Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Years!!

2009 is starting out fresh and promises to be full of changes. Besides altering my miniatures, my real life is going thru an alteration… personal and economical- got to love the economy.

I hope you all have mini debts and major gains!!

The tremendous snow we had in Oregon over Christmas- delayed my trip north to my family in Renton, Washington by one week (16” at my house- the glowing globe is one of the street lights by our sidewalk completely covered). In turn our mini club delayed our “Halloween” Sleepover Christmas party by one week.










The theme of our Christmas party and gifts was Halloween, each of us are making an altered miniature house sharing the theme of Halloween and the criteria that it has to fit within a pre-purchased acrylic container.


Besides miniatures and gifts, we shared many laughs, lots of advice and a tremendous amount of food.

I ended up having to alter my house to meet our criteria, I am placing my acrylic box on top of a “witches shoe teapot”, and the top of the pot is secured to the top of the building within the box. Thus I had to cut and peel away my previous ½” base of foam core, leaving only the top skin, which I stabilized by gluing it to matboard. I reached interior clearance. Yipee!!

I progressed to adding a layer of torn paper over the initial exterior; it adds great texture and hides sins…..

I left the paper hanging over the edges or wrapped some into the interior…. Again it adds layers of texture and interest. Another thing you can do is to add plaster or paint to the exterior. Anything goes!!

Barbara was our hostess this year for Christmas; she has this incredible room that is full of light and tons of room. You can’t see the side tables piled up with tools, and anything and everything to work on a project. None of us came to her house with a moving van, but it would have been helpful from all that we brought.

Susan’s Halloween house has a haunted castle motif- her amazing painting skills are used thru her project. No activity in the graveyard that nite.

Lorene’s house was inspired by the pretty ghoul at the top; she customized the top to showcase her. Besides pretty it has pretty creepy things too!

Karla’s house is one of the happiest Halloween houses you can ever see, it has a terrace on top with a table and chair set for lounging on a bright moonlite nite!! Even the spiders are cheerful as they weave their webs.

Barbara’s house is co-coordinated with her favorite color- green combined with orange. She has collected over the years many pieces made by Karen Markland. She is using the traditionally one inch scale piece as a focal point. Gorgeous…. And ghoulish…..

My house has the tea pot top glued in place, skirted with a border paper of cauldrons, I secured a one inch scale pumpkin with bat wings (Karen Markland) to the top, and I have started in this picture to make a fence out of fimo candy corn buttons of varying sizes. (Not pictured is the bats- specialty buttons placed in between the candy)

As always spending time with people you love is the best present one can ever get.

I had a wonderful Christmas!! and I look forward to sharing the New Year with all of you.

"Crafting Personal Shrines" by Carol Owens

Happy Holidays to Everyone!!

It is cold and it is snowing in Oregon. This IS news in this part of the country- rain we know, snow- not so much. Ice: we ALL HATE.

I was working on some Christmas presents, and was looking for inspiration- I explored my book shelves and found one of my favorite books. “Crafting Personal SHRINES” by Carol Owen.

The book is filled with full paged colored pictures and instructions, she also included a variety of artists shrines.

This is where I was first inspired for my “America’s House”. I had been exploring the idea of 3D display of rooms in a free form, and when I saw Nancy Hoerner’s picture of “Noreen’s Blue Habitat” everything fell into place and my little altered miniature was born.

The basic shrine shape is easy to make and adjust into an altered miniature vignette.

Carol Owen takes this shape, then takes it into an additional six designs for a total of seven shrines.

Not only are you inspired to make a shrine from “scratch”, but there are examples of shrines that are designed using pre-made items that can be recycled and given a second life as an art piece.

This would be great addition to your library, I was able to get it online thru Amazon.

Progress on the "Your House Challange"

All today I was playing with my dear friends in our miniature club (KETCHUP CLUB).

We are all working on our “Your House” altered miniature project.

All five of ours are Halloween based (all of our Christmas presents this year to each other will be Halloween themed too).

I have included pictures of my house and the progress made. (REMEMBER IN PROGRESS).

It is no longer just black boxes, but now has the basic wallpaper in and out. With many more layers to come.

