Ticking the box

Here's how I made the light box I blogged about yesterday:

While I was at work I pondered and plotted and came up with many options for how to make a working light box. A number of them very complicated indeed. Finally, after doing some research on my lunch break, I decided that the easiest way to make the letters was by printing onto clear stickers. And it so happened that Officeworks had the perfect solution for quarter of its usual price.

I popped out there after work, and while I was there picked up a couple of folders that I thought would work for the light box front and the channels for the letters (I'd originally wanted to make it with working channels made of styrene so I could change the letters but then decided that was the way madness lay and so went for an easier option.)

 Total cost? Under $10.

At home I dug through my tubs of projects that I should have finished months ago to find a brooch box that I'd painted black for a custom order (sorry Tina: you're going to have to wait a while longer...).

I knew that if I could ignore the fact that the dimensions weren't quite correct, it would transform easily into the body of a light box.

I stole the wiring from The Hideout,

 and drilled a hole in the back of the box for the bulb to go through.

After this trial, I decided that perhaps a lower-voltage system might be better, I was going to test my theory but all my AA batteries needed charging so I pressed ahead before I lost momentum.

I cut strips of the cardboard folder to act as channels for the letters: again, they could have been neater but I was going with a proof of concept and knew I could cut better versions later.

At this stage I was starting to get excited.

The final step in my experiment was to print off some letters. I cut my sticker sheets down to A5 and did a test print (during which my printer decided to start running out of ink. Just after I'd returned from Officeworks. Typical!)

The end result was good enough to prove that it was worth some further work to make it awesome.After I'd had some sleep.

The next steps? Try a lower voltage system. Cut new (straight) pieces of card for the channels. Re-print the letters and then cut them down to look more real. Glue it together. Make a scene. Then spray paint a new brooch box for Tina's commission...

Feeling dippy

Back in April, when I experimented with dipping vases in paint, m1k1 requested that I do some for her and even offered a stash of vases to work with. She dropped them off to me when she visited last month, and I finally made time to play with then (and the nail varnish I bought in The Blue Mountains).

(Because of course it's easier to just dip the vases in a pot of paint but I wanted to see how it worked if I combined the idea of using nail varnish to paint vases with the concept of dipping. Just to make life difficult. But I figured that if I'd already spent $2.30 a bottle on nail varnish it would be silly driving all the way across town to buy extra paint colours as well. And besides, since I'd been given 12 vases I had the ability to stuff a few of them up and still have enough to revert to the painting option...)

I gathered the following together for my experiment:

Vases (of course)
Bottles of nail varnish
Small plastic containers to pour the nail varnish into for dipping (I hoped I could pour the extra back into the bottles at the end)
Blu Tack
Baking paper
Paper towel

plus paint brushes with bottoms big enough to fit fairly snuggly into the mouths of the vases.

And to add to the fun, I decided to see if using masking tape and spray paint would work as well, so I also gathered a roll of masking tape, a pair of scissors and a can of spray paint.

First up, I tested the spray paint theory and wrapped the top of the vase with a length of the masking tape (rubbing the edge with my fingernail to make sure it was firmly attached along the bottom edge) and took it outside to spray.

(This was the method I used for my dipped stool.)

Hmmm... not looking good so far. But I put it aside to dry and returned to the nail varnishing.

First, I placed the end of a paint brush into the mouth of the vase, using blu tack to hold it firmly in place (and checking that everything was straight).

I filled the container with enough nail varnish to cover the height of the vase I wanted coloured (making a guess at how much extra height would be achieved when I placed the vase in the container.) 

And dipped the vase in the varnish, twisting slightly as I removed it

before blotting the base a couple of times on the paper towel

and leaving it to dry while I dipped a second vase.

I poured (most of) the left-over polish back into the bottle, and repeated the process with the other two colours and the rest of the vases I had chosen.

And then I got carried away.

Experimenting with using a toothpick dipped in the varnish to add spots to vase (quite successfully)

and a small paintbrush to add stripes to another (not so successfully).

I varnished the inside of the stripy vase, and—while I was on a roll—made a puddle of varnish on the baking paper and dipped the lips of the vases into it, once again using a twisting motion to get even coverage.

And that spray-painting 'failure'? I added another coat, waited for it to dry and removed the masking tape:

(Just don't look too closely at the back of it, OK?)

So, in conclusion:
1. Dipping in nail varnish works, but is much more fiddly that using paint (as you can dip straight into the paint jar rather than messing around with decanting the nail varnish), and the nail varnish is gloopier, making it harder to get a straight line at the top.
2. Spray painting also works, but be careful not to put too much on each coat (my problem was that I was trying to take photos as well as paint, so my first coat was too thick). Placing the masking tape on straight, making sure the edges are well attached, and prising it off when the paint is dry can be fiddly.

All my miniature tutorials, on one page

I've just put together a new page which contains links to all of my tutorials. It made me realise I should do some more...

