Alice in Wonderland - Finished

Yes, I am calling it finished even though my husband asked "Where's Alice?" for the tea party scene. I was ready to be done. Certainly if I ever feel like making an Alice doll I have room for her.



I've blogged about the various parts and you can view them here:
Part 1 - Inspiration - ideas, containers, sketches
Part 2 -  Planning - more about which container and how I decided what might go where - using foam core
Part 3 - Beginning to Build - moving forward with foam core walls and floors, making the rabbit hole
Part 4 - Painting the Roses Red - how I made roses
Part 5 - Card people - how I made the card people for my Alice in Wonderland project
Part 6 - Landscaping - how I landscaped this project
Part 7 - Rabbit's House - how I made part of a simple little house
Part 8 - The figures - how I made and painted the various figures
Part 9 - The court - Making the throne room and more on the card people and Mr. Rabbit
Also contains the finishing of the very top with the rabbit hole
Part 10 - Tea Party - how I finished up this section

Now for the finished pics

More photos here
Or view a mini movie of the project  on Facebook page (public viewing)
or on youtube

Alice in Wonderland Tea Party - AIW part 10

The last section in my AIW project is the Tea Party

I started by making a table with a rectangle of wood and toothpicks cut to length. I add laser cut lace around the top for a tablecloth of sorts.

For more details on my figures check out my previous post on them.
The chairs I used were an intentional assortment. The three wooden chairs in the back were from several different makers. The two in the front I got from Alpha Stamps and silver one to the right were charms that I modified. I think it came from the local hobby chain. The two brass ones - removed the ring and the silver one needed the legs cut down. I used a rotatory tool for the rings and my wire cutters for the legs.
The wing chair is 3d printed by Pretty Small Things. I got two. I painted this one plain black. I debated about adding an Alice doll but for now she has just left.

The food items were a combo of swaps from various makers and some items I made myself for previous swaps (tarts, pastries, and cherry topped cake).

The teacups, saucers and the white teapot to the left are all plastic that are made by Debbie Young but offered by a number of other dealers.
The silver teapot is a charm I got from Alpha Stamps. I painted it silver.
The silver trays are square sequins.
The utensils are from some laser cut sheets that I purchased at a show.

The completed scene
The dormouse is taking a nap in a chair.

The last thing I needed to do to finish this completely was the base and the trim.
I painted the base red first, and played with writing. After not being happy with that I painted it black, but left the red on the inside.
I topyed with the idea of adding various icons of tea things, the card suites and hats, etc; but settled on the card suites doing two on the black base and then two on the red trim at the bottom of the project itself.

The trim here and then also below the tea party area was using wood veneer that is adhesive backed. The upper trim was cut prior to applying. I painted both after applying. That's a lesson - paint before applying as it would be easier. Typically I don't simply because I don't know what colors I want yet.
To adhere the adhesive backing I used my household iron for the base. But that was really too large so I pulled out an old curling iron to do the smaller trim in the middle.
Another lesson for future was that I had cut the foam base and applied the trim to it later. The base wasn't perfectly round so the trim left a gap of the green landscaping. I applied a little glue and was able to fill the gaps nicely.

Complete finished photos coming up shortly...

My Valentine Party - Part 2

Read part 1 below if first time seeing this project.

• Bottom: painted it white all over, then I came back with the red.  At first I thought to try the stripes, but I didn't like that so just went with the red on the outer flat of the leg. 

• Top:

•  I went to a show and I just happen to pick up some shelf edging that is lacy.  It is for 1:12 scale but I was happy with it for this application.  I used a portion of the middle one. I trimmed some from the solid part.  If I didn't get that I would have most likely used paper scissors with the fancy curves like Joann did with hers.  I have a smaller scallop would try or even just a wave.  It would be possible to cut once and then go back with same scissors and carefully cut additional curves.  Or I would get out my craft knife and do some curves free-hand.  I did just purchase a swivel head craft knife and would have tried that.  I wouldn't have worried if each curve was even, just does it look good overall on the sections that get seen at any one time.
• I painted the lace edging white (it was ivory).

