Vanity Shmanity.

 

I got this vanity from the dollar store.  As you can see, the drawers are a facade.  They pried off pretty easily with a pocket knife, and left a convenient hole.  So what I did is I made three drawers that actually worked, using small glass beads as the pulls.

 

I used a elmer's glue as a crackle medium.  Now, how to do that.  First I painted the whole thing white with like eight hundred coats because the cheap stain kept making it pink (then I gave up and let it be pink).  This ended up being a good thing, because you should have a contrasting color under the color you're making it.  Then I spread white glue everywhere, waited for it to dry (mostly), and painted over it with this revolting mustard yellow.  I know the drawer is crooked... that's fully on purpose.  I wanted some dumpster-dived, well-loved vanity that looked like it was repainted in the 1950s and left out in several terrible storms. 

 

I wanted it to look old and kind of trashed up; I even included a carving, done by a friend of mine.  My initials, and a darling art friend's initials, in a heart!  Thanks Lindsey!  I painted some lace turquoise to add a little extra color to the front.

Something pretty awesome I've found is that the scrapbooking section of most craft stores have tiny picture frames!  And, if people send you fancy letters they're usually in fancy envelopes, which work pretty well as watercolor paper!

Check it out, yo!  My first tiny picture for the tiny house.

So They Can Shoot Hoops and Make Touchdowns

Today I re-covered a little pool table that I got for free, that had the green buckled and warped.  As I peeled it off, I found that it was paper, with an adhesive backing!

Woah, this picture looks kind of wonky, but it's Oscar Wilde partying on the pool table, which is now smooth, if still a little beat-up looking, which I think is just fine for an old house full of curmudgeons and howler monkeys.

Swordtastic!

I'm don't drink, but friends of mine do, and when I saw this teeny sword I just had to have it!  (Thanks for the sword donation!)



The picture is kind of wonky, but I painted the blade with the copper leaf (the coverage was surprisingly amazing), distressed the handle with dark blue paint, and made a few shiny blue jewels.

Close up!  Poe's ready to kick some rear.

Happy arting!

Today I made a chair out of some scrap fabric and some scrap wood from the back of a canvas.  The wood was weak enough to cut with scissors, and I used a nail file to round a few of the edges.  I used light batting for the back and the seat, and a funky floral fabric that I just had a scrap of.

Here's a pic of all the pieces before I put them together, on my leg.

 Here's the finished chair!  It looks lopsided because I'm taking the picture at an angle, but it's really not.

Again, it looks lopsided, now because it's sitting on my friend's bed.  It's low to the ground, but some chairs are kind of like that!

Happy arting!  One day I will get a better picture, but right now I am sleepy.

I did some babysitting yesterday, and they had sewing stuff out.  I spent some time making a nerf gun holster for one of the little boys, and the other little boy wanted to learn how to sew!

The dress is entirely his design!  Great, isn't it?

 I love it so much.  We decided that it was Slytherin colors, even though Poe would definitely be a Ravenclaw.  (Get it?  I swear, the whole post was not just so that I could make that joke.)

 I'm sorry for the massive amount of radio silence.  I've been brainblocked so hard, because I want to finish the floors and the walls before I bury myself behind an avalanche of tiny thingies, but... doing walls and floors is tough.  I'm maybe the worst at it, possibly.

Here's a mirror that my sister was getting rid of that is going to turn into a table.

 I added lace with white glue, and then added a bead of hot glue along the bottom to keep it in place.  After that, I did two coats of white acrylic paint, and once the siding is all the same color it kind of imitates the look of intricately carved wood.  It even kind of hardens. 

I glued it onto a cork, put my skull vase on top for decoration, and the end!  Happy arting!

For the budget-conscious among us, now is the golden age in miniatures: after Christmas ornament sales.

The librarian at the school I volunteer at hooked me up!   

Here's a clearer view.  I just yanked off the hanging bits, and it's the perfect furniture.  Also: there's a camel.

