I am lucky enough to be a part of Ontario Miniatures Gathering, and we are doing a virtual weekend for miniaturists. My package arrived in the mail and although it said do not open, I got my kid to take out this project so I could start it before the weekend. It takes me a long time to make decisions and I knew this project would take longer than the weekend. There are many things I wanted to modify on this kit, so I don't feel bad about starting a little early! The rest of the goodies in the box are currently being hidden from me so I can't peek! The theme is a View from my Window. It cleverly gives us both the inside of a house, and the outside. Here is an example of a finished piece.
Here is the base and wall of this project.
The first thing I did was write down all the things to modify and add. The height of the shelves in the kit are too high to fit a valence, so that will have to be adjusted. Also, if this is a window seat, I want a hinged seat to store extra blankets and pillows. The last change I want to make is put a different design on the front piece.
What items will be added to the kit are:
Outside:
plastic or acetate for the window to emulate glass
a window sill
peak over the window with shingles
fake bricks for the wall
planter with some flowers
grass.
maybe a hummingbird feeder?
Inside:
Valence, curtain, and curtain rod
rug
pillows
coffee table?
Starting with the outside
Glueing on the fake brick. This brick is made with a rubber type material found with the Lemax collection at Michaels. The scale is a little small, but I am determined to use what I have, and buy less. Using an industrial glue, this will be clamped until the glue has cured.
Cutting out the window and adding more clamps.
Here it is
The window is painted with gesso, lightly sanded, and then painted with white paint, sanding between coats.
Making shingles with cereal box card, and the same mixture that was used for the window sill is used to paint them. Using masking tape, the shingles are placed on the tape to paint easily.
To make the peak. Jumbo lolipop sticks are cut and glued. Triangles are cut from cereal box card, and painted.
I used scrap wood on the inside angles for extra support.
Adding the shingles with Aleene's glue.
A rectangular piece of cereal box card is cut for the top of the peak, painted and glued to the top.
Well, I changed my mind on the planter box. Here is where being a
Figuring out how this hanging basket will be attached to the wall. Some random black wire makes a nice hook, and this piece of silver metal was found on the ground that I just knew I would need someday. Again, E6000 is used and seems to be working to glue metal to the rubber brick wall.
Making a little hose holder with a tea light, picture hanging metal, and old tiny screws. The picture below is a guide from a flyer. In making minis, you don't have to be 100% accurate, but you want it to look close. Using scissors the tea light side is cut, and the picture hanging piece is cut to the right length with a wire cutter. Then it is glued with E6000 and clamped.
I didn't take photos of this, but I used wire cutters to snip off the ends of some tiny screws. they will be glued with E6000 to the little holes of the picture hanger when adhering it to the brick wall.
Making the topiary was easier than I thought. A few rocks from outside (hope my neighbors didn't see me this morning picking them off the driveway) to make it bottom heavy and take up space in the pot.
Using old tea that has thoroughly dried, white glue, paint, and sand are mixed together for fake soil. Here is the topiary with fake soil.
Painting the pot a terra cotta colour with acrylic paint. For more texture, sand could be added, but I left it out.
Here I am spreading a thin layer of Aleene's glue where I want the fake soil to go.
The soil looks really good.
Now, with the leftover fake soil, green paint and more glue is added to make fake grass.
Working around the little planter of succulents and butterfly stepping stone with the grass. Again, I laid down a little Aleene's glue first. More of this mixture was used to make it a bit taller than the soil behind it.
Adding another potted plant, a rabbit, and behind the rabbit, a green watering can.
The outside is finished!
Going through my pieces of broken furniture and laser cuts, this is what I find and make to decorate the front.
Figuring out the window seat.
Using a paper template to figure out how big I wanted the window seat lid to be.
Cutting the seat was scarry, but I did it! I cut an extra piece just in case my cut is crooked.
Using scrap pieces of wood to hold up the 3 separate pieces of the seat. They are measured twice so they are all the same height! They don't have to be pretty as they will be hidden inside.
Dry fitting with masking tape to see if it fits.
Glueing the little hinges to the seat lid. I like to rough up the hinge side that is to be glued with sandpaper first. I usually glue instead of using the nails that come with the hinges as I am afraid the nails will split the wood.
Two of the wood scraps are glued to the inside of the front piece. They will hold up the middle seat piece that will be hinged.
Two pieces of scrap wood are glued to the wall and will hold up the left and right pieces of the seat.
The hinges are glued to the back wall with E6000.
The window is a little smaller, so this valence will be made shorter. Lolipop sticks and wood from my stash will be glued together with wood glue.
My fabric stash is full of material to make this little valence. My glue of choice is liquid stitch and the best way is to use it sparingly and spread it out thinly so it doesn't soak through and stain your fabric.
I changed my mind and used this lighter blue fabric. To make the ruffles, two lines of stiches were sewed with a string in between.
Liquid stitch glues the ruffles in place. Just for fun, I whipped up a few pillows.
A small piece of my mothers old curtain is cut and fray checked to make a sheer curtain for the window. I really like adding memento pieces as we can't always keep bigger items. In this instance, the curtains were very old, torn and too far gone to reuse.
this piece was selected for edging.
Choosing a rug for a miniature is no less painful than real life! I had a surprisingly large amount of rugs to choose from.
This material was from the dollar store, with a foam backing. Simply using the base as a template, the semi-circle is traced and cut out.
I used a styrofoam glue to adhere it to the wood base.
Making a seat cushion was easy peasy. Some packing foam sheet is cut and a rectangular pillow is sewn from this pretty fabric.
I tried it with 2 layers of foam, but it was too thick. So one will do. Made more pillows while watching tv.
Looks good on the seat.
What my progress looks like so far.
Using some of the items from the gathering to fill the scene. We have many talented miniaturists in this group.
The one item I received that needs to be highlighted is
a pair of slippers from Michele. They have STAY SAFE on them, in addition to the rainbow!
Hope you enjoyed! This weekend was wonderful and I got to meet many lovely people if only virtually!
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