AmeriCARna 2015

AmeriCARna passed through our town again today. About 600+ American cars or American themed cars such as hot rods drove into our town about 1.00 pm today to display their cars and take part in various events. I popped my head out of work briefly and saw a few of the first cars drive into the town centre. They stayed until close to 5.00 pm when they started heading off for their next venue. My daughter Jamie and I walked to the round-about down the road from us that exits onto the Highway and took turns at taking photos. I really enjoyed the quality time we shared taking photos together.

Here are just a few of those photos. Sorry to those who are not into cars. I have to admit I am not a car enthusiast but I enjoy watching the cars leaving amidst toots, oogahs, flags fluttering, people waving and the enthusiasm of the participants and the onlookers.

 

 

I've decided I'm rather fond of the good old Ford pick-up trucks.

This is a link to the AmeriCARna site:

http://www.americarna.com/About/

This is a link to the video on my blog that I put together after the 2014 AmeriCARna:

http://myrtlemanorminiatures.blogspot.com/2014/03/americarna-2014-part-2-video.html

I have a fairly busy weekend with a family event and Jamie has a dance session both Saturday and Sunday to learn a new competition dance but hopefully I might find a little time on Sunday to do some minis.

Have a good weekend everyone. Of course it is already late Friday night here in New Zealand whereas some of you are a day behind - your weekend is coming though. Enjoy it.

My Weekend

Woke up Saturday morning feeling a bit down with all the stresses we are facing at the moment. I've had to have a real think about my hobby with our current financial situation and have made the decision to sell a lot of my vintage miniatures. The good thing is I will now focus on making miniatures. Anyway, I picked up my laptop to check my emails, blogs etc and soon had a smile on my face. Look here to see why:

http://minifanaticus.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/minifanaticus-hutchessssssss-giveaway.html

Yes, I am one of the lucky winners of a giveaway from Jane of Minifanaticus. The hutch she has made far exceeds the vision I had in my mind's eye when I put the idea in her blog comments section of her giveaway post. I will put some pictures on my blog when it arrives. I spent quite a bit of time after reading of my win looking at images on Pinterest planning out a little scene to house the hutch in. That will be my next little project.

Talking of projects I did do a bit more to the Upcycling Project as you can see below but my heart just isn't in that project at the moment so it will go on hold until I'm ready to carry on with it. It didn't help that after I had done all the grass area a box fell on it and took half the grass off and flattened some plants!

Sorry, I didn't realise what a bad photo this was until I loaded it. I have added some large plants at the back to give the effect of it being a little environment within a full sized garden, a cork with beer bottle top for a table and two golf tees for seats, some game counters for stepping stones and the frame of a pocket watch which will become a fish pond. I will get back to this when I have learnt a bit more about making flowers. My daughter won't let me away with not finishing this project as she loves it.

 

Talking of making flowers I had a lovely afternoon last Sunday with the only other miniaturist that I know of in my town. Susan and I decided to meet and have a go at making flowers. The truth is we mostly talked and used our punches to punch out flower parts. We didn't actually produce any flowers on the day. So saying it was a fabulous afternoon and we set ourselves a challenge to produce some flowers before we next meet.

 

Therefore today I thought I had better try and make some flowers. After a lot of failed attempts I did produce two delphiniums and one tiny rose that I was reasonably happy with. I then decided I'd better create something to put them in. While our challenge was to make a flower arrangement I chose to create a trug to place my flowers in.

 

 

 

I also produced a little jug which I filled with some little flowers I made a few weeks ago. I'm not very happy with either the jug or the flowers but there is potential in both with a bit more work.

 

 

Anyway I'd better go as it is way passed when I should have gone to bed but I was determined to get a blog post done this weekend. Busy with family commitments and Dance Mum commitments next weekend. Hopefully might find a little time next Sunday afternoon to do some minis.

 

Hope everyone has had a great weekend. Happy creating.

Christmas Swaps

I know it is February but it is only now that I can post photos of the gifts I sent my two Christmas Chain Swap partners. Fabiola and Drora. Unfortunately due to losing my Mum in early December and then with my husband's Dad having a major stroke two days later I was a bit late posting them. I posted them before Christmas but Fabiola has only just received hers a few days ago.

 

I did a post on the lovely swap gifts I received from Fabiola and Drora here:

http://myrtlemanorminiatures.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/back-to-work-tomorrow.html

 

From Fabiola I received:

 



and from Drora I received:

 

Below are photos of the swap parcels I sent Fabiola and Drora:

for Fabiola

for Drora



Just looking at these photos I took it has become obvious to me that I failed to put a little glass jug in with Fabiola's gift. Sorry Faby, it was certainly my intention to do so. I somehow must have overlooked it in my rush to get the parcels posted.

 

Adding to the delay in getting the parcels posted was my rush to get the little paper chains finished. Each link of the chain is made with little pieces of quilling paper 1/8 inch x 3/4 inch. I think they look effective and I enjoyed making them but they are fiddly and time consuming to make.

 

The Christmas stockings and the teddy bear are buttons, the vase of flowers is a bead with some paper scrapbooking roses in it and the angel and fancy cake plate and cake tongs are made from jewellery findings.

 

This is a close up of a cake plate and angel so you can see better the findings I used:

 

I do prefer a solid bead for the head as in the ones I used for the swap gifts.

 

I enjoy playing around with beads and jewellery findings to see what I can come up with - enjoyable play time.

 

Thank you to Fabiola for organising the swap. It is always lovely to receive miniatures from fellow miniaturists from around the world.

