The beg, steal or borrow Halloween project.

 I made this little Halloween decoration to take with me to the Crafts Show I went to.  So it had to be  portable and  pretty small.

 I could not buy anything because there are no Halloween minis around in my country
So I had to improvise with stuff from my stash of Halloween gifts I recieved over the years from my US and UK friends  and "borrow" a few things from other projects and that is why I named it the beg, steal or borrow Halloween project.

The Hutch came from my stash and got a coat of grey paint. I used some printies I found on the net to decorate the back of sheleves with. I think that really adds a nice touch. It also makes the shelves look more full in case you do not have enough real items.

I "borrowed"a chocolate cake from another project and added a plastic skull. The skull got covered in  3 D snow paint and I also used that to make the arms, With some grated cork for earth and some green stuff from my box of floral stuff I think is looks pretty good.

Never knew that Fibre Fill from a pillow would make such great cobwebs till I saw this tip on a Halloween website and tried it for minis.

Pearl beads and a bit of blue and black paint made nice eye balls. I dropped them in a dish filled with red glass paint. 

I think this shows that you can make a very easy  and  fun  decoration in no time at all by just begging, stealing and borrowing  !

Happy Halloween. 

Taking my minis on the road.

Every now and then I take my minis on  the road. I cannot take a lot on my scooter but I can manage to take several scenes and room boxes looking like a bag lady.

I agree it is a bit scary to take your minis on a trip. But I have to admit that over the years I have learned that most minis  travel really well if you wrap them with some tender loving care.  I leave the glass domes and stuff like that at home and make sure everything is glued firmly in place. But if you are lucky and do have a car the whole thing becomes a lot easier.

I have taken minis to dolls house fairs and that was pretty easy because  I did not have to take a scene or a room box and could  put everything in boxes.  I also could take a lot of decorations and stuff to make my table look pretty.

But more often I take my minis on trips to local craft shows where I am not allowed to sell stuff but only to show off what I make and try to  get others interested in the hobby. I actually like doing that a lot for it is great day out . Last Saturday we had a local craft show and even though I could not take a lot of stuff I still I think my table did look pretty nice and there was a lot of interest in the minis.

One of my favourite  places to take my minis to is the local care center for the elderly. Ladies and gents love seeing my minis and talking about them. It brings back memories and we always have a good time. So if you feel like doing something really fun with your minis take them on a trip and show them off !!

This can happen when you take your minis on the road . I had no idea but the local paper wrote about the minis and had my picture . OOps? Wow ? not sure but sort of fun.

Crochet cakes are so much fun.

I love cake and crochet. So making crochet cakes is a lot of fun for me.
Over the years I made  quite a few of them.

The first cakes I made were life sized ones. They made fun gifts and decorations around the house.

When I wanted to make 12 th scale versions of them I learned that   making really yummie mini cakes was easier than  I ever thought :

Just take a pattern for a life size crochet cake and make it  smaller by using thinner thread and a smaller crochet hook.

This picture shows a life size crochet cupcake. Made in wool using a 3 mm crochet hook. The cake on the cake stand is the exact same pattern but worked in DMC tatting thread using  a 0,60 mm crochet hook.


  The small cake on the 12 th scale plate was  made using sewing thread and a 0,40 mm crochet hook. This one is made out of 4 crochet circles glued together.

Here are some life size cup cakes. Once again made in wool with a 3 mm crochet hook.  For a mini version of these cakes you can use  DMC tatting thread , a 0,60 mm crochet hook and the same pattern. Yes, it works, just give it a try.

 The pink cake is a variation on the pattern I used for the chocolate cup cake and chocolate mini cake. I used DMC tatting thread in pink and white for the cake.

The flowers and leaves on the cake are also done in crochet. I did make up a pattern for those myself but you could use any pattern for crochet flowers and just make them in tatting or sewing  thread  to make them smaller.



The lemon meringue pie. Is done in three colours of tatting thread. I used a free pattern  I found for an amigurimi pie slice and changed it till I was happy with it .

I think crochet food is fun and it does not have any calories plus for the people like me who cannot work with clay the  crochet is a way of making food without frustration.


If you are looking for some amigurimi cake patterns to get you inspired try this link :

https://www.pinterest.com/1ret2vrang/crochet-food-cakes/

The crochet feather tutorial.

A few weeks ago I showed this little box of memories on Face Book. Several people asked me about how to make the feather. I said I would do a tutorial and here it is.

The feather is made in a crochet technique that I found in and old book. I do not think this is a realistic feather but it would look pretty cool on a hat to look like a sort of marabou feather.
Actually the technique I used was sometimes used to make feathers for real ladies hats using a ruler, a big crochet hook an thick thread. But I am going for the 12 th scale version here.

This is what the feather looks like  when the crochet is finished.

What you will need to make a crochet feather :

Thin yarn :  something like mohair or an other type of fluffy yarn will work fine.