Our only rule on this project is that it fits within a acrylic container that was given to all of us by Susie Newell. Using the America’s House project as a starting point we have all ventured down our own paths.

The base was carefully cut to fit inside the container, but after wallpapering all around it was too big. So the knife came out and ruthlessly it was trimmed up.

I added a floor for each layer of boxes to sit on, so it has a more open layout and more places to put “stuff”. The knife came out a couple more times as each floor was added.

I will share my progress (good and bad). It is fun to see how my initial conception becomes final reality. It is always different but right in the end.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Robin Betterley's Fabric Line with Wilmington Prints

I was excited to see a article of page 19 of the magazine of "Guide to Creative Living"

Robin Betterly and her husband, Shawn are gifted artists in miniature and oh so much more.
I added the link to Robin's bio and her fabric lines.

Angels Watching Over Me

Harvest Moon

Stitching In The Woods


http://www.wilmingtonprints.com/view_designers.aspx?did=17

After looking at her fabric, check out their website for miniatures and oh so much more!!

http://www.robinbetterley.com/

I find their laser-cut kits to be detailed, complete and buildable. And yes- oh so- alterable!!

Accordian House (new project for Miniature Gazette Magazine)

The Accordian house was named for it's shape, if you push hard enough it would collapse like you were playing an accordian. But don't try it with my house!!!

Pictures and directions will be published in a upcoming NAME Miniature Gazette. You have to belong to NAME to receive the magazine http://www.miniatures.org/. NAME stands for National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts.

It is a non-profit, all for fun and great friends organization that has members all across America, Canada, and over seas too.

Just as my recent projects were created using matboard, foamcore and index card- this one is too. It is an altered miniature, that has very open rooms. I used the "packing tape" transfer method on all three doors to give depth and texture.

For more ideas and pictures go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alteredminiatures/?yguid=263045118 and join our alteredminiatures yahoo group. It is a new group that is already full of creative people who love to share.

Discovered a great Resource for arts and crafts

I am a charter subscriber of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion. I love her art, I love the inspiration I get from her magazines and enjoy meeting new artists that are interviewed.

So needless to say, I was jazzed when I saw Home Companion's first ever Crafters' Guide.

"Guide to Creative Living, a sourcebook for arts and crafts".

It is like a phone book, internet address search and a GPS all rolled into one.

I look forward to exploring new and some familiar sources that I find in here.

No this is not a paid advertisement, I just think it's a great tool available to all of us.

Altered Halloween House

Our miniature club- Ketchup Club- is currently working on making an altered Halloween House. Using the basic instructions and dimensions from the “America’s House” (May post).

We all have the same acrylic case for display, the only rule is that anything we build has to fit within the cube- we are using basic boxes as the structure and after that- anything goes.

Susie is making a castle. She used plaster wrap for texture on the bottom, she has a moat with an alligator. The top is painted and the top built from a toilet paper roll (or a paper towel roll).

Lorene’s is bright and light. Currently the house is not haunted- she is advertising.

Karla’s is also bright and cheery; one of her boxes has a decorated exterior door. When we left for the day, she was thinking about making a lower level…to place her house on.

Barbara’s house is black and bare. She used “blue tac” to stick her rooms together until she came up with a configuration she liked. Then she used white paint to outline the edges to assist with room placement. She is also using fabric scanned into her computer for wallpaper.

My house is also black, but by the end of our day, I had papered the interior of 6 rooms.
I used “post-it” stickers with numbers for room placement. I plan on using the “Betterley’s” Halloween furniture kits inside my rooms. The papers I am using are purposely on the quiet side- but once everything is in – it will pop.

Making simple boxes ended up being more challenging then we thought. Once you make all of the boxes you want then you work on placement- the real challenge is finding the shape you want then take it apart- wallpaper it and then put it back together again in the shape you decided on.

We have used digital camera, notes, markers to help with placement… part of the fun is letting the structure build itself.

I have started a new Yahoo group, “Altered Miniatures”. I just posted a challenge for others to join us in making a structure. It does not have to be Halloween theme-

Would you like to join us?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alteredminiatures/