Plate-cane

Like I said before I wanted to make plates from a clay cane. And now I've tried that =) At first I thought of doing several trees and a house and the sky and the ground.. When I had made the first tree I realized it would take a LOT of clay and time to do more. So I decided to only do one tree =) I was inspired by Clarice Cliff's plates and patterns. I just love her Art Deco patterns!

Like always, when I do a cane, it gets bigger then I first thought.. I thought I started small, but boy did I get a lot of plate-materials now.. =) I've already done several plates and I thought of making earrings and necklaces of some of them too =)

I most say I'm quite pleased how the pattern turned out =) Its hard to make plates the exact same size, but I have a lot of cane left to keep trying =)

I've done a toy too, but I'll write about that later =) And I keep working on the floor for my livingroom and I've put up wallpaper to all the walls except one =) Hope to get the time for that last wall tomorrow. I'm very eager to assemble the house again, but I'll have to paint the ceilings and maybe do all the floors first too... but now I just want to start decorating =)

Take care
Hannah

Even more napkins??

I might have gotten cocky, I was thinking of putting napkins on my kitchen furniture too?! I was going to paint them, I have started, but it wasn't the exact colour I wanted, and I have a nice napkin in my favourite colour, lime green =) So maybe I will take that for my furniture.. but, its not easy getting it well done, I had to redo one of my livingroom walls, and one bedroom wall too... I haven't got the hang of it just yet, maybe I never will, but even with some wrinkles on I think it looks quite good =)
We will have to see if I "only" paint the furniture or if I decoupage them too =)

I have too many ideas! And I want to do so much, and sometimes I just get overwhelmed by ideas so that I cant do anything.. I have to sort them out so I can get going again.. I have been thinking of my bathroom, and the floors, I will go crazy over these floors one day... I just cant decide..
But I did finally decide something =) I wanted to use wooden sticks from a table mat for my living room floor. But when I decided that, I had to decide in what way.. ;) so a couple of days later I just decided and now I make the floor like a "frame", a square. So I'm working on that right now.
I thought of placing it on a piece of cardboard and then on the floor, but I didn't find a suitable cardboard so I'm making it straight on to the floor, no room for changes now....

And to show a few more pictures I will show this plates I made years ago, but I only found them a couple a weeks ago =) And when I was reading my book, The big book of Doll's house I saw my plates..

I thought I could show the picture in the book, but then I thought of copy right, so maybe I'm not allowed to show that?! But if you too have the book you can see it on page 156. Its a pattern from Clarice Cliff.

I can't remember making these, but I most have made them after looking in this book some years ago =)
My plates are a bit (quite a lot) different sizes and the patterns are far from perfect.. looks very much like an amateurs work, but I think I still am a amateur all do I started playing with clay when I was 3 years old and started with polymer clay at 7 years. But if I practise more and use a little more patient in my work I might get a bit better =)
I like those plate patterns, I might just do more one day, but I don't have that much paint now, so I'll have to see if I can make them just by using clay. Maybe making a cane and cut plates from that?!
Yes, like I said, lots of ideas =) I got even more ideas just looking in that book =) Like building a "cabin" for my washstand =) But I haven't built much, and I will have to make a refrigerator and cabins for the kitchen and a bed and... lots of stuff, (if I can't afford buying them..) so I don't know if I will ever get the time for all I want to do, and I might not even be able to build anything!

This is (I think) the first furniture I ever built out of wood, a sewing table (I made this some years ago, from a pattern in the book: Dockskåpsboken - Vivienne Boulton)

 

 

I just need to add hinges to attach the lid.. It's a bit hard to get the right colour on camera, its brown with a bit of gold to it. I was quite happy with that colour =) It's painted with tea and some golden paint.

