A small world's big buzz!

Tips and Tricks: Making Rosebushes by Polly Morris

In our January issue of AM (AM105), we include an article about Polly Morris and three of her scenes: a Silk Fabric Shop, an Atlantic Fish Market, and a greenhouse. Within the article, we included several tutorial-like tips and tricks from Polly herself, specific to each scene. Here, we share an extra tip from Polly: a tutorial on how to make a rosebush, from her Greenhouse.

Click on any of the photos to see them in more detail.

 

To Make a Rose Bush

Materials List

Paper Punches:

Rose petals - Paw Print punch by EK Success

Rose calyx - Large Sparkle punch by Carl Craft (the larger one)

Rose leaves - Medium Ash Leaf #2 by Punch Bunch

White printer paper or white rice paper

Design Master Colortool floral spray paint 676 Basil

(or Seminole Green Delta Ceramcoat or equivalent)

Green 30 weight Japanese paper-covered floral wire

Naphthol Red DecoArt Americana acrylic paint or equivalent

Seed beads

Fun Foam

Aleene's Tacky glue

Polymer Clay

Tweezers

Stylus

Straight Pin

Burnishing Tool

 

Step 1. Prepare paper for the green leaves and the calyxes. Use regular white printer paper or white rice paper if desired. Spray with Design Master Colortool floral spray paint 676 Basil to match the paint color to your paper covered floral wire. If you cannot find this paint, use thin washes of Seminole Green paint from Delta Ceramcoat or equivalent. Apply the paint in light coats. A hint of white showing through here is preferable to a thick, opaque coat. 

Step 2. Prepare white printer paper or white rice paper for red roses. Use light washes of Naphthol Red DecoArt Americana acrylic paint or equivalent. Once again, it is better to have a little white showing through than thick, opaque paint coverage.

Step 3. Make the leaf sprays. Use 30 weight Japanese paper-covered floral wire. Use only paper-covered wire or the following technique will not work. Cut the floral wire into 1-3/4" segments.

Punch out two ash leaf sprays and flip one over so the branches curve in opposite directions. Apply Aleene's Tacky glue to the stem parts only. Gently curve your wire to match the shape of the punched spray. Press the paper to the wire and use tweezers to crimp the paper snugly around the wire. Take extra care to make it look nice and neat.

Make the other one (the one curved in the opposite direction) and set the pair of leaf sprays aside to dry. You will need to make lots of these as rose bushes have more leaves than flowers.

Use Seminole Green Delta Ceramcoat paint or equivalent to blend the stem and the wire. Use a ball point stylus, draw the center vein on each leaf. Lightly pinch the tips of each leaf to add dimension.

Step 4. To make the roses, cut 1-3/4" floral wire stems for your roses. Glue a seed bead onto the end of the wire to use as a base to build the rose. Paint it the same shade of red as the petal paper. Punch rose petals with the Paw Print punch, but discard the foot pad. The egg-shaped toes will be used as rose petals. Lay petals out on the Fun Foam or several folded paper towels. Use a burnishing tool to gently form cupped petals. The bottom of your petal will be the slightly wider end.

Using tweezers, dip the wider end of a petal into tacky glue. Do not be too sparing with the glue, or the petal will not stick. On the other hand, too much glue can spoil the look. Attach the base of the petal to the bottom of the red bead, cupping it around the bead. Repeat so that you have two petals facing each other. Let the glue set up for a few minutes, then gently coax the petals to form a slightly open cone around the bead. Think of these petals as if they were twelve and six on a clock face. 

Dip another petal into the glue and attach to the bottom of the bead where three would be on a clock face. Then add another petal directly opposite at nine o'clock. For the next round, place petals between twelve and three, between three and six, between six and nine and between nine and twelve. This pattern means the petals will be evenly overlapped.

Poke a hole in the center of the calyx with a pin. Gently cup with a stylus tool and slide up the wire under the rose. Follow with another bead and paint the bead with Seminole Green Delta Ceramcoat or equivalent. Study real roses or photographs and adjust your rose and calyx with tweezers to get a realistic look.

Step 5. Make rosebuds from polymer clay. Form polymer clay buds on a 1-3/4" floral wire stems. A tiny egg-shape with a pinched tip is all you need. Bake according to the manufacturer's instructions on the package. Cool to room temperature and paint to match the open roses. Add the calyx as described above and another bead painted with Seminole Green or equivalent to finish.

