Sunday, July 31, 2011
Love of Blue and White China
I do love so very much blue and white china. Whether it be plates, jugs etc. I made some more little plates up last night. The pattern below has become my favourite. they are all available in my Etsy shop.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Rugs and Clocks
I had a go at printing fabric on the weekend. It was now where near as horrible as I thought. Had visions of the printer going berserk and ink going every where! But no it is as easy as printing on paper. Just a bit more preparation. I had some 'pretend' linen. Not the real thing, bit out of my budget range. Gave it a good iron. Sprayed an A4 sheet of paper with spray glue and laid the fabric on top. Patted it down to make it adhere. Sat a heavy book on it for a bit to let it really set. Trimmed off the fabric . Making sure it was neat and exact. Print it out on the glossy photo setting. I let it sit for a bit to let it dry and then gave it an iron on dry setting ink side down. Now the ink is not set. Meaning it will run if it gets wet. I have tried all sorts of things to set it and so far none of it has worked. You can buy a rinse I think that will do the job but I didn't want to spend anymore money and I don't know how well it works. Alternatively there are fabric sheets I could have bought but again more money I didn't want to spend. I have however given my rugs a quick going over with my spray matt and that seems to do the trick but I still wouldn't wet it completely. Just allows for sprays n sprinkles that seems to happen. I cut them out with a rotary cutter. Left half an inch at the ends. I used a light iron interfacing to back the rugs to add a little body and to help stop fraying. I sewed along the edge of each print so that I could fray the edges. I set my stitch length to 1.5. It also helps to add body as well as stopping it from fraying too much. So many rugs can be found doing a Google image search.
I made the little alarm clock out of bead spacer, pins, findings and buttons. The main body of the alarm clock is just two buttons glued together. Backed with a finding cause it pretty. Cut off brass pins stuck into the back through the holes for the little turny things. Bead spacer for the donger thins on top and another cut off pin for the hammer. A tiny bead cap for the foot. Printed out a clock face. Ages ago I found these see through scrap booking things that are perfect for the domed glass. Love those $1 bins! The wall clock was made out of cardboard and an assortment of brass findings. I used a hole punch and cut out four circles from a cereal box and glued them all together for the clock body. Then just arranged the findings and glued them in place. The same thing again for the clock face. Working on doing one with a chain and pendulum.
I made the little alarm clock out of bead spacer, pins, findings and buttons. The main body of the alarm clock is just two buttons glued together. Backed with a finding cause it pretty. Cut off brass pins stuck into the back through the holes for the little turny things. Bead spacer for the donger thins on top and another cut off pin for the hammer. A tiny bead cap for the foot. Printed out a clock face. Ages ago I found these see through scrap booking things that are perfect for the domed glass. Love those $1 bins! The wall clock was made out of cardboard and an assortment of brass findings. I used a hole punch and cut out four circles from a cereal box and glued them all together for the clock body. Then just arranged the findings and glued them in place. The same thing again for the clock face. Working on doing one with a chain and pendulum.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Book Tutorial, Easy one.
Above you will find some of the book covers I use for my easy balsa books. Once you click on the image it will open into a new window. Just right click and save. You will need to adjust the size. The image once saved will be very large. I make the largest one here around 2.5mm. But it is a personal choice. I print them on a better grade of A4 paper on high. Then spray over the printout with matt spray. Let that dry and cut them out. Then I 'rub' the unprinted side over a glue stick (Bostick)and glue them over a strip of balsa. Thickness of the balsa will depend upon the size of the book spine. Get it as even as possible so the the halves match up. So that when you trim away the excess balsa you aren't taking away too much of the printie. Let the glue set itself. Trim away balsa and lightly sand if necessary. What you do after that is a personal choice. I like to run a round needle file along the longer page edge to give it the curved look some old books get. I sometimes then scratch in lines with a embroidery needle to give the appearance of pages. I like to make mine old cause well they are. These book covers are all at least 100 years. Some are from the Art Deco period. Old!! I go over them with my dirty brown wash and wipe away or dab away some of the excess. I find sometimes the printie comes away from the corner of the balsa which I like as well. Gives it a dog eared used look. That's pretty much it. Hope you have fun!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Stripping Again.
