Don't Look Back - scene in a cup

Some might assume that a tea cup project needs to be a tea time scene, but I am happy to prove that is a totally unnecessary assumption. This project was inspired by the cup and saucer.  I bought this recently at a yard sale along with a few other related items. I wanted them mostly as I thought they would work with my other items with this style. I didn’t necessarily purchase them for making a mini in. 
I set up a display in my living room on a shelf I have just for this purpose. I rotate the displays here as I feel like it which is usually at least with the seasons, but sometimes more often. As I was quite busy, I didn’t actually finish this display. I kept adding things and then didn’t get back to finishing it. But I walk by in every day as it is near the door to my bedroom.  
Several times as I walked by I pictured something on top of the cup. This wasn’t something I already had. Instead it was something that would need to be added. I have various prints from this same artist and one in particular came to mind. I went to that print and said, yes, I believe it could work.

Fill the cup

There are a number of ways to fill the cup.  In all likelihood, I might could have just glued a heavy paper/card to the rim of the cup and that might be ok. My concern is that over time the paper could sag. Also I was planning to stick things in and knowing that, I thought it best to have foam at the top. I use builders foam often, so this was my go to solution.
I cut a circle first and then smaller blocks that I would stack underneath. I did have to angle the side of the circle as I wanted it to be level with the rim. I also wanted the foam rim to match closely to the cup rim, so I used my craft knife to cut away a little at time until I was happy.  There was a gap in a couple of places but figured I could cover them with the landscaping product.

I did have to add in the triangles (at bottom of pic) to force the foam to stay in place. I wanted this as pressure versus glue as I was gluing to ceramic.


Landscaping basics
I drew a rough outline of the path and then painted brown and green.  I adjusted this until I was pleased with the shape.

Next I applied glue to the path and sprinkled on fine brown ballast from my stash. I patted this in place and let dry a while before shaking the excess over a paper plate.  The excess was then returned to the bag. I allowed the brown to dry before I moved to the green.
Next was the green.  I used two different products. One was a very fine medium green foam. The other a mix of lighter green and yellow. I mixed these two together until I was pleased with the result. Then I added glue to one section of green at a time, repeating the sprinkle, pat and shake process. 

All these products are stored in plastic zip bags. I prefer the zip bags over a non-zip bag as tape just didn’t work for me. I use a bead scoop for getting a little or lot of product from the bag, instead of just shaking out of the bag. It also helps to keep some of the product out of the zip area. 
Road sign
The pole is a bamboo skewer painted white and cut longer than I needed. The extra length was to stick in the foam. I did use a needle tool to poke a hole in the foam rather than force the pole. The sign itself is heavy card. I used my craft knife on the end of the skewer to open a slot for the sign to slide into. Sign glued in place and skewer glued back together best I could. The paint helped hide any gaps. I hand-lettered the sign with an extra fine point pen.

Mushrooms
I knew I had a bunch of thicker paper holes in my stash. I pulled out this bag and decided they would work for the largest ones. I did use a my swirl punch for the smaller ones also using some thicker paper. I used a double ball stylus and paint brush end plus a foam pad to shape the mushroom caps. 

The stems are round wood toothpicks painted white. I was able to get 4 stems per toothpick as I wanted the narrow pointed part for most of them. The caps and stems were glued together and then I painted the caps red. They were then glued to the scene. To help with placement, I did punch a hole in the landscaped foam but mostly in the landscaped grassy part, as a deeper hole wasn’t needed. After the mushrooms were all in place I went back with dots of white on the red.

Morning glories
The vine is made from strips cut from the edge of copy paper and then painted. These super narrow strips tend to curl on their own but I did some strategic gluing to get it in place. To get length, I just glued them one to the other. The curls made same way but added as I was working the flowers and leaves.

The flowers are more hole punches from thin paper. I cut a slit in them so that I could make a cone shape. To shape them, I rolled them against my finger with my needle tool. Then glued them and then painted. 

The leaves were some punches that I purchased with a group. 

This group went together to buy a bunch of different colors and shapes from dealer that offers both punches and punched petals. One individual did the ordering and then separated them into smaller amounts to send to or each group member. I glued the punches to the vines and later went back and painted all the leaves to match the vines. 

