DIY : Printables

Hi everone and welcome back to my blog

Today I'd like to talk a little bit about printables. I will add a few links to my personal favourite websites for dollhouse and miniature printables at the end of this post

There are soooo many things you can make for your miniature rooms with printables, I don't even know where to start.

There is even furniture that can be made entirely or partially with printables. That's something I've never tried so far, because I simply don't like it, but that's of course a personal opinion and you should definitely check it out

The basics you'll need to make your own printables are of course a computer and a good printer.

Either you're a MAC user like myself or a WINDOWS user, doesn't matter, both have very good options to make your own printies.

On the MAC, I'm using PAGES. This is were I copy and paste my printies into. Uusally, printables for dollhouse miniatures are already the correct size, but even if you choose to use other images from the WEB (like some pictures to make your own posters f.ex.), it's really not difficult to downsize them. For the beginners, always remember this in case you're getting confused about the size : look at the real thing, measure it, and divide by 12 and you should be ok.

The choice of paper to print your designs on to depends of course on what you're gonne use them for.

Should you print tiny little lables for wine bottles, perfume or shampoo bottles, etc. I suggest you're using a simply copy paper. For printies that are going to be used as posters f.ex., I'm using photo paper (glossy or matt, your choice). There's also a special cardboard (160 gr per sheet) that can be put into most printers these days. But please check your printer before putting that in, you don't wanna ruin it, don't you

Here are a few pics of what I did with printables 

OK, I'll stop now ... 😊😊😊 ... don't wanna take the risk of boring you

Here's a short list of what you can do with printables :

Wallpaper

Flooring (tiles, wood, etc.)

Bricks and Stones

All sorts of grocery products

Photos, Posters and Paintings 

Magazines

Newspaper

All sorts of boxes 

Gift bags and wrapping paper

Shop Signs

Furniture

Computers, laptobs, tablets

All sorts of Labels

The list is endless, but the links I added below should help you get started, so just enjoy browsing around and have fun with your printable projects.

http://www.jennifersprintables.com

https://de.pinterest.com/ddremley/miniature-printables/

http://miniatures.about.com/od/miniatureprojects/tp/printhub.htm

http://www.mysmallobsession.com/miniature-printables.html

http://printmini.com

http://www.nanasminis.com/printables.html

http://www.treefeathers.com/miniref/Printies.html

Have fun

See ya

👀👀👀

ANOTHER LITTLE GARDEN

Hi there

well, here we go .... I'm really getting nostalgic, looking through all my old project pictures

I had this conservatory for years, because every time I wanted to use it, I thought : NO WAY, it's soooo small that you can't really do anything with it

And so, it always went back into the box

Until that one day .... where I decided it would be NOW OR NEVER

OK, it really is very very small, I admit, but that's why I added the garden around it and in the end, I was surprisingly happy with the result

Grandpa and Grandma didn't complain about the conservatory being too small :-)

They simply love sitting in their little garden, enjoying the sunny weather

I even added Christmas tree lights (working, battery operated)

This picture from above show you how small it is ..... but cozy

This is Buck, the dog ..... he loves to be close to people all the time

A few flower arrangements made with plastic flowers, dried ones and some greenery

I added a few silk roses to this one as well as some flowers made of polymer clay (not my own)

and these were made from a kit

I guess I better stop being so nostalgic

💝💝

See ya

👀👀👀

JESSIE's GARDEN

Hello there

As you must have noticed, I'm a little nostalgic these last few days .... going through a lot of my older projects .... and I stumbled upon this cute little garden

I made it for Jessie, the daughter of a former collegue of mine; I think she must have been 8 or 9 years old at the time

Her Dad always told her about my miniatures and dollhouses and she seemed to really like it, so I decided to make a little garden for her

Back then, I didn't make the flowers myself yet, but still I managed to make a nice outdoor scene here

I don't have many pictures, so here are the few I kept on my computer

Feeling nostalgic

😗😗😗

Here's Jessie's Garden

Thanks for stopping by

See ya soon

👀👀👀

MUSIC ROOM : Makeover

Hi there

Today I thought I might share a few pictures of the music room I made for my husband. 

In fact I made this room many years ago, when I was still sort of a beginner to the miniature world.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the older version, so I can only who you the remake (it's been a few years again that I did the makeover, but still, it's kinda fun to share

Once I had remover the old wallpaper and flooring, I starting by repainting the interior and adding a wooden floor. For the ceiling and the top of both side walls, I used glossy photo paper. It was a risk, I know, but I like that glossy look on my walls. On the lower part of the side walls, I added self adhesive paper that looks like marble. And then I simply painted some wood moldings red, just like the cornice and the back wall and the first step was done

Adding a few details (you can buy these architectural details, made of plaster, in almost every dollhouse store online)

Did the same on the opposite wall of course

Starting to put in the furniture : the 2 armchairs are not DIY items, I purchases those, but the table and the shelf are my own creations, as well as the pictures on the wall

I added a camera and an old grammophone as well as a few old disks to play on it

If he doesn't feel like making music, he can always read a magazine, play some chess with one of his buddies or simply enjoy a drink

There everything my musician needs : guitars, a piano, even a saxophone (seen on the chair on the previous picture)

A little room for books and a few bottles were a must :)

Almost done ..... 

