And it would pay to read the instructions next time!!!

.....instead of thinking I remembered what to do!  The other night I found I was gluing the geranium leaves on to the hydrangea flower stems.  Last night I 'remembered' that the stems had 2-4 small leaves and 2-4 large leaves on each, so I did the small leaves on a whole lot of stems.  This morning after I finished the geraniums and posted about them, I finished off the hydrangea leaves.  Then I re-read the instructions to find out how many leaves to put on the flower stems.  Oooops!  They should all have gone on the flower stems - there aren't meant to be any leaf stems.  I wonder whether that is why I was running short of leaves vbg?  Take a deep breath, Sandie, now take another one....and start again.....

Sooooo - I removed the leaves from most of the leaf stems and started gluing them on - again.  Only this time to the flower stems.  I decided to keep just a few of the leaf stems.  Then I 'planted' them into some dirt on a piece of baking paper.  i couldn't get to my clay, so I improvised by using glue with the dirt over it.  Here is the result, again against a ruler to show it's size.  And again it is just 2cm wide (less than 1 inch). 

Boy, do I love the macro lens on my new camera!  I cut the stems the length suggested in Susan's instructions, and this is the size it ended up.  I think maybe for the next one I might try a larger shrub by cutting the stems longer, and see how it goes.

Here's a closer view of the bush.  I'm really, really happy with it.

 

And guess what - I am part way through the next kit of the same flower.  I must be bonkers!  If I'm not, I soon will be.

Ta-daaaaah! Drum roll please!

Ladies and gentlemen, miniaturists all, let me present for your viewing pleasure, all the way from Sandie's Studio (well, the lounge chair in her house actually) - geraniums in a hanging basket!

'Where is the ruler?' I hear you ask!  There isn't one.  Have you ever tried to hold a little basket of flowers and a ruler in one hand and a camera in the other?  It isn't possible, take it from me! But that little basket measures just a bit under 3/4" from the edge of the sticking - out flower on the right here to the outside of the extended stem of leaves on the left. Can't find my ruler at the moment to convert that to cm.

Here's a slightly closer view: 

 The wire is still wonky after all my fiddling and fussing to get those stems to stay in the pot last night.  I will straighten them (again!!) later. 

Here is a close-up.  The patch of glue you can see on the side of the pot is where one of the stems kept coming out of the pot and left a residue.  Isn't it interesting the things you see in a photo that you don't notice with the naked eye?  I will clean it off this morning now everything is dry and set.

That's the first of the two pots completed.  I will do the other one after Christmas, probably.

By the way: when you are carrying these little creations, you don't put your clumsy big hands on them, it is better to hold on to the wire part so the flowers don't get disturbed.  Don't ask how I know this.......

The geraniums are done - yaaaaay!

But I have to wait until tomorrow to take a photo - or read the instructions!

And since it is past 1am I'm not going to start doing that at the moment vbg. It was quite hot again today and we had a meeting at Sunnyfield, the sheltered workshop that Nathan goes to 3 days a week.  It was his annual program planning meeting, the first one as an employed person.  People with disabilities have them in one form or another right through from pre-school and into their working lives.  He was asked about what he liked about working, whether he had made friends, and whether he knew who his friends were, if he remembered the things/jobs he had learned while there, which ones he liked best, what he would like to learn, whether they were giving him the support he felt he needed, whether there is anything else they could help him with.  Then his wages (which are minimal, because he receives the disability pension) were reviewed and the manager explained that he would be staying on the same rate because he tended to become distracted easily and start talking.  Then the others around him start talking and of course then the work doesn't get done - which means that the production slows down. 

What - my son, a talker?  Wherever did he get that from? !!!  It wouldn't be from my side of the family, would it? The McNee family could all talk under the ocean buried in a ton of concrete.  Of course, I am different!  Stop choking you!  Show some respect there, please.

