Displaying 131 - 140 of 536 entries.

more finishing touches, tins and bottles

  • Posted on September 24, 2018 at 8:29 am

another quick project. i had some small wooden cubes and left over square doweling and decided to make some “tins”.

more finishing touches
i cut the dowel just a smidge longer than my labels, painted them all silver, then glued on labels. 4 sides and the top sides for the cubes, 4 sides for the rectangles, plain squares on all the bottoms and also the tops of the rectangles to make them smooth. the one turquoise rectangle got patterned top and bottom instead, just cause i had leftover tile that matched.

more finishing touches
once the glued dried i first set the paper with modgepodge, then painted all the plain paper silver again. voila – tins! the extras will go in the kitchen of the house i am planning next.

more finishing touches
here they are on the shelve with some tiny bottles i picked up a few years back, and found again while cleaning 🙂 they are all stuck on with fabric basting glue. hopefully that will hold, but be removable later if i find something else i’d rather use. we shall have to see if it works….

awn again off again

  • Posted on September 23, 2018 at 1:25 pm

i know that’s a bad pun, but i couldn’t resist 🙂
i thought  you said you were cleaning?
if you look way back to the original awning it was cute, but the colors were just too pale for my refurbished caravan.

awning repainted
so i painted it with more of my metallic blue/teal mix then aged it with copper and brown to get the rust back. it is a much better color now. i like how the original colors show through as just a subtle striped effect

awning on
i like the way it looks, but unfortunately it blocks too much of the light, making the interior too hard to see. since i really like all the details on the inside and want them more visible, the awning is off again. i may try it on the back side, or just use it for a completely different, and as yet unplanned project, maybe a little shop? 🙂

bench cushion

  • Posted on September 22, 2018 at 11:11 am

i decided my bench needs a bit of cushioning for travelling over rough bumpy roads.

bench pillow 1
i’m making glued ones since i wanted something fairly thin and flat. first i cut cardstock and trimmed till just a tiny bit smaller than the bench to allow room for the fabric to fold over. then cut pieces of flannel the exact size and glued them on.

bench pillow centered
the fabric is pieces of silk dupioni i cut for bed pillows and didn’t use. luckily they were perfect size for this size. all three are iridescent with a different weft and warp. i placed the cardboard/flannel combo on top but didn’t glue it.

bench pillow bottom
i glued the first edge and folded it over, then glued the long ends and folded them over as well tucking the corners in slightly so they don’t show

bench pillows top
and finished!… took me less than 15 min start to finish. most of that time was making sure the cardstock was a perfect fit. it took longer to do this blog post than it did to make the pillows!

now i just have to decide which one to use, though i may just tuck the spares away and change them up depending on what clothes the ‘pukis wear.
which color do you like best on this?

bench pillow red blue
red/blue
bench pillow purple red
purple/red
bench pillow gold pink
gold/pink

this is a table?

  • Posted on September 21, 2018 at 7:02 am

the best laid plans…
i was ready to work on my table.

bench start
i wanted some extra storage so decided to use this writing desk, instead of just a plain table.

bench cropped
the only problem was it was too big. realpuki’s are probably more of a 1/16 scale than the standard 1/12 so once again i needed to mod. i cut the legs off, planning to shorten and reattach them, but then liked the look and decided to make it into a bench instead.

bench and tiles
i decided to cover the front of the drawer and the rectangular section of the back with tile. so first i picked some tiles from my “tile file” and carefully resized them. since i don’t find the ruler on the word doc, terribly useful, i did up a couple of trials on the same page, then printed them off in grayscale on plain paper first. once i had the sizes perfect (the drawer is a bit wider than the back so i needed two sizes), i deleted the wrong ones and re-printed in color on cardstock. lastly i set them with a couple coats of clear spray varnish. i am extremely grateful that my dh decided to make a workshop in the garage last year, so it is heated and he added an exhaust fan for when i paint. now i don’t have to wait for nice weather!

