Friday, January 30, 2015

My, how time flies: is it Finish it off Friday time again already?!

... moving on to this week's project (even though last week's is not yet complete. I'm guessing we'll be into the final straight tomorrow and at the printer's on Monday)
A piece of scrapbooking paper printed with squares containing typography. On it is a dolls' house miniature mug, and next to it is a piece of brown cardboard.
Today's Finish it off Friday project involves some scrapbooking paper I was given last month. It finally decided it wanted to become coasters (and possibly placemats).

Tomorrow. once I've put the February tiny Times to bed, I'll stick the backing 'cork' on, cut to size and then spray with matte varnish, Or maybe I'll stick the backing cardboard on, spray with matte varnish and then cut to size.

What I won't do is put it aside while I decide which is the better approach, only to unearth it sometime in 2016...

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Black be gone!

On my way to my hairdresser's this morning I popped into Big W to peruse their scrapbooking section on the off chance that they had a suitable grey and white paper for the back wall of Limited Colour.

Indeed they did, and I also scored a bargain as the cover of the pad was missing so I got it half price.

Limited Colour is now open for business, and packed with lovely new and vintage homeware. Come inside and have a browse...
Corner of a modern dolls' house miniature homeware shop in grey and white. On display is a clear perspex chair, a giant floor lamp, a stack of cafe stools and a grey metal shelving unit with various grey-coloured decor pieces displayed.
View of a modern dolls' house miniature homeware shop in grey and white. On display is a stack of cafe stools and a grey metal shelving unit with various grey-coloured decor pieces. To the right is a pile of white storage boxes.
View of a modern dolls' house miniature homeware shop in grey and white. On display is  a grey metal shelving unit with various grey-coloured decor pieces. To the right is a pile of white storage boxes, a grey trash can and a pile of grey storage baskets.
Counter of a modern dolls' house miniature homeware shop in grey and white. On the counter is a cash register and two silver statues. On display under the counter is a vintage grey typewriter and a vintage grey telephone.
Counter area of a modern dolls' house miniature homeware shop in grey and white. On the counter is a cash register and two silver statues. To the right of the counter is a grey metal shelving unit displaying a selection of model buildings, a range of vintage silver jugs and a number of empty bottles and white bowls.
Close up of  a modern dolls' house miniature display of model buildings: an Eiffel Tower in two sizes, plus an Empire State Building. In front are two grey crosses and to the left is a grey metal tray.
Close up of  a modern dolls' house miniature display of homeware. On the top shelf are three silver vintage jugs, and below are several glass bottles and white bowls.
Close up of  a modern dolls' house miniature display of glass bowls, plates and glasses, set out on a round white table in a homeware store.
A modern dolls' house miniature homeware shop in grey and white.
(See previous pop-up shops in this space:Limited 4tumes (Decemver 2013), Limit3d (August 2013), 2Limited (May 2013) and The original Limited (December 2012).)

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Apricot toast

The second rug is completed and set in a very unseasonal scene.
Dolls' house miniature lounge with wooden floors, egg yolk walls and a fireplace with a fire burning. On the floor is a rug in maroon, green and egg yolk and a maroon easy chair sits beside it.
The colours of the rug reminded me of the colour scheme in the study of my bay villa. And, indeed, I ended up using the chair, rug and plant from there to create a very New Zealand look.
Modern miniature egg yolk coloured wall with mantlepiece, with a variety of souvenirs from exotic travel arranged along the top.
Obviously whoever lives here is very well travelled...

Berry good

One down, one to go...
Modern doll's house miniature hallway with black floorboards and berry-coloured wall. On the floor is a cream rug with a pattern of leaves and berry stalks in soft greens,  berry colours and black.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Finish it off Friday: rugging up

As I dug back deeper in time through my stash of UFOs, I found these:
Two unfinished stitched dolls' house miniature rugs,
Two rugs that have been waiting to have their edges finished for a very very long time.