• I cut a piece of thicker paper ( 48 lbs) that I used to print the chair hearts on in a strip that would be narrower than the section of lace edging I will use.  I painted this red.  With the table upside down, I glued this around the top.  Not to the table but to itself and removed from the table and it is just a ring.  I glued this ring to a piece of paper bigger than the circle.  I also inserted the table in this ring so can be correct shape while drying.
• Then glued the lacing edging around (on top of) this ring. This allowed me to get a two tone coloration like Joann but different. Then when completely dry I carefully cut around the circle which became my table cover, which fit right over the table top quite snug.
• Place settings: 
• I used the plates and napkins from Joann's blog. 
• The utensils were metal etched.  I got a new set of these at the show I just attended.  These things were remarkable but wow working them is tedious.  They have to be cut from the framework and had to use scissors as the craft knife couldn't do it.  They also had a tendency to want to disappear. I was scared I was going to lose one, but they always fell in my lap.  Glad I got them as they do add to the table.

• The glasses are from some sort of light bright type peg.  These have a round end.  I cut a portion from the stem and then used a pink permanent marker to color them.

• The table favor boxes are printie from Joann's blog.  The handle is a thin strip cut from paper.  I cut them out using my sharp craft knife and then used the back of the knife to score.  I then carefully folded them using tweezers and to get a good crease, I used the rounded end of my tweezers against the fold.  
• To fill them I used two hearts 5/32" punched from paper.  One double layered and the other I wrapped in pink candy foil I saved from some real Valentine candy.  I also had some punched hearts 1/16" - same I used previously on the chair back, to glue 2  to a piece of wire, then added a glossy glue to make them look shiny like suckers.  I painted the wires white.
• Party Hats: 
• I used some shiny paper from my stash.  I think it might be wrapping paper.
• I cut a small triangle (the lines are about 5/16" apart.)

• To make it cone shaped, I curled the left point to the center and then rolled it around and glued it.
• Next I trimmed the lower edge to the right height and make it straight/even.

• The curls are made by cutting very thin strips from paper.  They curl on their own as they are cut.  But I did add some additional curl after I cut them and glued in place.
• The last thing I added was a white 1/16" heart punch.

• Centerpiece: Joann didn't publish the house as a printie as she collaborated with another who is offering as kit but that is 1:12 scale so I had to cut my own.
• She did include the riser portion - white with Happy valentine's day wording. I painted the top edge red to give the illusion of the decorative edging she did.

• For the house and its base, most of the details are painted but if I could cut it, I did. I had printed a pic of just the house and used it to determine sizes.  I guessestimated based on other things in the big pic.  The house is about 1/4" by 1/4" and the chimney is 1/16" x 1/16".
• I added ultra fine glitter to the roof and used an extra 7/32"  heart for the front door.  I am very pleased with how it turned out even if I didn't get the weather vane on.
• The base is a circle cut out by hand and then painted, the pink hearts under the house are from the 7/32" heart punch. 
• The lollipop trees are thin strips of paper with the smaller 1/16" heart glued to them.  One per 'stick'.  I painted the back where the heart and stick meet.  To get these to stand up and stay on, I glued part of the paper stick under the pink hearts and then folded them to stand up.

 Side Tables

• The round table is made from a HO scale porch post that I cut to length - one on the right.  The others were options I considered.  I used some scrap wood for the feet and a 1/4" round woodsie for the table top.  I added the lace edging from the far right in the pic near the top of this post.  I trimmed the top section so it just has swags and then once glued around the table top and once painted, it gave a carved look to the table edge - Sweet!  Loved it so much used it for the cake table as well.

• The punch bowl is a clear flower shaped bead that was 3/4" tall.  I used my dremel tool to cut it down and shape it.  I added a punched clear base to seal the hole.  Then I colored it with the permanant marker inside and added nail polish for liquid.  The nail polish took several layers so don't necessarily recommend it.
• The rectangle side table for the cake was made by cutting wood pieces and by scaling down Joann's dimensions.  I used my scrap wood pieces.  (Always good to save them - mine are sorted in a divided box so easy to pick and choose what might work.)

• The 3 tier server - I used a swirl round hole punch to punch the various sizes.  (Larger punches that punch different parts are a good source of differnt sizes we can use in smaller scale minis - use your 'mini' eyes when looking at punches for this purpose.)  The center is a straight pin cut down to height with silver spacers from crimp beads, I used one for the top and two each for the middle and bottom section.  Silver marker was used to added the edging to the plates of the tiers. The cookies on the tiers are 1/16" round punch with painted hearts.

• The cake - punched a heart from fun foam uwing my 1/4" punch. Then I painted it with pearl paints.  The cake plate is a 1/4" round punch with silver edging using a silver marker.  The knife is from the etched silverware set.  Looks like I need to remove and trim the sides again.

Finished in its box