bench painted
while the tile was drying i painted the bench. red for main, blue for drawer, then aged by dry brushing with antique copper. (i later painted the whole drawer blue so it wouldn’t show plain wood when my ‘puki’s leave it open.)

once the tile was dry i cut out each one individually. then a played around with them till i liked both the combo and the order before gluing them down.

bench drawer
here is the front drawer tiled. the holes were in the wrong place to attach the original drawer pulls, so i just glued on some red/blue crystal beads from my stash

bench bead cap feet
4 bead caps make filigree feet, that raise it to the perfect height

bench done
finished!

bench in situ
and put in place

time to put the wheels back on

  • Posted on September 20, 2018 at 7:27 am

putting on the wheels
first i cut 3/4″ dowels just slightly wider than my caravan, so the wheels won’t rub on the sides. my dh drilled holes in each end just long enough to insert the axle pins

putting on the wheels
next they were stained with one of the many stains in my paint box. i liked this rusty brown the best with the rest of my colors.

putting on the wheels
i glued the axle pins into the axles, then glued the axles to the bottom of the caravan using wood glue.

ladder
while my realpukis are very acrobatic, i decided to make it easier for them to climb in and out. i had this little ladder in my box of spare parts. don’t remember what i was planning to do with it, but it worked perfectly here.

for some reason it was longer on one side on the bottom, and the other on the top? so i evened it up before i painted. to make it a bit safer i took a pair of size 2 sewing “hooks”, bent them into a more useful shape and snipped off the ends. then i drilled tiny holes in the top of the ladder and glued the hooks in. i could have just used wire, but i had the hooks left over after i used the “eyes” elsewhere, and they were the right color. my wire was not. 🙂

everyone needs more storage

  • Posted on September 19, 2018 at 10:01 am

as i continue to clean out the cupboards/closet in my craft room, i added storage to my little caravan.
adding more storage
first set is a pair of little lockets, once the loops are removed they make great tiny cupboards.

adding more storage
here are the two styles of lockets i am using. the rectangular ones will go on the back wall over the bed. the triangular ones on the front wall over the table

adding more storage
and just because i love the fact that they both really open! 🙂 the larger ones have a clasp on the side, the smaller use a tiny magnet to hold it closed.

adding more storage
the back ones being glued in place. the angle is funny ’cause i took this picture while waiting for the glue to set. if i put it upright too soon, they would just fall off! the little box in the middle is another locket from michaels. i wanted that one removable so stuck it in place with silicone. the shelf/beam is on an angle when the caravan is upright, so without the sticky stuff the box kept falling off. technically the cupboards are also on an angle and everything will fall out if i open them, but i like how they look, so don’t care. realpukis are magic anyway so i’m sure they can make the stuff stay in 😉

adding more storage
and the front wall. while waiting for the glue to set on the back wall i changed my mind on the configuration of the front half, so the coat hook went under the cupboards, instead of under the yellow shelf as originally planned.

a quick little project

  • Posted on September 17, 2018 at 7:50 am

i decided to add shelves along the back wall. not terribly practical for a moving vehicle, but i thought they would look cuter than cupboards.

a quick project- shelves
first i cut three shelves from craft sticks, in various/lengths widths. 6 balsa wood rectangles will form the support brackets.

a quick project- shelves
here they are glued together

a quick project- shelves
and painted. i need more yellow in my caravan, so yellow paint it is

a quick project- shelves
once again i over estimated. i had cut the shelves before i put the bed in. once it was in, there was only room for one shelf. i used the middle one.

and the bedding

  • Posted on September 16, 2018 at 12:46 pm

time to get to work on bedding for the bed

first a mattress,
mattress
i wanted it to be fairly thin, so it didn’t take up too much space. i cut out two pieces of warm and natural time to start on bedding
cut two pieces of warm and natural, the exact size of the bed, then used it as a pattern to stitch the mattress

mattress 2
turned, stuffed and stitched closed. the lighting is off, the colors are a bit brighter and it has metallic gold accents. much closer to the picture below

mattress
and in place.