Anyway, if the production slows down it is a problem because they have contracts to deliver to produce a certain number of items by a certain time, of course.  I wish them luck in trying to get Nathan to stop talking though lol!

Back to the geraniums - I was determined to get them finished last night.  Then I realised that I was putting the geranium leaves on to the hydrangea flowers.  Ho hum, time to go to bed methinks, but first I had to remove all those carefully attached leaves.  That took almost as long as it had to glue them on in the first place.

Then I did a big clean-up in the kitchen this morning, got distracted by emails after that until it was time to go to the meeting.  So it wasn't until after tea that I got back to the geraniums.  Finally they were all done, some stems done with leaves and the flower stems with leaves attached too. 

While they were drying I went on with more hydrangea flowers.  Then I 'planted' the geraniums into the hanging basket - and I am delighted with the result!  Took some photos with my dandy new camera, but again the lighting isn't right.  I really will have to do something about that.  Maybe I'll have to read that instruction book after all and find out what setting to put it on to get a nice shot. 

Meanwhile I'll take a photo in the daylight and show you tomorrow - keep tuned, it's the cutest thing! 

Bit of a disaster......And Christmas came early

But first of all, Welcome Natalia!  Thank you for taking the time to visit here.  I hope you enjoy it and will come often to share my mini world.

So what was the disaster?
Flower Pot Man fell apart!
Why did Flower Pot Man fall apart?
It was the water.
What water?
The water from the tap.
Why put him under the tap?
Because he was sticky.
Why was he sticky?
From the coffee.
How did the coffee get on him?
The cup stuck.
What did the cup stick to?
The board.
What board?
The baseboard for the Town Square......

Now do you get the idea?  I put the coffee mug on the painted baseboard on which I have set out the seven Town Square buildings so far received.  Even though I haven't shown you the Garden Centre yet it is finished outside, and so is the Pet Shop.  So I wanted to take a photo of them all sitting on this base board.

It's not the final base board, it's not big enough.  But enough for now..  It is painted just in green craft paint, no grass or paths or landscaping.

The coffee mug stuck to the paint.  I went to lift it off and it splashed - and went all over several things, including the Flower Pot Man and some ivy.  Poor Bill/Ben!  Poor ivy!  Poor flowers!  I dabbed them with a damp cloth but it wasn't enough - they were still sticky.  So I put them very briefly under the tap turned on gently.  They all came through that quite well, and I patted them as dry as I could and put them on a flat surface to dry completely.  To my surprise, the paint didn't come off.  But the glue on the ivy lost it's grip and Flower Pot Man's head did too.

But all is not lost.  Some work with the tweezers 'fluffed up' the ivy around his body, which had become rather flattened in the patting dry process.  Some more glue secured his head back in place and reattached the missing ivy leaves both to his person and to the branch of ivy that had been stripped bare.  And the flowers came through unscathed.

Moral of the story is - don't put the coffee cup near the minis!

The good news is that Christmas came early for me as far as my present from my darling husband goes.  My hardworking Olympus camera has given  faithful serice for a long time now, but it is finally wearing out.  The battery compartment has to be held closed with masking tape because the catch is so worn; when I try to download the photos I keep getting messages that files are corrupted; I can't buy SD cards small enough to fit it any more and the macro function is erratic.  It doesn't owe me a thing - I have used it to death vbg.

So Peter took me shopping for a new camera.  I wavered between a Canon and a Nikon.  the Canon had more megapixels but was far more bulky, the Nikon Coolpix still has 14 megapixels and 10x optical zoom and is really compact.  I chose the Nikon because I have found that the bulkier camera (like my Olympus) has proven to be inconvenient when I've been travelling - and at other times too. 

So last night I took some photos.  The lighting wasn't good - the energy saving bulbs do not give a good light for photos.  But the macro lens worked really well - I can get as close as 1cm from an object which is fabulous for minis.  I was going to take some more photos today but by the time I had installed the software this afternoon then worked out how to download the photos to the computer the light wasn't good anyway.  Of course it all might have gone more quickly if I had read the instruction manual.