Step 6. Build a rose trident. A trident is a three-pronged spear, like a pitchfork, and it will be the basic unit to build a rose bush. Flank a rose stem with a leaf spray on either side. The rose should be slightly taller than the leaf sprays and the leaf sprays should flare away from the rose. That is, the leaf spray on the left will curve left and the leaf spray on the right will curve right. Line the three stems up so they are parallel. Apply tacky glue to the bottom half inch of the stems, gather together to form a trunk. Set aside to dry.

NOTE: Vary the rose tridents with polymer rose buds or all leaf sprays.

Step 7. Join the rose tridents together to form basic rose bush. Make four rose tridents and several extra leaf sprays. Position three rose tridents so the stems line up at the bottom. Apply tacky glue to the bottom half-inch of each rose trident. Gather together to form a tight trunk.

The next step is to disguise this ugly glue junction by carefully positioning the fourth rose trident on top of the others. Slide it down until the flowers and foliage cover the glue junction. Find a discreet place underneath to glue the base of the fourth trident to the trunk.

When dry, trim the stem bottom of the fourth rose trident to match the length of the others. Use extra leaf sprays as needed to hide the glue junctions. Now you have a basic rose bush.

How to create a climbing rose vine from a basic rose bush

Position a rose spray above the basic rose bush. Look for a discreet place to glue it where the rose spray wires were glued together. Hide the glue junction with additional leaf sprays as needed. Attach another rose spray to the stem of the previously added rose spray. Continue if desired, aiming for a herringbone effect.

Tips and Tricks: Silk Fabric Shop by Polly Morris

In our January issue of AM (AM105), we include an article about Polly Morris and three of her scenes: a Silk Fabric Shop, an Atlantic Fish Market, and a greenhouse. Within the article, we included several tutorial-like tips and tricks from Polly herself, specific to each scene. Here, we give you a few more tips from her Silk Shop: how to make a rack of silk ribbon reels, how to display fabrics, and how to make tassels for a display screen.

Left: Artist Polly Morris; below: two sides of Polly's Silk Fabric Shop.

Click on any photo to see a larger version.

     

Silk Fabric Shop

Tip 1. To make a rack of silk ribbon reels

I used an old NAME Roundtable Workshop technique to make my ribbon rack. I wrapped ribbon between pairs of stuck-together binder paper hole reinforcers loaded on a 1/4" dowel. The hole reinforcers create the spool ends and the 1/4 dowel acts as the spool.

Step 1. Paper-backed silk. Glue scraps of silk fabric to Manila folders or index cards using Aleene's Tacky Glue. Let the glue set up for a minute or two to prevent bleeding through. Lightly burnish to get perfect contact. Practice makes perfect but small stains will not ruin your project. Just cut around them or wrap perfect sections over imperfect areas so no one will see them. The paper backing will generally keep the fabric from fraying when it is cut and it makes teeny pieces of flimsy fabric much easier to work with.

Step 2. Cutting the ribbons. Slice the paper-backed fabric with a sharp, new X-Acto knife. Do not use scissors. Precise cuts are important. My ribbons ranged from 1/8" to 1/2" wide. If you have ribbon fraying problems, gently swipe a bit of tacky glue to the edges and let dry before attempting to roll.

Step 3. Assemble a roll of ribbon. My ribbon racks were displayed in an old picture frame and I cut 1/4" dowels to fit inside. Each spool of ribbon will need two pairs of hole reinforcers, joined sticky side to sticky side, to create the spool ends.

Step 4. Start by slipping a hole reinforcer onto a 1/4" dowel. Add another hole reinforcer so that the sticky sides face each other. Gently press them together. Loosely wrap the paper-backed ribbon around the dowel and glue the ribbon to itself. Do not glue the ribbon to the dowel. Continue to wrap. When finished, glue the end of the ribbon to itself so that this edge will not be seen.

I like the look of partly unrolled ribbon spools, hanging down the back, so I unwound the ribbon roll a little before securing with glue. Thread another set of hole reinforcers on the dowel, sticky side to sticky side, and gently press together.

Now glue the sides of the ribbon roll between the spool ends. Once again, do not glue the ribbon to the dowel. Now you have one free-moving spool of ribbon. Repeat until you have filled the rods.

Step 5. Assembling the ribbon rack. Fit the filled ribbon rods into a picture frame backed with silk glued on to card stock (a light cardboard) using Aleene's Tacky Glue. Adjust the rods and positions of the spools to look right and glue the rods in place.

