Little Details....

 

Small Matters....

As I might have mentioned, Dear Readers, I am trying to get the Tall "Cabinet of the Clouds" in the Fairy-tale Wonderhouse Kit all completed and glued in place. This is because it forms the battery box for the light system and until it is glued firmly to the back wall, the entire wiring system is a bit dangly and loose and the Shop is hard to move around. Once I get all the little creations for this cabinet finished and glued in place, then I can glue the cabinet to the wall and then the remaining creations can be finished in whatever order I feel like! (And I will be able to move it to a different location for working on which will allow me more freedom with my workspace options.) Sound familiar? Too many things in progress at once...??? Well, we know how that goes in my house! So for now I am concentrating on the Cabinet of the Clouds.... and in this case I wanted to complete the Top shelf area... that hard to see, hard to reach spot that collects.... what??? (What do you find lurking on your top shelves...?) The kit places several landscape features on that shelf... so I started there... and as you know, I had added that "rim" to the shelf... the "cloud-like" lacy edging...  which makes the space feel to me like an Alpine Meadow in the summer..... way high up above the clouds.....

 

The first thing I did was find a few little "bottlebrush" trees... 

the kind they sell for Christmas decor... 

but I wanted summertime so I painted over the

 white fake snow with a fresh emerald green.

 Perhaps it is just a suggestion of the Enchanted Forest

 up there in the corner of the top shelf? 

The kit also has the Store signage glued in place up there... 

hard to see but suggestive of the great outdoors...

 so I left it alone. 

I completed the tiny Mouse-house Tree-house....

(there on the far right at the edge of the meadow....)

 

Along with the kit wooden tree shape cut-outs..... 

Can you see the little mouse in his hammock

 inside the Tree Trunk...? 

The printed details on all the pieces

 of this kit are so amazingly detailed!!!

 

And since I was trying to finish

 all the tiny vignettes for this Cabinet, 

I started on the little lavender cabinet...

 

It is very tiny! But it needed the paper backing glued on....

 

Which you can only see if I use the flash...! 

And then the shelves needed all the little bits added.... 

ribbons and beads and tiny foam balls....

 

Like so! 

So So Tiny...!

 

 

And there is a Teensy Tiny wooden chair 

that needs to be glued together... 

and left unfinished....(I was tempted to paint it...)

 but it needs to be a for sale to finish yourself piece of furniture... 

sitting on a box...

 

 

Which I forgot to take a picture of... 

but you can spot it back there in the cabinet

 next to the lavender cabinet....

 there beside the Fairy Market....!

And speaking of the Fairy Market... 

I knew it needed just a couple more tiny details...

 

 Specifically... 

some Wishing Stars needed to be scattered around... 

because you never know when you might need one....!

And lastly but not least... 

 

it needed some blades of grass...

because whoever heard of a meadow with no grass....????

Yes, I know it is rather sparse.....

 

 

But the Fairies chose their spot in an area 

where the grass was not growing too thickly.... 

and the moss and dandelions had plenty of room too! 

So I will leave it there...

because now we are gluing all this magical beauty into the shelf....

And moving on to the next Tiny Wonder....

 

Another piece of decorated furniture... 

a tiny green console cabinet....With a brass lamp... 

(made from a brass nail glued to a stud earring back-piece)

 

With a picture frame with a teensy tiny picture

 you have to glue in place... 

(it is a teddy bear portrait... in case you can't tell!)

 

Here it is glued to the top of the cabinet!

 

And here it is glued to the top of it's own box for display. 

And this is how the kit leaves it Dear Readers, 

but as often happens, I thought it could use

 just a couple more details...!

 

For starters, I thought a colorful little cloth 

would provide a nice accent.... 

(In case you hadn't noticed, the box reads

 "Keep Calm and Make Miniatures" on it...!)

 

And then maybe... a colorful Christmas themed plate...?

 And a colorful green striped pine scented candle...?

 

And a bit of newspaper or magazine 

folded into one of the cubbies below....

 

And then, maybe somebody left their cell phone

 there on the end, by the picture.... 

can you see it...???

 

How about now.... can you see it now...?

 (this is so difficult to photograph...!!!)