next the bedding
quilt take 1
i had this lovely soft rayon, which i bought just for this project. it had a printed pattern on it that kept changing, and i loved that particular rectangle. it had the right colors, and looked like striped piecework without having to sew seams. the fewer the seams, the better it drapes. to get the little piece i wanted, i had to buy .4m. luckily it was on sale and really cheap.

to keep the quilt/blanket drapey i made an unstuffed quilt. it looked like it would work nicely, but unfortunately once i put it on the bed, it was still too stiff. i still like how it drapes, so am sure i can use it somewhere else.

luckily there were three identical rectangles across, so i could try again.
quilt take 2
the good news was, that i got to try a technique that i’ve been wanting to try for ages. this time i stuffed the quilt with a single layer of warm and natural and one of tinfoil, folded over three times for sturdiness. i used spray adhesive to hold them together on the underside of the quilt, but left the top loose, except for the two rows of quilting. it worked perfectly! i can scrunch and bend the quilt to achieve whatever level of messiness my ‘pukis have left 🙂

lastly pillows!
pillows!
i pulled a bunch of fabics and cut little rectangles for pillows. since they take so little fabric i went a bit crazy….
they are stuffed with tiny glass beads to let them “plop” realistically. it is also possible to poke little “head dents” in them which will stay till i shake them out or move them.

pillows, the chosen ones
of course once i put them on the bed i realized i had way too many! so i selected just five. the rest will go in my box of spare props to be used in another project or sold.

bedding
and all the bedding in place. the purple blanket is a rectangle of silk velvet (much softer and a bit thinner than regular) i left it with unfinished edges and no lining to keep it soft.

making the bed

  • Posted on September 15, 2018 at 12:32 pm

i wanted to make a bed with storage underneath.
making a bed
i’m starting with this table with faux drawers from the dollar store. i would have preferred real drawers, but this is what i had, and checking out new tables with working drawers showed that they were all too wide, so faux it is. besides this is still about decluttering so as much as possible, i am using what i already have on hand.

making a bed
first i chopped off the legs

making a bed
then trimmed off side edges. it will be the perfect width without them, but too wide if i don’t. i’m used a hand saw, cutting as close as i can

making a bed
here it is with all the bits cut off and a light sanding to try and get the overly shine varnish off, but leave most of the color.

making a bed
next the knobs pried off and replaced with silver bead “handles”

making a bed
lastly dry fit to check for any needed adjustments. i filled in the back with a small piece of foam, carefully trimmed to fit the curve of the back wall. once i finish checking the fit , i will glue both place with fast-tak glue.

next step bedding…

a new wall

  • Posted on September 12, 2018 at 7:10 am

so i decided that while having that big opening let in a lot of light, it also severely limited what i could do on the inside. so today is operation wall close.
inside wall
first i had to create a pattern for the inside wall. i cut and added, taped and refit, till the pattern was perfect. this will be recut from printed cardstock

outside wall
the other side was easier, i just flipped it over and traced. then used this to cut a piece of foam core board. that will add stability and thickness to the wall. i will also use the same pattern to cut the outer wall.

inside wall dry fit foam core
and here you can see the foamcore stuck in. it’s not perfect, but close enough, since it will get completely covered anyway.

inside wall (2)
my printed wall fits pretty much perfectly.

outside wall
this was a bit of a miss. i altered the color on a jpg of wood i had, trying to look like the window is boarded up. i trimmed carefully to get a perfect fit. but didn’t realize till i added the bottom layer that leveling the wood from top to bottom makes it right at the top, but wonky at the bottom, sigh. i’m still deciding whether to leave it because it will usually be in out of sight, or try and do something to fix it? but what?

please ignore the mess in the background. the downstairs kitchen is on my list of places to clean/tidy, but i probably won’t get to it for a long time as it is far down the list, since very few people see it.

front
front side
alternate views of the bottom half. i like the way they look…. and aren’t jam jars useful?