Julia's Kitchen

I have always hugely admired Julia Child for so many reasons.  She was such an accomplished woman who is known and loved worldwide. She earned 3 Emmys, 4 James Beard Awards, a Peabody, a National Book award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

She donated her Cambridge, MA kitchen to the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian in 2001. It's where her TV show was frequently filmed.  The kitchen was her favorite room.  She described it as “the beating heart and social center of her household”.

I wanted to make a miniature version which was a big challenge as it's quite well known.  That meant I was going to have to hand build the cabinetry, but I didn't have to build the structure as it lives inside a GSL Deep Open Front Room Box which is available over at Alpha Stamps.

The room box is 10 inches wide by 10 inches tall by 5.5 inches deep which is a lot of space to work with.  The interior walls were painted with acrylic paint.  The floor is a sheet of DCWV Photoreal linen paper that reminded me of 1950s linoleum.  It took me a while to decide if I wanted the front facade and ceiling of the room box included.  I eventually decided to leave them off to allow natural light inside the room to show off all the tiny treasures. 

The kitchen window has blinds that I made by cutting a section of a manila folder the same width of a GSL 4 Panel Window then scoring it into pleats. You can't really see the sunny blue sky outside with the blinds on top but that's OK... I know it's always sunny outside Julia's kitchen window. 

Leaving off the ceiling and front facade left me with some tabs that needed to be covered. My solution was to paper the exterior all the way to the top of the tabs then glue 0.2 inch square bamboo craft sticks to the top of the tabs. Below those I glued lengths of 3/8 inch width x 0.078 inch craft sticks.

The finished effect looks like crown molding at the top of the room.

 The cat and artichoke artwork she displayed on her cabinets were reproduced and set into two of the GSL Connie's Mini Frames.

Here are some close ups showing the details and all the tiny kitchen ware, which were sourced both from my stash and Alpha Stamps.

This project was great fun and required me to plan ahead and learn a lot of new skills.  It will remind me of her every time I walk by it.  Thanks for stopping by!

GSL Products Used

Deep Open Front Room Box

Windows 4 Panel

Connie's Mini Frames

 

The Library of Mister Bartholomew Pendragon

Goodmorrow crafters, Jess here for the final installment of my miniature piece this month! If you'll recall, earlier this months post, I thought it would turn out to be a set, but I loved how it was turning out so much, I just had to glue the bits and bobs into place. It has become "The Library of Mister Bartholomew Pendragon". Let me give you the walk through:

The full Deep Open Front Box, containing the miniature scene.

Stacks of research Mister Bartholomew Pendragon has accumulated on various fantasy creatures.

Specifically, the "Pixie" stack of papers.

Mister Bartholomew Pendragon himself, framed atop his chair.

Scrolls hidden amongst the books.

The stairs leading up to the aging door. He's out exploring and finding new species of creatures he just can't be bothered to repaint the door.

His collection of exotic bats in shadow boxes.

He hopes to one day have a large stack of research on Dragons, as well. For now, this is all he's accumulated.

He's got a special interest in Nymphs. Some say, his wife was once a Nymph in the forests of Hanover, but this is just whispers amongst other explorers.

Ancient scrolls on learning to speak with various faerie species.

The pride of his collection will always be his books.

A closer view of the door.

Candles lead the way of the stairs. Worries of fire hazards tend to not bother him.

Thanks for joining me for this months miniature making - check back next month for more miniatures!

GSLC Materials

Open Front Room Box

4 Panel Door 1:12

Victorian Corners 2

2 Step Stairs

Alpha Stamps Materials

Chesterfield Chair

Cabinet Cards: Men Collage Sheet

Shadow Box Bugs & Bats Collage Sheet

Mythological Dictionary Pages Collage Sheet

The Bookstore Set

Goodmorrow, all! Jess here today with another miniature project. This month I'm working on something a little different, and my idea for it might change as I work on it (as ideas for crafts often do). 

What I wanted to do was create a sort of "set" for taking pictures of smaller miniatures like books and papers. So I knew I had to build the set into the roombox itself instead of gluing in a bookcase.

I began with the deep open front box (coming soon)

I used tongue depressors as the floorboards for this box. Usually I go smaller, but these are nice and flat, easy to cut. I purchased mine from the dollar store instead of yoinking them from my doctors office.

A process which takes me a whole evening, and sometimes more - is shaving down the door. I'm all about texture, so I take nail files (also in a pack from the dollar store) and go through several before the door is finished. I sand around all inner sides, and then sand around the small pieces that fit inside those inner sides. The point of the sanding is to give it a more beveled look.

Then I take my awl, which by the way is named Mr. Pointy (A Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference) and press into the chip board and drag it in long strokes to give it a wood grain texture.

I'm trying out something new this time - dimension inside my dimensional project. I cut some foam core (Hey - also from the dollar store!) to add another level to the shop. I measured my door to make sure it would still fit inside with another level added, to make sure everything was on the up and up and everything was good to go.

This was the perfect opportunity to use GSLC's 2 Step stairs,(coming soon) which fit in perfectly with this new level I've added here. See how perfect?

You'll notice most of my crafting is done with inexpensive (read: cheap) materials like foam core instead of basswood. I try and fill in foam for wood when I can to save money and use cheaper woods to cover up the foam for texture, which you'll see here. I've used foam core to build up the base of the built-in bookcase. 

The whole of the bookcase base is built out of foam core and glued right into the room box.

The thickness of the foam core is about the same thickness of wooden coffee stir sticks, so I use them to outline the smaller bits. 

I use more of the tongue depressors to texture the bottom and backing of the bookcase.

More coffee stir sticks!

The bookcase needed some more decoration, so I cut up some of the Victorian Corners and glued them to the base of the bookcase.

This is the base paint of the shop, which at this point I've changed my mind on at least 5 times.

I think I've got a thing for turquoise doors. It is one of my favourite colours, after all. A couple base coats of this and then...

Some green for accent.

More pictures for finishing later this month, so check back with me later!

Materials

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Deep Open Front Box (coming soon!)

2 Step Stairs (coming soon!)

4 Panel Door

Victorian Corners