 

And meanwhile, those with Eagle eyes, 

will have noted that I have been working on

 more than one thing as I go.... 

and you can see that the "Cookie House" 

(we call them Gingerbread Houses in my family)

 has been expanded way past the

 original flat surface lithographed image!

 

I made it into a three dimensional "cottage"...

 with a chimney and a base for landscaping. 

(The kit wanted me to set it in a grassy lawn... 

I just didn't think that was right.... we make these at Christmas!)

 And I wanted to have "cookie cutter"

 trees (or tree) for the landscape.... 

so I made one from cardboard 

painted to look like a frosted cookie tree. 

 

The kit has small "cupcakes" that you cut from a polymer cone

 (used for several little kit items)

 and set in front of the house. 

I am testing the positions above.... 

before adding the "icing snow"....

 

Here I am testing the tree position... 

(more trees have no room...!)

 

And finally the icing... first on the roof....

 

Then the landscape.....

 

 With the cupcake "shrubs" and the tree.... 

now adorned with some snow..... 

and I decided that more details were pointless

 given that the space on the shelf was not terribly visible

 once all the rest of the kits are completed 

and positioned on the table in front of it.....!

 

Here it is tucked into it's position,

 on a soft white "blanket" of snow... 

with several "bottle-brush" trees next to it... 

also for sale!

 

And somewhere along the way when I wasn't looking...

 

Pegasus flew down for a romp in the Alpine Meadow....!

 

Well, Dear Readers, I don't know about you, 

but I just can't resist those Little Details... 

because especially in this scale, Small Matters! 

 

Going For The Gold....

 

Nano House and Nanny's Room.....

The Last you saw of The Nano House, Dear Readers, I had just completed the Tiniest Pagoda Bed Ever, and realized that it might require me to raise the ceiling of the room the tiniest bit in order to fit the pagoda top without squishing it! The solution for this problem is the same as the solution for this problem in the original Tree House bedroom.... the ceiling needed to be "domed" to give the top of the bed enough space. And for the Tree House bedroom, that ceiling became a "coffered bossed and gilt wonder of its own (you can read all about it int he archives... waaaay back in the 2013 season) which of course, means that the Nano House bedroom ceiling needs to suggest the similar features with out copying slavishly. So for starters, I needed to carve away the underside of the ceiling framework...

 

 Here you can see that piece of wood with

 the shape to be cut away already started. 

The wood itself is 3/16 inch x 3/8 inch stock... 

the same as I used for the Tree House Library shelving. 

It is sturdy but not too thick. 

But I had to be careful that my "dome" remained

 fairly shallow so as to not weaken the wood too far.

 

Here is the rough cut with the piece removed.

 

Here you can see it has been sanded,

 (as best as I could for such a tiny piece!) 

to smooth out the imperfections and 

emphasize the shape of the central oval. 

 

Here the ceiling has been painted 

prior to testing the fit with the bed in the room...

 

Which, if you look really carefully, you can see 

the bed does not quite hit the ceiling!

 

Next step... adding the gold trim! 

Here I have glued on the finest gold thread in my collection... 

to outline the oval shape, as was done

 with the Tree House Bedroom ceiling.

 

And here the second gold edging has been attached.

 

Here you can see the ceiling in place on the Nano House.... 

and yes, the gilded trim is visible 

if you look up at the right angle! 

(The tree House has this same problem, 

those ornate ceilings are hard to see!) 

And because the ceiling looked good just like this,

 I decided not the add more details. 

This was enough.

 

And as for the Nanny's Room, Dear Readers,

 it has been a while since we paid attention

 to that lovely painted ceiling!

 

You might recall the Cherubrats that adorn the cloudy sky

 and are looking curiously down from above! 

And because this ceiling resembles the one in the Dollmaker's Studio

 where I used that very elaborate gilded trim for the cornice,

 I wanted a similar effect in the Nanny's Room, 

only it needed to be smaller and quite a bit more "refined" in style.

 

Months ago I had painted a regular small piece of trim with the gold paint....

 but it needed the addition of some form of three dimensional decoration. 

Then I remembered a string of small beads

 in a delicate rosette arrangement that

 someone had given me as a teenager... 

those Hippy years, you know,

 and they were somewhere

 in all my accumulated supplies...!

 Yes, I found them!