Sofa so good

Just quickly, before I race off to work:

Joann Swanson's latest blog post includes instructions for making this modern sofa with a base of foamcore:
If you decide to have a go, I'd love to see your end result!

Green

Garden: I emailed a friend's gardener a few weeks back, after realising I was never going to get on top of the back yard (even if I wanted to), and an extension at work gave me another 6 weeks to catch up on stuff.

"I need Prince Charming", I wrote "except without the wall climbing or Princess kissing".

Today I had two non climbing (or kissing) Prince Charmings for a couple of hours and the difference is stunning.

(Here they are carting half my garden off with them: Did I remember to take "before" photos? No. And I call myself a blogger?)

Scene: Influenced by thoughts of my lovely trimmed garden, jealousy that two lots of friends are spending Easter in New Zealand (which is very green and grey) and a number of new acquisitions that fit the theme...
(I remembered the chair I'd made years ago after reading MitchyMooMiniatures' fabulous post on making four modern chairs for under £10)Details on the FLICKR photo. But before you head over, check out my new carpet:Massively huge (for minis) 50cm x 50cm carpet square discovered during this afternoon's trip to the hardware store for paint. $5.25. I picked up a couple of other bits: stay tuned...

Modern miniatures on Monday

As requested, here's the tutorial for the mini duckboard bath mat I made yesterday.

Why not a photo tutorial? Terrible light both last night and this morning. If things go according to plan, you should be able to click on it to see it full sized...

(Not sure what a tongue depressor is? It's a giant ice block stick:A very cheap and easy to find source of wood for making miniature furniture if you don't have a hobby or miniature shop nearby which stocks bass wood. Or any spare cash.)

While we're on the subject of working with wood, yesterday, while flicking through Home NZ, I came across this picture:and was intrigued to find, tucked in the credits, mention of a book called How to Construct Rietveld Furniture. Which, of course, I immediately looked up for its miniature possibilities.

A quick Google later, I discover someone has beaten me to it:

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Read my other modern miniature tutorials:

Paint a vase with nail varnish
Make a floor rug out of a placemat
Turn stickers into modern placemats
Refinish a discount-store side table
Print an iPod, mobile phone or other electronic device
Print on fabric

Printing miniature fabric: a tutorial

A friend popped past yesterday to show me her copy of the new Handmade Living book and her work for The Sketchbook Project. We got talking about other projects she's working on and I mentioned printing on fabric at home, something I've been doing a lot recently for mini projects.

She didn't know about it so I explained and sent her home with a length of freezer paper from my stash.

And I realised it was probably a good time to show how you can use the technique to add individuality to your mini projects. Today I'm wanting to make some cushions to go with the vintage London theme of yesterday's scene and (finally) print some Marimekko Unikko fabric as a test.

What you'll need:

* Cotton fabric (I used a light white poplin)
* Freezer paper
* A piece of A4-sized card to draw around
* General craft supplies: a cutting board, a pencil and scissors
* A metal ruler and rotary cutter (or just use the scissors and a steady hand)
* An iron and ironing board (if you use one)
* A piece of old clean wood (or similar flat surface: I use an old art board) and an old pillowcase or length of fabric to cover it
* Your computer, the internet and Word
* An inkjet printer.

Step one: Gather your supplies.Step two: Using the piece of A4 card as a template, mark off an A4-sized piece of your freezer paper on the matte side. (I use the edge of the paper as one of the edges of my piece, saving extra cutting.)Step three: Roughly cut around the outside of your marked-out areas.Step four: Set the iron to cotton and dry.Step five: Iron the fabric smooth (use a spray bottle if necessary, but ensure the fabric is completely dry before proceeding to the next step)Step six: Place the wooden surface on the ironing board and cover with the old pillowcase or fabric.Step seven: Iron the freezer paper onto the fabric, shiny side towards the fabric. Step eight: Cut along the marked lines.Step nine: Clean up any dangling threads.(You don't want to kill your printer now, do you?)Step ten: Iron the edges of your pieces to ensure they are attached firmly. Focus particularly on the leading edge. Step eleven: Choose and harvest your images (I don't need to remind you about copyright and personal use only and stuff, do I?) Step twelve: Create a new Word document, inserting your images and resizing them to the correct size (I left plenty of room around my images to use as seam allowances on my "vintage tea towel" cushions.)
Step thirteen: Insert your fabric/ freezer paper piece into your printer, making sure the fabric is the side that will be printed. Set your printing preferences to best quality printing and hit print.

Step fourteen: Carefully peel the fabric off the freezer paper backing.

Step fifteen: Heat set your print by ironing on the wrong side for approximately three minutes (or the length of one pop song. Or until you get bored.)That's it! You're done!

(By the way, I would suggest not testing the colour fastness of your print by washing it or using liquid glue on it.)

See the pieces in use in this scene.

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Read my other modern miniature tutorials:

Paint a vase with nail varnish
Make a floor rug out of a placemat
Turn stickers into modern placemats
Refinish a discount-store side table
Print an iPod, mobile phone or other electronic device
Make a duck-board bathmat out of tongue depressors.