Day 24- Tiny Silhouettes

This is day 24 of our Holiday Miniature Marathon. If you want, you can start at Day One and "Shrink Your Favorite Book."
 It is nearly Christmas and if you need a quick but cute holiday gift for a grandparent this might solve your problems. Add in the fact that it costs nearly nothing and you have the perfect last-minute gift!

Day 23 -Mini Cuckoo Clock

It is day 23, our series of tiny Christmas crafts has nearly reached the end.  You can start at the very beginning with Day 1- Shrink your favorite books.

I absolutely love cuckoo clocks, and have been dying to get one for our house for years! 

I love all the hand-carved details in the house, the little woodland animals, the kitschy German landscapes

and of course, that fact that a birds comes out of a little door to say "cuckoo!".

So like many things I have yet to get, I will make a very tiny version for a dollhouse 

and wait patiently for the day, I get a real one in my own house!

Day 22 - Matchbox Diorama

For day 22 of our tiny Christmas crafts, we have a wintery diorama you can use as a very special Christmas card. You can start at the beginning of our 25 days, here, and see everything we have made so far!

 Using an old matchbox, and decorating it with decorative paper, you can make it look really special.

Add a note to make it personal.

 But the real fun is inside!

Day 21-Baby in a walnut shell

Day 21- We have a baby in a walnut shell, you can start at the beginning of our
25 days of tiny Christmas crafts, here!

We certainly are fans of using walnuts in our tiny crafts, here at small world land! So of course, we 

realized the walnut shell makes an awesome tiny baby bed, for your dollhouse.

We even used one for our nativity of clothespin people. 

Day 20 -Miniature Glitter Houses

Day 20's tiny craft is mini glitter houses. You can start from the beginning of our 25 days of 

tiny Christmas crafts, right here!

I have a collection of vintage Christmas decorations, and one of my favorite items are the 

tiny houses, usually made from paper and often covered in glitter.

I thought it would be fun to make some myself, and even cuter to make them very tiny.

These are a little different process, using wood blocks to start (much easier!) and a plastic tree,

instead of  those bottle brush trees. 

But you can do whatever you like! They are easy enough to customize to your taste.

Just google image "vintage christmas glitter houses" and you will find tons of inspiration.

Day 19-Tiny little elf

Here we are at Day 19- we have a Tiny Little Elf. To start from the beginning, go here, for Day 1 of our

25 Days of tiny Christmas crafts.

My kids are nuts for the little watcher elf, who sits around our house watching 

them, to report back to Santa. They named our's Buddy, after the movie Elf (a favorite this time of year!)

Our Elf has is an older version, we got him before the whole Elf on the Shelf craze took off!

This year, they had more questions about Buddy, esp. about his family, and background! They wanted

details!  So one day, this tiny little elf showed up, in Buddy's arms, and he has been hanging on our 

tree ever since! Turns out, this is Buddy's little brother, Skippy!

Day 18 Little Angel Treetopper

This is day 18 of our Christmas Miniature Marathon. You can click on Day 1 to get started with "Shrink Your Favorite Book."

I made this angel by adapting a larger angel template.

Day 17 - Three Clothespin Kings

Day 16 - Embroidery-redwork snowflake

Day 16's tiny Christmas Craft is a redwork snowflake.  You can start from the beginning of our
tiny crafts with Day 1, Shrink your favorite books.

I have always loved the look of  redwork embroidery, the simple red lines against a white background.

You can learn more about redwork here, if you are interested.

Day 15 -Little Holiday Garland

 
This is Day 15 of our Christmas Miniature Marathon. If you'd like, you can start with Day 1 and "Shrink Your favorite Books."
It only takes a few fabric or felt scraps and some yarn and triangles to make a very cute tree garland. You could use Christmas colors or switch to pastels or rainbows for other occasions.

You can also make your own stone fireplace, by reading our post here!http://smallworldland.blogspot.com/2012/07/miniature-stone-fireplace.html

Check back tomorrow, for Day 16, Tiny redwork snowflake.

Day 14- Mini god's eye ornament

This is Day 14 of our Christmas Miniature Marathon. If you'd like, you can start with Day 1 and "Shrink Your favorite Books."
God's eyes are very cute when shrunk down to hang on the tree or display in the dollhouse window. They are also a very meaningful baby gift. Traditionally known as Ojo de Dios, the Huichol people of Mexico made them for a new baby. The father made the center eye, then a new color eye was added each year until the child reached age 5. So you will be misappropriating the tradition a bit, but you could make a tiny God's eye with 4 colors for a 4 year old, or a single color one for an infant.
I used two skinny balsa wood pieces for my cross and embroidery floss for the stripes (or eyes.) You also could use toothpicks. The pointy kind would be best as they are the same diameter their whole length.  
If you can't remember how to wind the thread you can visit Wikihow for a good step-by-step tutorial.

When I changed colors I tucked the old thread under with a dot of glue and started with the new strand. You also could knot the new thread onto the old one. Enjoy your God's Eye.

Day 13- Tiny Tinsel Christmas Tree

We are on Day 13 already! Time for a tree! You can see our 12 other days and projects starting here, with Day 1.

