Miniature Frames and Paintings Tutorial

 Good day all!  Here are some easy picture frames made from cardboard, cereal boxes and hot glue.  Oh and also craft paint.  Hope you like them!

My roses are just swirls and swishes of several shades of paint.  I think they turn out well.

Trace your picture or painting onto cardboard then cut the edges to the size that you want.

I marked the areas of the frame that I wanted to cut out.

After they are all cut out I glue the frame to cereal boxes and put a book on them for a little bit.

Frames ready for glue.

I use hot glue to seal the edges and add dimension.  I use the hot nozzle of the glue gun to melt glue into the cracks and to smash glue blobs.

Hot glued frames ready for painting!

It's hard to show the painting process.  Mainly because my hands get covered in paint lol

I saved the cut outs and put them on the paintings to help them adhere in the frames.

I love these hydrangeas!

Which one is the mini painting??  This is the page from a magazine that inspired me to paint all of these yesterday.  Plus my little dollhouse needed some floral cheer!

This is an old rose picture in our house.  My tiny roses turned out brighter pink but I think it's a close resemblance. 

Miniature Faux Wicker Chair

 Oh y'all... I'm in love with this one!!  I noticed an old wicker rocking chair in a flea market garden magazine that I've had for years last night.  I looked at the chair for several minutes and decided to try and make a replica.  Ideas started swarming in my head and I got to work.  

I made the rocker from a vanilla wafers box, some twine ribbon left over from another project, four pieces of chair legs from a different project, tape, glue, paint and an old scrap piece of lace.  Take a look!

I wound up using four pieces total of chair.  One for the whole frame, on for the back and two for the arms.

I taped the lace in between the frame and back piece.  Then used wood glue and cut pieces of ribbon all over.

I used a multi strand, twisted piece of string all along the edges.

For the rocker pieces I used balsa wood.  I glued two pieces together for strength and thickness.  I used a knife to cut away the excess and a fingernail file and sand paper to carve the pieces to exactly what I wanted.  

It looked really pretty with just a coat of white paint!  

But I love to age pieces and it needed aging to match the one in the magazine.

For the cushion I used a piece of vintage rose fabric that I have very little of.  It is saved for special pieces.  I really didn't feel like sewing the pillow so I just glued the fabric onto a piece of cardboard and stuffed it.  I later ran a straight pin through the middle, glued it and snipped the end off.

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed making it!!

Miniature Antique Bathtub

 Simple is as simple does and you cant get much more simple than this little antique "galvanized" bathtub.

I used a bottle of Dawn and just cut along the natural curve of the bottle.  After that it was only painting.  And speaking of painting... when I am cleaning up my mess after a project like this, it is amazing how many different bottles of paint I use!  To get this look I had four shades of gray, white, black, gunmetal with a shimmer and silver with a shimmer, and also brown and another brown for the wash.  That's nine bottles of paint to get the look I wanted.  lol!  Well the mess was worth it.  Have a wonderful day!

I painted on a coat of Mod Podge and let it dry before painting the tub.

This is a layer of chalk paint.

Miniature Paper Rugs

 Morning Pretties!!  Need some fast and fancy, realistic rugs for your mini-home?  You've found the right solution!  Super easy, real looking rugs are just a print, wad, spray away!  Here's how I make them.

First, find your favorite rug printable images.  You can find them on Pinterest, Yahoo images... where ever.  Print them on regular copy paper... nothing special needed.  My printer is a cheap color ink jet one.

Next, cut the rug out leaving a rim of white paper all around and get to wadding.  Roll the paper between your palms.  Then using the edge of a counter top or table, pull the paper back and forth to straighten it out.  Repeat.

Repeat this four or five times... wad and straighten.  This really softens the paper.

Next I spray my rugs with a matte coating.  This keeps your colors on the paper.

To get the frayed edging on the rugs I fold, crease and lick the paper edge around the rug, one side at a time.  Then gently tear the paper where you licked it.  Pretty high tech steps here huh?!?!

It's OK if they tear a little.  This only adds to their character.  If you don't like it... print another one!

I use a tiny bit of brown paint dry brushed around the edges and on the rug itself just to make it look even more worn and tattered.

And seriously... you're done.

Not bad for just a sheet of paper huh?