My sister gave me the best Christmas present ever.  She made me a couchy bench and a small table out of sticks she found on campus, and hot glue.  I love them so much!  I decided to give it a bit of extra flair with fabric scraps that she also gave me.

I really love the rustic look they give the house, and the fabric colors are perfect with that wood.  I'm so thrilled, and so, so, so proud of my sister for being awesome!  Happy arting!

OKAY SO!  I'm in the artsiest mood a person can be in, so this morning I made ornaments for the tree I bought at the dollar store!

And yesterday I made Santa hats for the three guys I brought with me (also, my lovely sister took all of these pictures for me).  Here is the result!

A closer look at both the tree and the books I made earlier in the week:

I made the hats with felt, as well as the gingerbread men ornaments.  The candy canes I made from bits of paper napkins and red thread!  I twisted the napkins into a thin snake, added glue and the thread, and kept twisting.  That gives it a fairly uniform spiral!

Happy arting!

Guyzzzz.  Today I painted some tiny people.  They can be the elves that live in the house, causing mischief.

I found them, plain white, at an art supply store, in the railroad section!  A darling friend of mine bought it for me, and I had an amazing time hanging out with my buddies all day Saturday.  I even made a new friend (hi!)

This pic might be a little clearer, but I'm taking it with my cell phone so no promises.

From left to right, it's Shirtless Guy, Old Guy, Hipster Guy, Two Face, and the Fifth Doctor (or as I call them, the One With The Celery).

I did the painting with a push pin!  Guys, painting these little people is more fun than a ticklish monkey in a room full of feathers.

I made a bed, in the top of a box that a dear friend gave to me once.  It's circular, and the mattress looks like a mess, but it's covered by a sheet so I'm okay with that.

I also made about a thousand pillows.  I made a Pocahontas pillowcase from a kiddy shirt and stuffed it with a pillow.

The top blanket is a little frayed, but I'll work that out later.

Built for a fop!

Today.  Was.  Glorious.  I chillaxed with a buddy of mine and we both sewed at IHOP.  We had an awesome time!  I had them sit us at a table near an outlet so I could plug in my hot glue gun.  Subsequently I burned the dickens out of my hand with my hot glue gun... more times than I want to admit to, but let it be known that I have lost part of one of my fingerprints on this day.  One step closer to being a world class criminal.  Hi CIA people!  It's me, Heather!

I've been quiet on the art front because I haven't been doing anything doll-y recently.  I painted one of my canes, I sewed my mom a hand warmer that looked like an owl, and I fully embarrassed myself with a hammer and made a housey looking thing that I don't know what to do with (choices: make it a gingerbread house but make all the 'candy' by hand which will be time consuming and frustrating, or make it into a regular housey thing).

But today!  Glorious today!  I made a chair.

I know, I know, the photograph looks like it was taken by a blind arthritic monkey.  But it's a chair covered by this faux snakeskin leather that I cut off of a miniskirt that I got on sale at a thrift shop.  I made the base out of a toilet paper roll, cut apart and toyed with until it worked. I also used batting, and sewed the seams together by hand after my five thousandth encounter with the gooey end of the glue gun.

This is a picture of the Doctor sitting in it, but my hand slipped taking the picture and then my camera ran out of batteries.  I'm too lazy to go back downstairs and get fresh ones.  Happy arting!

Today I did some work for the dollhouse's baby room (wherever that'll be).  It was about time for the super cool furniture I got at the garage sale to have some reupholstering.

It's a yellow and white checkerboardy pattern, which is really pretty, except that it looks kind of dingy and it's fraying.

I chose a blue fabric with little flowers that looked like cotton.  A friend sent it to me a long while ago with a bunch of other fabric.

I removed the pads, then I sewed the fabric on the way you lace up shoelaces.