And since this post has no story line and is about everything and nothing why not add a package I got today =)

I'm a member of "Miniatyrklubben" now, it's a swedish "club" where the members gets to buy a package every month, this month I was offered this for a special price:

Cake tins, packages, cookies, bananas and a spoon

 And then I chose to add some extra things too =) You can both choose to buy things from a members' bulletin or the shop online, I did both this month =)

Doll, baskets, kettles, a house and a cake-slice (I got that last one for free) =)

I couldn't resist buying that little house, I could have built it myself.. but now I have a house to go after when I make more myself =)
And the doll was very cheep, 10kr, I hope to give him a make over some day =) And the baskets was only 5kr, they will be perfect for some mushrooms =)
And almost everything I buy is with the thought of giving it some kind of make over =) But often I just put them in a box somewhere thinking I will do that later...

And at last I want to welcome my new followers:
Isabel Ruiz Alonso

CrisColás

Thank you for reading =) and take care
Hannah

More napkins...

I did some window frames last week. From coffee staring sticks =) I measure with my mitre box but cut it with a metal shears. And painted the sticks white.

 

I was a bit eager as usual =) And glued them on, before I thought of putting "glass" between the frames.. I will have to remove them and glue some glass in between. I think it will keep the dust away better.
Like everything I do, it wasn't perfect... I thought I measured carefully, but the angles weren't perfect and everything went a bit crooked, but it's OK. I will wait with the rest until I found my plastic for the window. I have some overhead plastic sheets, but I can't remember where...

I couldn't remove the white and blue wallpaper on the upper floor but I put a new blue/turquoise paper on it. I might save the sides as they are, but I wanted the back wall to be turquoise =) It's a regular printers paper, but its turquoise, on both sides. I love the colour =) And you can see the yellow kitchen walls and the green patterned livingroom walls by the napkins. I'm happy with the colours. I think I got all my favourite colours now =) (light green, turquoise and pink)

I looked for wallpapers to my bedroom, didn't know exactly what I wanted until I saw it, but I thought it would be best if it wasn't a napkin, it was a bit hard to work with, I looked at wrapping paper, but didn't find a good one, but then I just found it, the perfect wallpaper, and what do you believe, it was once again a napkin =) But I couldn't resist it when it just spoke to me like that =)

I wanted to try a new technique. The last time I painted the walls white and then I placed the napkin straight on to the wall. It was a bit hard and I got some wrinkles and I redid one wall, but it didn't get any better..
So this time I tried to glue the napkin to a regular white paper. (like I tried the last time, but then I didn't remove all layers, I thought I had, but there were still one layer of white underneath that made the whole thing wrinkly) This time the result was quite good. I used a glue stick. and I was satisfied with the result. But when I wet it with wallpaper paste (like I have done with the papers I put on the walls) the napkin went all wrinkly. But I hope it will get better when it has dried..

It was hard to get the wrinkles on camera =)
I have soaked the paper in wallpaper paste and waited a bit before I put it on the wall, just like I would do in "real life" =)

While waiting I did some wallpaper on the roof window walls too. For the little boy's room.

After putting up one napkin I had to pack up when my daughter woke up, but I wanted to take a picture before I close up for the day... 

But it's not easy taking pictures when my little girl is up ;) She just love that door! I normally do everything mini-related when she is asleep. But I did get one picture before she grabbed the wall again...

Tomorrow I will cute out the windows, and see what method was the best, straight on to the wall or on a paper first =) Here you can see the result from both, upper wall on a paper and down stairs right on to the wall. (but the upper wallpaper hasn't completely dried yet)

Take care
Hannah

Paint and wallpapers

I have painted and painted.. like a thousand times ;) I hate ground work and wants everything to go quickly, but I painted all the kitchen parts with one white layer, and it looks better and I don't have to paint several layers of the actual colour, grey-green =)

 

I also started painting the bathroom parts. Here is the mirror. Like I said I thought it took to much time to sand off the decor, but I think painting it will do. The mirror looks good anyway, I hope the rest will look as good with paint too =)

And I got a tip that I could use wallpaper glue and paint the walls white and put the napkins right at the wall. Tried to glue it to a paper, but it was too hard, I couldn't get rid of the wrinkles in the middle. I used a regular gluestick, that's what I had at home.. but placing it right on the wall like this turned out quite well.