 

 

Tip 2. To display fabrics

Step 1. Cardboard bolts. My bolts were made from 1/16" mat board, cut 1- 7/8" by 7/8". Paint the mat board edges white. No need to back the silk with paper as was done for the ribbons, but each bolt will need fabric cut to 3-1/2" wide by at least 3" long. Pay attention to the grain of the fabric, especially if you want to drape the fabric. Make fabric lengths longer if you want to have some extra yardage to drape. If you plan on draping fabric, the grain of your miniature bolt of fabric should match the grain, or selvage edge, of real fabric. Glue the folded fabric to one end of the bolt and begin winding. The folded edge will become the top of the bolt. Tack down the end to finish, choosing a spot no one will notice.

Step 2. Make tube-style bolts of fabric. I used Starbuck's Frappuccino straws which are bigger than ordinary soft drink straws, measuring 5/16" in diameter. Cut the straws into 4-1/2" and 5" lengths for variety and spray with a beige cardboard-color paint. Some paints have trouble adhering to plastic straws, but a primer should help. If all else fails, cover the straws with brown paper from grocery bags. 

Step 3. Cut the fabric into 9-1/4" and 8-1/4" widths, ranging in length from 3" to as long as you like. The selvage edge is the grain of the fabric, and your miniature bolts will drape better if you match directions. Fold in half, and lightly press if needed. Glue one end to the painted straw and roll it up. The folded edge will become the top of the fabric bolt. Glue down the end of the fabric, choosing a spot no one will see. If the fabric is noticeably fraying, swipe the edges with a little tacky glue and let dry before rolling. If your fabric choice is too thick to look right folded, cut a piece half the size along the finished selvage edge. Wrap the bolt so that the selvage edge is along the top instead of a fold.

 

Tip 3.  Make tassels for a display screen

I used one leg of a broken spring-loaded clothes pin as a form to wrap the tassels on. The wood needs to be very smooth. Clothes pin legs are tapered so it is easy to slide the tassels off once they have been wound. I use 100% cotton thread which has a natural silky luster that cotton/poly blends or all polyester thread do not have. 

Step 1.  Begin by double-threading a darning needle with the color of your choice and knot the ends together. Set aside. Wrap thread around the clothes pin leg just below the notch for the spring. Nice, plump little tassels will need to be wound about 20-24 times, but experimenting is a good idea.

Once it is wound, cut the thread and create the top of the tassel by running the threaded needle under the wound thread a couple of times. Cinch it up tight and tie off, but leave yourself two inches of thread to act as a handle. Add a little dab of tacky glue for good measure in a discreet place. Do not take the tassel off the clothespin yet.

Step 2. Pinch the thread handle and top of the tassel between your left thumb and index finger and carefully slide the tassel off the clothespin. Continu ing to pinch, clamp the bottom of the tassel. I use those tiny copper clamps made for assembling circuit boards found at Radio Shack. Still pinching, wrap a contrasting band of thread just below the tips of your fingers. Tightly wind this thread about five times, cinch it. You can stop pinching now. 

Step 3. Adjust the contrasting band so that it is between 1/16" to 1/18" from the top of the tassel. Add a touch of glue to secure the knot in a discreet place. Trim the extra thread away when dry. Repeat with a second color just below the first band, if desired. Finish by slipping scissors into the bottom of the tassel and cut the threads. Fluff the tassel, straighten the cut if needed and adjust the contrasting thread bands. Do not cut off the thread handles yet. You will need them to tie to other tassels to form bunches.

Step 4. Display Screen. My tassels were displayed on a screen I made from basswood covered on both sides with a thin piece of cardstock covered with a very thin piece of fiberfill and wrapped in silk fabric. The edges of the silk were turned under to look neat and glued in place before gluing the cardstock to the basswood. The other side was made the same way except I added a crisscross of ribbon before I glued the cardstock to the basswood.

 

Lebkuchen: Gingerbread it is not!

In the Nov-Dec issue of Dollhouse Miniatures, we included Jan Stuart's article on creating lots of little Lebkuchen goodies as well as building a stall to display these delectable treats. Here, Jan shares with us the history of Lebkuchen, then goes a bit more in depth on how to create the colors of Lebkuchen featured in the magazine. Enjoy!

