Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Green Hydrangea and Pink Roses

To decorate my home for the coming lunar new year, I went flower shopping. I knew beforehand that I wasn't going to pick conventional flowers associated with lunar new year for decoration. At the same time, I was going to go with an open mind to see what's available, fresh and within my budget. I always get such a thrill when I decide to do some flower shopping.

The wholesale market was very busy as you can imagine, since it's so close to lunar new year. It was lunch hour when I reached. The cash register line was already quite long! 

The rose section greeted me first when I walked into the cold room and I had a blast seeing all the different colours available. After a quick browse, I nailed down 2 types that I really liked. First, the hydrangeas were calling out to me! I spent some time at that section and picked my hydrangea. I went for the green.

I went back to the rose section and decided to get these pink roses. So sweet!

You cannot imagine what kind of pail I used to hold these temporarily while I try to find a suitable vase to arrange all of them.

20 stalks for S$11. I'm really happy with my purchase. If you were to go to a flower shop, it would have been at least S$1.50 per stalk.


I didn't realize that on some parts of my hydrangea, the petal tips had washes of light pink tones on them. I found out only whenl I got home and place a rose next to it. I have a little vase in my room, and it could only fit in the hydrangea and 1 rose. I know the combination may be a little weird, but I am drawn by the colour.


The photo may not have shown the lightly pink tips on the hydrangea clearly, but it's pretty in real life. I think I may try to do something in miniature.

This is also my first time getting a hydrangea, so I'll be curious to see how long this last.

While waiting to get a suitable vase, I make do with a mopping pail to place my roses :) It so happens my mopping pail is in a turquoise green colour, which contrasted with the pink roses nicely.


 Off to arrange my roses now!

Have a great day everyone!


Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Butter Pound Cake Earrings

One of the things that I wanted to do, while sculpting my miniature butter pound cakes was to turn them into cute cake earrings. It just felt so right! My friend told me that butter pound cakes are very popular in the States, but we shall see!

Wear them, and eat the real pound cake ^^

Now available in my shop here.





 

Friday, January 24, 2014

Dollhouse Pound Cake

The new spring season brought fresh cravings for classic food, such as dollhouse miniature pound cake. Butter pound cake is something very easy to love, as long as it's freshly made with fine ingredients. I love the entire clean look, which reminds me of spring time!

There is something very humbling when I made these. While the pound cake looks clean and non-complicated, achieving this look tested my patience and skills. I had a lot of fun, and also learnt a lot when I made them.


These dollhouse miniature sized butter pound cake slices are served on a rectangular plate. I also added some mint leaves to decorate the plate too. I really hope you like this clean ensemble.

While sculpting the pound cakes, I did some research. The subject of pound cakes fascinated me, and I'll tell you why. Some pound cakes are perfectly baked, while some has cracks on the top. Most of you, who are regular readers on my blog would know that I don't bake in real life. But the topic on cracks or no cracks had me enthralled.



And so I realized there are some who don't like the cracked top, while some think the pound cake should have that.

I know this sounds like a funny question to ask, but do you prefer your pound cakes to crack on the top?

As for me, I don't have a preference. If the pound cake is moist, not so sweet and the texture is fine, I'll go for it whether it has a cracked top or not. :)




Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Dollhouse Mini Eclairs

These are photos of mini eclairs I experimented with last year.  I realized I haven’t shared photos of these as I was going through my blog. They are sculpted from scratch.


There wasn't much space on the surface area of the dollhouse eclairs for one to decorate. I came across a similar looking eclair as I was doing my research. It was filled with strawberries, mint leaves and more. I also fell in love with the clean striking colours. It was exquisite looking.



There are more beautiful edible eclairs out there, so I hope to experiment and turn some of those into a dollhouse miniature collection slowly.

I had to take a shot of it on my finger, just so that you know it is really a dollhouse miniature.

I hope you enjoy these photos! 


Have a fabulous mid-week!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Art Clay Tools Leveler

Recently, I had the chance to encounter these art clay tools. I wish they were made available way earlier when I started experimenting with clay. But nevertheless, I am happy to show you something really neat and easy to use!
 
This tool, which I call the Clay Leveler, helps you to create clay pieces of a particular thickness consistently. Simple as that.
 
When it comes to air dry clay, one of the things I am truly grateful for is that it doesn't require any conditioning. This means I don't have to worry about over working my wrists. I believe this is something all of us air dry clay users can appreciate.
 
Getting my piece of clay ready to begin work is much more simplified. 
 
This is how the 1mm thick clay leveler looks like.
 
 
Here I'll show you how to use the clay leveler in 3 easy steps.
 
