Miniature Christmas Sign Tutorial

Howdy do all!  Today I'd like to share a simple tutorial on how to make vintage looking Christmas signs.  I've even included a free printable, which comes with a slight disclaimer and request of no resale please.  These are my own designs but do include three images that do not belong to me.  So let's just make them for fun, Okay Kids??

Yucky talk aside.  Here we go!

Here are a couple of pictures of what the signs I have created look like.  Please pardon the goo I use to temporarily hang stuff.  lol   Didn't realize you'd be able to see it so well. :)

 First you will need my free Miniature Christmas Sign PDF.  I had so much fun creating these.  They are slightly addictive to create.  I used a lot of background pictures that I took several years ago for a magazine I made for my father-in-law's dove hunt. The printable looks like this.

Print pdf onto white card stock.  Cut desired sign out right along the edges.  Using scrap pieces of balsa wood, large popsicle sticks, or even layered card board such as cereal boxes, trace the shape of each sign.  

I then use sassy water, which I learned from Jennifer's Miniatures that is water mixed with black craft paint, to go around the edges and back of the wood, basically any exposed area.  Allow to dry.

I keep my sassy water in an old pimento jar.  It's lovely!  See how the wood absorbs the water instantly making it look old and weathered. 

I also go around the edges of each cut out cardstock sign using my brown ink pad.  Once it is glued onto your sassy wood you don't want the white edges showing.

Once the wooden pieces have dried, use a thin layer of Elmer's Wood Glue and place your cardstock sign on the glue.  And you're done!  From here it's up to you to embellish!  I've used a thin layer of gloss Mod Podge, I've added a tiny bit of glitter, I've even gone over the edges more with the ink pad to age all the more.  Here's a few more pictures. 

Well this was fun.  Although it feels like it took me forever to type!  I plan to start sharing more on my blog.  I have really missed it.

tiny flags

Good morning!  Today I am sharing some pictures of a miniature, super-easy, Americana flag that I made yesterday.  The ingredients are simple and few as is the idea.  I first thought of making a mini flag on the way home from our last four wheeling trip.  I was very inspired by simply looking out of the truck window at homes and "front door décor".  The complete aesthetic view of someone else's piece of the world can be fantastic.  What you decide to take from it is up to you... more-over what you remember.  In my case my journal was in my lap with pencil in hand.

Here are the ingredients, minus the glue, paint brushes and toothpick.  Red, Blue and buttermilk paint colors, pin, very thin wood or cardboard, a piece of drop cloth.

I cut a piece of drop cloth, un-measured, that is slightly smaller than a postage stamp.  You can measure a normal sized flag and divide it by 12 for your measurements if you need to.

You are painting both sides of the flag here.  I started with the blue on both sides.

For the stripes, since I've not perfected painting a straight line, I added paint to one edge of a small piece of balsa wood.  Sort of like a stamp.  I pressed the edge onto the flag, re-applying red paint between each stamping.

For the stars I only made small dots with the end of a toothpick.  I did blot this with a paper towel while it was still wet.  From a distance, with a trick of the eye, one will not know.

While the flag is still damp, simply pinch some waves into the fabric.  As the flag dries these will stay somewhat... enough to give the affect.

What a cutie!!

Oh yea... paint the sewing pin so it's not so shiny.

I also used my brown ink pad to dab a little nostalgia and age on.

Apply some glue to the pin and gently lay it on one end of the flag and let dry.

I do apologize for the blurriness.  I have to transfer my pics from my phone by email to myself in order to get them to you.  Blogging from my phone simply doesn't work unfortunately.  Surely I will get better at it.  If not I will revert to my old fashioned ways once again :)  

XOxo Laurie

 

literally

Ah The Grand Budapest Hotel.  This is a coffee table book I can't wait to thumb through!

Pistol Annies… Interstate Gospel... been on the wait list for this cd for a while now.

