Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Bleaching and Dying Miniature Bottle Brush Trees Final Results


I have to say I am really pleased at the how these turned out. I put together this mini Easter Bunny vignette on top of one of my cake stands I made out of vintage glassware. The orange one is perfect! Reminds me of a carrot. The orange trees could be used for Halloween displays too!

The great gals over at a few of the mini forums I belong to made some wonderful suggestions as to how to dye these. Most who had tried this before recommended using the rite dye for permanent color. I didn't have any handy but I did have some cheapy Easter egg dye that we never used and it worked beautifully! I followed the package directions but used hot tap water. The directions didn't say either way on the water temp. I reheated the water in the microwave for a minute or two when it cooled.


First I practiced with the rusted tree just to see how it would turn out. I tried yellow first but it looked a bit too dark for me so I dunked it in the in the blue, that came out a pretty aqua color. Oh note on that, to get very light color trees, like the large light pink one, rinsed in cool tap water right away after dunking in the dye.

Make sure you start with dry trees before dipping into the dye. Just a quick dip into the dye is all it takes You can always dip them again if they are too light.

Ok this could work.

After dunking I dabbed them onto a paper towel, placed them back into their stands and left them to dry on the windowsill.

Yippee! That old vintage look I was going for!

Experimenting With Bleaching & Dying Miniature Trees Take One

It worked, it totally worked! I soaked the first batch in half bleach and half very hot tap water. The color came out almost immediately. I wanted these to be really white so I left them to soak over night. They rusted. So this afternoon I put three more in the same solution for 30 minutes and pushed them around with an old plastic utensil to help the color and snow dissolve off. Much better result. I rinsed in cool tap water really well. Shake off the excess water fluffed them. Now I am just waiting on them to dry before I play with Easter and cake dyes.














Monday, December 14, 2009

Dyeing Miniature Bottle Brush Christmas Trees Tutorial

Did you know you can dye those ugly miniature green bottle brush Christmas tress you get at the dollar store and turn them into something truly lovely? Sarah and Jack over at " Makin Projiks" shows you the tutorial , how to here . They dyed these really neato Halloween miniature trees to decorate their mantel. I have not tried this myself but I am sure you could dye them any color you wish. Different shades of green, pink, blue, or even vintage champagne, the creative possibilities are endless. I cant wait to play!

Thank you "Makin Projiks" for the tut and photo!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Tutor / Medieval Swap Eye Candy

Opening day for the castle swap was very, very exciting. I am thrilled at the goodies I received. Take a look below at this miniature eye candy!





  • Mirror, mirror on the wall, whose the mini-est of them all . Kathy is! She made this 1:12 scale 3D mirror from scratch. I love it! Every castle has to have a ghost or two, and this one is just perfect for mine.





Bonnie created this pair of impressive miniature lovelies.

A niffty tiny cooking pot with wire handle and removable lid. I plan

on putting that lovely ornate mirror in Rosie's dollhouse when its completed.

Which will be very soon. Yeah right! I have read the instructions twice

and have a large table cleared in the back office, and that's about as

far as I have gotten. Someday (sigh) Anyway, enjoy!








Tutor / Medieval Dollhouse Minis

A yahoo group I am part of had this fabulous dollhouse tutor / medieval miniature swap. I decided to make a wooden jewel chest, its not really wooden per say its made of card stock, that's flat wood pulp, so yea, its a wooden chest. Ha Ha. The book cover is made with piece of card board cut to size and then shaped to fit over the book pages. Tissue paper, (my fancy way of saying TP) is then glued over the cover, let to dry and then painted. The pages are made from the end of an used legal pad, you know whats left over after you tare away all the paper, with a glued printie on top. Click here to go to the printables for I made for this.
Enjoy!
Tammy Renee
PS: Stay tuned for pics of some of what I received in this swap.




Dollhouse Printies - Miniature Old Medieval Books & Pages


Printable Miniature Medieval Jewel Chest


Click image to download. For personal use only.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Make A Miniature Beaded Fairy Tiara / Crown

Found this great video tutorial on making a miniature tiara at Garden Of Imagination . This looks to be in playscale. I am sure it could be easily made in smaller scales.

Enjoy!

Tammy Renee


Thursday, January 29, 2009

Dollhouse Scrap Pot Holder Tutorial (Real Life Scale)

How cute are these?! Nanette over at "Freda's Hive" shows you how to make these adorable dollhouse potholders. Wouldn't a quilt for a little girl be just lovely. With oodles of ribbon roses and lace curtains. Or how about using this pattern to decorate a dollhouse dustcover. You could just sew the cover and fusible web the houses onto it. What I like best of all is it uses up your leftover scraps. Thank you Nanette for sharing!!! Click here to go straight to the tutorial .
Enjoy!
Tammy Renee

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Video How To: Make A Miniature Castle

Lizard Landscapes.com shows you how to make a castle for you very own real life dragon. OK, I know real life dragons don't exist but real mini ones do when its your pet lizard. Made out of very inexpensive, materials most Dollhouse hobbyist have around the house. The decorative sand he uses can be purchased at any dollar store. I recommend the liquid nails as an adhesive as well. I have used it to put together real life tombstones for my Halloween display. That was over 6 years ago and several hurricanes and they are still holding strong. Wouldn't it be neat to do one of these as sand castle covered in tiny shells and seaweed. I wonder how one would make mini seaweed? Oh and of course you would have to make a thrown for King Neptune. Or how about a place where pirates stash their loot. With oodles of treasure chests spilling over with mini pearls, gold, and jewels. Don't forget that lone ship wreck survivor, a skeleton holding a keg of rum. Comment with your ideas. I would love to hear them.

Enjoy!
Tammy Renee

metatag