Tiny Little Shadowbox Houses

Recently I've been playing with new materials and techniques. I made a slew of little colourful houses and moons with Apoxie Sculpt not too long ago and wondered what to do with my townful of little abodes. 

I enshrined them in Tiny Little Shadowbox Houses and they are cute as buttons!

The exterior of the boxes were covered in dreamy blue-hued scrapbook papers. The inside lined with old music sheets and painted in a black to cyan ombre.

A sprinkling of glitter to create a magical stary night and a wee clay moon popped into place above a group of tiny colourful cottages.

A little bit of gold embossing powder adds nice little finishing touch to the edges.

The Tiny Little Shadowbox Houses come in a four different sizes, each one just the right size to hold in your hand.

While these little shrines aren't perfect, I love that they show off something new. Here's hoping the new year will bring even more new little creative adventures to show off.

Tiny Little Shadowbox Houses

Scrapbook paper

Old papers

Acrylic paint

Glitter

Gold embossing powder

Moss
Apoxie Sculpt (houses, mushrooms and moons)

A teent tiny, itty bitty house!

I love this wee house. It is less than an inch tall and the base is about 3/4 of an inch square. It was so much fun to play with and I loved it so much, this house has become a two part project as I thought up about eleventy things to do with it while putting it together. Lora here for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts!

 Just give you a bit of scale...

Here is where I started:

I glued the house together, but left the roof off as I wanted to paint the interior white.

I then gave the outside of the house a preliminary coat of yellow.

I glued the roof on....

And chose the Tiny Pointed Shingles to put on the roof.

I started from the bottom and worked my way up the top, staggering the pieces so that the points form a diamond shape, not lined up.

After one side was done, I drew a line with a marker as a guide to where I wanted the shingle overhang to be, and cut them with a pair of sharp scissors.

I did the same thing to the other side, then added a ridge decoration. The little piece was from the shingles I used...it's the strip between the shingle pieces and is a little bit thinner. Perfect for a ridge vent!

I gave the entire piece a coat of Titan Buff.

And painted the roof in chocolate brown...

and red.

I added details with a fine brush, like lintels over the windows and doors and a threshold on the bottom of the doorway. And tiny little flowers and vines on the window sills. and a small tree in the corner.
I used a round #3 brush, pretty small and kind of dotted and blobbed the floral details as the house is so small painting a detailed flower wouldn't be noticed very well.

A very fun project and part of a story yet to come!

Thank you for stopping by!

SUPPLIES:
1:12 Gingerbread House
Tiny Shingles Pointed

Acrylic Paint

Santa Heads up the Fireplace by Betsy Skagen

It is late Christmas Eve and miniature Santa has just left tiny toys by the fireplace for good little girls and boys. 

He made sure to sample the gingerbread cookies and glass of milk before he left. You can even see his nibble marks on one of the cookies. 

 

Tutorial: How to Make Santa's Fireplace

Begin by assembling the sides and back of the Narrow Victorian Fireplace. Leave off the top, top interior tier and front. 

Paint all the surface with black gesso. You can omit the interior top tier. Also don't worry about painting between the two interior walls. 

Mix black gesso with modeling paste and spread on interior back and aides of the fireplace. Use an old credit card and an old pencil to create the brick pattern. Let dry. 

Place the front of the fireplace in position and adhere with strong glue. Repeat the brick making process for the exterior of the fireplace. 

Cover the fireplace with a light gray paint. 

Paint each individual brick with assorted colors of paint including burgundy or brick, brown, red and a dark yellow.

Touch up any grout with the light gray paint. 

Cut the back and head off an old Santa ornament and insert into fireplace. Adhere with strong glue.

I decided to dry brush some gray paint onto the interior back wall of the fireplace so that it was easier to see Santa's boots. 

Cut out wood-grained paper for the top and sides of your mantel. I aged the paper using brown and black inks.  Glue it onto the fireplace.

