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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Ghouliana's Garden

Another fascinating project from Wanna in El Paso! Her stories and how-she- did- it's are so entertaining!
http://www.wannainelpaso.com/index.shtml

She writes:
I always feel a bit drained when I complete a project because I spend as much if not more time on the photography, the story and the how-I-did-it as I do on the actual setting. So, it's always good to know that someone else is enjoying what I do, and I start to fill back up again.

Someone asked me about the various plants that appear in that little garden. Practically all of them were made by repainting and repositioning bits and pieces of artificial flowers. I added leaves to some. The KnockKnock plant (knobby woody looking thing by the wheelbarrow) has been in my landscaping stash for YEARS waiting for the right spot. No idea where I got that strange little thing, or the two odd pods that formed the pumpkins in the barrow. My husband often picks up bits of things when he is out prowling in the mountains, and perhaps he is responsible for one or the other or both of them.

One of the advantages of having such a large stash is that when a story comes to me the odds are that something I have stowed away, maybe for a long long time, will work.


http://www.wannainelpaso.com/latest_projects/index.shtml

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Support your Local Blood Bank!

Eileen from the Ty-nee-stuff group has done a wonderfully inventive roombox for Halloween.






Way to go, Eileen!

Office Supplies

Chris from Canada wrote:
If you buy your table salt or dishwasher detergent in cardboard boxes, save the little metal pour spout. If you flatten the triangular "stabber tabs" hat hold it into the box, and turn it on its' side, they are the perfect size and shape to hold magazines or books upright on a desk or shelf. There will be no bottom, but if you are gluing everything in place, who cares? Otherwise, just make it a bottom with a bit of cardstock glued in place, then paint the whole thing whatever finish you want.

For an office desk I just left them plain silver metal and stuck on some mini post-it notes and decorative "magnets" with some of my favourite workplace sayings like 'Teamwork means nobody has to take the blame.'

Monday, October 26, 2009

Tanya's Hairdressing Salon

Once again, Tanya has managed to pull together a breathtaking scene with T2T style.
She does such a wonderful job that everyone who is let in on her secrets marvels at her astonishing talent for invention.

From this:



To This:

Some transition! Some smart cookie!
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/17115956

Monday, October 19, 2009

Angels of Mercy


Canadian Nurses in WW1 wore blue uniforms and were dubbed "bluebirds".

Tribute to Canadian Bluebirds


In my sweet little Alice Blue gown,

When I first came to Birmingham town.

I had had a bad trip, in a nasty old ship

And the cold in my billet, just gave me the pip.

We came out to nurse our own troops,

But were greeted with measles and whoops.(whooping cough)

I was happy and gay, to have served with MacRae (in Flanders Field the Poppies grow)

In my sweet little Alice Blue gown.

A part of No 1 Canadian General Hospital

Nursing Sisters' Theme Song
http://pw20c.mcmaster.ca/case-study/angels-mercy-canada-s-nursing-sisters-world-war-i-and-ii


A total of 3,141 Nursing Sisters served in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps and 2,504 of those served overseas in England, France and the Eastern Mediterranean at Gallipoli, Alexandria and Salonika. By the end of the First World War, approximately 45 Nursing Sisters had given their lives, dying from enemy attacks including the bombing of a hospital and the sinking of a hospital ship, or from disease. The beautiful Nursing Sisters’ memorial in the Hall of Honour in the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa is a loving tribute to their service, sacrifice and heroism.

Nurses and wives of men serving overseas during WW1 were the first to ba able to vote.

Remembrance Day 2009 Quiz on PhotoPeach




Remembrance Day Canada 2009 slideshow on PhotoPeach
This is a followup show, providing backup information about the questions in the quiz.



Have you seen Paul Gross' movie Passchendale? WW1 from the Canadian perspective.

What you can do with Toothpick and Glue!

Stephen J. Backman has turned a hobby into a business . Read about it here on Grace Griffin's blog.
http://blog.treefeathers.com/2009/03/toothpick-art.html

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Canadian Thanksgiving

This is a picture from the Ball's Falls Thanksgiving Festival.

Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadians! Karin F gives a wonderful summary about Canuck turkey doings in her blog,
http://orrlakemusings.blogspot.com/2009/10/thanksgiving.html

Saturday, October 10, 2009

RSS Mini Calendar of Events

Hey, hey, hey!
Attention to all those who have blogs! Ever felt frustrated, hearing about shows or events AFTER they happened?
The Minitreasures Wiki has an RSS feed calendar, which you can insert into your blog. The trick is to get the events entered.... so spread the word to everyone you know who plans events to use this resource.
It isn't very difficult to enter events.
This is the home page link:
http://minitreasures.pbworks.com/
  1. Set up an account.
  2. Then go to the calendar page http://minitreasures.pbworks.com/calendar
  3. Click on the day in question. A box will open, Enter the relevant information, following the suggested format.
To set up the RSS feed, go to the layout page and select the RSS feed gadget. Enter the calendar link and Bob's your father's uncle!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadians! Karin F gives a wonderful summary about Canuck turkey doings in her blog,
http://orrlakemusings.blogspot.com/2009/10/thanksgiving.html

Thursday, October 8, 2009

A Clean Sweep!