I'm not sure I've done any stitching since I moved to Canberra sixteen years ago, so these are geriatric in terms of UFOs.
Edge of a piece of cross-stitch fabric with a dolls' house miniature rug stitched on it, showing pin marks from blocking.
I obviously blocked them at some stage and then gave up and put them aside. Well today's their lucky day...

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Pretty in pink

And so it is finished.
Modern doll's house miniature scene of a black and white wing chair against a black wall. On the wall are the letters R,E,A and D in pink and white and on the table under them is a pink vase with white flowers, a book and a glass of water.
Modern doll's house miniature scene of a black and white wing chair against a black wall. On the wall are the letters R,E,A and D in pink and white and on the table under them is a pink vase, book and a glass of water.
I'm not happy with the placement of the legs, thinking they should be closer to the outside corners of the seat. But I'll leave them as they are for now, as I might change my mind and I'm not sure I can face major rebuilding of the base right now...

Friday, January 09, 2015

Now that wasn't so hard, was it?

A couple of hours after my last post, and I am almost done.
Dolls' house miniature wing chair kit, halfway through being upholstered, with the front panel bare.
 One of the sticking points had been deciding how to approach the front of the chair. I told myself not to stress too much about it because, as we all know, we're the only people that notice when something is wrong with a piece we made and if I did indeed stuff it up it would be an easy enough job to pull it apart and try a different approach,

After spending ten minutes searching the web for examples of how other chairs with two fabrics were upholstered, I decided to match the under-piece to the rest of the inside of the chair, and not the outside fabric.
Two cardboard chair component shapes laid out on the wrong side of fabric, ready to be cut out.
Dolls' house miniature wing chair kit, halfway through being upholstered, with the front panel covered.
(I did wonder why I'd ever thought that covering an entire piece of fabric with fusible webbing was a good idea instead of attaching it to the cardboard pieces first. Then I realised I'd not been using it terribly long at that stage...)
Piece of black and white striped fabric, backed with fusible webbing.
I made a couple of other quite small decisions which had been holding me up (while muttering 'Better to be done and not perfect that sitting in stash for another three years' to myself)
Two dolls house wing chair side pieces, placed on fabric pieces cut to fit.
Dolls' house miniature wing chair without legs, shown from the side with a piece of cardboard on the worktable, waiting to be covered and attached to the other side of the chair.
and, within an hour and a half of pulling the box out, I had finished the upholstery,
Dolls' house wing chair without legs, upholstered in two different black and white fabrics.
made a decision on the legs, cut them, painted them. and was waiting for them to dry before they can be glued on:
Four lengths of spray-painted square dowel, drying on a box lid in a laundry. Behind then is a vintage dolls' house.
I'd call that a success, wouldn't you?

Finish it off Friday: a wing and a prayer

*Ahem*. If I thought that over two years was bad to finish a project, that's nothing compared to this:
Plastic storage box containing a dolls' house miniature wing chair kit package, a half-finished chair and various pieces of fabric.
(which first saw the light of day on this blog three years and three months ago and has stayed tucked away in its half-completed state ever since).
Pieces of a dolls' house miniature wing chair kit arranged on a cutting mat.
I feel like I'm on a miniature archaeological dig, trying to work out exactly where I got to and what I need to do next. I know part of the reason I put it aside originally was because I wanted to do something different with the base of it and it all just got too difficult.

 I also found these in the box:
Piece of car, printed with two dolls' house miniature e-readers.
which will be much easier to finish.

Wish me luck!

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Liking it so far...

I'm starting to have a play with the pieces I picked out for the latest version of my pop-up shop.
Modern dolls' house scene of a selection of grey, white and silver decoative items displayed on an industrial grey bench against a black wall. On the wall are to stereo speakers and a sign saying 'Limited'
And trying to decide if I need to do something about the black wall... 
Corner of a modern dolls' house miniature interiors shop, with a range of items in grey, silver and white on display.
 I'll wait until I've placed a few more items to make that decision...
Corner of a modern dolls' house miniature interiors shop, with a clear perspex lounge chair, a silver floor lamp and a grey industrial bench on display.