Flavia De Luce and I have a long term relationship.  This is Alan Bradley's newest book and will probably take less time to read than the time I've been waiting on it!

Inheritance... I normally can't get into the majority of books on the best sellers list.  Judging the reviews I'm gonna give this one a good shot.

Riverdale... only because a character on a tv show I watch talks about this series.  I don't have a clue what it's about... I like it that way.

Girl, Wash Your Face..., my niece Lacey loved this one.  I've been on the hold list a couple of times.  Highly popular at the library.

Have a wonderful day!

miniature screen door

I woke up way too early again Wednesday morning.  I was up at 3:45 am putting a movie in the dvd player at my work station and making a tiny deer antler.  The thought crossed my mind to make a screen door for my room box but was quickly kicked out because I couldn't think of anything I could use for the screen.  Later in the morning I was cleaning out my cabinets in the laundry room and I found a piece of a plastic mesh bag from some garlic that I ordered for the garden several years ago that I kept for instructional purposes.  I tossed it in the trash bag then my eyes did that "thing" they do when a miniature is made in seconds in my imagination from something that is trash.  It's kind of a frozen-in-time-eyes-cut-to-the-right-far-off-and-away-brows-narrowed-to-a-straight-line-look.  I love inspiration.  Here's semi-steps to what I made.  It took most of the afternoon simply because of glue and paint drying.  Love you!!!

Supplies, minus the paint and exacto knife.  My favorite glue to use for everything, measurements, balsa wood, Cracker Barrel carved toothpicks, fingernail file, and the plastic mesh bag piece I found.

Aren't these fantastic?!?!

I used my exacto knife to trim the detail off the tops of the toothpicks.  A couple of them were launched in the air when they snapped off till I figured out a way to avoid that.  They're probably under the stove right now :)

So apparently, in my trance, I didn't take pictures of the wood cutting and sanding steps (or painting).  I found sizes for a normal sized screen door on pinterest and divided the measurements by 12 to get to 1/12" scale.  My measurements got kicked out of the water a bit because 1. I have a crappy ruler, 2. I can't follow my own directions & 3. I like to use scrap pieces of wood from my stash and make-do.  4th child syndrome :)

The thing I like about the wood glue is that it adheres pretty quick and I can scoot my project so it doesn't stick to what I have it drying on.  My fingers are covered in drying glue at this point.

Painted plastic mesh.  Better than I thought it would be.

I had to cut it into two pieces to cover.  The bag had sat for so long stapled to the label that it had a folded mar.  I had to glue in steps and hold it down to flatten it out.  It didn't really flatten out but the beauty of finished products (and not getting discouraged) is that you don't really notice at the end.

I wound up cutting strips of extremely thin balsa wood to cover the screen on the back of the door.  I was afraid it would start letting go over time.

I was a little stumped on the door handle.  I went through beads and cardstock ideas and settled on cutting one more spindle from the toothpicks, painting it and gluing it on two seed beads for a pull handle.  I like it a lot.

 Progress mess (actually cleaned up somewhat) cause the door is finished at this point.  Tiny projects = huge mess!

I've skipped the entire painting process :(…

So I tried to crackle paint for the first time.  It semi-worked.  I first painted the door (before the screen was glued in) with white craft paint.  Then covered it with cheap white glue and painted gray craft paint over the glue while it was still wet.  It crackled a little but not like I had hoped.  I then went over some edges lightly with watered down black paint.  I used sawdust that I colored with a drop of green craft paint and a drop of water for the moss and decayed look.  Forgive me for no pictures?

I whipped up a clay circle and baked it, covered it with scraps of material and lace, moss and a primitive star that I aged and tied it to the top.  I like it but I wished I had a primitive heart to go on it for Valentine's Day.

Mid-Set-Up.  I made everything here except for the cloche, window and flowers.  I do love the little window because I can change out the scenes by just printing a picture and taping it behind it.

 I'm in love!