Just Checking In...

Congratulations to all of the participants in this year's HBS Creatin' Contest. I know that we are all so excited to finally be able to see everyone's secret entries! No doubt there will be incredibly creative ideas and some amazing mini works of art. I wish all of the entrants the best of luck!

I've managed to keep myself busy in the 21 day absence of my wonderful husband, but am excited to report that he is on his way home for the weekend! He'll have to head back up to the job site for final inspections Sunday night, but I should have him back home for good next Thursday - just in time for Christmas!

This is about where I've gotten to this week on my kitchen-scene-in-a-cookbook (of course I had to do one for me, too). The (not so) secret one from my last post is just about completed. A special little detail is in a package from New Orleans. It was supposed to arrive Monday, but it somehow ended up in Opa Locka, FL! It stopped in Montgomery, AL for a visit too! This is it's ninth day in the mail. I sure hope it arrives in one (or two) piece/s!

I have lots still to make and to add, but I am loving the vintage colors! The bottle tells me that this is celery green, but come on! It's totally avocado!

I hope to fit Nancy's wonderful succulent kit into the queue soon, too! She wasn't sure about the green colored leaves, so she sent me a white set, as well! I have enough to make 14 adorable succulents - I'll need every one to fill up the upcoming flower shop project. Can't wait to get started on both!

I hope you have a happy, happy weekend and get to enjoy all that the season has to offer. A hot buttered rum sounds just about perfect to me!

The Weather Outside is Frightful!

It is cold and dreary here in the northwest... In fact, we got about six inches of snow last night! The puppies had so much fun investigating, and within just a few minutes, the back yard was completely covered in paw prints! We had to make several trips out, warming up by the fireplace in between. It is mostly melted today, but we have more on the way for Tuesday.

There's no better way to spend a dreary day than to work on minis! I have made some good progress on my (not so) secret project, though I am still waiting on a couple special pieces to finish it off. It's character has certainly emerged, and it fits my daughter to a "t". She's vibrant and fun and full of joy!

Material  for both aprons and tea towels printed on cotton fabric.

Natasha's apron assembled.

Here you can see where the apron will hang.
It was tough making sure nothing would stick out too far
and prevent the cover from closing!

I am still working on what will be included on the table shelf.
I think I am thinking too hard.

The chipboard shelves I made using the Cricut worked out wonderfully!

This is really my first time working in "mixed media",
so I spent a lot of time toiling over what to do!

Here is the back cover. I have made several pockets for storing
family recipe's which I'll re-write on recipe cards that are part
of the Kiss The Cook line of products.

I am astounded that there is only two weeks left until Christmas, and three until 2016 is completed. I hope all of you are able to make every moment count with those who mean the most to you!

Jodi

Dress Rehearsal...

Just a little peek before I have to take it all apart again... I'll need to finish the outside before I can make any real and permanent  progress. I only have a general idea of what I'd like to do, so the lack of a concrete plan has me procrastinating.

The radio face is still drying.

These are all just auditioning.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Instant Gratification (almost)

It's so nice to be working on a small project! It's like almost instant gratification! I may just have to do several of these before I get back to the soap shop! :O)
The photo above shows where I'll stop for the night - as much as I'd like to have more hours in a day, my body makes me sleep. If you'll indulge me, I'll share the days activities...

Here's where I left off last night. I fit all the tabs into the slots for a dry fit, made some adjustments, then glued and taped. The chipboard is very forgiving, and even easier than 1/8" plywood to trim as needed. I had all of the trim (quarter round at the ceiling, chair rail and baseboard prepped, painted and waxed. The wax needs to sit overnight, so this left me at a great stopping point.

7:10 am - Woodson, extremely active puppy that he is, was awake and making noise. The kind that lets you know he's up to no good. He knows that this will surely startle and wake me up - which means he can now get served his breakfast. He was sad to discover that there was no more turkey left over, and all he got was boring old kibble.

