Making chenille stem bears

What you will need :

Chenille stems. Go for the  nice fluffie ones 

Tweezers

Tacky glue

Small scissors.

Beads for eyes 

Step 1. Cut a  piece of chenille long enough  to make the  head  and  the body. This decides the size of your bear. I used 10 cm folded in half for a really small bear.

Step 2.  Fold over at the folded end of your chenille and bend top forward for nose.  You can make this bigger or smaller to change the faces of the bears  you are making.

Step 3: Cut a small piece of chenille to make the ears.  Roll up both  ends to shape the ears. The bigger you cut this piece, the bigger the ears will be. Slip ears under the fold we made in step 2. Check for size. I usually add a bit of glue to keep the ears in place.

This is what your bear should look like now.

Step 4 :  Measure  a piece of chenille for the arms. It is up to you to decide how long you want the arms.  Cut a piece twice as long  as the length of the arms. 

Twist ends together into a loop, and fold in half.  Try on bear for size. The twisted end is at the bottom. This will help to add a little bit of volume to Teddies finished body.

 Step 5 : Repeat step 4 for the legs but make them  a bit longer.
They  are placed on the body with the twisted  bit  pointing upwards.

Step 5 : Fold the body parts that  are still showing under the legs upwards to finish the body  and to keep arms and legs in place.  You can once again add a little bit of glue to make sure everything stays in place .

Step 6 : Shape arms and legs by pinching and folding till you are happy with your basic bear.

Now it is time for some beauty treatments :

At the spots were the chenille has been folded over,  you will  notice  the wire inside the chenille showing.  In the photo above you will notice this at the tip of the nose and the front of the feeth and and the hands.

Covering up this spots will make your bear look more professional.

With small sharp scissors cut some chenille away from the wire.  Make sure you do this over a container or it will be everywhere.

Apply a little tacky glue  to the spot you want to cover 

Carefully add a little bit of the lose chenille and leave to dry.

Bear with finished nose job on the left , his brother on the right is the next in line for the makeover.

If you want your bears to look even better you can add chenille to other areas that need to look a bit better in the same way.  Often a bit added to the belly area or the ears will really work well. But it is all up to you for it is your creation.

Trying eyes and nose for shape and placement. 


Now you can shape your bear and add details. A little bit of blusher added to the inside of the ears and the soles of feet and hands adds a nice touch. 

Little bows, sweaters and accessories etc will hide a multitude of sins and will add character to your little bears.


 This is my basic bear. The ones I make to sell get a bit more work done to them but I am keeping a few little secrets between me and the bears .

If you would like to adopt one of my  little friends, feel free to contact me.

Salad tips and ideas , sharing my article in American Miniaturist.

Here are my tips for making salad greens and other ingredients.  I did not make anything out of fimo but I did use some slices of Fimo canes : tomatoes and oranges .

All the other things are made using other ingredients : drinking straws for oinion rings, erasers for cheese and ham, craft foam for egg end carrot slice and so ont. The lettuce is made from different materials : plastic artificiaal snow , plastic bags and floral tape.

Hope you will  enjou them .

Fried rice and fried eggs with no fimo.

 I am totally hopeless when it comes to 

doing anything with   clay. So I like to make my mini foods without those. This means I have to experiment with lots of ingredients  before I get a nice result, but that is part of the fun. Some of my ingredients may sound unusual but  I have tried and tested them for you and they work.

I promised to do a tutorial on  how to make my fried eggs and fried rice. So here we are.

Let' s start with the eggs.

You will need :  Aleene's tacky glue or Mod Podge dimensional magic.

Yellow glass paint. I like  window colors by Plaid

White paint and a brush

Piece of wax paper. 

Put the wax paper on your work surface.
Make blobs of tacky glue or Mod Podge. They will shrink quite a bit  when thy dry. A tail of glue is no problem for it  can be cut off later.

Also make nice rounded blobs with the yellow glass paint. They will become the egg yolks.

 This is what the egg whites and yolks look like when they are dry. The ones you do with Tacky glue will be thinner than the ones you do with the Mod Podge.

The Mod Podge ones will be easier to peel away from the wax paper.

Glue a yolk on top of each egg white.  Tacky glue works fine for this.

You  have now  created raw eggs without any clay !

For fried eggs paint the bottom of the egg with white paint .

 Here are your finished fried eggs.

Here are  some raw eggs . I am sure they will come in handy too for when someone drops an egg or when you want a raw egg in a bowl for the kitchen.


Ok on with the next recipe :  fried rice.

You will need : 
A white eraser 
A fine  grater. I use  the kind that is normally used for nutmeg or lemon zest.
Tacky glue.

For the meat and veggies :
Craft foam in orange for carrots
Craft foam in brown  for the meat
Tiny slivers of green plastic for leeks. You can use a plastic grocery bag or something similar

Use  the fine grater to  make a pile of grated eraser. It is easier to do it over a small container but I wanted to show it on the table for contrast.

Add a blob of Tacky to the container with your " rice" and mix very well. Some of the rice will stick together which is just what we want. 

For a nice clean looking result move the mixture to the plate you want to use for serving , instead of  using  the plate on which you put   the stick you used for stirring first ........ LOL 

This is what the rice looks when it is nearly dry. If you want to add meat and veggies you can do it now. Just cut up the ingredients and push little pieces of them into your rice.  

TiP : You can also serve this rice as plain white rice in a bowl and serve several dishes to go with it. 

Leave to dry and set completely. 

Serve with a friend egg .

There you are fried nice and fried eggs without any clay.

Let me know what you think. your comments make me happy.

Mini Crochet.

Today I am showing some of the mini crochet projects I have done over the  years.

All have been done with a 0.60 crochet hook and either DMC nr. 80 fil dentelles or punch embroidery thread.

They are all my own designs and most of them have been published in American Miniaturist, DollshouseWorld or Dollhouse Miniatures.

Hope they will inspire you to pick up a crochet hook !

crochet cake and lemon merengue pie.

Christmas doll variations.

Winter outfit for Eric.

 Baby sleeping in a seed pod.

Mini pin cusion doll. Next to her is the real of DMC 80 I used for the dress.

Spring outfit for Eric

A wonderful project created by a friend.

I just have to share this wonderful project with you all. You do not very often see a real male project in 12 th scale and this one I think is just great.

Art   is the husband of a dear friend but  I did not even know he did anything in miniatures till his wife shared some photos of a brilliant garage scene he created . 

He  worked  on this project the  last   5  years   after having  several  surgeries  it gave him something to  do and it cheered him up.

He  made the desk  from  scratch, also  the workbenches and he  put on the tin tops and  dirtied  everything  to make it look even more realistic .

 To  make  the  fan  belts he painted elastics black. He also   made  the labels himself.

The  white  car  was  a kit  built  for him  by  a  good  friend .

Your comments would mean a lot to him !!