But when I did the same thing to a thin wallpaper it went all bubbly and ugly! =(

I just gave up yesterday and tried fixing the kitchen floor instead. I thought I choose an easy way, I thought of doing tiles at first, but I did that in my last house (Santa's house) so I wanted to try something else and I got this beautiful floor from Anna. (I think it used to be a table cloth) =) It was a bit short on one side and long at the other, so I had to cut it and I thought it was going to fit even do I turned it 90 degrees, but it didn't =( But I didn't have any more so I glued it on like this, you can see the seam at the right, but since I'm going to place my furniture there I hope it wont show =)

Today I continued to do the wallpapers off the napkins and then I made a new attempt on putting up the wallpaper in the kitchen. I took a new wallpaper, a yellow scrap booking paper and "painted" the glue on to the paper and let it rest a bit and then I put it up to the wall, and it was so much better then yesterday =)

I will cut out the windows when the wallpaper has dried =) And later I will have to make some window frames. 

I forgot to show you my strawberry cane before, so here it is. It's far from perfect, but it's so much better than I've ever done before =)

And I'm still working on my carpet =) But I'm the master of unravelling it seems and had to unravel all my work of today =( I most be more careful how I count, I don't want to unravel any more now!!

Take care!

Hannah

Work from the weekend

Saying I was taking a break with my 1:144 scale house was just the perfect way to get started with it again ;) I painted the roof...

... and made and painted a fence.

No, it's not finished, I need to ad a "top" at the fence too. I might use Darias idea with thread. =) But I was eager to continue the big house, so this will have to wait some more =)

When I just decided something about the 1:12 house, I change my mind, again... I thought I could make a nice parquet floor by the popsicles. Just cut them and place them in squares...
But when I saw the result I was a bit disappointed.. This doesn't look like a beautiful livingroom floor, it looks like a terrace floor.. Not that it's anything wrong with that, but it was not the look I wanted...
Don't know if it would get better with a little paint, or if I should just come up with another idea..

Have to think about that floor a bit more.. So I moved on and when my husband was at home I finally got the courage and opportunity to try my new multi-tool =) (used it on the balcony to avoid lots of cleaning after ;) )
I thought sanding with the tool would spare my hands and go faster then by hand. And faster it is, but afterwards I got spasm in my hand ;) It vibrates a bit and I held it really tight so I wouldn't slip or drop it ;)
But I manage to sand all kitchen parts, I didn't do it perfectly, I just wanted to get rid of that shiny finish so that I can repaint them in a lighter colour.

My poor doll couldn't stand the mess, so she arranged the pieces again, even do everything in here is totally unfinished.. ;)

I'm actually thinking of removing that window.. I like the light, but it feels a bit in the way.. I would like to have top cupboards (is that the right word?) too... and maybe some tiles between them. we will see...

I have this bathroom with decor, I don't like the decor, so I thought I could sand it off with my multi-tool =) This is made in some kind of ceramics?! quite heavy and hard.

After a quite long while I manage to get rid of the most of the decor on the toilet. But it was very time consuming and hard to get it nicely done, so I will just paint the other pieces and hide the decor that way =) maybe it will look nice with the decor in the same colour as the rest (white that will be)

I think some new paint will cover the "scars" =)

But I'm glad I can open the toilet-lid now, that was almost impossible before..

The whole house is a mess, I'm glad I haven't installed the stairs so that my doll can go up stairs and see all this mess ;)

And speaking of paint... I wanted to paint this bookshelf in some nice bright colour, but I didn't have that much to choose from, so I got an idea to use nail polish =) I loved to paint my nails when I was younger, so I had lots of different nail polish, but I never use them any more, and they dries up, just like my paint... so I thought this could be a way to use one of them, but it was already a bit dry, and I don't know if I will have enough... =/ I will have to try to paint the rest another day, I let this dry on the balcony, it smells quite a lot...

