Sunday, August 26, 2012

More Miniature Furniture Dolls

I made a few more dolls made from miniature furniture pieces that I recently purchased.
It's really a creative challenge to see what you can do with a sink, cabinet and a bath tub.
I filled the bath tub with red flowers and glued her body around the tub.
For the cabinet piece, I gathered some ribbon and glued it around the middle for a skirt. Then I glued on the head and legs.
Below is my sink doll...
I turned the sink upside down and glued on a head, wings, skirt and legs.
That concludes using up all my different miniature furniture pieces and transforming them into something different. I hope I've inspired you to think outside the box.
Here's all my altered miniature furniture pieces.
Have a great week!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

My Swap - Paper Clay Art

Next month, I'll be attending the Art Is You Convention in Petaluma...I can't wait! Last year, I learned that at these conventions some of the attendees swap small items. A couple of people were so generous and gave me a swap item, even though I didn't have one to trade. So this year, I'm prepared.
I made these assorted paper clay charms. I used one of my favorite stamps from Invoke Arts and stamped on some white paper clay. I used the Crayola brand called Model Magic.
After stamping, I cut around the image. Then I decorated them in assorted styles; added some ribbon, tags, text, lace, etc. I added an eyepin to the tops so that it could be hung from a chain or ribbon. I tied a bow though the eyepin with some twine and inserted the charm into a bag, lined with some vintage journal paper.
I designed my own little "business card" to be inserted into the back. I used my recent education from the Photoshop class I took from A Work Of Heart in San Jose.
There's a couple of variations, but I did use my signature doll that I have in my banner as my trademark. My first piece of digital art. :-) I'm looking forward to swapping at the convention - I'll definitely post the swaps I receive.

On another note, lately we've been very busy with getting our 2nd house ready to sell. We've been cleaning and painting during most of our spare time. I even turned down going to our company sample sale last weekend to do some painting.
 The kids enjoy helping us too!
It's going to take us many more weekends to get the house prepared for selling, but it's been kind of a fun family activity. I appreciate your comments on recommended classes, but I'll be pretty busy these next couple of months, so I probably won't be teaching again until next year. My kids also started school this week - both in high school now! I can't believe how time flies and how quick the summer goes by. My eldest son is a senior, so he'll be applying to colleges this Winter. Oh my, the thought of him leaving home brings so much sadness to my heart, I know we'll miss him so much.

Hope you had a good Summer!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Miniature Bed Book Video

Hi guys, I love these mini beds I recently purchased at Craft Depot. Tonight, I made this mini "book bed" with the bed frame. The bed frame is 7/8" x 1 3/4".
Here's a short video of the inside pages of my book bed...enjoy! It's a blurry thumb nail, but the video is better quality.
I'm not great at making videos, but I hope you liked watching it anyhow - something different :-)

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Miniature Madness

Hey there! I had some great finds this weekend at Craft Depot.  I was there with my daughter when we discovered that someone had just donated their stash of miniatures - SCORE! I picked up some 1/4" scale furniture and these are the pieces I made with them.
The two dolls are all both made from mini bed frames - I guess you could say they're "Bed Dolls." Just to give you an idea of how bitty these beds are, they measure up to a scant 1 1/2" tall.
This is a portion of the minis that I picked up. 
Next up, we snagged five mini bakery racks perfect for displaying my daughter's handmade polymer clay creations. We couldn't conjure up a better display if we tried! :-)  

My daughter loves to make these sweet charms. Just give her a few packs of clay and some tools and she's a happy camper!

I love the donut box on the upper left corner!
Below are some of my daughter's newest items: floating charms! They're pieces that have an effect as if they're actually "floating," for example on the hamburger the mustard bottle looks as if it's suspended in mid-air.
Have a great week!

Monday, August 6, 2012

Birthday Class for My Sister

Last week was my sister Pat's birthday. As with all sister birthdays, it's been our tradition for us to get together and do a craft class at one of our houses. Pat requested a class from Diana Giambrone, a wonderful artist from Folsom, to teach us her Marie Antoinette crown. Here's our finished projects - they're all so beautiful!
Diana is a great teacher, everything was so organized and prepped for us to get started right away.

I hosted the b-day party at my house. Below are pictures of the work table..
Here's Ruby, our honorary sister
Thanks to Lana and Maryl for helping me with the decorations!
Here's the Birthday Girl, my sister Pat
Me and Diana G. (the teacher of the day)
Here's the kit and how we started...
Diana made the base crown from chicken wire and pre-cut many of our embellishments.
My sisters Pat, Maryl and Diana
Pictured from left to right: my sisters Diana & Pat, teacher Diana, sister Frances and close friend Ruby
Pictured from left to right:  Diana, Ruby and Lana
Here's the crown that Diana G. made for us to use as a sample - beautiful of course!
Below is a picture of my crown in progress - I chose to do a black theme.
We all had a great time! Diana is a wonderful teacher, so talented, organized and entertaining.

My sister Pat asked for two things for her birthday: 1) a paper doll and 2) a sister related Haiku poem. Here's a picture of the paper dolls she received, all so cute!
Haiku poems have a 5-7-5 syllable line. We all attempted to created these poems for her, however not everyone understood the Haiku structure. But, it's the thought that counts and the words were all so great and original!

Another fun day with my sisters. Thanks Diana for a wonderful class, we all had such a fabulous time and we LOVE our finished projects! Happy Birthday Pat!