Friday, August 9, 2013

Polymer-clay kittens and the basket.

Two months ago somebody I know gave me two kittens. I love cats since I was a kid. When I saw these two cuties I could not resist. I decided to keep them and now they are a very good companions and my husband and I love them. So I decided to make a basket and two kittens out of polymer clay to gift this kind lady who gave me these kittens. 

                   
It's very simple to make these kitties. I just made two tiny balls and placed them one top of the other and made ears and eyes and nose. Whiskers are made out of the bristles of a nail polish brush. I rolled the clay into a thin strip to form the tail. I saw a YouTube video and made this lovely basket. The lady was quite happy to have these and I am quite delighted to have mine :). Below is the picture of my kitties Maggie ( white) and Gary ( orange ) .
 

                           
 
   

Thoughtful parting gift.

This evening I received a wonderful gift from one of my friends. It's a very thoughtful gift. She knows I love miniatures and dolls so she has found a perfect gift for me. I really wonder how she got this idea. she ordered these online. They are the miniature wooden doll house furniture kits . I did not expect this when I opened the gift wrap, I thought it must be a book, but when I opened they were bedroom and nursery furniture kits. I was quite delighted, since I like to create a background for my dolls when I am taking the pictures,these furnitures come very handy for the photo purposes.

                      
   
The best part about these are they are very portable, easy to pack, and it is a wonderful exercise for the brain and helps to become quite creative. Once the furnitures are made we can decorate these furniture the way we want. Thanks a lot for this wonderful gift Jacque. I can't wait to start these projects but I can only start after we move to Texas and get settled in my new apartment. Till then I have to just keep thinking about some new ideas. 
She also gave me this wonderful handmade greeting card from India .
  
My furniture kits were wrapped in this beautiful gift warp.
 
  This gift wrap should definitely be preserved :) 







                              



Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Miniature porcelain dolls.

Yesterday I had to shop some paneer ( Indian cottage cheese ) from an Indian grocery stores. Next  to the grocery store there is a goodwill store and of course I did peep in to see if  I could find any dolls. I sure did find some tiny winy miniature porcelain dolls for just $.99 each. It was a very brief visit, brief because my husband was with me :) and after shopping we had plans to eat at a Chinese restaurant . But the brief visit was indeed quite fruitful, since I am quite delighted to have these cuties in my collection.
      
I should sure come up with some story in my next post so that these three cuties can be the actors :) . 

Miniature glass tray.

Last week I found a pair of glasses and was wondering what to do with them and realized that I  needed a tiny tray for the miniature tea set that I made recently. Then I made a tray with one of the lenses and I gifted a teapot and a cup and saucer on that tray to some one.  So let me make a quick tutorial with another lens that I still have.  

Materials : 
A round , oval, square glass or craft mirror,
4 beads
Glue.
      

Let's get started.
Take the glass and glue the beads on all the four sides of the glass. This will be the bottom of the tray.
                             
  Now you allow this to set and you are all done :) 
      

Once the glue is dry it won't look white in the bottom. I just took this picture in a hurry so it is still showing whites in the picture . 

Now I will still retain the frame so that I can use the frame as glasses for one of my dolls 
      
   Next time if you come across a pair of unwanted glasses or sun glasses etc you know what you can do with them :) 

Enjoy! 

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Balsa wood dining table and chairs.

This post is about the dining tables and chairs I created for the seven dwarfs. They are made outa balsa wood and then painted using acrylic paint. I just cut the wood in a rectangular shape for the table and constructed the walls using a thin strip of balsa wood. You can also use Popsicle sticks to make the walls around the table if you like. I wanted a longer table and the Popsicle sticks were not right for my table. For the legs you can use skewers , chopsticks or even balsa wood. I have just stuck all the pieces together using the wood glue. I really had a hard time sticking them together. I used some wood glue called Titebond which I bought from Ace. It took me three days to complete this set.
For the chairs again I have used five pieces of rectangle for each chair to form a chair shape. To paint you can use nail polish if you don't have acrylic paint. Nail polish does not give a solid thickness like acrylic paint , but still nail polish works well. 
Balsa wood is very inexpensive and they are very light. Each piece of wood will be less than $3 and I needed three long pieces of wood to make this dining table set. A box of  Acrylic paint of 12 colors is just $8.99. These things can be purchased in any craft store or book stores. Ace Carries balsa wood and wood glue. Wood glue was around $7 .

       
     Hope to make bedding for the dwarfs next.  Until next time good bye......

Snow White & the seven dwarfs

Greetings friends,

In my last post I had mentioned about my goodwill store shopping and what I found. Among the things that I found one of  them was Snow White and the seven dwarfs ( Disney dolls ). So I decided to make some scenes from this lovely fairy tale. Even though these dolls were purchased I wanted to make some pieces of furnitures and a tiny kitchen for these little fellows to personalize this set. The dining table and the seven chairs are made out of balsa wood and then they are painted with acrylic paint.  Their entire kitchen is made out of polymer clay. I am planning to make little beds for these lovely dwarfs in future :) . The walls and the floor is just a decorative paper that was bought from a book store. This is a temporary home for these dwarfs to take pictures. I am planning to make a tiny house after I move to my new apartment . 

      

The next scene is the breakfast scene. All the dwarfs are getting ready to start start their day with some good breakfast and coffee and some interesting conversation to go with it. They cannot start their breakfast even if one of them is missing. So everyone is waiting for the last dwarf to come.
      
 Now that all of them are here they can start their breakfast before they go to work.
     
On the table there are seven plates, knives, forks and spoons. Seven cups and saucers. Seven slices of bread. Two milk cartons, two tea pots, two bowls of cereal. In the kitchen there is a kitchen counter with a sink and a stove. The water is boiling in a kettle on the stove. Everything is made out of polymer clay. I have also made a tutorial on how to make this breakfast set you can find that in my blog under tutorial. 

The next scene is when the dwarfs come home after their busy day from work and find the tired Snow White and learn about her sad story and the chief dwarf gives her a permission to stay with them and every one is jumping with joy , when Snow White agrees to accept their hospitality.

     
 
The next scene is when snow white opens the door to her wicked step mother who has dressed like an old peasant lady selling apples, and snow white gets convinced to open the door to her even though the dwarfs had warned her not to open the door to the strangers and eats the poisoned apple and finally she has fallen on the floor still and life less. The dwarfs have come home and are shocked to find her life less and they lift her and put her on the table and try to wake her .
      
And 
when they fail to wake her they finally take her to the forest and lay her in a crystal coffin box. 
                                
  Unfortunately I don't have a prince for my little princess and hence cannot continue the story further. For now I will leave Snow White to lay peacefully in that glass coffin box . And those kind and lovely dwarfs will continue with their lives .