(By Jan Stuart)

A brief history

"Leb-koo'-kin" - What is this stuff? You'll love it. For who doesn't love Christmas cookies and spicy gingerbread and Old World fairy tales come true? Or finding part of one's heritage alive and well loved? Old World Lebkuchen is all of these good things! Small wonder this truly old, old, edible tradition (over six centuries old!) holds a fascination for many—and I hope it will for you, too, once you read of this "German gingerbread's" astounding part in Christmases past and present. You can read the tutorial on pages 60-65 of DHM24 to re-create these beloved holiday treats in miniature along with a Nuremberg Christmas Market Stall in which to authentically display them. It's adapted from a fifteenth-Century original! And, now, for the true story of Lebkuchen!

Whether light in color and honey-sweet or dark and spicy, Lebkuchen is soft, sometimes glazed, and always satisfying in size, being bigger and far thicker than gingerbread cookies we are used to.  Gingerbread men it is NOT! First baked in the 1300s by German monksto be handed out on religious holidays, Lebkuchen has been adored for literally centuries in Christmas markets all over Europe. The markets originally allowed tradespeople to buy and sell their locally produced food, drink, and wares to one another, and—at Christmastime—to also share holiday goodwill, spiced wine or cider, and a few treats.  Among these were the generously sized Lebkuken gingerbread: honeyed from local hives, enlived by the European spice trade, and meant to be eaten out of hand and pocket. So valued became this Lebkuchen that, by the 1600s, Nuremberg, Germany had 14 master gingerbread bakers, all sworn to uphold the high standards of their Lebkuchen-baker's guild!  

Made from recipes handed down through generations, Lebkuchen's other traditional ingredients were (and are still) flour, eggs, and spices—like cloves, ginger, cardamon, allspice, anise, coriander, and sometimes mace and cinnamon. Wow! Later came nuts (like almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts), white sugar, and sometimes even candied orange and lemon peel. These large Christmas goodies ranged in color from light beige (lightly spiced) to dark brown (very spiced), with the common round ones sized a good four and a half inches or more in diameter while rectangles weighed in even bigger (sized just about right, in fact, for Premo's Mini Metal Cutters, which just happen to come in the beloved, traditional shapes you see in the photos)!

Now, imagine yourself strolling the snowy cobblestones of a European town with a romantic-sounding name, such as Nuremberg, Dresden, Vienna, Amsterdam, or one of hundreds of others throughout Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, and more, happily holding to your warm wool coat a couple of big, authentic Lebkuchen (both of them happily half-eaten, of course)! Remember, these sweet gingerbreads were, long ago, placed by the hundreds into wood boxes or heavy cloth sacks and loaded onto a handcart or horse-drawn wagon to be hauled to that very same cobblestoned town square and displayed in a market stall put together with wooden pegs!   

Although, sadly, we can't return to such a Christmastime and place in the 1400s or 1800s, or anywhere in between, but our dolls in their mini winter wonderland can! If you are the proud owner of a miniature Renaissance castle or any Edwardian or Victorian scene, you'll surely want a Lebkuchen market stall to enliven their street this year. Or, just stand your market stall in cotton or glitter "snow," under a glass dome, and explain its fascinating heritage to your Christmas visitors. Afterwards, you can use it as a "first peice," in a new Christmas Market scene, with other stalls to be authentically filled with hand-blown German glass ornaments, hand-made wooden toys, etc.  Why not construct one with a grandchild as part of their homeschooling, or present one to a friend or parent to honor their heritage? Any or all will be worthy, happy projects for the coming holiday and beyond.

 

 

 

Click on the photos below for more close-up shots of the market stall and lebkuchen:

 

 

                   


NOTE: You can read more about the history of Lebkuchen at German Foods.org and other websites, some of which sell authentic (full-scale and edible) German Lebkuchen by mail order.

 

 

 

Creating the different colors and textures

The color mixes, reading the photo from left to right, are:
2 parts Carmel and 2 parts Burnt Umber
2 parts Raw Sienna and 2 parts Burnt Umber
3 parts Carmel and 1 part Raw Sienna
3 parts Raw Sienna and 1 part Burnt Umber
3 parts Carmel and 1/4 part Raw Sienna

A good way to remember which color is which is that "Raw Sienna" is ginger-ey brown, like "raw" gingerbread dough and "Burnt Umber" is very dark brown, like a "burnt" gingerbread would be! (The blocks of color in the background are some used in the almonds and cherries). Don't forget, you can apply the techniques to mini sugar cookies, too, just by changing colors of modeling compound. 

