THE SUMMER RETREAT

Hi everybody

Because I'm not working much on my minis right now (but don't worry, this will be over around January 15th and I'll finally go on with my beach shop and bar/restaurant project), I want my blog to be visited as much as possible and therefore I'm posting a few new pics my husband made recently. A couple of years back, I was offered a cute little kit which I turned into a summer retreat for my dollhouse people who usually live in the city and I thought they might need a calm place where they can retreat during the summer weekends.

Just enjoy the tour and feel free to leave any comments.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Just for fun ….. I found this cute little VESPA model on Amazon and since it has the right size, I just couldn't resist buying it and I thought this little project here was just perfect to add it to

The kit had this cute roof terrace which does have a lot of space, compared to the actual living area

I made a lot of flowers and plants to add to this terrace, the part on the left front is used as a sun lounge, then there's the corner (in the middle) with 2 chairs 

and a little outdoor oven for chilly evenings

The right corner is the outdoor kitchen, with a BBQ and a neat place to eat

I had some burgers and hot dogs leftovers from another projects, 

they came in handy here to fill my BBQ

As I said before, the living space area is quite small, it has in fact only 1 room, although there is a little separation between the living and dining area and the kitchen

But it doesn't necessarily have to be a big project in order to have fun making it :-)

If you take a closer look at the pictures, there are a lot of funny details, like these 2 coffee cups I found in a tourist shop in NYC once with our names on it (Danielle and Ronald).

I also made the Ferrero Rocher's myself :-))

I made this rack with plexiglass and mirror pieces and simply glued it to the wall and added glasses, bottles, vases etc.

When I found the leopard print wallpaper, there was actually the same fabric that came with it and I used it to make 2 chairs to fit into the living room.

The Kitchen ….. I had actually bought a kitchen to fit in here but when I tried it, 

it was about 1 1/2 cm to large and I couldn't use it so I decided to give it a try and made this one here myself and I think it actually hasn't turned out that bad, what do you think ??

When I look at the pics, I'm actually quite proud of myself :-))) ..... it's not perfect, but for a 1st try at making an entire kitchen myself, well I'd say it could have turned out much worse

Stay tuned, there's more to come

See ya 

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BEACH BAR/RESTAURANT/SHOP : The front porch/terrace

Hello again

so you found your way back to my blog, good

ME HAPPY

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Right now, I'm working on the front porch of the restaurant, which is, of course, going to be the terrace where my future customers can enjoy a meal or maybe just a drink and enjoy the view of the ocean .... aaaahhh, isn't that fantastic

Guess I'll need to hurry up

I made the wooden flooring

I purchased these little tables for my restaurant's terrace

Black or white ..... I can just mix them if I feel like it

The stairs to the terrace

***** UPDATE ***** UPDATE *****

Finally :-) :-)

See ya

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AMERICAN MINIATURIST MAGAZINE : My Christmas Shop

Hi everybody

I hope you're enjoying your sunday …. at least those of you who can stay at home today. 

Makes me think about all the people having to work on sundays :-((

Anyway, I was lucky enough to have another one of my miniature projects in my favourite magazine. It is the December/X-Mas issue and what could suit better than the  X-Mas shop I made a couple of years back (Issue n° 128, December 2013)

I'm posting it for those who don't have the magazine. 

ENJOY and thanks so much to Auralea from A.M.

Thanks so much

See ya

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AMERICAN MINIATURIST MAGAZINE : My French Bakery

Hi there

So here we are again talking about one of my miniature creations being featured in A.M. Magazine

I can't describe the feeling, it's overwhelming, over and over again

No matter how often this happens, it gets tears into my eyes everytime

Here's about my French Bakery, featured in issue n° 127, November 2013

Thanks again

See ya

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DIY : Seashells

Hi everybody

Today I'm going to talk about sea shells, very tiny one's of course, since this is about making miniatures for you dollhouses.

Every time we spend a holiday on a beach, I do of course look around for these very very small shells, but they're hard to find.

A friend from my old office brought me some and they were really the perfet size. But there are some hobby and craft shops who also carry them in different sizes, I even stumbled upon an online shop specialized in all sorts of sea shells and other beach and sea related items.