Sunday, January 04, 2015

Fade to grey

I returned to the piles of treasure on my work table and pulled out the vintage band poster card I bought in Wellington in October. Cut it up, and hit the paper stash.

Where I found this and thought I was onto something...
Selection of bright 1960s band posters arranged on a bright, zig zag-patterned wall.
But the Beach Boys poster was speaking to me so I continued on my journey through the paper stash. And found this:
Bright 1960s Beach Boys poster  on a green wall.
 Which just begged to see the return of The Yellow Table.
Bright 1960s Beach Boys poster on a green wall with a modern dolls' house miniature yellow table underneath,
 But I felt the whole this could quite easily turn into another version of the last scene I made with a bright, vintage poster.

I tried combining both paper choices (it worked before...)
Bright 1960s Beach Boys poster on a green wall with a bright zig zag-patterned floor.
 and started thinking of a basement rec room/ bar (not that we have basements in Australia).
Bright 1960s Beach Boys poster on a green wall with a bright zig zag-patterned floor. In the foreground is a vintage dolls' house miniature bar..
 But still wasn't feeling the love. So it was back to the start, but with a slightly different look.

Which got me wondering if it was time for another pop-up shop. (Mainly, it seems because this colour scheme is rather reminiscent of the last one).
Selection of bright 1960s band posters arranged on a bright, zig zag-patterned wall. Underneath is a modern doll's house miniature industrial grey storage bench.
*Sigh*.

So I gave up on everything except the industrial shelving unit. And headed back to the paper stash again,
Modern doll's house miniature industrial grey storage bench in front of a wall covered with black marble-patterned paper. On the bench is a sign saying 'Limited'.
Yes, that looks like it could work...

(And then I remembered this.)

Saturday, January 03, 2015

Beside the seaside

Summer. And the mind turns to holidays at the coast.

This year is no different. While sorting out the piles of treasure on my work table, I found inspiration in the form of an image of tiles I'd pulled out of a magazine.

And the Roberts-style radio sent to me by Elvira.
Modern dolls house miniature tiled wall in a selection of blue and white tiles. In front of it is a miniature Roberts radio in blue.
Adding the kitchen cupboard I picked up from the ACTME show in March, the side of a box from the Typo NQR table for the floor and one of my french cafe chairs pulled things together.
Modern dolls house miniature kitchen scene with a white glass-fronted cupboard full of crockery in front of a wall tiled with various blue and white tiles. Next to teh cupboard is a french cafe chair and on top is a tureen, a giant ornamental biscuit and a Roberts-style radio in blue.
Then all I needed to do was fill the cupboard and take the photo. Oh: and put everything away *ahem*.

Friday, January 02, 2015

The five-minute job that took over two years

I have so many half-finished projects taking up work space (and making me feel bad) so have decided that 2015 is the year I return to the concept of Finish it off Friday (feel free to join in, if you have a similar problem.)

First up is a Megahouse candy jar from the Panda Candy Shop set #2 which I bought some time in 2012, thinking it would make a great light. (You can see it in the corner of Kaet's Place from June 2013)
A miniature red plastic bear container held between two fingers.
I had reasons to not complete the (rather small) task of drilling a hole in the back of it to fit the wiring for a bulb:
* I didn't have a drill. (Until I did: after reading Otterine's post in December 2012, I went to buy a Dremel and ended up with a cheap knock-off, recommended by the chaps in the hardware store).
* I didn't have anything to hold it steady while I drilled it, (Until I did).
* I was a fraidy-cat, thinking I'd do it all wrong and end up splitting the plastic and wrecking the whole thing.

This afternoon I took a deep breath, Pulled out and set up the vice. Pulled out and unwrapped the drill. Found the masking tape. Held my breath.

And before I knew it there was a hole.
A miniature red plastic bear container. lit up from the inside.
And a light.