 They would make just the right sort 

of decorative swag glued onto that gold wood.

 It was a slow process to get them glued in place...

 one swag at a time.

 

And they just fit the length of painted trim I had already prepared...!

 

Which then needed several coats of primer....

 

And then the gold paint....

 

Three coats of the gold paint to achieve

 the level of brilliance desired!

 

And then trying to see how it would look against that ceiling.... 

(All the walls and the ceiling are still not attached

 for the Nursery and The Nanny's Room.... 

they wiggle and fall down at the drop of a hat!) 

But I think the look is going to be just what I wanted... 

so now it is just a matter of cutting to fit the mitered corners....  

and testing in place....

 (Hold your breath)

 

Aahhh.... That is what I was looking for.....!!

 

Although I still have to cut and fit the other sections... 

and test it with the bed in place and the candle lit.... 

but I do believe it has just the right amount of decorative detail! 

 

Oh, yes, Dear Readers, we are 

looking up and Going for the Gold 

in the Nano House and the Nanny's Room! 

The Fairy Market....

 

Dreaming of Gardens....

I Left you, Dear Readers, with the Candy House make-over just getting under way as I was determined to get the Cabinet of the Clouds completed and attached to the wall of the Fairy-Tale Wonderhouse Shop. But then the next morning, as I contemplated the Candy House and it's needed Snowy Icing Landscape makeover... I confess, I could not summon the necessary winter magic mood. Winter Wonderland and all the glitter and sweet candy bits for the Gingerbread House... their welcome was wearing thin around here! RL Cold Snowy Windy Frozen Winter was taking its toll.... and I just needed to Escape... and there was the Fairy Market.... for the central Shelf of the Cloud Cabinet... in a lovely sweet Spring Green... and an "open air" Market feeling... who could resist...?? Not I, it would appear! Before I knew it I had assembled the main pieces and glued them together, as you can see above. It has such a lovely frivolous "Garden Arbor" feeling about the shape... there is no roof and the floor is tiled... but the "back wall" print-out had me puzzled. See that brown and tan striped cut-out in front of the Arbor? It is supposed to be glued behind the back wall structure.... filling in all those "windows".... and  I had to think twice! It made no sense to me in an "open-air" Fairy Market to cover those windows with anything more than a glitter strewn gauzy mesh....

 

Such as this... 

although it is extremely difficult to get the glittery part to show...

 

But I really liked the effect... so I glued the mesh in place.

 

You can sort of see the effect here... 

although, it wasn't enough, and I decided to try another layer of gauze...

 that smoky glittery cloth I use so often for smoke and magic...

 

You can see here that it doesn't lose the transparency of the windows...

 but does add a layer of glittery effect... 

so I glued it on behind the gauze.

 

Here you can see some of the glittery effect.... 

but it is really hard to get the focus right!

 

The decoration for this Market includes the

 Tiniest Bunting you will ever see...! 

If you can even see it there on the plastic....! 

I was supposed to glue the flags to a piece of thin gold wire.... 

but the glue did not hold so I re-glued

 using some very fine gold thread 

which worked beautifully.

 

Here you can see the finished bunting, 

and I have glued some of the "gold treasures" 

in place on the Market windows....

 

I also assembled the little Market Table... 

 although I added a "skirt" of the glittery mesh cloth

 before gluing on the tiny bottles and the Market sign.

 Of course, by now it is late and Dark out 

(and snowing again) and my photos are hard to see.

 

But the clear light of Morning reveals the

 Market sitting in a lovely swath of Spring green grass... 

where did that come from....? 

Ah, yes... I Was Dreaming of the Garden... 

and could not imagine a Fairy Market 

that was Not situated in some grass or moss or ferns.... 

 and so I fitted the "landscape" as large as 

 could still be positioned in the Cabinet of the Clouds...

 

 Doesn't that look just delightful...? 

But we are a long way from finished...!

 

The Market Table needed to be glued in place.... 

and you can see I have also begun to make a few 

of the "little plants" that this kit includes... 

although this potted tree is destined for a different shelf.... 

still, it was causing me to dream of the bigger picture... 

the Fairy Market... 

If only I could take it outside into the Garden.... 

but that was impossible in all the snow... 

no moss or flowers anywhere in sight!