Click on the photos below to see Jan's techniques close-up:

           

 

 

Cutting out shapes; powdering and cutting out pieces; creating a Celtic knot pattern with beads.

         

Adding ground tea as chopped nuts; using tin foil to make crackle-topped pieces; rolling clay to create blanched almonds.


You can buy a copy of DHM24, with Jan's original Lebkuchen article as well as other great features, here.

Haunted Mansion by Angela Schiavone

Our October issue of American Miniaturist (AM102) included a brief column on page 74 introducing us to a Haunted Mansion, a ride at Disneyland that Angela Schiavone re-created here. Now that it is officially autumn, the cooler days, the fall harvest, and the rustle of changing leaves combines to form almost an eerie feeling that coincides well with Halloween, and Angela's project replicates both the ride and the creepy mood perfectly using paper cutouts and dark lighting. She and her photographer, James Hannibal, had lots of fun retracing the path of the ride with a laser pointer, too! Angela has graciously agreed to allow her work to be shared with readers online so that you can enjoy the effect as well. I hope this inspires your own haunted scene for your trick-or-treaters to enjoy!

Traci

 

Haunted Mansion

By Angela Schiavone

 

I love Disneyland. It’s one of my favorite places, and one of my favorite rides is the Haunted Mansion. A few years back, I found a great website, http://www.haunteddimensions.raykeim.com. Ray Keim has designed and provided free paper patterns to recreate some of Disney’s most beloved and creepy places. His work is wonderful! The idea of a paper house intrigued me. When I was four, I built a small dollhouse out of paper complete with a shower (in the living room) and stairs (to nowhere). There was even a little TV! I thought it was time to pick up the paper crafting once again but with a better skill toolbox.

You can find all the instructions for building the house on the actual site, but just building the house wasn’t enough for me. Instead, I wanted to re-create the grounds too. With a little hot glue, some branches, toothpicks and green felt, it wasn’t hard! Plus, combined with eerie music, it makes for a great display for trick-or-treaters to enjoy. I always make sure to have some creepy miniatures out when Halloween rolls around.

I started by putting the house itself on a foam board. Using a small but sharp pair of scissors, I cut a tiny square in the base of the house so I could insert a flickering fake candle to make it look like the whole house was eerily glowing. The house and candle were set on the foam board, and the landscape work began.

Using satellite images of the ride, I drew the basic layout onto the board with a pencil. Next, I cut pieces of green felt for the grass.  You can use the techniques I’ve demonstrated in the past, but if you’re planning to display it in dark lighting, there’s no need to be too detailed. I decided to keep my nice grass for other projects and stick to the green felt for this one. When the pieces were cut, I glued them into place. 

I took note of where the trees were and found some branches in the yard that still had green on them.  I used a Juniper bush, and it worked great! First, push the tree into the foam board to poke a hole where you want it to go. Next, put a little hot glue into the hole and quickly push the branch into it. The glue dries fast, so you shouldn’t have to hold it in place too long. Once done, add a little green felt around the base.

The line dividers for the ride were made out of green toothpicks. I cut off the pokey edges to disguise the toothpick look and used the same technique for adding the trees to add these. When all the vertical poles were in, I added horizontal ones on top for the hand railings.

The house and grounds were fun to do, but it was the photography that was really a blast! James Hannibal taught me this awesome trick, and the results are eerily wonderful! The scene and camera were setup in a dark room at night so we could control all lighting. A single diffused flashlight served as the moonlight. Using lasers, we set up the camera to take a long exposure, as I “painted” on the light. I took the laser and shined the light on the path a visitor would take in line on a busy day. When the processing finished, the photo showed the lines.

For Halloween, I put the scene in the garage window, which faces the walk up to the door. I hung a flashlight from above and a stereo just under the scene that played the creepy music from the ride. The trick-or-treaters loved the house, and I’m sure they’ll love yours too!

 

 

 

Do you dare enter the path of the Haunted Mansion?

 

The building and grounds together form an imposing structure, challenging riders to brave the dangers that may appear.

 

Angela and James used a laser pointer and long-exposure camera shots to highlight the path that attendees take in the Haunted Mansion.

Make a Mini Corset on Dollshouse.TV

New release on Dollshouse.TV!

Learn to make a gorgeous miniature corset with Sandra Harding.  Click here to preivew this project.