Back of the Forever Christmas Shop

I took all the pictures made from the Hershey's The Grinch candy wrappers made into a tree and glued them to a piece of cardboard the size of the back of the Christmas shop then added two "Customer Parking Only" signs and this is the result:

 I'm pleased with it and, although my DD Leanne hasn't seen it yet, as the future owner of the roombox, she thought it sounded like a good idea when I told her about it.

I like the Customer Parking signs myself.

Little Help from my Friend

 My friend, Tina, made me some wonderful, circular frames. 

These are 1/4" wide. The top one fits a picture that I made in one of her art classes.

The bottom one has been painted with a silver nail polish, and circled with a braided silver trim. The picture is of Vern and I cutting our wedding cake almost 53 years ago.

One of my Christmas gifts was a bag of Hershey's kisses with a Grinch theme. 

Now it's stupid but every single tinfoil wrapper that comes inro my house is saved. And these were so unique that I just couldn't resist.

So I had Tina make me some more pieces: Six with an outer diameter of 2" and one with an outer diameter of 1.75". She then cut 1/8" "frames" from around all the pieces. Then I covered the inner portions with the tinfoil from the candies and framed them with the outer pieces. The smaller frame was painted red and the larger ones were painted green.

Then I put the green pieces in the shape of a tree and topped it with the red-framed Grinch.

Sort of silly I know but it was fun to do. So I showed it to my friend, Marg, who of course asked what I was going to do with it. Just as I was about to type "Darned if I know!", it came to me! I'm going to mount it on poster board and mount it on the back of my Christmas shop. That's the plan anyway.

Tina has a shop on Etsy with all sorts of great things - especial if you're into 1:48.

Jo's Scrapbooking Vignette

 This is such a mess. Because I was in such a rush to finish, unfortunately I didn't take pictures of many of the steps and pieces. However, my entries from February 2012 are much more detailed and cover anything I missed here.

Most of the printies I used for this scene were from a blog that is no longer available but fortunately I had saved them to document files at the time. For some reason I think they came from mizshelley but I can't confirm that. In any event, thank you to the originator of them.

Eight pieces of nine different scrapbooking pages.

Bulletin Board frame:

Pegboard on one side and corkboard on the other. The pegboard is made from a square of matboard with holes punched in it using a pushpin.

Frame painted

Pegboard and corkboard in place.

Couple cartoon pieces and Cricut guides on the bulletin board and various plastic grid tools for cutting shapes on the pegboard. The original one had several scissors hanging on the pegboard but my vision is not good enough these days so those didn't happen.

50 or 60 pieces of scrapbooking sticker pages and divider identifiers.

The box to hold rhem

In place

The unit containing the scrapbooking papers. And below, the photo boxes.

The sticker box and the laptop computer.

The Cricut box

The lower half of the scene

With the Chrysnbon chair in place

And the finished scene.

Finished it and gave it to Jo before Christmas. She was pleased with it.

Bit off more than I can chew in that time frame....

After I decided to do the scrapbooking room for Jo, I spent the first night cutting out 8 pages of 9 different scrapbooking pages. OMG, I had forgotten how long it takes to cut out little pieces of paper.

With the printing of all my saved files out of the way, I decided to look for the wallpaper to use in the room. Found two nice pieces in my wallpaper drawer then proceeded to look for the thin cork board to use in the scene. 

Well, that's where life got interesting! I have a great piece of very thin corkboard  from Lee Valley that I used in the last scrapbooking vignette. However, it is not hanging on a skirt hanger in the closet where it used to be. Double check - definitely not there! Try the other closet on the off chance - not there. Check the workroom bulletin boards - not there.

Flip through my wallpaper drawer - don't see it. Try that drawer again - don't see it but find a nice piece of flooring that I can use.

I'm SO frustrated! Take pages out of my wallpaper drawer level by level and LO AND BEHOLD! Found it!

I've spent three hours looking for that one elusive piece of cork board.