On the to-do list was to buff then install the trim and moldings. While they were drying, I searched out a photo for the window's view. I like the fall colors against the blue sky - something we don't often see together here in the northwest. The window I used was one from the Creatin' Contest kit. I didn't want to cut a hole for it in the chipboard, as the back is actually THE BACK for the book. (What? You hadn't already guessed that it was a book? Shhhh... Don't tell!) So, I just trimmed a little off to make it sit a little more flush to the wall.

Next up was to install the metal plate for the magnetic LED battery light fixture. I glued it with E6000 to a painted woodsie, then attached the whole assembly to the ceiling. I got the fixture during a closeout sale at Grandma Holly's House. She sells miniatures through her web site and eBay, and is so close to my location, that I get my stuff in 24 hours most times. ~C~O~N~V~I~E~N~T~! The light isn't very bright, but for $18 including shipping, I can live with semi realistic lighting. I'll save the real $$ on important things for the scene, like shoes and a purse! The fixture was brass, but a little white nail enamel 'washed that brass right outta my fixture'!

In case you feel dizzy, you are up-side-down!

Next on the agenda was to make some shelving. I could have gone with wood, but I am concerned about the final weight of this project. And, I just so happen to have an awesome new Cricut machine. Oh! I can make some chipboard shelves, YES I CAN! With perfect measurements for the space, too!

The shelves' design elements...

Precisely cut elements... Aren't they pretty!

See the brown? that's the bonded kraft backing layer.
It just stuck to the REALLY STICKY purple mat.

Oh! And by the way... I was being a total baby in my last post. Changing to the deep cut blade for chipboard cutting was soooo easy! YOU ALL NEED THIS MACHINE! Mind-blowing-wake-you-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-kind-of-ideas will come to you! If you are a maker you need this machine!

So... I did this twice. Not because I am diligent and wanted to have a dress rehearsal for the real show. Nope. Because I changed my mind. You see, the first time I covered the shelves in red paper. Then I remembered that Some of the accessories for the shelves ARE RED. Too much red does not pop and make your little heart flutter. I really need me some heart flutter. Sooooo, on the second thought I decided no paper, just assembled shelves, brackets and trim painted the same color as the window trim: Happy Housewife. Just kidding, but that is a good name for paint.

These perfectly good shelves will go in the drawer I lovingly refer to as: Gen Pop. Meaning that any of the items in that drawer are okay to steal for any project I like. I.E.General Population. Some things I accumulate are only for specific projects and I am not allowed to steal them... Says me!

So the second batch of shelf parts went something like this...

Shelf and supports are laminated for
strength, trim is delaminated to reduce bulk.

Shelves assembled.

It was a long and satisfying day. For Woodson, too, as he got to have his very first bit of white chocolate! Happy grandpuppy, happy grandma!

Back soon,
Jodi

A Tale Of Two Ceilings...

Recently I posted about getting a Cricut Explore Air electronic cutting machine as an early birthday present. I promised a report of my experience getting to know it and how it could be helpful in miniature related projects. I also posted a teaser about a couple fun secret mini projects I am starting. I am happy to report that I can report on both in one post! ;OP

I have to confess that my first real project using the machine was not mini related. It just so happened that my uncle Ted was having his 70th birthday - what an auspicious occasion to make a birthday card with the Cricut! I designed my own in their Design Space software (free) using multiple (5) different layers that I would assemble once the cardstock was run through the machine and cut/scored.

It was very straightforward but if I had gotten stuck there are a multitude of How-To Videos on their site. There are also many great hack videos on YouTube that show you how to "trick" your machine to do cool things like embossing! I am like the VW Bug driver who suddenly gets a Porsche - it's going to take me several months to understand the power I have at my command! So far, I'm really digging it!