Fantasy Upcycling and More

I spent a bit of time this weekend in my craft room. I had good company... the cats decided it was a bit wet outside today.

Dash has a new hiding place.

 

 

Squiggle likes to keep an eye on what I am doing.

 

You may recall amongst the lovely swap gifts I received from Drora this Christmas I got a little rubber boy - see below:

 

 



The upcycling residents of the briefcase have transformed him into a plant holder for their garden:

I also played around with some spare wood scraps and made a little hall mirror and shelf, shown here in the study of The Laurels:

Well that is it for today. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Fantasy Upcycling

I'm creating a little patch of fantasy where the residents are into 'fantasy upcycling'. My husband came up with that title for this project. I decided I wanted to keep on with experimenting with polymer clay today, especially after seeing Jane's recent inspirational post on her creations:

http://minifanaticus.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/etsy-miniatures-and-time-management.html

 

Then I saw the lid of a little box and for some reason I thought 'briefcase'.

 

By the end of the day I had made a start on a mini project to get me back into miniatures for 2015.

 

For your viewing, the briefcase residence:

I will be able to put a bulb inside this so it will glow at night but it will really just be a background piece in a little scene. I will find a few other items that the residents have upcycled to create items for their garden, e.g. a thimble as a plant pot etc. I want to have a go at making plants, flowers, toadstools, fungi etc to create a little fantasy woodland or garden scene.

 

I don't yet know who the upcycling residents are or what I will even put the scene on or in. Any ideas would be welcomed. I am thinking it will only be a fairly small project.

 

It is not really to a specific scale, it is fantasy afterall. The briefcase is approximately 11.5cm x 13.5cm. The briefcase is made from the lid of a box and a piece of cardboard covered with a piece of old roller blind. The door, window, chimney and handle are polymer clay and the lock is part of a metal hinge. I will probably touch up the leaves with a bit of paint. I'm not that happy with them - still it is all part of learning a new skill.

 

After seeing Jane's wonderful work I am even more determined to master working with polymer clay.

 

I hope you are all having a good weekend. I can't do any miniatures tomorrow as I have family commitments but I am looking forward to continuing with this project as and when I can during the week.

 

Will keep you posted as to progress.

Back to Work Tomorrow!

My Christmas break is over. A lot of it has gone towards attending to family matters but I did do a little bit of playing with minis.

 

The most exciting mini-related thing though is receiving two wonderful Christmas swaps from fellow miniaturists. I participated in Fabiola's 2014 Christmas Chain Swap and my swap partners were Fabiola and Drora.

 

Unfortunately I was late sending my gifts to my swap partners due to unexpected family matters and I thank them for their understanding. I cannot post photos of what I sent them yet until I know they have arrived safely.

 

From Fabiola I received the most delightful kitchen set in a blue checked fabric - apron with spoon (with 'S' embroidered on the pocket), bread bag, pot holder and cloth. Also enclosed was a delightful 'Home Sweet Home' picture.

 

 

From Drora I received a lovely little toy shelf, rubber doll (which I will create a garden ornament with), a cute little water dispenser which has a light in it, some beautiful flowers and a dainty little shell trinket box.

 

 

I just adore the tiny shell trinket box. Inspired I even went to the beach the other day hoping to find some small shells to make a shell mirror frame but unfortunately I couldn't find many small shells at our beach, only lots of broken bits of larger shells. The trinket box is currently sitting on a vintage Japanese dresser in my vintage house The Laurels.

 

 

The lovely flowers from Drora have found their way into a vintage vase in The Laurels.

 

 

I was away with my sisters last weekend and when I got home my husband and daughter had moved my craftroom to the biggest brightest room in the house so I can have most of my houses and miniature related items in one place and a good space to do my miniatures in - a lovely surprise. My daughter has voluntarily moved into the smallest bedroom in the house. They are both keen that I spend more time doing my hobby. It also means my daughter Jamie has space in the craft room to do things if she wants to join me.

 

Before I went away I reviewed some of the houses in my collection. The Victorian kitchen in the Del Prado house has been moved into my vintage house, The Laurels. What I had made for the Del Prado has been mixed with my vintage kitchen miniatures. I still need to get some flooring and paper for the room.

The cook is making use of the lovely swap gifts from Fabiola.

 

My Del Prado house will now become a more modern house and will house the furniture my Dad made. I am thinking that rather than adding the room on the top left of the house I will instead create a roof-top garden/entertaining area. It will be a basic house with a kitchen, living room, parent's room, girl's room and boy's room. That way I can use a mix of girls and boys toys in the house.

Now for my attempts at polymer clay.

 

Most of my first attempts at making items from polymer clay went in the bin, but eventually I started having a little success.

 

First I made these two plates from a mould I made using 'Mold Maker'. The flower pattern is from an old button.

 

 Then I made some strawberry roll cakes loosely based on a tutorial on You Tube by Sugar Charm Shop. I cannot take credit for the lovely strawberries and kiwifruit. These were cut from canes I won via a giveaway from Lisa at Mini Addictions which included some polymer clay and related items. I don't think I am quite ready for canes yet but I am definitely going to give them a try.

 

Today I made the little plates the cakes are on and the candle holders and candles. The plates were my own design.The candle holders were based loosely on a tutorial in the book Making Dolls House Miniatures with Polymer Clay by Sue Heaser.

 

I have a long way to go with polymer clay but I am determined to persevere as the possibilities are endless.

 

Well back to work tomorrow but I am going to try to get in my craft room some evenings from now on so my hobby isn't just contained within one or two hours each weekend. Hopefully I have something else to show you very soon.