A knitting needle. The thicker your needle , the bigger the loops on your feather will be . I used a European size 5.  That is a US H/8 or a UK size 6.

Crochet hook : a 1 mm crochet will work perfectly.

Fine  wire :  Now for the photo I used green wire like the kind you use for flower arranging. I used it because it was easier to see in the photo.  For your first feather it will probably be easier to use this wire too, But for a proper feather a thin wire like  you use for beading would be  much neater. But it is a bit harder to work with.

Tacky glue

A steaming kettle.

Make the slip stitch as you always do for crochet and start working double crochet (dc) around the knitting needle. This means wrap the yarn around the needle and then work 1 dc in the usual way.

You will have to make a strip of dc which will be twice the length of your finished feather, because the crochet will be folded in half when you are making up the feather.

At the end of your strip of dc , work 1 single crochet (sc) and turn so you can work on top of the crochet stitches.  But now comes the fiddling :  you have to put a piece of wire on top of the strip of dc and you will crochet another strip of dc on top of the first strip but this time  the yarn is wrapped around the wire not the knitting needle. 

When you give this picture a good look you will see the  beading wire I used for the real feather as well as the row of dc op top of the first row.

Now you can finish off and cut the thread but leave a tail !

Carefully slip the loops off the knitting needle. The wire has to stay in place inside the  crochet !!!

Try not to stretch the crochet too much or your feather will start to  look less neat. 

Fold in half ad twist the wires around each other to keep the feather in place. Use the tail of thread to wrap around the wires  a few times to  add a nice finish. Cut thread and wire and add a little tacky blue to bind off neatly.

To make your feather extra fluffy you can hold it over a steaming kettle . That will really be a great finishing touch.

If you feel like buying some ready made feathers please contact me about a commission.

Guess what is hiding in the closet ?

Once upon a time there was a sweet looking closet. It was painted a pretty pink and it looked like there would only be very pretty things inside it.

There was a pretty hat box on top and a little lace dress was hanging from the door.

  

The dress was to be worn to a party. It was made out of vintage lace with a crochet bodice and decorated with silk bows and flowers.  It had it's very own padded hanger as well.

But then at night the doors opened and the contends of the closet became visible


Pretty boxes, lace items and a  very pretty straw hat...............

But look again and tell me . does not that look like there is a skeleton hiding in the closet or even more than one ?

I think there actually is .. 

Not everything seems to be as pretty as it looks...............could this closet belong to a witch perhaps ? Telling by the posters on the inside of the door this might very well be the case.

Is not this a brilliant Halloween project ?

Getting ready for Halloween

Where I live ( The Netherlands) Halloween is not a real Holiday  and it took me a few years to get inspired by it. 

But now I  know that it is  actually a lot of fun if you like things like magic, witches , spooky things and perhaps a bit of Harry Potter.

Making potion bottles and other magical stuff is a lot of fun.

Get out your stash of things you have kept to use some day and start having fun. Anything that looks weird or magical can be useful.

If you can find glass bottles they are great to use.  I used a few that came from the dollar store holding glitters for nail art. I also used beads a lot and  plastic tubing with a metal disk for top and bottom works brilliantly too.

Plastic grapes make awesome green, blue and pinkish bottles that look pretty magical.

Stoppers can be corks, beads, bits of wood, disks and sequins.

Clear bottles and jars can be filled with tons of interesting things.  I used mouth wash and  liquid soap for interesting colors. Add Halloween shaped sequins or things like a chopped off doll head.

 If you happen to have a cat at your house ask him or her to catch you  some flies, mosquitoes or spiders. They look awesome in a bottle filled with clear all purpose glue and will last forever.

The most fun of all is thinking about the names to put on the labels. I really loved printing things like : Dragon Droppings, Man Repellent, Eau de ma Tante,  Pickled husband brains  and Ogre Snot to name a few.

Chopped of doll head in glue,  tree bark, seeds in clear glue, bug ( thanks Taeggi cat) in glue.

Ghost sequin in mouth water, bottle with blue glass paint, plastic cord and blue paint .

 Fairy dishwashing liquid with glitter mixed in, liquid soap with glitter and sequins.

Disney princess pencil topper in bottle with clear glue, The hairy chest in the bottle is a piece of leather that has fur on the other side.  White bottle is a bead with paper decoupaged on it. Labels were made on my computer.  The glass jars with the shining tops are pieces of tubing with metal disks for lid and bottom



More Halloween tips coming up so Watch this space.

Kitchen scene inside a lantern.

I had some lovely items for a kitchen  and a lantern  that I never used...............I did combine the two and I am happy with  the result .

My dear friend  Reva, painted the lovely hutch for me .

I made all the food . It is all no clay, no Fimo food that I made over the years.

The flower shaped potholder is my 12 th scale version of the ones my grandma made for me .

 The cat is interested in the treats on the table but she wants to be a good example to the kittenms for now .............