Anyway, here are some of the photos - they are of the flowers I did yesterday, not the same ones I did the other day.  I've made another six sunflowers:

And another dozen poppies, so there's a total of 24

Sorry the colours aren't good, but I put these ones on this little surface because it has measurements on it.  They are in inches, and each of those marks is 1/8th inch.  In the foreground are some of the dozen or so gerbera daisies (I've done this batch in a hot pink); some of the daffodils are there - I did another 12 of those; and further behind is a geranium head.  It is red even though it looks pink in this photo - I did say the light wasn't good. As you can see, the leaves haven't been added yet.

 Here on the left you can see two of the geranium flower heads and if you look to the left of the 1 inch mark, you will see one of the little red petals.  They are about 1/16th of an inch across.

Aren't the daffodils beautiful?  They are very delicate and yet fresh and bright and perky.  I really think they brighten a garden up. 

So I am very, very fortunate aren't I with my Christmas present?  In case you are wondering, I am allowed to use it to photograph my minis to get used to it.  Our oldest daughter and her two sons are arriving next week for a nice holiday with us and we want me to be used to the camera in time for their arrival so i don't mess up any photographs.

That's my excuse and i'm sticking to it hehehehehe.

Is it Bill or is it Ben?

When my son was young he watched a television show called ‘Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men’.  I don’t know whether this is Bill or whether he is Ben, but I’ve made a flower pot man.  Strictly by trial and error and with a lot of pulling of the hair and gritting of the teeth, let me say.  Then when I visited BJs Miniatures site, I saw that there was one on there for sale – I could have saved all that work lol.  But I do enjoy making things for myself, so perhaps not.  I really liked the way the one on there had ivy growing around him and on the area around his feet, and I added some ivy to my creation too.  He is an ornament to go in my Sunflower GardenCentre.  Here he is: 

Not exactly huge, is he?



He doesn't show to his best in the photo but there are still some things that I can see could be improved.  His head is obscured a bit too much by the ivy, and the stems on the flowers are probably too long.  I've been able to move the ivy down a bit so it looks better.   Unfortunately he used up most of the tiny pots that have come with the flower kits I've bought. I carefully hoard those that remain whole, to use in my mini Greenhouse. But all in all I am quite chuffed with it! 

So now I've shown you several of the items that go in the garden centre.  It's nearly there - I was doing little seed packets yesterday and became totally frustrated with those.  But I am determined to do them, and very soon, because the Town Square Christmas Shop is due to arrive quite soon from Debbie Young.  I hope!

When I got fed up with the seed packets I started on some poinsettia flowers in pots for my Yule Tide Christmas Shop as well as the Town Square Christmas Shop. It took me almost two days to paint and assemble three kits of these, and they are now ready for their new homes.

The stalk-like thing at the rear of the one on the right is a wire stem for one of the partly-made poppies.  Well, I had the red paint out........

I have used cheap plastic pots from Grandt Line, having used the clay pots for my flowerpot man. They are well sanded then painted with Antique Gold craft paint. I considered coating them with gold glitter too but decided against it. Maybe a tiny gold ribbon later on. I’m really happy with them. Are you inspired, Elly?  And yes, I know I still need to complete the geraniums too.

How do you turn a seagull into a galah?

It’s not too difficult, actually. A bit brutal though – because you have to cut off its beak. A seagull’s beak is straight, and a galah’s beak is a parrot’s beak so it's curved. I wanted to have a bird on the roof of Kate’s Café and I had these seagulls but I wanted an Aussie parrot so I decided on a Pink and Grey Galah. It took a bit of experimenting to get the right pink for the tummy but we got there, and with a couple of our bird books beside me I was able to paint two seagulls. Then, showing no mercy at all, I cut off their beaks and stuck them back on facing downwards. When they were dry I sanded them into a rounded shape – sort of - and painted them white. And there you have it: two seagulls who are now pink and grey galahs!



