TUTORIALS,

As promised some easy tutorials for you to try

Hat Stand,

needed, wooden golf tee, flat button, wooden round bead.

lightly sand the pieces, and paint I used gold but any colour looks good.
when dry attach together, golf tee into wooden button, you may need to make the hole bigger, I used 2 flat wooden buttons, glue bead to top, leave to dry, decorate or leave plain,
cheap and easy hat stand for your hats

Jewellery stand.

the hard part, break or snap the arm of a 1/12th doll, this may hurt but the end result is worth it.

you will also need a dome shaped button for stand.

if need be sand the arm to make it straight easy for gluing, paint the colour of your choice, black or gold looks good, when dry glue arm to button, when dry decorate.

There you have it a nice little jewellery stand for your shop or dressing table.

Cheap and easy picture.

look round second hand shops, car boots for brooches that have nice old looking pictures on them, the one I am showing here had a lovely picture of a girl on a swing and a boy, cost me 50p, it had a wooden surround, I carefully removed the picture and painted the outer rim with gold leaf, put it all back together and there you have it a nice picture for your dolls house.



Some more tips,

these are not all mine but what I have picked up from others on the web,

make soap from your own soap bars, cut a tiny bit off and shape into a oblong to form a mini bar of soap.

flower pots can be made from toothpaste caps,

 buy cheap necklaces, bracelets from second hand shops, car boots, you can get  findings and beads from them at the fraction of the price

also look out for very thin gold and silver chains great for jewellery making for your doll

keep a look out at the Christmas ornaments now on sale a lot of them can be used for your dolls house, try to think outside the box and look at everything with a miniaturists eye, I just brought for a 1.00 a string of beads,

get friendly with your local florist, they always have left over bits of florists wire left over, this can be used for making the stems of your flowers,

give your relatives a small plastic box, ask them to fill it with bits they don't want or would be throwing away and to save them for you, I get many an item that I can make use of by doing this.

look out for old lace and crocheted doilies, these can make bedspreads, table cloths ect.

well that's it for today, I hope you have found this blog entry useful, next week I will be starting on my next project, A Egyptian shop, last year I got a double fronted shop for 10.00 from my local second hand shop and since then I have been collecting artefact's from the Egyptians era and researching all about it, I have a book that I use and I put in it the items I want to make, colours I want in fact everything that I feel will be needed for my project, I even read books, go to the library and in this case visited a museum, this is in the hope I can get it as exact as I can, now I feel ready to start it, I will be putting it on my blog and keeping you all updated as I progress

thank you my new followers

Thank you to my new followers, its quite exciting to open my blog and to find people like what I am doing and want to follow me, as you may of read i lost my dog so for a while I did not feel like writing or doing anything, but life goes on and I cannot stay idle for long, so I have reopened my work shop and today I sat and looked at my last item I was making and I must admit I have lost all my thoughts for it, so it has gone into a box and I will return to it one day, I have another little dog called Freebie, a 18 month old Yorkshire terrier and she keeps me going, she sits with me in my work room watching what I do, but I have to be careful she will sometimes take a liking to something I am making and grab it and run off with it, her favorite seems to be when I am sewing she loves to get hold of the blankets many an item has been lost, see rambling again, told you I did this get off one subject and on to another in a drop of a hat, Freebie is used to me as I sit and chat to her all day, I am sure if anyone came round they would think me mad and have me locked up,
but never mind I am happy and that's what counts.
Back to miniatures,
well thinking of what i could do I decided to do you some little projects,
hat stand
jewellery holder
pictures and frames,
started them today and I am waiting for the paint to dry so I can then get to the next stage, there will be photos and instructions, these are so easy and cheap to do although the jewellery holder requires nerves of steel when you have to dismantle your dolls arm, suggest you give her a good drink first,
switching off now son will be home from work soon and he will want his tea, sausage mash and onion gravy tonite I think
will be back tomorrow with the projects bye for now

change of name

Hi
have changed my name after realising there is another blog withn the same name, so added my own name to save any confusion
thanks debs

sad news

sorry to say I lost my beloved dog, Beth yesterday, she was 13 years old and my constant companion, it was very strange waking up this morning without her nuzzling my hand to wake up.

update

hi all
 just to catch up, not been doing any miniatures, as I said earlier my beloved dog, Beth is poorly and I have been nursing her, she is fading now and tomorrow I will have to take her to the vets to make sure she is not suffering, its hard but I cannot let her suffer so for now I will be quiet, I will be back just need time to deal with this
debbie

check out this great designer

Morning all,
check out my friends site, she makes great ceramics, dolls and other items, well worth looking at.
brentel.ceramic.designs.2itb.com.
bit of a tough week, my German shepherd, Beth is poorly, she is 12 years old and her health is failing, so I am nursing her and trying to keep her happy and comfortable, dog lovers will understand how I am feeling, all I can hope for is her ending is peaceful and she does not suffer, but it is hard watching her, sorry to have put a bit of a downer on blog,
on a happier note, progress with my HRT, started pills last night now waiting for them to start taking effect, my son will be glad, he is tired coming home from work to this mad woman who either up the wall or cleaning .
last night spent time on my new designs coming on well, got everything painted, but now got to make a bedside cabinet, will this stop I keep adding items, hope to add photos later,
watch this space

I continue

I am getting a bit carried away with my design, I have now started a bed and chair, I have some fantastic silver metallic paint and so far everything is looking silver, I have a great necklace that hopefully will look good on the bed when I have finished butchering it,
I blame my Doctor, he took me off my HRT, and those of you will know what menopause can do, put it this way, I did not need a shower just a bar of soap when I am very hot, anyway back I went to my Doctor today, after a long discussion about the advantages and disadvantages taking HRT he asked me what I wanted to do, my answer was if you don't want a deranged, sweaty, suffering menopausal 54 year old woman hitting him with my walking stick I suggest you write out a prescription, guess what came home with my box of goodies, so now maybe my madness that seems to manifesting in the style of silver painted miniatures may abate and I will get back on course,
when I have finished these strange creations will post pictures for your advice and ideas.
see what happens I start to rant and completely forget what I started this blog for, it was meant to be about miniatures but I seem to be starting to inflict you all with my manic ramblings, I blame my medication, I used to be sane, well watch this space for my next rant