Repost: Making an Advent Calendar Tutorial

This is a post I wrote last year. It was such a fun, easy project that I should dig it out of the blog archives!

My workspace is in the dining room. That means that whenever there's a holiday, I have to do some major tidying, so that my supplies are much out of sight as possible. While I was cleaning up today, I came across this great Christmas card which I'd stashed away last year. I thought it would make great advent calendars. You just need an exacto knife, card stock, glue, and an old Christmas card with a small scene.

I cut my calendar out of the bottom left corner of the card. I made it about an inch across, trying not to cut any of the people in half.

I cut the windows next. I cut the windows from the front, so that the windows could follow the shapes of images in the calendar. I also made the windows open from all different sides. I then scored the fold of the window from the back of the card. The back of the exacto blade worked well for this.

 

Then I used the tip of the knife to gently open all the windows, and smeared the back of the card with glue. I used Tacky since it was nearby, but a glue stick would probably be better.

Gently press the calendar on to a piece of plain white paper, keeping all the windows open so that they aren't accidentally glued shut. I think it's easier to trim the backing to size after the glue dries. Finally, I ran a gold paint pen around the edge. You could add tiny paintings behind each window now if you want, or just leave it plain the way I did. White glitter on the snow, or gold on the lamps looks nice too.

Here's another photo of the finished project:

How to Make Bamboo Furniture: Part One

I have a real soft spot for bamboo furniture, and I've always wanted the parlor to have a few pieces. As it turns out, miniature bamboo furniture is incredibly difficult to find! I've been searching for over a decade, and only found a couple pieces, none of which were quite right for my house. In fact, the only piece of bamboo furniture I have is this chair that Mom made. It was one of the first pieces of furniture Mom made, and it's become quite rickety as the glue is letting go. I finally had to pack it away for safekeeping until it can be fixed or remade.

 This illustration of a bamboo "overdoor" caught my eye in a library book a while ago. I am completely addicted to dollhouse porcelain, so anything that lets me cram in a few more plates/vases/figurines is a good thing in my book! I had to make it.

I reworked the design to fit over the parlor door. I eliminated all the curved pieces, which would have made the project more difficult. I was also completely out of narrow dowels, so I used toothpicks to make the bamboo. Using toothpicks meant I had to break the long bottom piece into three sections, which I think made the whole thing a bit more fragile.

I used my chopper to cut the toothpick pieces to size. If anyone wants exact measurements, I can add them to the next post. The bamboo rings were made with DMC floss, covered in tacky glue and then wrapped twice around the toothpicks. I added the rings randomly, though I did try to keep the spacing fairly consistent.

My gluing jig was helpful keeping the bottom and vertical bars square.

I used my drawing to add the top and middle bars.

This is the assembled back portion of the overdoor. It still needs a shelf, decorative panel, and paint job. I had to pause here for a while, since this was as far as I had planned. I took a moment to check the fit over the parlor door.

 

Not bad, but it still has a ways to go!

The shelf was made from more toothpick and thread "bamboo", and a scrap of thin wood from a sandalwood fan. I tucked a piece of cardstock where the painted panel will eventually go. I'm thinking about adding panels behind the four bottom squares as well, but will wait until the I've painted the bamboo to decide.

Here's a better view of the shelf.

I'm also toying with the idea of adding a pair of little shelves for teacups or small vases on either side of the main shelf, approximately where you see them in the picture above. Next up, I'll be faux-finishing the bamboo, and painting that back panel.

Tutorial: A Georgian Miniature Portrait in 1/12th Scale

 As a lover of tiny things, I've always been fascinated by antique miniature portraits. Back in January, when I posted the love letter vignette above, I used a 1/144th scale cast metal frame to create a miniature portrait in 1/12th scale. But though the metal frame was effective, it didn't capture the delicacy of the full sized frames. After experimenting with some bits of chain in my supplies, I was able to come up with a more historically accurate version. The first few steps of this project are very simple, and will make an effective frame.  The last steps -adding the loop to the top- are MUCH trickier, but really give the miniature an authentic look.

Supplies:
gold chain with oval links (links should be approximately 1/4" long)
gold chain with tiniest links possible
printout of a portrait approximately 1/4" tall (I used an image from a real antique miniature, found through a Google search. Remember that these will be tiny, so portraits with a strong contrast between the figure and background will be most effective.)
double sided tape
tacky glue
super glue
gloss medium (mod podge or similar)

Tools:
small scissors
tweezers
toothpicks
wire cutters

 1.Use the wire cutters to separate one link from the larger chain. This will become your frame.

 2.Spread a thin layer of glue (tacky or similar) over the picture, and place the frame on top. The glue should be thin enough that you can still see the portrait. Allow glue to dry.

 3.Fill the frame with gloss medium (mod podge or similar) and allow to dry. This bonds the picture and frame together, and creates a "glass" cover for the picture.

4.When gloss medium is dry, cut away the excess paper from around the frame. You can easily call the project done at this point, but to add a tiny hanging loop, keep reading!

