Egg house Part 1 - Development and some stages

I have wanted to do an egg house for a very long time.  I have considered several variations of this over the years. Initially I bought a big but short sided rectangular basket for a base as I wanted to make a village with multiple houses.  This would work in 1/144th but not 1/4".  So the basket was given away.
Later, I think, oh I can use these plastic eggs.  Just regular size eggs, but then I get out my ruler and the size is too small.  I couldn't put more than a chair in those and how can a 1/4" bunny person stand up in it?  So that idea gets tossed as well.
Lately, I have been planning my thoughts on paper.  Just a simple sketch, adding notes about details I want to add.  I sketched an idea for my latest idea of an egghouse.  Based on that sketch, I went through my stash.  Sure enough I had several egg shapes available.  One was a L'eggs (old pantyhose container) egg.  I went so far as to glue the two halves together.  But then I decided it was bit small.  Next consideration was a plastic egg already had a hole cut in it.  It was ok, but looked at my other options.  A paper mache egg also was pre cut.  Nope, then lastly was a plastic egg that the opening was around the oval or side as opposed to around the middle like the typical plastic egg.  This egg was larger than the other 3 and has a clear half and not clear other half.

This egg house needs something to hold it up. My sketch was to have a tree trunk.  This became something that was open and would be in addition to the egg having living space.  That solved a problem that the egg was still small so not enough room for more than a stove and chair. 

When I started this I was working on more than one project at the time as I was doing similar things.  For example for the Mushroom house I was using an ice cream container as a starting point for the stem and for the egg house for the trunk.

Here I have drawn a line to determine where to reshape the opening.

Notice the extra cardboard to make the shape and to the side is a circle cut from builders foam to go inside.
This picture shows test fitting inside the dome and how it might sit on the base.

Test-fitting made me realize this wasn't the right trunk yet.
My new trunk was made using a manila folder and I didn't have to add extra pieces to wrap around.
I actually made a shorter one as had decided it would sit on several layers of foam to raise it up.

notice that the egg has a line on it.
Here's how I got that line - used a mug to draw the line with a sharpie.  Later I used isopropyl alcohol to remove the sharpie

After setting the egg on the short trunk and on the layers of foam - I realized I could still have my tall trunk and the layers.  By cutting into the layers I was able to insert the trunk down in them.

Here can see the back view of all that cutting

Along about now is when I should have been deciding on where the electrical would go.  But no - I can't seem to think that far ahead.  I am sure it was because I was thinking I would not include electrical but that is really crazy thinking now that we have these wonderful LED's.

After more trimming of the foam - I was ready to add the plaster cloth.

Here is the back after adding the plaster cloth

At some point between these pictures, I cut the opening in the back of the egg. Then  I painted the stump and that's when I realized I wanted to light it.

I added 4 lights. 

For the top floor the wires ran on the outside of the egg in the groove where the two halves go together.

The lower floor of the egg has the wire going up the side and I covered it with spackle. The wire along the ceiling is hidden by a thin card with a hole in the middle.

At the bottom of the egg I drilled another hole for the floor below the egg.

The lowest floor then also has a thin card for the light.

The wires for the trunk floors was hidden either with spackle, or I ran behind the plaster cloth I used to make the bark on the trunk. That is where the tricky part was. This is why we should always plan to light and think ahead for the placement of wires.

Here is the egg with my markings to tell me where to not paint. I painted the inside first. Plastic doesn't take paint well and definitely I had issues with opacity. The paint brand I used has something to do with that, but ultimately I painted the outside as well. Eventually I built up both in and out side enough so wasn't see thru anymore.

I then cut door and window trim from thin card and glued it to the egg.

I did paint the egg a matte pink and then later changed to a lighter pink with pearl finish. Same with the trim - painted it lime green and then later painted it a darker green.

My next phase was to add the deck. I started with the pieces around the trunk. Each piece was measured and cut. The measuring was not precise. I did a lot of holding up and marking with a pencil. EVERY PIECE WAS HAND CUT. Other than having an idea of how deep the deck was going to be, I didn't measure the pieces with a ruler.