Kate's Cafe Completed

I have called this building, 6th in the Town Square series, Kate’s Café rather than Coffee Kate’s as it was named in the kit. It is so sweet; I really like it and love the way it has turned out. It’s one of my favourites. Yes, I know I say that about several of them, and that’s because several of them are my favourites!

The kit arrived the afternoon of the 10th November and I did all of the assembly except for the finishing touches – but it has taken until now to do those.

I have become cleverer with experience vbg and now the first thing I do when I start on the buildings is to detach the plastic pieces and spray them with the primer. That doesn’t take all that long to dry so I could do both coats of spray paint on them that night as well. They were still not totally dry after the final coat when I put them into the shop but were okay to handle. I had to wait until next morning to add the green paint on the shutters and door though.

The structure is quick and easy to put together (and I have become familiar with the routine too) and this time the exterior finish is ‘stone’  which is a nice change. All the finishes have been different so far and I like them all. While the glue for the stone was drying I painted the shingles, which I wanted to look like slates. I didn’t snip them irregular lengths for this building. Debbie’s instructions said she mixed an equal amount of a brown and a grey to get the colour for the shutters and door, and she did the roof in a dark brown. I wanted something different, so I thought I would adapt a darker version of the brown/grey for the roof. I tried it against the stone and it looked fine so I went ahead with it. I really liked the effect I achieved on the shingles, with the base colour, some brown streaks, and highlights of a darker grey and two lighter greys.


Once the paint had dried I shingled the roof and tried it out, sitting the roof on the walls of the shop. It didn’t look any good! Too much grey. So I added a lot more brown to the mixture and some black to make it darker, and painted all over my nice effect. The colour suited the stone colours perfectly but I had lost all the highlights. I went over it all and did some but it’s never as effective when it’s done later. Never mind, the overall effect is okay.


In the drying time for the shingles I was able to put a couple of coats of white paint on all the furniture and to wallpaper the interior. I put the flooring in, and tried out the furniture and didn’t like that either! So then I painted all the furniture brown. The chairs are just the ubiquitous brown plastic ones, but I painted them to match the rest of the furniture and left the backs white, which looked nice.


After the roof was attached, the window and door went in, grass and ‘vines’ were added and hey presto it was almost finished! I left it overnight for the paint on the plastic pieces to thoroughly dry and finally went to bed. I hadn’t felt at all tired until then, I was on such a roll but when I was sitting up in bed typing up my Journal and then playing some solitaire it finally hit me in a wave. Not surprising I guess since it was now 2am and I’d been awake since 4am!


Next morning I mixed some sage green and white and made a pretty colour to highlight the door and shutters. I also repainted the backs of the chairs with the same colour. Rummaging through my quarter scale bits and pieces I took out a little vase of pink flowers and a hanging basket that I bought at the Sydney Fair in 2009. I wanted to use this green and pink as highlights, to pick up the colours of the flowers in the pretty wallpaper. I also had a couple of dishes that I hadn’t used in the Sea Shanty, and they look good on the dresser but I needed more crockery to dress the place up and some ornaments as well. And a menu for the table.


And I made a curtain for the window – some silk tulle and lace make a pretty curtain that perfectly suits the place. It’s the first curtain I’ve made in quarter scale, and it was quite easy in the end. First I glued the lace on the bottom of the tulle. When it was dry I doubled the top over so that it was the right length for the window and ran a row of tiny running stitches across the top. After that I trimmed the excess off and gathered the curtain to the correct width.

Some PVA with water added could then be brushed on with a stiff paint brush, and the curtain moulded with my fingers to the shape i wanted. I put it on a piece of polystyrene to dry. Then a line of glue across the top of the window to hold it in place. I was going to add a spot at each lower corner of the window but it isn’t necessary.


The kit came with pieces for the shelf for the wall, the table and the hutch. The chairs as I said before are ready made. The doily came with the kit as well. It has made up so nicely and I would love to just pop in there for a nice morning or afternoon tea, wouldn’t you?