Egg-shape flowers
Again I used the swirl punch for different sizes. Then I shaped each flower with the double ball stylus. Rounding them from the back and then dimple in the front. Then I painted them. The leaves for these were also some punches from the group but were heart shape and cut them in half to use them. To give them dimension so not glued directly to the grass, I added a bit of foam to the back to elevate like a short stem.

Daffodils
To make these I started with a strip of paper. I used my craft knife to cut petals of similar shape and size. Just slightly curved cuts.
The center is a roll of paper that I frayed the edge of the tube.

 The green leaves were from my stash. I purchased them online or at a show. I could have easily hand cut these as they are similar to the other petals. I repainted them to match.

Star-flower/lily (orange and white flowers)
Since I made the egg flowers I decided to stick with making these as well as similar to the illustration as possible. 
They were made similar to the daffodils with different petal shapes.

Dandelions
I thought these were too much and so I took artistic license to not include them. I find them too much of fantasy. Sure that doesn't exactly make sense with the other flowers I made already, but I am just drawing a line and not making these. It's the whole the yellow flowers are too small relative to the leaves thing that bothered me.
Tree
One thing about doing a project based on a picture or drawing is how much of the picture will be done. Sometimes the picture has a depth that would simply be difficult to achieve in the space available. With the trees this was indeed the case.
The trunks are made with dried plant material. I choose the shape best to match the trees I had room to do. The greenery is just the cluster landscape foam sold for trains. I love this stuff. The shape was general. But the choice to flatten the top is because I want this project to fit in a plastic box.
Owl
Before I started this project I told myself that I would find a bead/charm to do the owl. I wasn't particularly interested in making one in clay although it was a possibility if the bead/charm thing didn't work out. Indeed I was able to find a suitable charm and even ones the right size and without any loop to be cut off.

This product is sold for going inside of a clear locket. It is flat on the back, but I was ok with that, rather than creating in clay.
To add feet, I cut a piece from the hole punches.

I cut the tail at the same time and this also gave the charm a place to sit and something more to glue to the top of the pole.

Doll
It took me several weeks to get back to this project because the next phase was the doll. I knew that I wanted to make this using cloth covered wire. I knew I could do it so the time delay wasn't me procrastinating like often happens, but simply real life activities keeping me busy.
To start the doll I used a wire pin template (pins in a block of wood a the wrap points) I made for some previous dolls.
This is the result of the template

Next I shaped the body by squeezing the legs and arms together, then painted the feet as shoes. I also added some tissue paper to the feet to build up the shoes.
The socks were also tissue paper and I painted. The lines are done using a 20/0 liner.The technique is to make sure the brush is wet and roll the brush through the paint to get a fine tip. I also like to use extender which is an acrylic product that extends the drying time but also thins like water but with different properties than water.
To give the body depth, I knew I wanted to add stuffing or something. My something was batting used in a jewelry box. I wrapped the stuffing in the middle and then wrapped with white silk ribbon. I applied glue to the ribbon to keep in place. I didn't use a lot of glue, just enough to hold it in several places. I could have tried to match the color of the ribbon to the finished color, but I figured painting the ribbon would hide some of the glue marks and make it look better. (I was right.)

After completely wrapping the torso, legs and shoulders, I painted the body blue.
I then added tissue paper pants. These were painted as well.
Next was a tissue paper jacket/sweater that was also painted. Here's with the black base coat only.

 I think the tissue paper did well cover the ribbon. I wasn't worried to much about the top.

The white tissue paper was to keep me from getting the yellow edging paint on the blue.
Next was to paint details on the jacket. I used my liner and a 3/0 round to paint with. The dots were made either with a double ball stylus or a needle tool. I repainted anything that was too big when creating the dots. Black dots in the egg flower shapes here were added after the red dots.

To finish up the doll, I decided to use a plastic bead for a head and gave her a face. The hair doesn't show in the illustration so I went with curly blonde. The hair is bunka unraveled, glued on and then trimmed.

Doll hat
For her hat, I used a bead  on a toothpick for shape. I applied thin white glue to a piece of tissue paper and applied to the bead. Boy, waiting for that glue to dry was an inconvenience. Meanwhile I also cut a brim from paper. This was a round piece with a smaller round piece cut out of it. 

