Mini scene in baby bottle

Here is a  little mini scene I  made as a gift for a new baby.
The scene inside is inspired by the Brambly Hedge books .

The bottle I found at dollar store. . It is actually two half bottles so perfect for  a little project to go inside.

Sadly most of the furniture I had was way too big for the bottle and ofocurse  I wanted to finish it there and then and not hunt for furniture first. So  I did cheat again.

I painted one half of the bottle white because I wanted to use decoupage for the background of the scene and the glue would  be showing on the outside and look ugly. I  painted the bottle on the inside.

I scanned the picture of  mamma and the babies  from the book and printed three copies . One was glued to the white  inside of the bottle. The other two were used to cut out the mice  2x to create a  3 D effect.

You cut out the bits you want to stand out and glue them to the full picture with foam tape. This creates an amazing sense of depth.

 The mice in the bad tub is another picture from the book. I made a  3D picture first and then I glued the whole ensemble to the floor  in front of  mother and the babies.

To create more depth I added a few minis like a towel, a bar of soap and some clothes.

The other half of the bottle got a painted floor and I added some miniature furniture : a chair and a little table and I added a furry toy. When the bottle is closed this adds even more depth to the scene.

In the chair is a little baby mouse I cut from another picture . She is also done in 3 D .
Despite most of it being paper  the scene turned out nicer that I thought it would.

I glued another picture from the book on the  outside of the white part of the bottle so it would look nice from all angles. A bit of ribbon was the finishing touch.

Scrooge scene

For me Christmas is not Christmas without Mr Scrooge from Charles Dicken's Christmas Carol. I have seen the movies, I have seen musicals and plays and I own a collection of books with lovely illustrations as well.

Of course I had to have Mr. Scrooge in 12 th scale as well. So here he is.

I used an old battered copy of the Christmas Carol as a background. The illustration by Anton Pieck shows Scrooge in his chair talking to Marley's ghost.

The perfect backdrop I felt and I did not even have to make a ghost. I dressed my doll to look like Scrooge. I always loved Albert Phinney in the musical with the red stockings with holes in them so my Scrooge got those too.

I used the table to link the book and the scene together  and added things similar to the ones in the illustration.

You will notice the tiles around the fire are missing. I did not add them because I wanted to be able to read the story on the page.

I added a few things I thought that Scrooge would need like his walking stick, a box of documents and some fire wood.

I used a square tile for the floor and placed that inside a picture frame . I made sure the the frame was a bit bigger than the tile so there would be room to fit the open book between the tile and the frame. That way the book would stand up nicely, I did use a little glue to be sure it would all stay in place . The wood floor is printed paper decoupaged to the tile.


The outside of the book has some nice illustrations as well so the scene works very well as a centre piece for the holidays.

Decorating my mini trees.

Here are some of my Christmas trees in a setting I made years ago.
I did get some nice comments about the trees and I said I would show them more close up. So here they are.

They are just ordinary trees from various shops including the dollar store and  a mini shop.
I always add snow paint or even just white paint and ultra fine glitter to mine to make them look festive.

This one has beads for baubles. Some have loops for hanging and others are just glued to the branches. I cannot remember where I got the tinsel. If you look closely  you will tiny plastic icicles.

If anyone out there knows where to find these please let me know !!

This is the center tree in the setting. Stockings are metal things for holding paper together, the Santa's are so tiny and they were a gift  that I did love so much.  The bow is plastic  but I think it looks fine.

The tree on the left is my angel tree. I could not take a new picture of it because it now lives in Sri

Lanka with my granddaughter. It is decorated with crochet angels, bows and silver beads and tinsel.

This is one of the angels  I made. Using  tatting thread and a 0,60 mm crochet hook.

Julia's Christmas

In this scene little Julia is getting everything ready for Santa's visit.  His glass of milk and cookies are ready and she is very pleased  about how it all looks. But who is outside looking through the window?

This is the front of the scene standing on a shelf, The actual scene is in two halves. The first one is the living room with Julia and the cats, the other half shows what is going on outside.

The windows that divide the scene where a flea market find. I think they belonged to a Barbie house once.  They are perhaps a bit big for 12 th scale but I like the effect a lot.

I painted the floor on the outside side with snow paint and the inside half got a coat of varnish. I glued the window down using a glue gun. The inside got decorated with garlands . On the outside I used Mod Pdoge for a frosted effect and plastic icicles. I glued down the furniture and the doll as well as the trees to make it cat proof for I have a cat who loves minis.

The two cats playing with the christmas things is just what always happens at my house.

 On the left Julia inside and on the right Rudolf outside.

Julia has a decorated tree on her half of the scene and Santa has one in the garden covered in snow.

I displayed the scene on a lazy Susan so it could be used as a center piece. The cat loved spinning it around and around so we both enjoyed the scene.

 The great thing is that after Christmas it was easy to pack and store : the whole thing fits into a hat box.

Ps. Santa and Rudolf look pretty good don't they ? I found them for just a few dollars at the local dollar store.

Julia was the first doll I ever wigged and dressed.  I struggled quite a but I am pleased with the result now.

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"

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.