making miniatures

Making miniatures has nothing to do with dough or batter. But I have become obsessed ever since I was asked to help a client's daughter create a homemade doll house for a class project. Doll house rules: Everything about the house has to be homemade, inside and out. So no store bought furniture. I hope she can get away with using this store bought crocheted doily as an area rug…..

I found inspiration in my life-size kitchen with mini cupcake liners for a mini lamp shade. Super cute!

For the base of this mini club chair, I used a piece of cardboard tube from a roll of toilet paper. I made a template with other cardboard recycled from my pound of unsalted butter for the back and covered each piece with oatmeal felt and hot glued it all together. The quarter is there to show you that it really is to scale :)

In the clearance section of Michaels I found these cute chevron painted bottle caps and then I found a bag of wooden peg legs. A little hot glue and voila! An instant miniature side table or stool.

The miniature couch is just two pieces of sturdy cardboard, a little batting and covered in heather grey felt. Four wooden beads keep it off the ground and finished with a few tiny pillows. I glued and stitched the little turquoise blue pillows and the beige ones are jewelry pillow rejects from my previous employer. :) The coffee table used to be a pair of earrings that I never wore. For the floor lamp, I glued some clear beads together and attached it to another bottle cap.

My attempt at making a mini chandelier…..

Metal champagne caps can easily be twisted into cute chairs like they are here, but since I haven't had any champagne lately, I twisted my own with 20 gauge wire. More colored felt completed the chair base, pillow & rug. I used a cork for a side table. The lamp is made from a wooden bead, toothpick and a mini gold cupcake liner.

I kind of wish I had these pillows on my bed!!!

The futon bed is made from popsicle sticks that have been hot glued together. Felt and batting make the mattress.

This IS a homemade project so please don't judge the messy hot glue.

This miniature palm tree is made from wire, green floral tape and a cork.

Popsicle sticks make another appearance in this lounge chair and bench along with more felt, batting and a couple of small empty spools.

For the round yarn rug, cut out a piece of complementing felt. Place a small dab of hot glue in the center of the felt round and attach the yarn. Add more hot glue and start to coil around until you come to the end of the felt.