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Sunday, December 28, 2008

Other than the House





Thinking of the mountains of food we have consumed lately.
How do people come up with these brilliant ideas?


http://legnangel. livejournal. com/564026. html

http://www.supersiz edmeals.com/ food/article. php/200606080357 34998
Wonder where you could get the little figures? Must be model train
accessories... The Dollar store has tiny figures too...

The one with the whipped cream looks relatively easy - plaster could
be used instead of whipped cream...hmmm, guess who'll be looking for
glass bowls and whisks next year at the garage sales! I can usually
remember WHAT I am looking for, the problem is to put that together
with WHY! LOL!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Plant pots

What do you use for planters or plant pots?
1. Rum or whiskey lids as below, can be covered with string, or textured paper. If the string or paper won’t stick, apply masking tape to the surface of the lid and then glue. This plant is made from masking tape leaves and a pipe cleaner stem.


2. Buttons from broken computer keyboards.
3. Toothpaste lids – a real oldie – paint a terracotta colour. Fill with a tiny plant.
4. Creamer containers – see by the door? One is dented, I notice. You can even fashion a custom sized window box out of cardboard. Fill the box with air-dry clay, glue coffee grounds on top to resemble soil, and insert foliage and Mix tea and coffee to make a lighter soil. The innards of a Brita water filter also can be used as dirt.

5. Finial Dowel Caps – (wood section at Michaels) Turn upside down, paint and fill with plastic greenery.

6. Use foil wrappers from Hershey Kisses as plant wraps. Holiday time is a good time to find the different colours.
7. Use butter pat containers to make air-dry clay molds for hanging ferns. Fill the container with clay and insert the ferns. Allow to dry and remove from the plastic mold. Paint the clay brown to resemble a mossy basket. The container isn’t really all that visible as the ferns hang over it. Take four pieces of string; tie a knot at the bottom, leaving a small trailer. Bring the lengths of string up through the ferns on four sides. Bring them together, fold back on themselves and tie a knot to make a hanger. Trim ends close to knot.


Friday, December 19, 2008

The first Dollhouse Ruth Nier renovated

Check out the fluffybricks blog (listed in the miniblogs to the left.)
Search for Before and After house.

Once you are there, search for the Anthro snail house by another artist.. Awesome!

Art Gallery

A fun way to create a “holding area” for art until you find the right scene.

1. Modern Art
• Modern art would have paintings that could be made easily by painting paper with abstracts and framing.
• Google Mondrian, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Seurat, Picasso
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_art
• Easel
• Weird sculptures from clay. Use some of the funky stuff from the Dollar store that they have for hair ornaments.
• Sculptured hand (amputated from a doll) mounted on a wall.
• Hand chairs.
http://www.sitinthehand.com/
• Dali red lips couch.
http://www.abcgallery.com/D/dali/dali44.html


2. Asian Art
• Plenty of Asian stuff on the web for hanging on walls – like kimonos, scrolls (download and resize),
• Make teapots Asian style.
• Buddha statues, and water fountains.
http://www.asianart.com/exhibitions/awakenings/index.html
The picture in the link made me think about the incense burning figures of Buddha and dragons you sometimes see in Dollar stores.
• Small tables using elephants or tigers as the base?

3. Sculpture
• An open space with various statures and a garden.
• Roman statures with no arms, sitting lions,
http://www.designtoscano.com/category/garden+statues.do
• Ironwork sculptures - crumpled brown paper bag glued to a piece of cardboard shape .The shape is then coated on one side fairly thickly with glue. Then pass it over a candle flame, where it bubbles and collects soot>black. Then, Rub "n Buff was used to highlight the textured areas. Could you make iron sculptures this way? This guy seems to have some.
http://www.rossidsironworks.com/

This is Ann Kozlick's museum roombox.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Ruth Nier's Garage Sale Project










Ruth participated in Jaime's mystery project and has shared the results.
The Garage is made from a cardboard box (free from the PO) and the siding is pleated brown paper.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Create Fringe Trims








































Rug Fringe

1. http://hem.bredband.net/annbet/Minis/Needlepoint/fringe.htm

2. Use grosgrain ribbon twice the width you need for the fringe, cut in half lengthwise, and pull out the threads along the length. Voila perfect fringe and the selvage can be glued to the back of the rug with fabric tack.

3. Cross-stitch fabric is very handy as fringe.It can be cut to the width you need and frayed. You can tint the fabric with watered paint and let it dry before gluing in place.

Wanna in El Paso wrote:
What to do with all the pulled threads from making the fringe. I used green grosgrain ribbon to make the fringe for a pillow a few months ago and mused about the exact same thing. I took several of the threads and tied knots all along the length of the cluster. If you put a dot of glue on the back of the knot and let it dry, then cut off at the knot you will have a tassel. I wound up using the tassels instead of the fringe on my pillow because I liked the look better and they were more reminiscent of my mother's old pillow anyway. You can see the tassels in use here:
http://wannainelpaso.com/displaylamps/display_lamp_shabby_chic_roses.shtml

Picture Frames


Pictures – cut out of magazines, catalogues, and ads, pasted onto cardboard. Square frames are pieces of bamboo skewers. The gold one with the rope effect is textured WP.

The round ones have thread glued to the edges, and painted gold or silver. Paste several to a sheet of cardboard, glue the “frames” and then paint them, cutting out after they are dry.
The tiny ones are for tabletops. Paint the back as well and apply a little hinge to make them stand up, just like regular picture frames. I am lucky enough to live in NOTL, Ontario and attend the Shaw Festival. The programs are great for period costumes and pics.

The mantle clock is cardboard as well, the same shape cut out and pasted together until the clock is thick enough to be convincing, and the edges sanded. The face was from a flyer advertising watches. The gold outline is thread once again.