Inspired by Disney's film Fantasia, Karin Foster from Orr Lake, Canada (an hour North of Toronto) made this broom from polmer clay.
An awesome job!




Her blog is: http://minitutesfromorrlake.blogspot.com/

Masks

Halloween, New Year, Costume parties, masks for your dolls can be great fun.
Here are some made by Karen from Bracebridge Ontario.



Tanya from Tanya's Mini Dolls has a tutorial, as well as one for a fan.
http://www.taynasminidolls.com/Tutorials/mask/index.shtml

For Halloween, your little monsters cam wear masks by Alice Zinn:
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/1047731230034817961qkHgEK

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Plates from Plastic Egg Cartons


Chris from Canada wrote:
My Trash Talk hint this week concerns the clear plastic containers that some eggs are sold in. In Canada these are generally the more expensive Omega-3 and organic free range eggs, a marketing ploy if I ever saw one, as these eggs have a harder shell due to the hen's diets so don't need extra protection! Anyhoooooooo ..... These 3- part cartons, in addition to the usual useful rectangles of window 'glass' and so on,also contain in the second part 12 perfect 12" diameter plates (with no indents) to either cut out and paint, coat with several coats of glass stain, or use intact as a mold for paper clay, air dry or polymer clays, tissue paper maché or coated with 2-3 coats of coloured glue. Just pop or peel them off gently, trim the edge all around and there you go.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Dress Shop

Tanya is working away at her dress shop and doing it brilliantly, as usual.
She says :
Once I finish this it will go in the window of my ladies shop. Don't ask me why I have the pink pocketbook up there with the lingerie and robe, it just looked good to me cause it was pink so I hung it up. Still have lots more to do. Oh, a few people have asked if this doll is Barbie scale, nope, she is just a little over 5 1/2 inches with her head. So she will go great in my 1 inch scale scene I think. I got her at a generic dollar store.



Go to Tanya's site and explore all the items she has made for her store - handbags from 3D stickers, belts and belt display rack , shoes and boots. You will get lost there!

http://www.picturetrail.com/tanyamc123

Friday, October 2, 2009

Draping Effects


Wanna in El Paso wrote this explanation for draping fabrics.
If I want something to look as if it's been tossed aside after being worn, I first cover the bed, chair, or whatever with plastic wrap to protect it, and/or to make the garment more easily removable later.
Then I either spritz the dress lightly with water, hair spray or fabric stiffener, depending on the fabric or what I have on hand. Some people use steam from a steam iron. ( If I am working with silk, I hesitate to spray unless I dampen the entire thing because silk spots so easily.)
Another consideration is whether the garment has been sewn or glued; if sewn, it's less of a concern; saturating a pieces that has been glued may affect the seams. Whatever is used, the idea is to make the garment malleable so that the natural folds and wrinkles that come from gravity can be manipulated. (It helps to toss a real dress on a real bed and see how it actually looks; sometimes I Google for images, as well.)
Sometimes I pin the folds where needed first, then spray. On occasion I have taped the folds lightly with either masking or cellophane tape, sometimes tied with string until dry. It all depends on how easily the fabric can be shaped and whether the object on which the garment is tossed is hard or will receive pins.
Then I let dry, remove the plastic wrap, then replace the garment, using just enough glue to hold it in place, in case I want to remove it later without messing up the surface. When I am placing a garment atop something special, like a hand-made quilt, for example, I don't glue; I figure out how to pin underneath the folds to hold it. Sequin pins are good for this because they are so tiny.
There are numerous draped items on my website.
Here is an example of a throw that has been manipulated on a hard wooden surface:
http://wannainelpas o.com/seasons/ irenes_christmas _bench.shtml

Here is Santa's clothing manipulated on a wooden screen, as well as over the arm of his chair:
http://wannainelpas o.com/seasons/ santas_nap. shtml

And here I discussed making his clothing, too:
http://wannainelpas o.com/dolls/ napping_santa. shtml

The first dress I remember trying to manipulate in this way was actually on the doll. I wanted my Wife of Bath to look as if she had just collapsed on her bed after the long tiring journey home from Canterbury. I had a terrible time with it because I wanted her to look natural, rather than just balanced atop the bed, and since I had already made her completely dressed I had to - gasp - cut away the fabric at the back until I could make it look as if her body was actually somewhat sinking into the bed coverings the way our bodies do naturally.? I wound up cutting and cutting away, finallly poking glue up inside the folds and pinning them in place until they dried. If I were to do her nowadays, I wouldn't even make an entire dress, I would just do the bodice front and drape fabric around her to make it look like it was the skirt.

You can see what I am talking about here:
http://wannainelpas o.com/The% 20Wife%20of% 20Bath/the_ wife_of_bath. shtml