Christmas Advent 2025

 Hello and almost Happy New Year!  When my family gets together for Christmas, we always bring a gift and play the game Dirty Santa.  For the past three or four years I have created a gift to give for the game.  I love for someone to pick and open a gift that I have made.  This year I decided to make an Advent to give out of a wooden Advent calendar that I bought five years ago... LOL.  I actually had it in my donate pile, like a silly girl, because it's just been sitting in it's box in my craft room since I ordered it.  I guess I was just waiting for the right time to make it.  And the right idea.  Pardon the photo dump incoming. 

This is the original that I bought from Amazon.  

You can find it HERE

First, I sanded and painted all of the little drawers and wound up lining the inside bottoms with a soft flannel.  Mainly because the inside of the drawers needed sanding but were difficult to smooth out. 

I also painted the outside of the calendar in a maroon shade and painted Christmas flowers and such around the outside and on the borders of the drawer squares.  I wanted a sort of "Old World" painting theme.  Don't know if I achieved that or not but I really liked it.  I also sprayed the whole thing with a semi-gloss clear coat.

I knew I wanted a 3-d type scene of winter time, with trees and birds.  Here I've started the background.  I cut out trees from chipboard and also some snow banks.

I doubled the thickness of the trees, painted them and added snow.

I painted a couple trees on the background.

I made little ornaments for each day.  I made pinecones, birds and snowflakes from THIS air-dry paper clay that I LOVE using.  I also made a hole in the top of each one and added a little hook.

To give the trees depth I glued pieces of chipboard in triangles (standing of their side and painted) behind the trees.  I also used trimmed sewing pins for everything to hang on.  I used E6000 glue for each.  Hopefully they will stay in place!

And as always, sign your projects!

I had a lot of fun making this Advent!  And one of my nieces got to take it home with her!  I hope her family has lots of fun for many years putting ornaments on all through December!  

I also hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and wish tons of blessings for you in the New Year!

Let's create some stuff in 2026!

XOXO ~Laurie

Miniature Canvas for Paintings

 Hiya Mini friends!  So, the person who has leased the Loft above my Apothecary is apparently somewhat of a painter.  lol.  I needed some canvas style pieces to paint on although I don't have any actual canvas.  So, I made my own and it worked!  

I used scraps of balsa wood and also some of the really long match sticks.  I liked the match sticks better because they are sturdier than balsa wood.  I just randomly cut pieces for each canvas so I would have different sized paintings.  

Next, I glued the pieces onto a piece of white card stock and when they dried, I cut them out.  I then used spray glue on the top of the cardstock and stuck pieces of thin white fabric to the front.  

When that dried, I trimmed the white fabric, leaving enough fabric to go up the sides and a little on the back.  I used E6000 to glue the sides and back.  

Then, it is just on to the painting!  They have the look of canvas from the front and the look of canvas from the back.  

So simple and easy to make.  I made several at once and wound up making more.  I haven't decided what kind of painter the tenant is yet.  So, I just painted several different styles.  The paint doesn't bleed through to the back which I like.  If I had just used fabric the paint definitely would have bled through. 

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO ~Laurie  

Miniature Swivel Office Chair

 Hello to all my sweet mini friends!  So, I needed a chair for my loft.  I've already made an easel for her paintings and also a desk (which I thought was too tall until I made the chair).  I did not plan on making a tutorial for this chair so I didn't take many pictures along the way... or measurements as usual.  But I took enough pictures so that I could share it with you.  I was mainly nervous about making the feet and thought I would make it from balsa wood or something like that.  I wound up using chipboard as it has become my favorite to work with.  

Full honesty about the chipboard though... the only thing I don't like about using it is the finish.  I like to use either a gloss or matte Mod Podge finish on my pieces and, once the clear coat is on, it doesn't always appear to have a perfect flat finish.  I am very OK with it but just thought I would put that out there.  I'm sure I am the only one this slightly bothers.  Not going to keep me from using it.  It's just so easy to work with.

At first, I made the feet way too big and wound up getting my Dremel out to do the sanding down to the proper size for me.  I picked out the wire, which came from my husband's shop, two matching jewelry pieces, a rolled up piece of cardstock for the middle of the legs, and a few cardstock hole punches glued together for the bottom of the legs.  I also kicked around about the wheels.  I wound up just gluing the gold beads to the feet and I am happy with it.

I cut out eight pieces and glued two together for each foot.

You can see my inspiration chair picture here.

I also used chipboard for the seat and top of the back of the chair.  I used premade spindles for the arms and two for back on each end and fancy toothpicks for the three spindles on the back.  I used wood glue for these pieces and E6000 for the base where I used the wire and jewelry pieces.

I pulled out my farmhouse chair just to measure for size.  You can CLICK HERE for the tutorial on my farmhouse chair if you'd like.

I decided to use a new paint color that I got at Walmart.  It is Apple Barrel Spiced Berry.

For the cushioned seat I just used a piece of my favorite rose fabric.  I don't have very much of it.  I glued the back and sides of the fabric down first then put a little bit of pillow stuffing inside and glued the front.  Then I glued tiny black rhinestones all around to look like tacks.

The adjustable control thing is a piece of wire and a bead that I painted gold to match the wheels.

And this is her!  I and pleased with how she turned out.  I don't know why I get nervous when creating a new piece.  I rarely am dissatisfied with the results.  I just keep going until it's finished.

I didn't realize that the left arm was slightly tilted until I took pictures.  I guess it moved while the glue was drying.  But it's an old chair and I call that "wear and tear" from all the years of use.  

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I think she turned out just precious.  What do you think??

Thanks for visiting!  Please feel free to share!

XOXO ~Laurie

Miniature Easel Tutorial

 Hello Mini Friends!  Welp.. I still haven't settled on the occupant of the Loft.  I'm still sticking with a painter.  So today I made an inspirational easel to hold paintings.  I was so nervous thinking of how to make this.  I just had to sit down and do it.  I used premade spindles that I buy from Etsy.  I also used chipboard and a filagree piece for decoration.

I glued little strips of cardstock to the backs just for stability.

Pretty fancy!  I love it!  Do you??

Thanks for stopping by!  

XOXO ~Laurie