You can make your own tiny Tinsel Christmas tree, with some pipe-cleaners, beads and an old wooden bobbin!

So cute to add to your dollhouse, or just to add to your Christmas decor!

Day 12 - Miniature radio

This is day 12 of our Christmas Miniature Marathon. If you like, you can start at Day 1 with our tiny book ornaments.

Day 11 - Tiny Gingerbread House

This is Day 11 of our Christmas Miniature Marathon. If you want, you may start at the beginning with little book ornaments.
I love making gingerbread houses with my kids for Christmas. So naturally when I found some little tiny wooden cubes at the Dollar Store I decided that I should make a little tiny gingerbread house for the dollhouse people.

There are many ways to do this. I used a wooden cube and some cardboard for the roof and a triangle to fill in the gap. I forgot to photograph the small chimney piece that I also cut out.

Day 10 -Paper hats, boats and boxes

Ah, we are on to week 2 of our tiny Christmas crafts, with Day 10's, tiny paper goods!

Feel free to start from the beginning of our list, with Day 1- Shrink your Favorite Books.

Since Christmas is coming, you may be wondering what you should get for your dollhouse family. 

Here are some fun, things you can make from paper, using origami.

You can use decorative holiday paper to be festive, origami paper or newspaper, for a traditional paper hat/boat look.

Day 9 Mini Christmas wreath

This is Day 9 of our Tiny Christmas Crafts. If you'd like, you may start at the beginning, "Shrink Your Favorite Book"

You can make this very simple dollhouse wreath using all sorts of materials. I used bells, a ribbon scrap, beads and a pipe cleaner.

If you want to make your own stone fireplace, learn how to here.

Day 8 - tiny paper chains

Now for Day 8 of our Tiny Christmas Crafts. If you'd like to start at the beginning, Day 1, click here.

I remember how much I loved making paper chains as a kid, a quick and satisfying craft. Of course, 

your small dollhouse world needs one too. 

25 links, counting down the days until Christmas!

Day 7 Fireplace and Stockings

We are posting a daily miniature craft leading up to Christmas, you can start at Day 1 with our "Shrink Your Favorite Book" post and check out the daily updates.

Every dollhouse needs a fireplace. This one is decorated with tiny pebbles and looks good year-round but especially at Christmas when we can use to to hang our stockings. We provided instructions for the fireplace a few months ago. All you need is a small box and some stones and some heavy-duty glue.

                             

For stockings you can use fabric scraps, felt, trim and anything you have laying around. You can sew them up or glue them together. Many people find an orange in their stocking on Christmas morning so it might be fun to make some tiny oranges....or lumps of coal!

Check back tomorrow, for Day 8 - Tiny  paper chains.

Day 6 -Tiny holiday records

We will be featuring tiny holiday projects every day until Christmas! This is the December 6 project. Check back tomorrow for another adorable idea.

One of the first things I do in December is get out all of our Christmas records so we can get into the holiday spirit with some of the Oldies. Why not print out and assemble some tiny dollhouse albums for your little holiday revelers?

For a turntable you can visit this site and learn how to make an awesome one. it very cleverly uses the back of a pin as a needle. It is also way too big for our house so you may want to modify it.

You can find our record templates at the Google Docs site. To assemble the record cover print out the templates. Cut and fold. Glue with the tabs inside.
We made our records out of a black vinyl folder, using a one-inch circle punch. Make a tiny hole in the center, add on a small circle label and you are all set. I include some blank records with the template so you can make your own. Simply find album art you want and shrink it down so that it fits in the box. Or draw your own covers!

Day 5 - lots of candy canes

Our 25 days of tiny Christmas crafts continues with day 5!

Every Christmas the candy canes come out, so naturally, we had to make some tiny ones, 

for the dollhouse.

These are so quick and easy, it's the perfect craft to make with the kids in your life.

Just get some red and white fimo, roll each color into a "snake" by rolling along

a flat surface with the palm of your hand. Then take the red and white, and gently roll those together.

Day 4 - mailbox and mail

We will be featuring tiny holiday projects every day until Christmas! This is the December 4 project. Check back tomorrow, Day 5 for tiny candy canes or you can start from the beginning, Day 1 with shrinking your favorite books!

Your dollhouse family will be receiving lots of cards and packages this month. Here is how to make a tiny mailbox, packages and cards.

I made a box out of cardboard and painted it red. The hinge is two strips of felt, colored gold with a paint pen.  It would also be easy to paint and alter a matchbox for this mailbox.

For the letters you can print out envelope templates at the awesome Jim's printable Minis page. I found them to be on the large size so after pasting them into a word document multiple times just adjusted them to different sizes. He also has wonderful printable newspapers, sewing patterns and even a globe!
The packages are tiny scraps of wood wrapped in thin paper and decorated by myself and my children. A tiny stamp set would be very useful here but we improvised out own postal cancellation stamps with thin sharpies. 

Day 3-tiny Yule Log Cake

This is day 3 of our 25 Days of tiny Christmas Crafts, check back to day 1 

if you would like to start from the  beginning!

I love the kitschy awesomeness of the Yule Log, and even more so as a cake. 

Also known as Buche de Noel.