How to use:
1. Get a piece of non-stick sheet and place it on an even surface.
2. Put the air dry clay on top of the sheet, and position the 2 acrylic clay levelers side by side, next to your clay.
3. Begin rolling out your piece of clay with a roller, until it no longer flattens out anymore.
 
End result: You will get a consistent piece of clay thickness! 
 
 
 
What if I need to make thicker clay?
Though there isn't a 5mm clay leveler, you may stack them up and secure the ends of the clay leveler with rubber band. Just make sure your roller doesn't roll over the rubber bands. 
 
I hope you will enjoy this easy method to make your air dry clay experience more wonderful!

Friday, January 10, 2014

Miniature Vegetable Crates

One of the new things I did at the start of this new year was making these miniature vegetable crates. They are in 1/12 dollhouse scale. This would also give you a glimpse of the miniature theme I'm going to make in my next project, which is going slowly but surely.

In this photo, I styled my crates with vintage hydrangeas but of course, you can also style them with other elements as well.



What I liked about these miniature vegetable crates is that they are timeless, and they fit so well in all styles  of home decor.

It's easy to find inspiration on the web, and here are a couple of my personal favourites!

Truly love this! The colour is just to die for and I love all the little plants and trinkets on it!
 Photo taken from Jazzyliving.com

More kitchen shelves made with crates
Photo taken from momprepares.com

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Dollhouse Miniature Chocolate Espresso Bars

I hope that 2014 is off to a great start for everyone!

Keeping in the spirit of the cooler-than-usual weather here in Singapore, I’ve kick-started my new year by making some dollhouse miniature chocolate espresso bars.  Even though I don’t drink coffee, making these espresso bars provides me with that metaphorical energy boost which I am sure will last through the year and some.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed making them!


Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Dollhouse Miniature Strawberry Milk

Remember I made the dollhouse miniature full cream milk a little while ago? You can see it here.

Because I had so much fun designing that, I then decided to do one for strawberry milk too :)




This cover is so much fun too, with the strawberries falling into the milk! 

Perfect for the modern dollhouse kitchen setting.

It makes me wonder if I should come up with the chocolate milk next? 


The strawberry milk is now at my shop here.
 

Friday, January 3, 2014

Dollhouse Paper Flower Kit

During the quiet holiday downtime, I had some time to play with this new paper flower kit. A true scale kit that is hard to come by, this particular one makes 1/12 dollhouse miniature english ivy plant. I was curious about its quality and ease of usage, so I took some time to try this out. Today I shall blog about it!


I make my dollhouse flowers and plants using air dry clay, so it is my first time trying paper kit. Naturally I was excited and wondered how different it would be - clay versus paper.

The kit has everything you need - flora wires, ready laser cut leaves and instruction slip. Of course, you will have to source for your own miniature flower pot.

I'll say that this kit is easy for anyone who picks it up to make their own dollhouse plants. Although the instruction slip is in Japanese, the photos on the the slip is well illustrated so you'll know how to use it.


Important:
The first thing you should do is to get your flower pot ready.

I know it is rather tempting to want to get right down to the kit, but get your tools ready, so that you'll have a more seamless experience. Also you know exactly how much to make, how large your plant should be, the length of it. Planning makes it easier for yourself, and you'll have less wastage.

After all my prep work was ready, I can now work on the english ivy leaves.

Initially I was sort of worried about the paper texture. I wasn't sure if the paper would turn fragile once I started painting, so I consciously avoid using too much water. After painting a few times using different amount of water each time, I must say that the paper quality is really excellent. It's pretty sturdy, so don't worry when you paint on the leaves. I didn't had any trouble with mine, and I am happy to report I have no wastage.

I also love how detailed the leaves were. If you use the correct amount of water with paint, you can get fairly realistic looking leaves with the leaf veins showing. So please try it out!


This kit comes with 6 different sizes of English Ivy Leaves. I estimate that you can probably make between 4-6 plants with this kit.

I found that the large size leaves are a little too big for my liking, so what I did was to cut them down smaller and this worked perfectly for me! I was so happy, because this again means no wastage!

And here's my result - an english ivy plant solely made of paper.


After trying out the paper kit, I would say that using the kit is definitely quicker than using air dry clay. I was actually amazed that the end result is quite good. It was even better than my initial expectation. I really love how well defined the small leaves can get.

I think this would be a good start for beginners who want to make plants. Using clay might be too tedious for beginners, so this kit would provide a good starting ground for those who are not sure if they like making dollhouse plants.

If you like what you see, and want to get one to try it out yourself, you may get it here.