most craft projects, there was lots and lots of gluing. 

To make your own creepy crib, go HERE to see the supply list!

In addition to parts to construct a crib, Leslie also sent along a fun, very tiny, baby carriage and a Mini White Baby Doll Figurine! 

How tiny is it? Think of this as a doll pram for your dollhouse doll. That size. Two of them fit inside the above crib!

After covering the carriage in black acrylic, wispy cobwebs were painted on the canopy of the carriage.  I added a black sitting cat inside (because where a cat fits, it sits) and Halloween Gargoyle faces to the wheels.

The figurine got me thinking of Wednesday Addams and her little dollies, so I pretty much immediately sawed off the head of the figurine after painting it. 

And then glued it to the carriage.

HERE's where you can see the short list of supplies for the baby carriage.

Hope you're having as much fun with your Hallowe'en crafting as I am!

Thanks for helping create this ghoulish project, Leslie!