I glued the brim on to the tissue paper. Then I decided I needed another layer of the tissue paper on top of both. Once dry, I careful removed from the bead. It did get squished up, but I was able to reshape it. To finish it out with color, I just painted it all over one color then adding several similar colors in lines and swirls to try to mimic the straw pattern.

Hobo sack
Of all the things I thought was going to be a severe challenge, this wasn't it. But it was. At least until I applied glue and paint.
I tried first with cotton cloth. No way. I didn't want to try tissue, because I wanted to tie it.
Next I made a square of silk that I applied a line of glue to avoid fraying. This silk was some from my stash in off white. I've had this silk for many years and purchased the smallest amount I could at the store we got it at. I got several colors but for this type of doll any light color is a good choice. A good source is thrift stores. Silk isn't easy to care for so I think it gets donated a fair amount. The key is of course finding a light color. But I digress.
The silk square gave me the best chance of achieving this. But it was applying thin white glue and then later paint that made it able to be pinched and sort of tied into shape. 
Inside the square is a plastic bead that I had to glue to the middle to fiddle with the silk square.
The paint was a just a base coat. I let this all dry before I applied the little details.The stick is just some grapevine that I cut the right size.
Suitcase
The suitcase is two pieces of strip wood cut to size. I sanded all the edges before gluing them together. Then applied paint. To give it depth, I applied a dirty water wash (thinned black paint) and wiped off as I went. The handle is wire I painted after inserting it into the wood. The label/travel ticker is paper that I glued on and painted.

Finished
Overall this was a really fun project. I will say it was more challenging in some areas than I expected, but nothing I couldn't conquer with trial and error. It also feels really good to have completed this. This year hasn't been a year for minis so far. That's ok, because those other things were important and minis can wait.

1:48 scale how i made my mushroom

First I would like to give a shout out to Beverly Bert (better known as Masiry on microminis yahoo group) as she is the one that really inspired this project and I used her tutorial for 1:144 scale mushroom as my starting point for this 1:48 scale one.
I think it is no coincidence that sharing of projects by others inspires us to make things ourselves. 

My family is very supportive of my miniature hobby.  My daughter is interested to the point of having a 1:12 scale dollhouse and also being interested in doing new projects.  I often tell my family about projects I see that have been shared by others.  I told my daughter about the mushroom tutorial and she wanted to see the photos.  She commented after seeing them that it would be something she would like to do.  She even suggested that we could do this in 1:48 scale.  Be still my heart.  1:48 scale is my preference, she prefers 1:12 scale.  I often enjoy looking at 1:144 or other scales, but seem to come back to the 1:48 scale. 
Her birthday was coming up so I bought her a dome and base for this project.
At the same time I started this project, I started two others - which have yet been finished.  Both of the others go in a 8 x 12 inch dome and have similar aspects so it was easy to work on messy stuff at the same time.

In deciding to do any project (even a kit) there are decisions to be made.  In this case, I had some help in Maisry's tutorial, but I had to adapt it to 1:48 scale.  Deciding to use a 8 x 12 inch glass dome to display was a big help in the decision how big it could be. 

The following is grouped based on what area of the mushroom and not necessarily in the order to make it or the order I worked on it.   I am including where to hold off on doing something to that particular area.

BASE

Since a 12 inch dome is fairly tall for a mushroom, I decided to include a landscaped base to go on the wooden base for the glass dome.  I could have used the wooden base and that would have been fine as well.  The landscaped base gave me space for my battery - but in hindsight I could have included the battery in the cap.  More on that in the CAP section.
The landscaped base is two thicknesses of builder's foam.  I really love builder's foam and it is one of my go to products for things like bases.  I like using it because it is easy to cut and very sturdy.  It is also not messy when cut.  It get mine a local hardware store.  I usually take my craft knife with me as they sell it in big sheets and I can't get it to fit my car without cutting it. 
To shape this, I used my craft knife to quickly cut away different areas so it was rounded but knew I would do more with the next step.
I used plaster cloth to cover the landscape base to make it more a mound and cover those sharp edges.  I buy mine at my local craft store.  Check both the craft section and also the train modeling section. 