 

Here it is being tested for fit on the Cabinet shelf.... 

would there be room for a flower or two...?.... 

perhaps a few dandelions..." 

those iconic flag-bearers of Spring?

 

There was only one way to find out.... 

so I made a few from embroidery floss and wire... 

including one "gone to seed" as they so eagerly do!

 

Ah yes... it is dark again.... 

but the dandelions are attached!

 

But I could not stop there, Dear Readers,

 I was Dreaming of sunny meadows 

of dandelions and clover... 

where the bees hummed and the Fairies

 surely would be setting up their Markets!

 Clover there must be...

 I started with the embroidery thread 

because it was what I had. It is a bit too "fuzzy"

 to really be clover-like... but I am going with it!

 

Here I am trying to make some clover leaves... 

you will have to take my word for it...

 they are made of a nubbly thread greenery

 that was included in the kit.... 

so I am putting it to use here as well.

 

And here the first few clover stems

 have been added to the landscape... 

doesn't it look sweet...???

 

And the Sunlight has even come out to play....!!!

 

Can you believe how tiny this Garden must be?

 

And here it is tucked into the spot on the shelf....  

Oh, how I wish I could just take it outside into the mossy spring garden....!

 

But since I could not take the Fairy Market outside, 

I found myself making many of the

 tiny landscape pieces for this kit. 

They take a variety of forms and methods 

and are scattered throughout the Shop.

 

There is a tiny paper mushroom house...

 

That lives in a dish....

 

Under a glass cloche!

 

Here you can see several little pieces in

 the front Display window. 

And I assembled the little Alice in Wonderland book vignette...

 

The paper cut-outs, the wooden Book frame.... 

and the cloth covered table....

 

And the little bottle that sits on the table....

 

But the table was too big...

 it hid Alice from view! So I carved off the corners....

 making it able to sit in the corner to one side...

 

Like so! 

And then we need to see it on it's shelf in the Cabinet... 

where it tucks into one of those little shelves beside the Fairy Market...

 

But really, Dear Readers, I was Dreaming of the Garden.... 

The Fairy Market Needed a Garden... 

And then something happened....

 

Maybe it was just a trick of the light...

 

But suddenly there were two little visitors to the Fairy Market! 

It seems Virginia and Pandora had wanted to have a look....

 I am fairly certain you have not met Pandora before. 

She is the youngest of Lady Evelyn de Paradise's sisters.

 (Her gown is still being finished... but she has grown tired

 of waiting to make her Debut on this blog!)

 

Virginia is her second oldest sister

 and is tasked with keeping her out of mischief.... 

not an easy task... 

and Pandora is ecstatic to be out for an Adventure....

 because everything is an Adventure to her...!

 

 "You really should not trespass, Pandy," said Virginia chidingly

 as Pandora wandered through the Market. 

"We don't want to cross the Fairies..." she added.

 "But what is a Market for if not to go in...?" asked Pandora, innocently?

 "Wouldn't it be lovely to have 

a whole garden to play in...?" she added Dreamily... 

 

 

"A whole Garden....?" repeated Virginia ...

 and suddenly.... 

 

Everything changed before their very eyes... 

Trees appeared where none had been before... 

grass as soft as velvet spread beneath her feet... 

and Virginia found herself standing in a 

vaguely familiar terrace garden 

while Pandora spun around in 

the middle of a grassy meadow...

 Even the Fairy Market had shifted...

 

Nothing was the same... 

 

and everything kept changing....

 

Even the Fairy Market was different... 

wrapped in a mist of stars....

 

And strange creatures kept showing up...

 

"Oh Dear!..." thought Virginia... 

"Where will this lead now...?"

 

"Oh My....!!!!" thought Pandora.... 

"Just look at all this...." 

but she had no words she was so excited....!

 

Well... if you are going to introduce 

Pandora to the Fairy Market.....

 

What would you expect.....? 

 

Well, Dear Readers, I hope you don't mind

 getting a little Lost in these Dreams.... 

Spring and life renewed are still a long way away...

 

But I did spot a few tiny snowdrops 

way over on the far side of this Fanciful Garden.... 

Maybe they are not quite so far away after all...!  

And perhaps the Fairy Market will always

 bring it's own Garden of Dreams.....