What can you make with foam core and wallpaper?

 Why a 1 in scale fantasy house for your little faeries, gnomes or whomever would like to move in!!

For my cake day my mom and I took a mini class the local mini club offered and was taught by Ron from Ron's miniatures in Orlando. Because the class was one day, Ron had the basic structure built and the inside already wallpapered. The outside was all up to us. So with an extra roll of wallpaper and strips of foam core he set us on our way. We covered the outside with the paper to give the house more stability and also because its textured it gave the entire house a look of stone/putty. We then cut pieces of foam core  to the shapes we wanted to look like flat stones. **Hint if you smush and slightly bend the foam core it will make creases to give the stones a more realistic look. Then we glued them on with the paper side showing. Some foam core has paper covering both sides or you can get it with only paper on one side.  
Ron also gave us some pre-done stones to give us a rough idea of size and to also help along those who needed it or just to help it not take up so much time. lol
If you can see it we also added strips of heavy poster board randomly to give the look of bricks showing through. Then something I had not used before was paintable caulking as the grout, but it worked and by the end of the day most of the areas on my house was dry. I did not paint mine because I wanted to add smaller stones in between but Ron did show us ways we could paint them with watered down paints and a wet rag.  Right now the house is just looking at me going...Hello!!! I am not finished...You must work on me this very weekend!!  hmm I think i better get more caulking today.

Best mini wishes to all.

Been working on another hutch

I have been working on another hutch for my mom's shop. This one I aged a little differently and added more worn areas. I also knitted a green scarf that's tied around the pitcher of flowers and the purple one next to the jar. I think next time I do that I will need a large magnifying glass. lol  The flowers are also made by me from some flower punches I had laying around. In the closeup picture you can see where i painted the tips of the petals white. Not too bad for a first try I think. I also created a open drawer on the hutch from some left over balsa wood I had. This will allow for even more mini things to be just overflowing in her shop.  The basket of yarn/thread is little pieces of thin card stock that I wrapped embroidery thread around.
Have a great evening everyone, and thanks for reading my blog. 

Been busy this week playin with paper clay. So far I have pumpkins, giant eggs and jars. the two painted pumpkins were my fist attempt a while back and I like that I can air dry them instead of baking them.

Had some sad news too. the local mini shop that has been open for 25 years is closing its doors. So off I went of course and I got all kinds of goodies. Some will be used for Christmas projects and some will probably be used in the building at the mini class I am going to take.  The total haul included: wood strips like base boards and chair rail, glass jars, laser cut fall leaves, canister, tobacco pipe, wood boxes, hat stands, keys, and a resin chair. Ack...the chair hmm now where did it go...  Have a great weekend everyone, thanks for following me on my mini adventures!

Gonna take a mini class for my cake day!

Yepp, I'm all signed up and my seat has been reserved. I'm going to take my first mini workshop in a few weeks it's a fantasy house with a fireplace. Where we will learn a inexpensive way to create stone, brick and stucco. My mom is taking the class too so hopefully I will be able to take a few pics as we build. I like the kit, it's a little wonky but has much appeal. I'm already making vines to attach to the side of the kit, and today I made some paper clay pumpkins too. I'm thinking of a little old cottage, but we shall see once I get started.
But really it should have pumpkins, little known fact about myself I LOVE pumpkins! I eat-em, bake-em, grow-em, make-m, I typically have a few real ones just hanging around the house. They are also in most of the mini scenes I create. For me pumpkins go hand in hand with Halloween, like snow globes and Christmas. That's it for now, I'm off to do another load of laundry.
Have a great week,
Jennybee

Michael's hutches

I had a few of those hutches laying and thought I'd work on them. One of them will be for my mom. She has a kit that is going to be a yarn shop. So I think the lighter one will work and have enough room for skeins of yarn. The first time I separated the top and bottom of the hutch I actually sawed them apart. The next one I did I stuck it in the microwave at 15-20 second intervals untils it warmed the glue enough and allowed for a much easier separation. I think I will stick to that method.

Got another kit!!!

I'm taking a break from my Street Shops and got a 2 story kit to work on. The first floor will be stone and the second floor will be wood planks. The stone floor is made from rolled out paper clay then with my handy knife i just made random shapes, I think it turned out pretty good for my first try. Also the wood floor is just the kit wood which I scored and then indented with a clay tool and then stained with a mix of acrylic paint and a stain compound that turns acrylic paint into a stain. I may put a dirty wash over it to darken it up a bit more.

And here they are!

 In the past I have made books from fimo clay and really liked how they turned out. I even made a tutorial for making them on the Greenleaf Forum I belong to. hmm wonder if I should update that tutorial and post it here....
I made quite a few and even made a few open books, what do you think? All are made by me even the writing on the pages. I was thinking that back in the time of witches & wizards they would have a lot of old books that were handed down from one generation to another and with a tiny tiny brush I came up with these. Have a great mini day!

Books books and more books...

I got a book from the local library on how to make books and tied my hand at making mini books. I've made booms before but with fimo clay, i even did a tutorial on the Greenleaf Forum but never paper books. I got inspired by all the cool new scrapbook paper the local scrapbook store had and thought hey I can make those... And so i did, its getting late and i have work tomorrow but i will post some pics of what i made tomorrow. Night for now.

Hello fello blog follower

I just wanted to say a BIG hello to Kim from Kimsminiatures!!! I have been following your blog for a bit and I am truly an admirer of your cakes and cookies, so very realistic. It makes me want to go home and play with fimo for the next week straight.

Jennybee

Filling it up slowly

Afternoon everyone,
Just another quick peek inside my shop. As you can see I'm filling it up slowly, but soon enough it should be overflowing with creatures and things. Here is another inside pic with the fireplace and the lovely Phoenix I got at a local show a while back.
Best wishes to all!!
Jennybee

2 in one day woohoo

Here is the inside of the shop to show the wood flooring and some pictures I "hung" on the wall.

This is my ongoing project which when finished will be part of my version of the shops in Diagon Alley.

This is one of the Street Shop kits, currently I have 2 of the 3 (crossing fingers for Santa to bring be the last one this year, he brought me one last year. I swear I'll be good!! Honest hehe)

So far I have added bricks to the outside and inside front walls. They have been sealed and a dark wash put over them to give them and old/dirty look.

The wood frame has been stained and also sealed.

The inside flooring is wood from coffee stir sticks cut to size and glued down then stained and sealed.

The stones on the ground are made from egg cartons and have been colored then sealed and coffee grounds are used to simulate dirt.