leaf your problems at the door

Today I'm taking full advantage of autumn.

I made a wreath by taking fallen leaves, taking off the leafy parts and using the veins to weave together.  The trick is taking fairly flexible leaves.  I really like the different colors in it!

 

Not tiny stuff, but I made the first rose for my sister's bouquet!  I'd been putting it off because I was intimidated, but I think this turned out pretty well.

The trick is to curl the petals beforehand, and make five different sizes of petals.

Happy arting!

Terrarium

This isn't exactly dollhouse, but it sure is dollar.  I'm still working on Wolverine; I can't seem to cut his legs off... but that could be the healing factor.

I wish the picture was better quality.  The guy inside is a little old man with a cane who I painted with a safety pin.

But I will tell you how to hollow out a lightbulb!  Use pliers to take off the little metal thingy on the end of the bulb.  You'll be stuck with a thick black glass plug with a hole in the middle of it.  This threw me for a loop for a good long while.  I tried to hit it with something heavy and metal to shatter it, but it was really hard and it just flaked off bit by bit.  Then I stuck a dart in the hole and pushed it to the side, and it cracked right in half!  Then it's just a question of breaking up the glass inside and shaking it out.

At the bottom of terrariums you should put activated charcoal or those clay balls they put at the bottom of lizard habitats.  Then there's mesh, not metal mesh (which will rust), but fiberglass.  Then the dirt and the plant.

Happy arting!

Oh, Wolverine, what did they do to you?

I've been kind of busy lately, helping with my sister's upcoming wedding (I love you Kimberly!)  So fewer tiny stuff and more regular-sized stuff.  But I did manage to pick up a new arrival.

The saddest Wolverine ever.  I got him for ten cents.

Yes, he is missing two of his claws on one hand.  Yes, he's in a permanent sitting position. Yes, a lot of the paint is worn off of his body (even, scandalously, his rear end).

I want to show you what he looks like now, because hopefully I'll be able to give his legs some joints and spruce him up to better-than-new!  Happy arting!

Rapunzel Rapunzel, how many bottles of shampoo do you use in one go?

I got this Rapunzel at a garage sale, basically for free because her hair was so messed up!  Look at this!!  I've always wanted a Rapunzel in my dollhouse, so much so that I tried to make one myself!  I'm not crazy about my sculpting, so I'm not going to relink to that, but it's on the blog!  Somewhere!

 

I used a little bit of fabric softener and a lot of water and brushed it all out with a wide-toothed comb.  The tutorials all say to use a wire wig brush, but... I'm a rebel.  No, I'm not a rebel.  I just didn't want to buy it. She did lose some hair, but that's okay!  That's the magic doll detangler.

 

I might get someone who's a prettier braider to rebraid, but basically it's pretty awesome, huh?

Happy arting!

Blue Dog Blues

I went ahead and made an imitation George Rodrigue.  For those of you who don't know his work... he's super famous for painting this blue dog, based on his own deceased dog and the myth of the loup-garou. 

I went ahead and used one of those scrapbooking frames to frame it, and a fancy invitation to paint on.  Happy arting!

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.