One beautiful thing about plaster cloth is that it will stretch and that includes that it can stretch over a gap. It also makes for a very lightweight project.  For this project- two layers of plaster cloth was enough.  When using plaster cloth, the insturctions say to dip in water, but I say the dipping is just part of it.  Once dipped it is important to squeeze the wet cloth to get the plaster wet as well - this helps the plaster to fill in the weave.
After the stem was glued onto this base, I painted it grass green.  I also worked on the STONE PATH.  See how I did that in that section below.
After the path was done, I spread glue over sections of the green area and applied landscape foam.  I do a section at a time so the glue doesn't get a skin on it.  I press the foam into the glue and try to leave it to dry before shaking it off.  I also like to keep a wet edge of the glue - as in I don't cover the entire glue section with the foam until I reach the end.  Depending on the landscape foam I have gone back and trimmed with scissors if the foam is shaggy like in this project.
I also added a small patch of garden.  I should have planned this and did before I started the green.  This was painted brown.  Then I applied glue to the entire section and sprinkled on brown landscape material.  This may have even been used tea leaves.  While the glue was still wet I did mound the dirt to make rows.

To make the carrot tops I used a greenery that I think was something for fish tanks.  I am not really sure where I got it, but I cut it apart and then inserted each plant into a spot in the dirt.   When using materials designed for other applications it is good to think about the material in a different way. This material was several inches long, but I focused on the parts and used that.  When adding to the dirt, I used my pointed end tool to make a hole although it wasn't necessary every time.  Note to self - wait until the landscaping material is dry before switching to the other color.  I think I should have done the garden first then the green landscaping instead of the other way around as I had to deal with bits of green in the garden that didn't belong.
That green round thing in the lower right corner of the garden pic is the on/off button for my lighting.  I painted it at the same time as the base but did not glue to the button only around the button. 

STONE PATHWAY

I really love how a cobblestone or stone pathway looks.  I don't have access to a lot of small round stones nor do I want to spend hours carving something, so I wanted to find a way to do this that wouldn't require many hours. So here is my easy way to make a stone path.
I painted the path brown.  Then I used the end of a 3/16 inch dowel to dip in gesso and make ovals.  These would have peaks and I tried to work them so they didn't stick up so much.  I even tried pressing them down after it had dried a bit.  However it wasn't necessary.  I used two layers of the gesso and then sanded.  The sanding removed those extra peaks and left the stones uneven which stones would be.  I could have sanded then nearly smooth if I wanted.

On the right is the gesso on brown paint, next I painted using a very light brown wash (very watered down paint) and dabbed it with a paper towel to remove a lot of it.  I repeated this same wash and wipe process next using a dark charcoal color.  The dark wet area shows the wash still on before I wiped it.  The left side shows the end result. 

STEM

I started with a pint size ice cream container.  I decided it wasn't tall enough so I decided to use the container as a support to make a taller stem.  I used thin cardboard and came up with this.  I even pieced it as knew I would cover the cardboard later.

This one was fine until I pulled out the rabbits and realized the floors and windows didn't work with my selected rabbits.
Next I made another stem using thin card from a file folder. I happen to have excess - seems people don't file things like they used to with the increased use of computers.  No reason to throw away perfectly good cardboard.
This second stem was taller than the first.  It is just over 8 inches.  I only used one layer of cardboard here, but in making a stem for another project I did two layers. Either one or two layers work.  The second layer might help with warping but I wasn't really concerned with that. 

I have already added the bottom floor and the top ceiling.  Also you can see the opening is cut and have marked for the floors.
To cut my floors - the two installed - I used foam core board and I used a compass to draw the circles and my craft knife to cut them. 
To cut the opening, I sketched a shape using a pencil until I was satisfied with the opening shape. I wasn't too fussy with the shape or I would have folded a piece of paper in half, cut a half shape and then unfolded to trace around it,  I used my craft knife to cut this open.
The other floors were made with matt board.  I cut these with scissors but a craft knife would be ok as well.  I also cut from very thin card - like index cards - for the ceilings.  These were to hide my wiring.
The placement of floors in my mushroom was important relative to the height of my rabbits.  My rabbits are on the short side.  I choose to use four levels because that is what fit in this size stem. 
My stem is angled so the floors were not all the same size.  I cut circles first to make sure they matched the curve of the wall.  Then I cut them until I was happy with the shape. I cut them in oval shapes as I decided my floors would be offset.  Here are the shapes I ended up with

The decision to offset the floors was inspired by the floors in Susie Newell's firework factory.  I had considered adding ladders from one floor to the other, but in the end decided I didn't want them.  Also when I cut the windows and door, I took the placement of my floors into consideration.  I wanted my windows to be random not lined up, but I did make a simple template and used that for all of them.  When I cut them I didn't worry too much if I made a tad bigger or smaller opening.