Since the secret projects are both starting from a chipboard kit, I wanted to make sure that there were no "tricks" I needed to know - preferably before I wasted good materials. I noticed when I removed the kit pieces from the packaging that I had a black, powdery residue all over my hands. It must have been a byproduct from where it was laser cut. I did not want it to end up on my pretty scrapbook papers, so I did some research about how chipboard needs to be prepped for crafts. Although this is not the retailer I ordered my chipboard kits from, this site gives some great information on prepping and finishing. Learn about chipboard. Basically, I needed to sand a bit and prime to contain the ash. I also painted around the inside edge and actual edge where there will be no paper covering.

The Sweet Mint green paint will get toned
down with antiquing medium later

In both secret projects I wanted a vintage feel to them. I decided on a copper ceiling for one and a tin ceiling (painted over) for the other. Again, an auspicious occasion to use the Cricut! I knew that to recreate the punched metal look I would need to build several layers of cardstock. I do have and could have used my own chipboard instead of cardstock, but for that I would have had to change to the deep cutting blade then change print settings and cutting depth. I need to be in the mood to fail and waste material, and this adventure is just above my current pay grade. Patience young padawan...

I created the design and layers using basic shapes available in Design space. It is too complex to fully explain in my post, and frankly you'll get clearer instructions from Cricut so let's just replace 1000 words with this:

I used the square shape with the center
removed to create the ceiling grid.

Resized, Grouped, Synched and Layered.

After printing, I eliminated two of the layers in my design - the ceiling just didn't need them. The basic structure went: backer layer (cut to the exact size of my chipboard ceiling piece), grid, lg rounded off square shape, sm rounded off square shape, and finally the propeller shape. The ones I eliminated are the two blue shapes on the right - their detailed doily design didn't translate to the eye in this scale, and were really unnecessary.

For the grid, to make it have good depth, I glued four layers on top of one another. The rest of the shapes were glued down in single layers. This gave it what I think is a good dimensional tin ceiling kind of look.

I used colored cardstock so that you could better see the layers. It would have meant less gesso and paint if I had used cardstock that was close to the end color that I was trying to achieve.

After two coats of Gesso

After two coats of base color. I chose burnt sienna
because it is close to copper in color.

After final base coat

For the metal finish, all I happened to have was a bronze metallic acrylic paint. After the first coat of that I was happy with the metallic look, but not the color. It seemed a little too light.

I decided to try mixing both paints together to see what I'd get. It worked perfectly! A copper color with a slightly metallic finish!

Top two rows with the new paint mix, bottom row original bronze.

Now that I know that neat trick, I'll be doing some more metal finish testing! And, I see more Cricut ceilings in my future! Actually, I see many, many mini projects that Cricut will help make happen. Just the perfectly accurate cuts alone will save time and frustration!

While things were drying I cut and pasted another piece of cardstock for the flooring. I added several coats of gloss Mod Podge. For the pale yellow ceiling, I added a coat of satin varnish. It came out way too shiny, so I overcoated it with matte Mod Podge. Much better!

I finished up the day's crafting by adhering the scrapbook papers (Kiss The Cook Collection) to the chipboard pieces. I really like where this is going! Next up I'll get the walls, floor and ceiling into a 3D state of being, then, begin all of the fun little projects that will go inside. It feels very vintage and all of the accessories I have planned will enhance that feeling!

Whew! That shiny floor is blinding at this angle!

If you're wondering where the copper ceiling will go, I'm afraid that is going to have to wait a bit. I only ordered the supplies last week. More to come on the second project...

Hope you found great bargains all weekend and that your holiday lists are looking good!

Take care,
Jodi

Super Secret Mini, Miniature Project... Shhhh!

Holiday prep is a lot of work! My back is killing me and it's not even THE DAY yet! Oh well... I shall endeavor to persevere (and take ibuprofen at regular intervals)! It's easy to stay positive when you have something special to look forward to, and boy do I! In addition to stuffing my face with a litany of  rare culinary delights and seeing family for the first time in far too long, I have a secret project! The following colage is a hint of what I'll be starting Saturday. Not one, but two new mini, mini projects! One for me and one for she who shall remain nameless... For now... Can you guess the themes?

I'll surely take photos as I go and will share them as soon as I can! How great are shiny, new projects! Hooray!