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.
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.
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.
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!