Yep, here it is, with a nice glass front to avoid getting it too dusty

Hope you liked this little tour of one of my older projects

See ya

👀👀

DIY : Wooden Floors

Hello everyone

Today I thought we might talk a little bit about how you can make your own wooden floors. 

Don't worry, I'm not talking about difficult inlay techniques or such, just simple plain wooden floornig with wood stripes

 For a first try, I would recommand using balsa wood, it's extremely light and easy to handle, very easy to cut and to color. OK, it breaks easily too, but still, if you want to try yourself at making your own floors for your dollhouse or room box, it might be easier to start with balsa wood. You may of course use any other wood of your choice. 

The balsa wood usually comes in size 10 cm to 100 cm and in different thicknesses. I always use 2 or 3 mm thick balsa wood. Remember, it's 12 times the real size, so keep your calculator around if you're not sure. 

First thing : you need to measure the room where you intend to put your wooden floor in. You can cut your balsa wood either into pieces the length or the width of your room, that's up to you. It depends on what you want the end result to look like.

You should sand the pieces before you start with anything else, to smooth the surface. You can then apply at least one coat of wood sealer, otherwise the wood color you're gonna use will be soaked up completely and you wood pieces will most certainly start to bend on the sides. If they do, put them under a few heavy books over night, that should help. To give your wood a natural wood color, I think it's best to use wood dye. You can find these in hobby and dollhouse stores. If you have wooden garden furniture (real life size) and you are treating those with wood color, you can use that one too of course. Just be careful to work in a well ventilated area, always keep at least a window open when you are work with such products. And also, you might wanna use gloves !!!

Once you have painted or stained your wood, let it dry over night if possible. If you're not happy with the result, sand them again and put on another coat (but remember : the more coats you will put on, the darker the color will get). 

Then comes the fun part : you have to cut your pieces. If you're not sure about the size (width) just take a look around if you have wooden floors in your house. The width of each piece should be the same, but the length may vary, that's completely up to you. I think it looks nicer and more realistic if you cut your pieces into different length. It's a little tricky to cut them all the same width, but with a little practice, you'll see, it will get better. That's why I would recommend to color and cut a little more wood than you need for the size of your room :)

This picture shows the progress ..... and helps to see if all the pieces are the correct size

They are not yet glued !!!

Once you've cut all your pieces, here's some advice : DO NOT GLUE THEM DIRECTLY TO THE FLOOR !! If you change your mind or make a mistake, it will be very messy to get them off again.

What I do is cut a piece of cardboard the exact size of my floor and put double sided tape on it. Then and only then, I start gluying the pieces to the cardboard. And once the entire area is covered, I use double sided tape again to attach it to the floor in the dollhouse.

Feel free to get in touch should you have additional questions

See ya 

👀👀👀

THE SEWING ROOM

Hi there

A few years ago, I made this sewing room for a collegue at work, at some point we even were some sort of friends, but unfortunately we are no longer neither collegues nor friends, but that's life, let's not worry or talk about that

Anyway, she loves to make her own clothes, it's just a hobby, which is a shame, because she's really good at it, but probably afraid to make that one step out of the stability of her bank job into the independance of being self-employed ..... which is totally understandable, especially being a single mom with a kid to raise

But this post is about that little miniature sewing room I made for her

Here's a view of the entire room, it seems to have everything one might need .... or might might not need, like the cat in the left .... haha 😉😂😂

Once I had put the mannequin in the room, it somehow looked a bit naked :-)) That's when I decided to make a little something to hang on it. Since I'm not so bad at crocheting, I made this little scarf. To give it a nice finish, I simply added a little colored lace all around the edges.

Here's a top view of the tailor's table (the little box of chocolates you see on the far left was a personal touch for Nadine who really likes chocolate), but other than that, there's everything you need to make a nice dress

 My father was a tailor too, that's why I had a good idea on what kind of details I wanted to add to such a room, like this little box on the right, holding all kinds of fabric leftovers 

(it is of course a DIY box )

I made a lot of patterns (for dresses, jackets, etc) out of printies which I put in a small basket I found in the back of a drawer. The perfect addition for a tailor's room

And of course the shelves are well filled with all sorts of fabric

She really loved that little room I made for her, but since we're no longer friends, I just hope that nothing bad happened to it

Just kidding .... 👍👍

See ya

👀👀👀