LIGHTING

I used LED chip lights to light the stem.  I love the new LED's, they are so small and so easy to use.  Easy to hide being one of the key aspects I love.
Each ceiling paper got a hole punch (I think it is 1/16 th inch) where I wanted the light to go.  I glued a smaller piece of paper to cover the gap and also help hold the light into place.

The position of the light was relative to the floor below and not the ceiling. 
A small hole to the same side (just poked with my craft knife) allowed each set of wires to come out of the stem.

These wires were untwisted so that I could match colors.  It is important with LED's to not get the colors switched.  Thankfully the ones I bought from Evans Designs are colored.  I twisted all the red together and all the green together.  In this project the two sets of wires were long enough to met up with the switch and battery holder wires. If not, then I would have used an extension wire.  I do solder my wires together and then use a heatshrink tube over that. 

The wires were soldered to a switch and a battery holder.  I used 4 LED's and a coin cell battery.  I cut into the plaster cloth and builder's foam to position the switch where I wanted it.  I like the switch to be even with the base - or the base of the switch even with it which makes the button just above the base level. 
I made a hole in the basebottom  to accommodate the battery holder. I choose to not glue the landscaped base to the wood base so that I will be able to change the battery. I debated about putting the battery in the cap, but I was concerned about how I was going to get to it later.  Having completed this project and thinking of how I would do it again, I would put the battery in the cap, but have the switch at the bottom.  The coin cell and holder are very light and there was room in my cap.  The wires would easily go in the other direction it is just a matter of planning.
Once the wiring was connected and working, I added the paper to the stem to keep the wires in place.  This paper was just plain copy paper. 
When planning the wiring I did plan where my windows were going to be.

OUTER COVERING OF THE STEM

In Maisry's tutorial she used velvet paper to make the stem and the cap.  This was so to give them a look that real mushroom's have.  I decided that velvet paper is a good idea, but not having any on hand I was willing to part with or buy enough to use, I looked for other options.  I used file folders for the structure of the stem, but wanted more than that on the outside.  Plaster cloth was my choice.  I cut the cloth in strips 1-2 inches wide, overlap them.  I did two layers of the cloth - smoothing the plaster as much as possible.  This just takes time but is really fun, messy but fun.
Some of the windows I cut the cloth while still wet to either remove the window opening or wrap it to the inside. 
To make the hoods over the windows, I used plaster cloth.  I cut a piece that was 1-2 inches by 1 inch.  I waded them and attached with the plaster embedded in the cloth.  Some of them had to be trimmed to improve the edges but that can be done wet or dry. 

As you can see in this picture, I didn't try to make the hood match perfectly.   To help the plaster cloth disappear, I painted with gesso.  I really like gesso as it provides some depth so can fill in spots.  Applying it thickly was helpful.  Another thing I did while the plaster was wet was capture some of the plaster from the bowl that held the water to wet the cloth.  As I work with the cloth a layer of plaster builds up in the bottom of the bowl and this can be reclaimed to fill in spots as well. 
Initially I painted the entire stem inside and out the same off white, but the outside was just too flat.  I applied a dark brown wash to the outside and wiping as I went.  This gave the stem lots of character and improved greatly.  I encouraged the wash to antique the stem especially in the hood areas around the windows.

