Pom Pom Fairy Acorns

If you come across some acorns like these in your trees, look closely, you may find a fairy nearby!

If not, you could also try to make your own because they are pretty cute.

Here is how;

Start off with a pom pom, we made our own pom poms which are really easy to make,

and look even better than the store bought ones.

You can buy pom pom makers, or cut one like I did here. You can even just use 2 fingers, and 

wrap the yarn around them.

1 .So, I like to start with one strand of yarn in the middle of the 2 sides, that can later be used to tie off the middle of the pom pom. I have just found this to be easier.

2. Lay the other piece on top of the yarn.

3. Start wrapping yarn around the middle. Just make sure that loose strand in the middle, stays loose.

 The more yarn, the bigger and denser the pom pom. 

4. When you are done wrapping it, turn it upside down and see if those ends are sticking out.

5. Just pull them together and get ready to tie a knot. You can't pull it as tight

as it needs to be at this point, but you can get all your yarn gathered.

6. Tie that knot.

7. Now turn it rightside up, and cut along the round edge, straight through the yarn.

8. Now the cardboard is loose, so just pull the pieces off. 

9. And now you can really pull the knot as tight as it needs to be. I make a double knot.

10. So grab those strings you just used to tie the knots, and shake the pom pom out. You should have an unruly, messy pom pom now.

11. Take your scissors, and clean it up to a more uniform ball. (or leave it messier if you like!) Just a little at a time, it can shrink to a tiny pom pom fast!

So, now that you have the pom poms, go get some acorn tops!

The tutorial pom pom, was make with a wool roving yarn. These pom poms above were

 made with cotton yarn. 2 very different looks.

1. Get your supplies. Pom poms, acorn tops, and glue.

2. So simple, using craft glue, fill the acorn top and then attach it to the pom pom.

3. If you want your acorn to hang, then just fold over your ribbon of choice, 

and slip it in between the pom pom and acorn top, when you glue it.

Now  let them dry, and think of all the cute places to hang them.

Windows, 

ornaments, 

attached to a gift, 

in a tiny fairy home,

 in a tree or plant,

off of a lamp, 

I mean, c'mon it's endless!

Old-Fashioned Desk Set

I just finished a whole bunch of Sherlock Holmes books and am thinking about making a little corner of Holme's sitting room that would comprise of Doctor Watson's desk and chair and book case. I am having a lot of fun figuring out what to include in this little scenario. I got started with the project today by making a desk set for Doctor Watson's desktop. I loosely interpreted my desk set from the awesome book Making Dollhouse Miniatures with Polymer Clay by Sue Heaser. Sue's desk set is way more professional-looking and also uses metallic silver powder to give it a great finish. I used silver Sculpey III that I had and what materials I could find in our house. I still think the results are pretty cute!

Step 1- Roll out some thin Sculpey and cut out your tray. I cut a rectangle of paper 1 3/8 inch x 3/4 inch and used it as a guide to cut my silver Sculpey rectangle.

Step 2 -  I rolled out some very thin tubes of clay and added it on as an edge.

Step 3 - Find two glass beads to be your inkwells. They should be around 3/16 inch diameter and a cylinder shape. Stick them into the tray hard to make an indentation where they will stand. Use a toothpick or sewing needle to make a mark where a pen would rest.

Step 4- Not pictured very well but roll out small silver clay balls and cut them in half. Use two of them as lids on top of your beads and one half in the middle as the pen stand,

 

Step 5- Make a feather. If you can find a tiny one that would be the best solution. I did not have a small feather so I cut a feather-shaped template from paper and glued a toothpick sliver onto it then covered both sides with pieces of white feather. When it was dry I trimmed it.

 

Step 6 - Roll up 4 tiny balls into feet.

Step 7- follow your directions and bake in the oven. Feet will not be attached yet and feather will not be included. Glass jars will be stuck into their spots.

Step 8 - After it all cool glue the balls onto the bottom.

Step 9 - Add your feather and you are all done! Note that my trim did not stay on the tray very well. I probably should have done a better job scoring it and attaching it.

Easy Pipecleaner Mushrooms

                                       

I have had fairy tales on the brain lately, and these easy, little pipe cleaner mushrooms seem to add the perfect cute and magical touch to a storybook setting.

I learned how to make these simple little mushrooms from

 this Japanese craft book. (ISBN978-4-277-43144-6)

Start with the base, cut between 1 1/2" to longer, just depending on what you want

the length to be. Make a super tiny little loop on top, to hold the top on of mushroom in place.

The top, was just red or brown pipe cleaner, twisted around. Starting at the top, then wrapping around,

larger as you go. You can wrap this around your pinkie finger to help with the shape, or kids hands are great for this too! The sizes can vary, just so it looks cute on top of the white base.

You've got the top and bottom, so ad a little dab of craft glue to hold them in place.

Then, using craft glue again, the tiniest amount, add some tiny white seed beads to the top.

And there you go!

So many things you do with these now.  Add them to a fairytale environment, use in a wreath, add

to little girl headbands or barrettes, or I think they could be gathered into a cool brooch.

They are also pretty cute just to sit around.

They make me pretty happy.

Little Bear's Chair

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Corinne and I are making an entire Goldilocks and the Three Bears house complete with handmade rustic furnishings and pom pom bears. At least that is our plan. Right now I have a lot of materials that I have gathered this week in Northern Michigan and a chair and a half to show for my efforts. Making tiny rustic furniture is tricky! I can't give step by step directions because I suspect every chair I make will be very different, but here are some general guidelines.