Showing sign & hanging basket

The following Sunday, I made a sign for it with green lettering and a little cup and saucer. Not much would fit on the sign because it is so small, but I wanted something. It took ages to find some clipart that I was happy with, and even longer to find a font that I liked but would still come out clearly when printed out in such a small size. Several that I tried were not clear once printed out. The picture and the lettering are done in a darker shade of the green I have used, and there is a border around it in the same green.

Special of the Day

I found another nice clipart that had a teapot, cup and saucer and some cakes and it was mainly pink. I thought that it would look nice and pick up the pink of the flowers in the wallpaper so I reduced that right down and made some menus. One is on the table and there are several on the dresser. I also used the same picture at the bottom of a notice board outside for the special of the day.

And there it sat, until today – just lacking those last couple of things. So I decided that had to change! Hence the seagulls and their transformation into galahs – poor Silver (named after my nephew’s childhood cat) felt pretty silly sitting on that step looking up at nothing. When it came to putting them on the roof it became obvious that it wasn't going to be very easy for Silver to see them, so I put them in the vine at the side instead. They feed on the ground a lot but I didn't want them to be caught by Silver and eaten.  One of those cheeky galahs is peeking around the side of the shop teasing the poor thing - doesn't he know that cats can climb?  And jump?

I have had the plates for the dresser for ages now, but was not keen on the prospect of correcting their  wonky s/hapes from when my darling helpful husband punched them out (which by the way was better than I would have been able to do). But over the last few days I have trimmed and sanded with an emery board until they are reasonably round. No - don’t you dare look too closely vbg. I had them all ready and then upset the tray that I was working on and of course

Interior - right side

some went missing. After a frantic search all were present and correct except for one. So a replacement will have to be made for that. Rather than risk losing any more however, I went ahead and glued them into place. Or tried to – when I went to put the largest ones in, they were too big. So the smaller ones went in for safekeeping and it was back to trimming and filing for the largest ones.

The two decorative plates have been moved to the shelf on the opposite wall, and I also added another vase of flowers. A framed picture is on the wall above it and another one is on the wall between the window and the door.

Interior Left side

 And Kate’s Café is ready for business.

Squabbling Seagulls & Sparkling Sea

Our lovely week away is over :-(  Last night we went to the harbour to buy fish and chips and eat them by the water.  We bought them at a restaurant on the wharf.  It was nearly closing time and they were out of 2 kinds of fish but still had 3 kinds available: basa (which we aren't that keen on); blue trevally (which is a nice fish): and barramundi (which is also really nice if it is ocean caught).  We chose the trevally this time.  While we were waiting for them to be freshly cooked from scratch we 'chose' which of the many boats that were moored on the other side of the harbour we would like, and said 'hello' to Mr Pelican who was sailing majestically around all by himself.
 
Then we sat at a convenient table in a little grassed area right on the edge of the water and enjoyed our dinner.  We were surrounded by many, many seagulls of course, optimistically eyeing us off in the hope of a handout and even Mr Pelican strutted along the edge of the bank like a king surrounded by his courtiers, then went flying off over the water - giving some great aerial shots.

After we had finished eating (and it was delicious!) we gathered the batter that Marilyn and I had removed from our fish, plus the leftover chips and broke it all up into small pieces.  We then amused ourselves by  throwing them one by one into the air for the seagulls.  They performed wonderful acrobatic manouvres and Peter was shooting away with his digital SLR (a Canon EOS   350D) After a while we left it to Richard to throw them because he was able to get the pieces to go higher than Marilyn or I could, and we enjoyed watching the birds.  They are so flexible and Peter got some great photos.

Peter put his camera on timer after we had eaten, and took a couple of shots of the five of us, surrounded by seagulls.

It was so nice sitting there watching the ocean and the antics of the birds, chatting with our friends.  Such a delightful way to spend the evening.