Well, there is an awful lot of things that you can make with those tiny tiny little sea shells. I had a jar full of those, some I collected on beached during our holidays, some I bought on the Internet, so I had enough to start thinking about what to do with them ...... to fit in my beach shop

I started with a mirror and a couple of paintings, I filled tiny jars with the smallest one's, as well as a little basket, because those are something that the tourist often want to buy and take home as a souvenir :-)

PS : The mirror is not yet finished in this picture, sorry about that

have fun trying these projects, easy peasy

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Here's another cute idea what you can do with these tiny shells :

I made a small table, the stand is an old chess piece, head cut off of course and the top is a simple round piece of wood (available at most craft shops and on Amazon, comes in packages of 50 or 100)

painted it and added some golden glitter.

I then took one of the bowls I made and filled it with the shells I also painted with some glitter before.

This cute little table ended up in the bathroom of my Mountfield Dollhouse.

Enjoy trying this

See ya ......

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DIY : Cooling Bags

Hi again

Today I wanted to show you the cooling bags I made

Since I'm still working on my beach shop right now, I thought it would make sense to sell a few of those in there, might be useful to keep your drinks cool while spending a day on the beach

The tutorial is from Joyce Dean, I found it in an older issue of the DOLLSHOUSE WORLD magazine, but there's also a video tutorial to be found on DOLLSHOUSE.TV

You can make these cooling bags with all sorts of materials, once you have the pattern ready

Hm, I could have filled it more neatly, I admit, this look a bit like chaos

🙈🙉🙊

Stay tuned, there's more to come

See ya

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DIY : Picnic Basket

Hello there and welcome to my new followers

Good to have you here, I'm sure you'll enjoy browsing through my blog, if you're a

miniature lover like I am

Some time ago, I purchased 2 DVD's called A MINI DAY AT THE BEACH 1+2 (available from Ashdown) where the late Joyce Dean shares a lot of very useful tutorials if you wanna make accessories for beach scene

Of course, this DVD came in handy for my beach shop project 😃😄😃😄

The one I like the most was the PICNIC BASKET, so I just had to try it out. Here's the result and if you like it, I do have the patterns in a PDF file and I'm more than happy to share. Feel free to either leave a comment here or contact me directly at my email (dmzminiatures@gmail.com)

If you liked this project, come back soon, there's more to come

See ya

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My French Bakery : DIY Containers for Coffee and Tea

Hello my mini friends 😂

Again ... I had trouble to find containers for my coffee and tea, containers that would actually fit into my shelves and

again ... since I needed a few of these, buying wasn't an option ... too expensive, so

again ... let's go for the DIY

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Aren't they cute ? Oh yes, they are and on top of being cute, they are easy to make. 

You do need a good printer though a maybe a little practice (and patience) on how to miniaturize the labels, so if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to drop me a few lines 

and I'll be glad to help (email me at dmzminiatures@gmail.com)

First thing you need to do is to find a few labels, which is really not difficult, there are just so many available on the Internet. Depending on your computer system (PC or MAC), you can copy the labels into either Power Point or Pages for Mac users and once you have one page full, print them out on either matt or glossy photo paper, your choice

In order to get them the correct size, remember to have the View on your screen at 100 % (or actual size, depending on your system)

Measure the image and draw the shape for the box (container) on card board (should not be too thick though) or any other paper of your choice. If you're not sure about the size, remember, think of a real size one and divide by 12.

I would not recommend to use a usual thin printer paper, because the end result, in my opinion, will not look good at all. The glue will probably go through the image. Your shape should look more or less than the one here in the picture. 

Another important thing, before starting, is to measure the size of the compartments of your shelf where the tiny little boxes are supposed to go, so that will fit nicely. As you can see in the pictures below, the end result looks very good.

The biggest advantage of making these things yourself is that you can make them the exact 

size to neatly fit your project, which is my personal favourite thing 

So go ahead and give it a try and if you have questions, I'm here

I do have a PDF version of my labels if you wish to use them (personal use only please), but remember that these have the measures to fit my shelves. So feel free to ask for a copy, email me at dmzminiatures@gmail.com

Have fun

See ya

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