Friday, December 4, 2015

My little christmas buildings




Lots of people love building christmas villages . I have seen some that I really liked but never got one because they were too expensive.

THis year I am starting Christmas with two houses that cost only  50cents !


This is what I bought at the charity flea market. A little  carry along house that opens into two little half houses. One with a pink roof and one with a blue one.






This is the inside of  one half house. I tried tons of furniture inside but nothing worked. So I decided to concentrate on making the outside look good and use them for my  Christmas decor.


A coat of primer and some paint changed the whole look of the house.


To add glass inside the window frames I used Mod Podge and a brush. It takes a bit of patience to carefully cover each little window with the Mod Podge but it is well worth it.  Some windows will have holes in them after drying. No panic ! You can remove the Mod Podge and  try again.





More paint and some snow paint were added.



And some christmas decorations.



A battery tealight fits perfectly inside the house to light it up.


Here is  " Twelf and a half cents cottage  "all ready for Chrismas 





The cottages also  fit inside my christmas wreath.  With the tea light to light the house and lights on the wreath  I think  this looks great too. The batteries for the lights can be hidden inside the house. Brilliant !

 This is the other half of  "50 cents cottage"




Tuesday, December 1, 2015

From broken DH doll to lovely ornament


What do you do when someone gives you a broken doll for your dollhouse ?
The head and arms were sort of OK but the rest was broken. Still I could not make myself throw her away so she lived in  a box for a long time.

But then serendipity took over. I found a bag of pretty tassels at the thrift shop and remembered seeing some tassel dolls on Pinterest.

I know mine is not a real elegant lady like the ones they showed there but I am still pretty pleased with my little angel ornament.


Here is the head I used. 


And here is the tassel. I felt the top part of the tassel looked a bit like a bodice already.




I glued the doll head on top of the tassel. The ruler is there to show the size.


Arms with a piece of chenille stem added for length and the fabric I chose for the sleeves.



Sew fabric into tunnel and insert hand.

Gather fabric at wrist.

Fold the fabric over the arm to make the sleeve.

Sew sleeves to sides of tassel at shoulder height.





Ready for the hairdresser and the details.



I added some chenille doll hair and to cover the  neck area I used some  angel hair yarn from my stash and wings made out of pretty  ribbon.

There she is with some jewelry added and enjoying the nice weahter in my garden.



Here is her twin sister who  I made this weekend.



I got carried away and also made a grandmother for them who know lives in my  kitchen scene.