Cut stockings from felt, add miniature candy and adhere to the mantle. 

Add tiny logs and glue in place.

Cut a bite out of some wooden gingerbread and adhere to a dollhouse plate. Drop some white paint into a dollhouse glass. Add all of these to the top of the mantle.

Cut a rectangle from an upholstery sample to use as your base. Add miniature toys, wreath and tiny vintage games.

Thanks for stopping by the blog. I hope this inspires you to make your own miniature Christmas scene. -Betsy

Great Stuff

Narrow Victorian Fireplace

Miniature vintage games

Strong adhesive

Black gesso

Modeling paste

Acyclic paint

Upholstery sample

Miniature toys

Bottlebrush wreath

Dollhouse dishes and candy

Wooden gingerbread men

Something Wicked this Way Comes with this Witch's Trunk by Betsy Skagen

Brooms, hats, potions, and spells--ever wonder where witches keep all the necessities for hair-raising fun on Halloween? Well one witch stores her goods in this miniature steamer trunk.

Featuring a spooky spider latch and faux leather exterior, this trunk includes many tiny accessories.

You can make this witch's trunk in time for your Halloween decorating. It would also be the perfect gift for any dollhouse owner. 

Begin by assembling the steamer trunk from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts. Pay attention to where you place the sides so that the holes match where you will want your compartment to be (cough-cough, I speak from experience).

Add black ink to the raised areas of a piece of faux leather paper.

Cut the paper to fit the exterior of the trunk.

Next cut four small strips of black Tyvek. Adhere these to both the interior and exterior of the trunk to create two hinges.

Then cut four strips that fit the top and bottom of the trunk. Evenly place miniature brads. Adhere these to the trunk

Cut long narrow strips of the faux leather to go around the top and bottom edges of the trunk.

 Use a wire snips to cut the links of a spider pendant. Add embossing ink and rust embossing powder to the spider and activate the powder with a heat gun. Be careful! The metal gets very hot! Add brown and black alcohol inks to add further dimension. Then use a strong adhesive to attach to the trunk.

Your next step is to adhere a Halloween themed decorative paper to the interior. don't forget the compartment door.

Add a knob to the compartment door, then spray the interior and exterior with a coat of matte polyurethane.

Now comes the fun part--embellishing your trunk. Use your imagination to add bones, eyeballs, potions, books and whatever else you desire. You can purchase bones and eyeballs or make them yourself with paper clay. After they are dry, add gesso and paint. 

You can also use paper clay to create a witch's hat and a snake.

Cut book jackets from the Halloween Labels & Mini Books printable and add to miniature books that you have aged with brown ink.

Cut labels from the same sheet and add them to miniature bottles. This involves some teeny tiny fussy cutting.

Use the same process that you used on the spider latch, add embossing powder and alcohol ink to age the top of your jars. Then add your ingredients to your bottles. Use Glossy Accents mixed with glitter and alcohol ink, tiny beads or items you have made from paper clay.

Cut witch spells and a skeleton diagram from the Spells & Skeletals printable. Roughen and ink the edges with brown ink. Adhere the skeleton to the back wall of the trunk.

Cut witch stockings from a piece of green fabric and add stripes with a black marker. Spray the stockings with a light coat of matte polyurethane to prevent the fabric from fading.

Tie dried moss together, add tiny red beads and glue them to the bottom side of a shelf to create hanging "herbs".

I hope you have fun making your own witch's trunk. I would love to see how you bring your own creativity to the project!  -Betsy

Great Stuff

4" Steamer Trunk
Paper Calliope Spells & Skeletals
Paper Calliope Halloween Labels & Mini Books
Faux leather paper
Halloween themed paper
Miniature brads
Spider embellishment
Miniature Glass bottles
Paper clay
Glossy Accents
Alcohol ink
Glitter
Green fabric
Black marker
Black Tyvek
Gesso
Acrylic paint
Matte polyurethane
Strong adhesive