CAP

As I mentioned above, Maisry used velvet paper to make her cap.  I had decided that I would use plaster cloth for this as well.  In her instructions she worked on the cap inside a bowl.  I didn't have a bowl big enough to do that, although I did have one big enough to work on outside.  However as I looked at my glass bowls I wasn't happy with the curves I was finding.  I figured I was going to have to make a structure out of foamcore board or something. Then it dawned on me - I could use the glass dome.  The outside of the dome.  That worked beautifully!!!  It was messy for sure, but it cleans up.
I started with a square piece of plaster cloth that I cut into the sides and laid it on the dome.  I spread it and the plaster smoothed out so nicely.  The extra cuts into the sides were not necessary due to the fact that the cloth will stretch on the bias.  I added several layers.  I even did strips.  If I were to do again, I would use 3-4 layers of cloth.  One thing I was concerned about was the edges.  Once it was dry I was able to cut the edges very easily and had no issues with fraying.  However I did add strips around the edges overlapping from both under and on the top side.  All of these were smoothed to avoid wrinkles although I did some overlapping of the pieces.
I cut a donut shape from foam core board for the underside of the cap.  Between this piece and the top of the cap would be room for the wiring.  My main concern was breaking the cap if I removed it, so is why I didn't go with the battery there.
The donut was smaller than the cap so there would be a lip and the inner circle was the size that was needed to fit onto the stem. 

I wanted to simulate the lines under a mushroom cap so I used a thick layer of spackle to fill the gap and then used a sharp tool to draw lines in it while still wet. 
I let this dry, but either my eagerness to test fit and pressing the cap into place or just the act of drying the juncture of the donut to the cap cracked so I had to do a second coat to fill in.  That was why I was concerned about putting the battery in the cap.  However by leaving the cap alone until I was completely ready to glue it in place, I didn't crack it again and it was very sturdy.  But I could have easily left the cap not glued to the stem as the opening fit the stem top well.  The stem sticks about 1/2 inch inside the cap. 

 I painted the top of the cap bright red.  Wow, that was fun.  I also wanted the spots.  Looking at pictures I had gotten online the spots seem to be  a growth and 3-d, so I used gesso and a 3/16 inch dowel as a dotting tool.  This application was purposeful to make the dots peaked.  I am very pleased with the results.

RABBITS

The rabbits are all resin.  Many of them were ornaments for an egg tree in their former life.  I repainted them all.  I decided that with a bright red cap that the inhabitants needed to be bright and colorful as well.  I know that pastel is often the choice for Easter things, but bright colors are good too.  A few of them were modified using my dremel tool.
Here are some before and after. 

 

MACHINES AND OTHER ACCESSORIES

 

The machines were made by using lids from paper mache boxes.  The gears and things - were just that - gears from old watches and other odds and ends that I have kept for just such a project.

The idea to add the machines was inspired by Susie Newell's firework factory. 

The paint pots in the color room are perler beads.  I used sequins as lids on the ones that were on top.  Storage bins in the 2nd floor are pony beads with sequin lids.  The shelf units were plastic ones given to me by my father who is an O gauge train enthusist.  They were cut in half for another project.  I just had to sand them a bit for this one.  One the first floor is the other shelf unit and I added seed beads to metal bead caps to make baskets of leftovers. 

The table on the first floor was a swap item I made, the two pink fuzzy chairs were a swap I received.

In the nursery, all the items except the rabbits and the pink toy box were swaps to me.  I made the toy box as a swap item.  I love using my swaps and it is great to have one of your own to finally use as well.  The beauty of swaps is getting many handmade items to use without all the work to make them and design them.

 

 

 

PAINTED BASE

 

After I had painted the base for the winter centerpiece (thanks to Susie Newell for opening up this possiblity), I knew I would paint this one as well.  It was just deciding what I would put on it.  My daughter was planning to add additional mushrooms to her project and I thought this was my way to do that.

I base coated with a green same as the undercoat for the grass area.

The mushrooms are very freeform shaped.  Paint the white stem and cap.  Paint the red part of the cap.  I tried to leave a slim edge of white at the base of the cap.  Then I dotted white spots on the red portion using my double ball stylus.  I was intentional in that a few of the mushrooms are taller than the side - meaning they do appear above the side, but not all of them. 

Next was the bunny butts - bunnies from behind with an oval, a dot for the tail and two ears.  I painted the eggs with plain flat acrylic and then after with metallic.  I did paint the bunnies all white at first, but to give more dimension, I added a tiny bit of light brown to my white and painted the hip area again.  This was to give the tail a more obvious color difference.

 

The grass was several colors of green.  Some of the grass blades were added intentionally to cover or hide portions of the other things.

The finished base was then coated with modge podge.

 

If I missed anything or you want more explanation, please feel free to email me. 

 

Happy mini-ing!

Preble