Check it out!  I still have to hot glue it on, but I think that looks pretty neat.  I'd show you the other piece too, but I broke the side edge of it and now I can't find the wooden bit.  Wish me luck looking!  Happy arting!

First off, happy Thanksgiving!

I made a pillow!  It's my first effort at making tiny needlepoint, and it looks kind of rustic, and I dig that.

It's the TARDIS, with a little bead as the light.

The fabric on the floor is a gift from a friend of mine tonight!  Thank you so much!  I'm really looking forward to playing around with it. 

Happy arting!

As you can see, the party is spirited and a huge success.  Some might even say... to die for.

As you can also see, I actually have a really amazing photographer taking pictures for me.  Thank you Thomas, you're the best!

Toad is going as Batman (posterboard mask, an extra cape).  The Doctor is going as Doctor House (a paper cane, twisted with glue to keep its shape).

  Van Gogh is going as that redheaded doctor in Grey's Anatomy.  Look at the resemblance, it's eerie.

Oscar Wilde is what only Oscar Wilde can be: a bird with ridiculous plumage.  This is all out of paper and gloss, attached with plain clear tape, turned inside out and hidden.  And I made Poe a pair of Groucho glasses with pipecleaners, wire, and paper.  Poor Poe.

You can get a better shot of his tail in this one.

The candied and caramel apples are made of paper and aluminum foil on toothpicks, painted thickly with watercolors for the deep color and shine.

The lollipops are foil and tissue paper on wire; the other candy is foil and tissue paper.

The Halloween baskets are part of this ridiculous drinking straw that they sell at the dollar store.  I scored cut lines with a scissor, and because the plastic is hard I didn't want to risk cutting through and ruining a scissor.  I used a wirecutter for that, and it worked fine, half of the time.  The other half, I ruined the pumpkin.  Thankfully, each straw has four, and it comes in a package of several.  Then I covered it with orange tissue paper to give it a nicer texture and a less plasticky shine, and added a wire handle.

The triceratops is a horse for Halloween, with a little rider made of foil and tissue paper.  The rider is actually a tiny Van Gogh, with orange yarn hair and beard.

The 'organic zombie' growing out of a flowerpot!  Okay, I've seen this somewhere before, but I don't remember where.  Basically, I used one of my mess-up hands from the dolls I'm trying to make, painted over the skin tone with green watercolor, blotted when needed to create that gross, mottled look, and made a 'seed packet' out of posterboard and part of a skewer.

Look at how pretty that lamp looks under decent lighting and a good camera!

Annnd here's my Halloween costume.  Bowties are cool.  Trust me, I'm the Doctor.

Welcome to another one of my terrible blurry photos!  But the thing I'm photographing is actually pretty awesomeshaped.  It's a little crooked, so I'm going to try to weight the base, but I was just too excited to wait to do that.

The skulls come from a dollar store necklace (they already had the holes in them, so, perfect!)  I painted them white and drew the designs on them with sharpie.  Then I strung them on a skewer with beads in between, and added and repaired a broken lampshade that I got in the big pile of dollhouse furniture that my buddy gave me.  The very bottom is a pill bottle top. 

Better pictures will hopefully come eventually.  Happy arting!

A darling buddy of mine came over with skeletons for me! She's hoping to do a really cool house herself, so we split the skeleton garland down the middle.  Two for me, two for her.

Then we spent a long time coming up with skeleton puns.  My favorite from her: "You really get under my skin!"  My favorites from me: "Hi, I'm Moldy and this is Skully, and we're in the X-Files" and, when I moved a skeleton's leg near the bowl of strawberries, "Here's some fruit by the foot!"

Due to a brilliant suggestion, I made one into a table.

Clear plastic top!  Pretty neat, huh?  I basically just cut the legs at the knees, and moved them to the shoulders, cut the arms at the elbows and folded them around the stomach.  The head will have a use all of its own, but I'm not telling... except for everyone I've already told.  I still need to fiddle around with it a little, but happy arting!