And finally I found the perfect wallpaper in a drawer. Its a napkin, and it might be really hard  to put it up on a wall, but if I glue it to a regular paper it might be easier?! I will have to try!

 

I would say I got quite a lot done this weekend even do we were off to my mum yesterday to celebrate mothers day =) My second mothers day as a mother to the worlds best child =)

Take care
Hannah

Some setbacks and some progress

First, I've started the new carpet as you could see in my last post. But I realized I missed a row, just like Otterine wrote about. I thought of just keep going and cope without that row, but it annoyed me =) So I unravelled some stitches and started over again. And I wonder how many times I got to unravel even more stitches, I keep miscounting. But I'm on the move now and hopefully it will get easier the more I make. This is how far I've got =) For awhile it felt like I didn't get anywhere, but now when I look at it I see how much I've done, and not how much I have left =)

So far I've used:
Pastella mouline 043 Egeskov (dark red)
DMC mouline 311 (dark blue)
DMC mouline 806 (lighter blue)
On a canvas with 11 threads on 1cm (I can't find any reason why some countries use inches when centimetres are sooo much better, just wanted to say that ;) )

I'm having a little break in my 1:144 scale house and set focus on my 1:12 house. But I'm having a really hard time deciding which room should go where.. I'm almost certain about the nursery, since I've already done the walls there. But I cant decide about the floor.. Should I have popsicles? or thicker sticks?
There is an annoying spline beside the walls at the top flooring. If I choose the thicker floor the spline wont show as much, but it's harder to cut this sticks and I get a "higher" floor than with the popsicles, but, they are low so that I see the spline and it might get harder to furnish the room with that level difference..

Here you can see the spline at the sides.

 

 Popsicles, it's hard to see, but there is a level difference for about 5mm

Thicker and longer sticks, there are a level difference here too, but not that much as the above.

Beside the nursery I thought of having a boy's room (the poor boy fell inside his package while he was inspecting the floors..) But then I wondered if I should make the parents bedroom beside the baby's... Who leaves a baby on another floor? but the great thing about dollhouses is that I can do what ever I want, it doesn't have to be realistic... but I like realistic... =)
The wallpaper suits the boy, and I have a nice tablecloth that would make a cool floor (and I dont have enough cloth to cover the bigger bedroom down stairs) And I like to give the parents a bigger bedroom, but I like to have the nursery next to the parents bedroom... I've been thinking of this for several days but I can't decide... I have to think a bit more...

And like I had nothing better to do I tried furnish my very unfinished kitchen ;) I think I have selected the room for it, but I got a bit uncertain, should I take a bigger room for it, or not. But I think this smaller room will be it! Now I "just" have to choose floors (which will take forever if I know myself right..) and wallpaper and put it all up =)

I have this kitchen-furniture that I actually don't like, but this is what I found and could afford, so I'm thinking of giving them a make over. I will have to sand them to get rid of that shiny wood colour, I want them white or light green/yellow. I'm thinking of using my new tool, but I cant do that while my daughter is asleep because of the sound, but I cant do that when she is with me either because it is to dangerous if she gets in the middle (like she always do, she reaches every thing and she just takes all my stuff ;) ) So I don't know when I'll be able to do that. But I thought I could start painting the inside of this strange stove ;)

I have never seen a real life stove with a drawer like that! and the oven can't be made of wood like that! so I wanted to paint it black inside and white on the outside and remove the knob to the fake drawer. But, like I said, setbacks! My black paint has dried! Paint should not be allowed to dry like that!! So I found another black paint bottle, and guess what, its totally dry too! Before I throw it away I thought I'll give it one last shot, so I pour some nail polish remover into it. And it worked =) It's not like it's new, it's a bit lumpy, but I manage to paint the inside of the oven, but it looks... not so good ;) As always I was a bit eager to take the photo, so the paint hasn't dried yet.

And at last I want to thank and welcome my new followers:

Ludmila

Lara

Natalia's Fine Needlework

Take care
Hannah