Then I added the lower brace. These I kept in mind where the deck edge was going to be. Then connected together with a horizontal. These pieces I made sure they were in line with the others.

Next on the deck framing was the outer piece, then the middle pieces for support.

Here it is all supported.

Here with the boards all added on top of the frame. I glued a section at a time, trimmed all the ends after the glue was dry.

The railing was added as a end support and then a top rail the length of the section. The between supports then added in.

Different view - each board that was cut at an angle on the inside, was done by either eye-balling it or by marking with pencil the angle. Sometimes I had to cut again, but most time it worked. 

Here it is with a white wash to the deck and the new pink and green colors. The base also has been painted with green where I was adding in the grassy areas.

The landscaping is where I have gotten stuck. Last time I worked on this was in 2016.

I'm sharing this now, before this post gets any longer and so it can get published.

Card People - Alice in Wonderland project part 5

In part 4 I shared the first card people I made.  I googled images of cards and found a set of fronts that I liked.  Then did same for the backs.

I used MS Word to insert the images.  Then I re-sized them so that the cards were about an inch long.  In hindsight, I might have gone a bit smaller, but rather than waste the ink, I used what I printed.  I did print them on two pages as I did not care to deal with the alignment of two sided printing.  This also made it very easy to deal with the wire arms and legs and allowing them to be sandwiched in between.

Once willing to have stick like 'people', it is easy to just have wires for their arms and legs. It is an easy step to the feet being circles and hands non-existent or even circles as well. The head is another decision altogether.  I have done clay heads before and considered that, but paper heads would fit in with the paper bodies.  

One clever thing I think Lewis Carroll did is the use of the suites.  Spades are the gardeners, Clubs for the guards, Diamonds for the courtiers and then the Hearts are royalty.

My problem came back to heads.  The face cards have a face; the number cards do not. My ultimate decision was to use the face on face cards and add heads to the number cards.  I used the faces from the spades and clubs for the number card heads.  This worked out because I wasn't using all 52 cards, as in these are just extra.  Plus there are two faces per card. I found it interesting that the faces were different not just by J, Q, K but also by suite.

Here is how they are made:
1. 3 inch wire (26 guage black colored copper wire) for each side.  Plus 1/2 inch wire for head.
2. Made a circle for a foot and then bend for an ankle. Bend at the shoulder.
3. I applied glue to the back, laid on the arm/leg wires and a head wire. Then laid on the front and press together.

I should have took this pic without the glue, every time I look at it, I think that the glue is going to dry out.

4. I removed the head wire.  Wasn't trying to glue it in place just yet, but did want the space for it.
5. Used one of the faces cut from a face card,glue to wire and add a covering.  For some this was ribbon, some was bead with the face glued on.
6. Glued the head in place - trimming wire as needed.
Optional - to make the diamond cards have more depth, I added a roll of paper inside before I did step 2 and 3.  The wires for the legs then had to go through the roll.  Also I skipped the head wire since I wasn't adding one.  Some of the trims for the diamond cards was added before the two cards were glued together.

The Gardeners (spades) got paint brushes and buckets
-These were made by cutting a strip of paper, rolling it up and gluing it together.  Then I glued the roll to paper.  After it had a chance to dry, I cut around the roll.  I painted the outside grey and added red inside.  Then I added a handle.  The handle is also paper.  I cut a very very thin strip from the edge. 

The Soldiers (clubs) got clubs
These were made from black paper I punched - 6 circles glued to a wire that I added circles to both ends.
Arms then were bent to hold the clubs in place.

I also added a belt to one of the soldiers I am sharing today.  I made a couple others with more trim added.  Will show them later on.

The Courtiers (diamonds) got fancied up with various trims. Notice they do not have heads added.  

The card people were so much fun to make, especially when I got to play around with adding trims and such.  

The Hearts aren't done yet.  Figured I could share that later.  