5.This is where the project gets tricky, simply because of the size of the loop you need to make. You will need to cut a piece of chain 1 and 1/2 links long. *

6. To glue the loop onto the frame, arrange both the framed picture and the tiny metal loop on a piece of double sided tape. I stuck the tape to a small box, for ease of handling. Use a toothpick to add a dot of super glue and bond the pieces together. Allow to dry thoroughly before easing the miniature off the tape.

 

Tutorial: Quick and Easy Miniature Shopping Bags

 

 

I made this jewelry and perfume counter a while ago, but (true to form) didn't quite finish it. I knew I wanted to add a bunch of glossy black shopping bags to this display, but that idea seemed like more work than I wanted to tackle at the time, so I put it aside. That time away turned out to be a good thing, since this process is much more streamlined than my initial ideas!

 

I love this method of making shopping bags, because it doesn't require any paper patterns or measuring, but it's very easy to make identical bags. The secret is to fold them around a block of wood.

You will need:
paper for your shopping bag
scissors
balsa wood
a ruler/straight edge
pencil
white, cloth covered wire
glue (I used tacky)

The thickness and width of your wood will determine the size of your bag. I glued two pieces together to get the right width for the my bag. Decide the height that you want the bag to be, and mark that on the wood, all the way around.

Cut a strip of paper for your bag. I used a very thin, glossy black paper. The exact measurements of the paper strip don't matter, so long as it is long enough to go around the block of wood, and taller than height you marked on your wooden block.

Wrap the strip of paper around the wood, using your fingers to crease the paper at the corners.

Take the paper off the wood. Crease the paper again so that the folds are sharp.

Wrap the paper around the wood again. Use a little glue to glue the paper into a tube.

Slide the paper down the wood until one edge of the paper tube is lined up with the pencil line, and the other edge hangs off.

Wrap and glue the paper around the end of the wood, like you are wrapping a package.

Slide the paper bag off the wood.

 

Pinch the sides of the bag inwards, starting at the top of the bag and going as far down as you can. It is easier to do both sides at once, but I had to take the photograph!
The basic bag is finished.

 To make the handles, simply cut two pieces of cloth covered wire, and wrap them around the handle of a paintbrush to shape them.

Glue the handles in place.

Finally, fill the bag with tissue paper. The black and white bag I made for this tutorial is about as basic as you can get, but it's easy to change up the look of these bags by using patterned paper, adding labels, or using different sizes of wood to create a variety of sizes. The sky is the limit!

Tutorial: How To Make a Venetian Mirror in Miniature

 

In my last post, I shared my struggles with making realistic looking etched miniature mirrors. After more experimenting, this is the best I can come up with. They won't fool anyone up who looks too closely, but they turn surprisingly realistic if you move them a few inches into the room.

 

 You will need:

small mirror (I used a 1/2" mirror tile)

silver/mirrored paper (the shinier the better)

paper pattern*

x-acto knife and cutting mat

tacky glue

grey marker or paint

white craft paint

small paint brush

cotton swabs

 

 * My scanner wasn't working, so I couldn't scan in the pattern I made, but you can easily draw your own. The only important thing is to remember that the mirror will need to be glued to the back of  the frame, so you need to keep the opening for the mirror slightly smaller than the size of your mirror.

 1.Glue the frame pattern to the back of the mirrored paper.

2. Use a knife and straight edge to cut out the frame.Begin with the inner portion of the frame.

3.Color the inner edge of the frame grey to hide the white edge of the paper.

4.Continue cutting out the frame.

5.When frame has been cut out, glue to a scrap of thin grey paper.

6.Continue cutting out the decorations, and arrange them around the frame. It is often easier to cut the curves with short straight cuts rather than long curved cuts.

7.When you have cut all the decorations out, glue them around the frame. Leave a tiny space between each piece.

8.Use a thin, sturdy tool to draw designs in the paper. I used the point of my tweezers. These designs will eventually look like they have been "etched" into the mirror. For the most realistic look, lengthen any dots into short dashes.  You can see in the photo above that the border around the inner and outer edges of the frame is made of dashes, rather than dots.

9.Once you have covered the frame with embossed designs, you will need to fill them in with white paint. Mix white craft paint with water to thin it out until it looks like milk.

10.Use the thinned white paint to coat the embossed designs. Make sure the paint gets down in the impressed lines of the design, but keep it away from the edges of the individual mirror pieces.Let the paint dry completely before moving to the next step.

11.Use a cotton swab to gently buff the paint off the mirrored surface, leaving impressed design highlighted in white paint. You may find that a slightly damp cotton swab gets the paint off more easily, but be careful! A damp cotton swab is more likely to strip the paint out of the design.

12.Here, the design has been filled with white paint, and the mirror is buffed clean.  It may be necessary to apply two or three coats of paint in order to fill the entire design..

13.Use your x-acto knife to cut away the grey paper wherever it shows around the frame.

14.Once the grey paper has been trimmed away, glue your mirror to the back of the frame.

15. I forgot to photograph this step, but you should also run a grey marker around the outside of the frame to get rid of the white paper edge.