First, collect lots of twigs. When I started, I gathered any twig I saw on the ground. The furniture made from this hodge podge looked sort of like Frankenstein with different colors and textures. Not good. So sort twigs by type of wood. There are lots of beautiful birch trees up here so I amassed a giant pile of birch twigs.
Second, use clippers to cut your twigs into manageable lengths. I made lots of small and medium straight pieces and a few curvy ones so they were on hand and ready to work with.
Third, decide what kind of glue you want to use. I used regular tacky craft glue. You might want to consider super glue as it might eliminate the difficult clamping positions I found myself in.
Fourth, lay out some chair parts like the back, the seat, the legs, and glue them separately. I used masking tape to hold pieces together or propped stuff up while it dried using anything I could find. Here I am using a box of paperclips to hold the front legs up while they dry.

 

In the next photo I am using masking tape to hold pieces onto Papa Bear's chair, which is still in progress.

 

I can tell there is a huge learning curve on this. There are excellent instructions on making a rustic heart chair at About.com. 

Coming soon: the beds!

Back to School - Miniature Globes

For some reason, we have a ton of those clear plastic balls, that "squinkies" come in, all over our house.

Forever I have been waiting for the perfect re-use of them to dawn on me,

when suddenly my kids became obsessed with globes. (Their dad does collect them)

So we have here, a globe of earth, and the all blue one, became the moon.

This was a very quick and satisfying project.

We made the blue moon, simply using a blue Sharpie marker. I thought we would be

able to color green continents on top, but it didn't work...so it stayed blue and became the moon, which I think is pretty cool.

The other globe, was painted light blue, with acrylic paint. It does need a few coats, as, the paint was difficult on plastic, but it did stay without too much trouble.

For the green, we again used the Sharpie marker, and just used a real globe as a  rough reference for where

to place continents.

The bases, were simply attached using superglue.

We used a metal washer piece on the Moon, and a wooden bead for the Earth.

These are going to be the smartest dollhouse kids in school!

In case you missed it, there was a tutorial for how to make the abacus a few weeks ago.

Beach Rock Cave

We have this jar full of rocks we have collected from the beach here around Lake Michigan.

My kids came up with this project totally on their own, after helping me to build

rock tables for our miniature greenhouse.

They decide to make a cave.

 

I was pretty impressed, because I hardly had to help them at all.

They figured out how to balance the rocks, and everything. (they are 4 & 6yrs old)

They made a pathway,and that thing on the far left is a mailbox.

And they even included a slide on the right side there.

The people they chose, a space ranger and some green lizard-y thing, make it all look very Star Trek to me, which is funny, but it reminds me that they

have lots of great ideas of their own, I just have to let them try them out.

Sarah and I both have kids, "in the city" but feel there are so many opportunities to bring nature into their

everyday play. It doesn't have to be complicated, just give them the materials and see what they can come up with.

 

Polka Dot Bakery

I  went to a Barbeque last weekend and the hostess carried a big cardboard dollhouse out into the yard for some of the kids to play with. This group of socially awkward, clingy kids suddenly had a lot to talk about and it was a majorly successful icebreaker. My daughter has a huge Greenleaf dollhouse that weighs a ton and is not going to get carried in and out of the house at will. Ditto for my son's even heavier wooden farmhouse. I started thinking about making a small, lightweight dollhouse toy that we could take with us places like that barbeque or even when we go on vacation and leave the rest of our toys at home.

There is a site called The Pretty Penny that has really adorable kits so that you can make fabric fairy houses. I love these "wee folk dwellings" and suggest you check them out! I wanted to do something easier. I am reasoning that the structure itself is not as important as the cute things that go inside. Therefore I took a Hafflinger clog shoebox and a lot of odds and ends and made my bakery out of felt and glue and cardboard. I had a lot of different trim which came in handy to cover corners, window edges and door.  On the two smaller sides, I glued on decorative windows and did not cut them out. For the front I wanted actual see-through windows. I cut two squares out and a door. Then I glued pieces of plastic over the window holes. I used a presentation cover from Staples but there are probably lots of other sources for a square of plastic.

The side that opens has a loop of embroidery floss sewed to it so that it can close and latch onto a button sewed onto the top.

I made ample use of trims, ric rac, pinking shears and ribbon to hide the flaws and I think I cam up with a cute building. The inside is wallpapered with polka dot paper so I decided to call it the "Polka Dot Cafe."

Now for the fun stuff: the interior! Bakery shelves were assembled out of tiny thimbles (found at The Family Dollar) and microscope slides. I used superglue to connect them. You could put a third slide underneath to make your shelf steadier or just have it stand on the two thimbles. 

Fimo or Sculpey baked goods are fun for the whole family to make. The loaves of bread and hot cross buns were easy to make by mixing brown and white to get a nice bread color. We also made some cute trays of tiny cookies, and had mixed success with cakes and pastries.

The table is made of thimbles and a cork top from the awesome American Science Surplus store (where I also got the glass slides.) I glued the whole thing to a flat button so that it will stand up nicely. You also can buy the tables and shelves at our Etsy store.

Now you are ready to play with your bakery!

Please join us at our Tumblr page. We are a little late to the game but are finding it to be a really good vehicle for sharing our own dollhouse photos as well as pictures of other dollhouse art out there. Also you can submit pictures of your own dollhouse crafts to add to the mini blog!