Painting Roses Red - Alice in Wonderland project part 4

Reading through the story again - I had picked out several different scenes that I wanted to try to do.  The painting the roses red, just strikes me as so ludicrous that it must be done. Well, plus I figured it would be reasonable easy for me to do with materials on hand and my skills.  If it involves making figures or too many details, well it just might never get done. Because I won't, not be cause I can't.

A large rose tree stood near the entrance of the garden the roses growing on it were white but there were three gardeners at it busily painting them red.  Alice thought this a very curious thing and she went nearer to watch them and just as she came up to them she heard one of them say, "Look out now Five. Don't go splashing paint over me like that". "I couldn't help it", said Five in a sulky tone. "Seven jogged my elbow."On which Seven looked up and said, "That's right Five. Always lay the blame on others!"

Then there is this illustration to go with it.

In my mind, I want a ladder, so that is what I am doing.  Also my tree is going to be more of a tall vine.
The illustrator took artistic license as shall I.  They are more like people with cards on their bodies than how it is described in the text.

In my stash, I had some etched brass leaves.  I have collected several of these over the years.  One or two even a kit to make a rose vine, but without the flower petals.  

This what this product looks like.  I have turned over a branch so can see that one side is plain and the other is etched with veins.
I love living in the South.  I do not care for the harsh winter found in other parts of the USA so I lovingly deal with the consequences of hot humid summers.  But it does hinder me using spray paint. The mfgr recommends to spray paint as a base coat at least, but I don't even bother with spray paint in the summer due to high humidity.  Too much effort to wait until it isn't.  I just doesn't fit with when I want to mini.  So that meant multiple layers of acrylic paint.  Thin coats of course were used and sometimes seemed I didn't coat it at all but I just kept doing it until the brass was covered.

On left can see the painted with two colors of green and a brown.  The lighter green doesn't really show here it is under the leaves.  I don't know why but I can't get away from painting stems and branches brown.  I even mix in grey or black to try to get more grey.  I checked my own rose bush - a miniature one, which has green stems.  Just couldn't do it - leaving the stems green.  So they are mixed up brown.  
On the right can see the flowers I made.  Maybe they are roses?  I used two punched 5 point petals per each.  Wet them on a paper towel, layer two together with the petals offset, then used my tiny end of the double-ball stylus to shape them pressing them into some fun foam.  I actually prefer a faux leather pad most times when shaping flowers but the fun foam maybe holds them in place longer.  Negative with the fun foam is that it does remember the holes where the faux leather doesn't most of the time.

After creating the above post but not publishing it, I did some more work on the roses.  They are all together as a rose tree as described in the text.  Can't see it in this pic, but I have attached the metal to a real wood stem to make it a tree. It is brown and matches perfectly. It was meant to be. The stem also gives me a sturdy support to stick into the foam base versus the flimsy brass.  

I have also put together 3 cards for the gardeners.  I will still need to add heads.  The cards I am using, I found a set of faces and backs as images online.  I printed them on separate pages so that I can glue the wires in between.  The plus was that I also didn't have to line up for the double sided printing. However one issue I have is that the Jack, Queen and King have faces, the lower cards do not.  So these need heads.  Which actually might make sense of why the Queen would call, "Off with their heads!" so often.  Maybe she was jealous they had them.  LOL
Next I will be painting the roses red.  Hmmm, the title of this is 'painting roses red' but I am going to make you wait for pics.  Is that mean?
Maybe I will update this post - or add another.... Off to make paint brushes and buckets for these gardeners.

Beginning to build - Alice in Wonderland project - part 3

I cut my foam core pieces the way I had planned to this point.  I decided to use the two matt board pieces for the rabbit hole.

This is the test fitting - taping in place to see if ready to glue - or do I need to trim anything.

Here you can see I have used the toilet paper tube.

I am using two.  Both are cut open in the side.  There is one that is the inner part where the cupboard is and the other is the outside.  I folded it at the sides to fill in - cover the gap between the matt board and the tube.
I have also added back the foam core cut out with a hole in it at the top.  I plan to have greenery making the hole smaller. Note it isn't glued in yet - I will do that after I paint the tube.