So, you ask, photos?  where are those great photos?  Well, Peter took some really good ones of us as a group, of Mr Pelican, and of the seagulls performing.  Unfortunately his camera played up and they have come out really dark.  I can make out what they are, when I look at them on the computer, but they are too dark to be useful.

However, sneaky man that he is, he took this really unflattering candid one of the rest of us without us knowing.  Marilyn in the pink t-shirt at the front is deep in conversation about poetry with our son Nathan, and Rick and I were talking about cameras.

We had just realised that the photos had all come out dark on Peter's camera and he had gone off to take a photo of the anchor outside the restaurant

and to see whether Mr Pelican was still around.   We didn't catch sight of Mr Pelican again, but at least we did get a shot of the statue.

This morning saw the dawn of another glorious day and I was determined to have that swim I've been promising myself.  When we walked along the beach yesterday the water had something floating on the surface.  It was foamy and we couldn't see what it was but I wasn't going to risk it.

Today the ocean looked just wonderful.  The waves weren't all that big if you wanted to surf but big enough for us, with a very strong outflow.  There were also lots of little bluebottles washing up with the waves - what a disappointment!

We stood in the shallows and the water felt so good.  And yes, sure enough I did get stung there at the edge of the waves when a bluebottle washed in to land beside my feet.  I moved away not realising that the tentacles were across my foot, and as I walked off the tentacle brushed across my ankle.  But it wasn't very painful, so I was fortunate. 

After a while though they seemed to stop coming in and we decided to risk going further into the water.  I promptly got bowled over by a wave so I splashed Marilyn and Peter as well and soon we were all good and wet.  And I did deliberately get some up my nose, so I hope it does some good in those pesky sinuses!

We didn't spend more than half an hour in the water because sadly we had to pack up ready to leave.  But what a lovely way to end our holiday at the beach!

Monday 6th December 2010

More mini gardening.....

The best part of mini gardening is that you can do it any time of day, in any weather, in all seasons.  And you never have to weed.

I've been making up quarter scale flower kits.  See Elly I practise what I preach LOL! First, here are some sunflowers, planted in a little garden.  Sorry it's such a small photo - I have cropped it a lot.  I don't want to show the whole setting just yet, but will very soon.

And here is a pot of daffy's that I planted.  They look really sweet - but again, the photo is even smaller because it is really, really cropped!

Here is a group of flowers I've made up while we've been away at Kiama: daffodils, black-eyed Susan, coneflowers, gerberas, daisies and ivy.  There's also a sunflower left over from the ones I used in the group above, and another one I made has gone walkabout somewhere in the caravan.

They all look a bit windblown because my tweezers were all packed away when I decided to take this photo and every time I added a new flower to the polystyrene others decided to move.  In the end I decided to make the most of a bad situation and just take them as they were vbg.  These flowers will be planted in the garden of 'Storybook Cottage', probably.

.

In the left foreground is a wheelbarrow filled with flowers and ivy.  The pointy white flowers were lily of the valley but I had cut the others so short and planted them, that now the white ones are obviously something else vbg.  The flowering vine is 'Ruby Campbellii' (ie red flowering vine made by me).  It's just a series of leaves I pinched from one of the other kits and flowers I pinched from another one to make a vine. The ivy is fun to make, and you can't really tell from the front but one of the strands goes down and twines around the handle of the wheelbarrow. 

At first I thought I might do all the ivy as the variagated type, but sanity prevailed in the end and I left it plain green.  Considering that I have three sheets of ivy leaves and all this ivy hasn't even used up one complete sheet, I have a good supply.  Which is great, because I want to cover a wall of one of my Petite Properties cottages (yes, Elly - probably Flowerpot Cottage) with ivy and it will take a lot. 

The little wheelbarrow was made very narrow and a certain length in order to fit a particular spot, but when it was finished and put in place I decided it was too much and that I'd use it elsewhere.  I have something else to put there in its place.