Yep I've been stripping again. Love it. Got this little rocker for nix. It was far too red and shiny so it got stripped and sanded. With that kind of red stain unless you keep going over it with stripper there will always be a hint of the red and even then not all if it will go. So it just got sanded and hit with some lavender and beeswax. Smells lovely. I recovered the seat with tapestry canvas. Didn't like the original arms. They were odd to say the least but my problem was answered when stripping one split in half. Screwed up my face and thought now what. I broke the other one and made up a new armrest with the bits. Love fluff ups sometimes.
It was a very red chair.
Realised that I had been procrastinating over colours and stuff over my little cottage furniture so i just jumped in. Picked up a brush and with the motto 'I can always make another one if I fluff it' in mind just started. Gave my little sink cupboard a light blue wash. It needs a bit more grunging in the corners. but not too much or people will think the lady of the house is rather unkempt.
I finally set about painting my little sloped cupboard. Didn't have a clue what colour and still really don't. I just sort of started with something harmless which was cream. Then a wash of burgundy, some sanding followed by dark tan shoe polish. It has a red cast to it and not really brown at all. Buffed it on and then went back over the cracks and grooves with more polish on a horrible paintbrush to add built up age. I added the poster cause the ides of painting it made me pull faces. I remember watching documentaries etc on the Depression and in other hard times and people used whatever they could for decoration. I wanted a handle so hit my box of findings and I made one from bending a small jewelry connector and the little keyhole I bought ages ago from somewhere!
It was a very red chair. Realised that I had been procrastinating over colours and stuff over my little cottage furniture so i just jumped in. Picked up a brush and with the motto 'I can always make another one if I fluff it' in mind just started. Gave my little sink cupboard a light blue wash. It needs a bit more grunging in the corners. but not too much or people will think the lady of the house is rather unkempt.
I finally set about painting my little sloped cupboard. Didn't have a clue what colour and still really don't. I just sort of started with something harmless which was cream. Then a wash of burgundy, some sanding followed by dark tan shoe polish. It has a red cast to it and not really brown at all. Buffed it on and then went back over the cracks and grooves with more polish on a horrible paintbrush to add built up age. I added the poster cause the ides of painting it made me pull faces. I remember watching documentaries etc on the Depression and in other hard times and people used whatever they could for decoration. I wanted a handle so hit my box of findings and I made one from bending a small jewelry connector and the little keyhole I bought ages ago from somewhere!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Can't Post a Reply on my Blog!!!
As the title say I can't make any replies to any comments left on my blog. So Daphne I will answer your question about the little red chair as a post.
Hello Daphne, I have only just found your comment! I bought this little chair soooo long ago. I would've bought it on ebay. I get virtually everything via ebay and the store sellers there are wonderful. I almost always buy from the UK. Their postage is cheaper and gets here a little faster. I just did a search for the chair on ebay and a found a few going for a couple of dollars. One store is BARGAIN DOLLS HOUSE MINIATURES. Another store is Musical Dollhouse. I buy from them a lot. They currently have one for $5.22 AU and about $2.00 AU for postage. But I would suggest doing a search for dollhouse fireside chair, red velvet chair and I have seen it listed as a bespoke chair. Hope this is of some help to you - Carrie.
July 4, 2011 2:16 PM
Hello Daphne, I have only just found your comment! I bought this little chair soooo long ago. I would've bought it on ebay. I get virtually everything via ebay and the store sellers there are wonderful. I almost always buy from the UK. Their postage is cheaper and gets here a little faster. I just did a search for the chair on ebay and a found a few going for a couple of dollars. One store is BARGAIN DOLLS HOUSE MINIATURES. Another store is Musical Dollhouse. I buy from them a lot. They currently have one for $5.22 AU and about $2.00 AU for postage. But I would suggest doing a search for dollhouse fireside chair, red velvet chair and I have seen it listed as a bespoke chair. Hope this is of some help to you - Carrie.
July 4, 2011 2:16 PM
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