I have added the flooring and I have my wallpaper cut, but not in yet.  I am adding some extra paper that I wrinkled and slit to connect the tube to the walls.  I want this taper into the walls.
I have also painted the tube.  I plan to cover it with something maybe some 'dirt'.

Covered with gift tissue paper.  I used thin white glue.  I put out a puddle of glue and use a brush to brush it on the paper and on the tube.  I allow the tissue to wrinkle as I lay it on to the tube.  I tear it at the bottom where the other paper is tapered to the walls.

More planning for my Alice in Wonderland project

I admit it - I am a dreamer.  I love designing things.  Planning a mini project is a lot of fun to me.  But I get it, many do not enjoy this so kits are a good thing.  
However if you want to continue with me on my journey to my Alice in Wonderland project keep reading.BTW, nothing wrong with getting a kit and kit bashing it - simply to modify it to fit your dream.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was considering a dome that a friend had recently given me. The size of this dome is just slightly smaller than a common size found at the local hobby chains 8 x 12 inches.  This one is 7 x 8 approximately.  I made some paper boxes to see if this was going to work for what I had in mind and for what I was willing to put into effort-wise with this project.  Quite frankly, I love tons of details and love lots of figures but I knew I would get bogged down so I was trying to work around not doing all of that.

I tried the paper boxes and soon decided I needed something sturdier to work with.  Since I was working on an another altered box type project and those weren't all glued in place, I used those to let me see.  I soon figured out the 7x8 dome was more than I wanted to deal with.

Here is the second choice dome - also plastic from a thrift store given to me.  This one is apx 8 x 5.  Here's where I tell you the benefit of letting people know what it is to look for. This second one came to me via my mom who loves to thrift shop as much as me, but goes far more often.
At this point in my designing I am just getting a feel for size and spacing.  Also determining if I want to use boxes or not.  Boxes being squarish and I am putting into a round dome.

This is a different view as I consider the boxes.

Next I source some foam core board and matt board for actual cutting.  I save nearly all scraps so I start with those first.  I have decided against the boxes.  They chop up the space too much.  Not sure if I will still be able to include the illustrations or not.  

This one I have cut two half circles.  Oh how I love blue tape.  I really don't remember what I did before that - guess it was pins or masking tape.

My plan is a long section (can't see it here) - the matt board on the left that is the rabbit hole. I am going to add some curve to that with toilet paper roll cardboard but also have the room below so it will taper to that room.
The tall space you can see on the left was going to have the white rose tree, but have decided it doesn't need two floors/layers.  
To the right in this pic on the second floor/layer can see some paper inserted as a wall.  This is just me testing placement of a wall.

This is more a top down view.  Can see that the top is now a 3/4 circle.  It is actually slightly smaller than the 5 inches across.  This will allow to see more below - less of a house look. 
The matt board section is the rabbit hole.  I will have to cover it so it is indeed a hole and not the 1/4 of a circle.  This top section will just be landscaped mostly.

At this point I will be cutting another 3/4 circle and adding support walls that will also section. There will be three sections on the bottom.  Half will be the white roses tree plus procession of cards and the rabbit hole room and white rabbit's house will be in the other two sections.
The middle section will also have three areas: the rabbit hole 1/4, the tea table 1/3, and the court session 1/3.  This means my walls will not overlap on the non-rabbit hole section from bottom to middle.  

I am planning to make all the walls from foam core.  I would use gator board if I had it but I don't.  I am not buying any as I figure I can deal with the warping that may occur as I normally have to do.  I am trying to use up items in my stash rather than purchase anything. 

The Beginning of my Alice in Wonderland project - the inspiration and planning

A very typical scenario for me is to be inspired by others on what to work on.  I have done this for years – before the internet clubs it was always a local mini club or a show.  
On one o the lists I am on a while back a project was shared by one of my favorite miniature artists – Susie Newell.  She makes fabulous Suessy like dolls.  In the miniature world, far too often dolls can be so blah, but her’s  are so fun and they fit right into her often whimsical structures.  But I digress.  The project she shared was Alice in Wonderland.  As I looked at her pictures, as is often the case, I said I want to do that.  And then, as often is the case as well, I said, not right now (if ever).