A kit for geraniums in a hanging basket is half completed.  Now they are a real test for the eyes.  Teeny tiny little petals to be cupped and glued all around a tiny bead.  The result is a flower head just 2-3mm across.  I have two kits of these (so far) to make up, plus a few kits for hydrangeas, made the same way.  And some kits of gardenias as well, which have petals cupped inside each other.

Okay Elly - I've shown you mine.  Now I'm waiting to see yours LOL! 

Welcome, Elisabete; and we're on a short holiday

Popped in this morning and saw that Elisabete has joined - welcome, Elisabete and I hope you enjoy your visits to my miniworld. 

I am presently on a week's holiday at the beach, just two hours south of Sydney at a place called Kiama.  We are in our caravan and a couple who are very dear friends of nearly 40 years are in theirs next to us.  It is so good just to get away from everyday things at home.  The weather isn't wonderful, it has been raining a lot but the temperature is quite warm, in the 20degC and with warm nights too so we don't mind.

Hoping to go for a swim today, the water is a reasonable temperature.  I haven't made the walk to the lighthouse up on the headland yet  (1 1/2 hour walk return) - I'm lazy!  But every time our friends go they get caught in the rain lol.  Well, not every time, yesterday was fine and so is today so far.

 I'm off to look at the beach again, but here are a couple of photos I took yesterday - it was very misty even though it was warm (I have been wearing shorts and t-shirt). The caravan park is right on a lovely little beach with a small grassed area between.  It is such a nice place, even better than the usual spot we have stayed at several times before.

So while the summer hasn't started on a great note for many of us Aussies weatherwise being very wet, I personally don't mind one little bit - I dislike humidity with high temperatures, don't mind rain at all and we are very comfortable in our caravan and the temperatures just where they are.

Quarter Scale Shop Roombox

Petite Properties Shop

Petite Properties have released a shop roombox in quarter scale that just requires painting and glueing.  A couple of weeks after mine arrived I couldn’t leave it any longer and gave myself a treat by assembling it. It would have been my Dad’s birthday and so I felt I deserved a little spoiling.

The brickwork on the front pieces is pre-cut and it came up beautifully when sponged with terra cotta paint. I also went over it with some dark brown and a bit of lighter brown and the results were excellent.

Front walls and side walls of entry

Bea’s instructions then said to put the precut card pieces over the brickwork and paint them later. I didn’t trust my fine motor skills sufficiently to think I could do that around the brickwork without getting paint onto it, so I pre-painted the edges of the card. When the various layers were put together and painted a cream colour I decided I didn’t like that colour after all. So all my pre-painting was in vain because I re-painted it in bisque with some cream in it anyway. And yes, I did get some on the brickwork and it was a right pain to remove it.

Pieces painted cream, door made

I did the inside with a cream paint as well at first, and papered the floor. Then when I decided that I didn’t like the cream I had used I repainted the interior as well – and of course had trouble with that as well because I had already papered the floor!


Wanting a bit of interest on the exterior walls, I mixed talcum powder with the paint to give it some texture and painted that on then dabbed it with the points of a stiff bristle paintbrush. After that it had a nice finish. The roof is flat and I just painted it the same colour.

Exterior walls textured,exterior and  interior walls cream, floor painted.

I mixed a bit of cream with the colour I did the outside and used that to highlight the trim pieces, then ‘aged’ the whole exterior, just by using a bit of dark brown on a sponge – making sure that I wiped most of the paint off the sponge first, so that it was almost dry.

Repainted bisque, with bisque mixed with cream to highlight

And there it is! Just a bit under 4” wide and even less deep, so it won’t hold a great deal even in quarter scale.

And again, with the front removed.

And finally, just to give you even more of an idea of its size, here it is with a paint container and a fine-tipped glue bottle for comparison.

t took me a while to try and decide what type of shop I would make it but something on the television yesterday morning made me decide that perhaps a chocolatier would be a good idea. It’s worth considering anyway.....