Fast forward to last week on LittleEnoughNews where I am a co-owner.  One of my self-chosen roles currently is to encourage fellow LENies to participate.  So I am running swaps, theme months, doing random drawings, etc.  One of our current swaps is Whimsy and as the topic grew and was expanded the Alice in Wonderland idea came up.  So I issued a challenge – make a AW themed project.  

The more I thought about this theme, the more it came to my mind.  OK wait – duh.  Well anyway….  I was reminded of a cake I saw.  Cakes are really good project ideas.  They make miniatures as well as we do, just theirs are edible.  (as an aside – I can’t do the cake thing, all that time and then it is destroyed as that is its original purpose – not me.)  Here’s a link for the cake I liked (BTW, I love Cake wrecks.  Every Sunday are the really well done cakes and the rest of the week are those oh no they didn’t or what was that sort of cakes. )

As I think about this project one of the decisions is what to put into the project.  This is book so there are many aspects to choose from.  Do I choose only one or several?  Since the falling down the hole is one of the bigger ones it is what I am thinking about now.  

The next day I woke up thinking about a comment by another co-owner that she would want to incorporate the images from the book somehow into the project.  The answer goes along with a concept that I am working with another project – altered boxes.  The hole could be the intersection of boxes and the images can be on the outside of the boxes.  My Mother Goose project was sort of altered boxes.  I am not for sure why we are calling them altered.  Mine aren’t altered unless you consider all my work altered as I build it and then have to do some sort of altering as I build it wrong somehow.  Or change my mind about something.  Altered boxes though to me are just boxes that are assembled and then covered with paper and more paper and/or embellishments.  Layered.  But everything works together.  Maybe the papers are color coordinated or the whole theme is coordinated.  Maybe altered because it is added to and not just the minis added.

As I was thinking about what to go into the project, I thought about the playing cards in the story.  I am making mine in 1:48 scale and so small playing cards may be ideal.  I don’t recall having any so I was thinking I need to go buy some.  But it occurred to me that they might be hard to find.  I really don’t want to spend any new money if I don’t have to on minis.  Plus using the cards I wouldn’t use a whole deck so that is wasteful.  Not to mention even if I found a deck would it be a style I like.  My solution was that I could make my own via internet images and maybe even scanning some larger cards and reducing.  

My next thought was about the container.  If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that is important to me.  For this one I thought of a plastic dome given to me very recently.  This was a situation where a friend knew I made miniatures and was helping another friend clean out her house.  My friend thought it might be something I could use and I said yes without even knowing if it would or not.  I will have to modify the base, but I think it will work.

Next comes my sketches and notes.  Rough stick figure type sketches.  Maybe I measure now.  I also need to decide if I am going to light it and what will be lit.  Better to do that now.  Believe me I far too often decide later and then have to undo or deal with the how do I hid it now problem.

So I am back to deciding what is going to go in this project besides the rabbit hole and tunnel.  I decide I need to re-read the book to find out.  This book is available on Google books as it is out of copyright.  I started reading it on my phone and I am doing screenshots on the images for any I think I might want to use on the ends or backs of boxes.

Can’t say when I will next post on this.  Miniature inspiration can leave me just as quickly as it can over take my thinking.  For sure watch this space for future posts about it.

Mother Goose 20-30

More how I made the sections or areas of my Mother Goose Project

The outside of the book

The hill is made of floral foam that I added gel medium to as a filler.  I won't do that again for landscaping.  It was tough to do anything with shaping wise.  I had to get my dremel out to sand it.  Better off using paper machie or lightweight spackle, which either would be my usual go to product for that.
I cut the floral foam with my craft knife and used toothpicks to pin it together.  Also use those toothpicks to position it against the book and in place on the pink foam layer.
Greenery is done with green landscaping foam for train layouts.  Also wood colored ballast for the paths.

20 Jack and Jill
I received the well as a swap item from Anne Richards.  The Jack and Jill dolls was a set I purchased at a show.  I don't know the artist.  I did buy several from the artist.  Always good to buy when you can of whatever you like, as may never see them again.
I added the pail made of paper and then painted.  

21 Hey Diddle, diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle
This one is actually several combined as it features several characters that I wanted to do.
For the cat, I used another character from under my cheese dome.  This one was made by Bev Corder.  This was one of those purchases - the price was good and I had the money so I bought what I liked.
I made the fiddle by printing and cutting it out.

22  The little dog laughed
This is a metal mini that I painted and added a bow.

23 Dish and Spoon
When I heard that there was going to be a swap for Mother Goose challenge, I decided that I must be a part of it.  I immediately emailed that I wanted to do the Dish and Spoon.  It was the first thing I thought of to make for a Mother Goose type swap.  That is rare as I don't often have an idea right away.
To make them, I used a 1/12th scale plate for the dish.  I painted the edges and faces.  Then I used super glue and wire to add the arms and legs.  I also used my dremel to add grooves in the back for the wires to set in.  Not sure it made much of a difference or not.  Then added the bows.  I made more than needed for the swap as I had to order extra plates and they just were so much fun to do. They are available in my etsy shop.
The spoons were hand cut from cooper.  Hubby helped me solder on the legs and arms.  My son even helped cut the wires that had to be stripped.  I didn't need their help in the sense that I couldn't do it, it was just the timing.
I spray painted the spoons, painted the faces, added bow ties of paper.  The hats are eyelets.

24 Cow jumped over the moon
I use graphics from ME's book that I modified to fit the back of the book.

25 Old Lady lived in a Shoe
I have always wanted to make a shoe house.  I initially was thinking about making one from a paper tube and paper.  Meanwhile I kept thinking about my baby shoes.  Once I decided it was a good use of them, I quickly tested if it would fit in my plan.  
The first thing I did was to find a door and window to use with it.  Then I cut the holes. I also added a wall at the top to fit up into the roof. 
Inside is a table, chair and a icebox.  Can barely see the table through the window. 
The house is lighted - I might should pop up the roof and change the covering over the light and maybe that would help to see the insides.  
The children are from some kits I  sold at one time.  I did have to paint most of the clay heads.

wire bodies some with stockings already

Hula hoop and scooter were swaps from a prior QC convention

Skateboard from a previous swap as well

26 Ring a Round the Rosy
The children just look so cute holding hands.  

27 Three Blind Mice
I was determined to do or use as much of this project from my stash.  However I took a trip to a miniature store in Atlanta during the time I was working on this project.  While at that store I did look at items that might work.  I saw these mice and I knew they would be so much easier to buy these than to make something.  

28 Sing a Song of Sixpence
This is either a really big 1:48 scale pie or a 1:12 scale pie.  To make this pie I made my own pie pan from a metal lid (from peanuts I think).  I rubbed it to remove the indentions.  I also trimmed it to a round shape a little larger than the bottom would be.  I used a wood disk to push the foil up against then my tweezers to add fluting.  Then I used the bottom of a glue stick to further shape the pan's side.
The birds are a toothpick inserted in a seed bead. Cut and then glued into the pan.  They were then painted.
The crust is paint that I squeezed in place using a syringe.  
I added the black feathers to simulate wings.  

29 Pat a Cake
This was a swap from Shelly Norris.  

30 Mother Goose cover
This is from ME's book and I did modify it to work for my book cover in size and removing extra bits.
I have a photoshop program that I have had for a while.  I have tried it off and on.  It isn't difficult so much as just have to learn what the steps are and what they are called.  It does take time to do the work.  Certainly there are ways to create shortcuts, but doing this as a hobby, it is something I haven't taken the time. My advice is if you have a program, find something you want to do and set a goal to do it.  Don't pretend.  It makes it real to learn how to do something that is actually want you want to do, not just an example of what you can do.

Kite in the tree - from a previous swap