By the time this is all over, it's time for our M.E.E. Christmas party. That was a lovely evening...a visit from Santa, some enjoyable games, including a great "Is it mini or is it real" slideshow, draws for some really wonderful door prizes and, as always, a beautiful Christmas story read by Joanne.

So yesterday I had a couple mini friends over for lunch. We had a wonderful visit although their trip here was marred by terrible freezing rain.

This is the original room. I'm hoping to get this one done within the next week or so.

Jo plans to bring her scrapbooks of her wedding in Hawaii over to me before Christmas so I'm going to try to have the room ready for her then.

Well, since I started this entry on December 5 and it's now February 1, all I can do now is hope to catch up a bit on what I've been doing.

Catch up again!?!

Writing this blog has been on my to-do list forever it seems but always got relegated to 'tomorrow'.

Louise Z., a founding member of M.E.E. and a regular dealer at our Show and Sale, has moved and had a garage sale to really downsize her stash...and what a stash...rooms of supplies, tools, and minis. Since I, too, should be downsizing, I knew I had to be pretty judicious in what I bought.

These are what I went to buy! During Covid, Louise made hundreds of these wonderful gifts and I knew I wanted to get lots of them as I was down to just a few in my stash and they make such a great addition to almost any scene.

Love this little painting. This is an artist that Louise and her husband liked in RL and she asked him to do some in miniature for her.

Mae A. the Executive Producer for Oniva, who borrowed Ann's kitchen for an upcoming show lives in St. Albert, so she was kind enough to return the kitchen to me after they filmed the show. Because of that and because she is so enthusiastic about miniatures, I made her this little scene which I made in a 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" x 6" plastic box.

Bit of carpet on the floor.

desk with a vase of flowers, a laptop and my readable book about St. Albert

 with a wastepaper basket underneath.

and a chair

painting above the desk

and from the side.

Oh, shoot! Just looked back and realized that I missed writing about actually doing the potluck dinner scene. 

I needed a table to go with the chair and loveseat, so I threw this together. The end pieces are cut from an old fan and the top and bottom shelf are from scraps of wood. The whole thing is stained black with a felt pen.
 

I made cushions for the chair and loveseat from some ribbon from my stash. Cut three small strips of ribbon, folded them in half, glued the sides, then stuff them with some cotton cut from a cotton ball, then glued the final opening shut and held it in place with a clamp until the glue dried.

I my last post, I mentioned that Barb R. and I had brainstormed about the loveseat and chair and decided they would look better if they were green. So I coated them with gesso and when that was dry I painted them hunter green. Love the look. 

Still having trouble with working in 1:24 so the cushions were too big for cushions so decided to use them as seat cushions instead.

Needed something to put on the coffee table and I remembered I had some square 

plates I had made from square sequins in a class that Tina had taught so grabbed one for this.

Here's the finished scene.

And here you can see it hanging from its stand.

And I got this years "The Book" done! I finally cut back from 20 to just six for immediate family this year so it wasn't quite as daunting a task as it has been in the past.

Had a lovely call from a neighbour who won a miniature at a Christmas potluck. Her DIL was quite taken with it and wanted to know if I sold any of my work. I said 'no' but mentioned I had a front door and porch but that it was Hallowe'en themed. She had her heart set on Christmas so I told Marg to give me an hour or so and I'd see what I could do.

So I took all the Hallowe'en stuff off and replaced it with the wreath and some wooden holiday ornaments that my DS Marie had given me. Then I added one of Judy M's tea-light scenes and took it up. DIL was thrilled with it and I was glad to pass it on. Win:Win.

And the Hallowe'en stuff will go to Joanne for her shop!

My cleaning lady is a high school friend of my son Sean so I've known her for years. She's a scrapbooker so I got the bright idea to make her a scrapbooking scene for Christmas. I've done one before and I've saved most of the printies, etc., so don't have to start from scratch. But the problem is that she comes on Tuesday so if I want to have it ready for then, it's going to be a long night of cutting out printies. Not to mention a long day tomorrow putting it together.

So I guess I better sign off and get cutting.

Barb, the Potluck Dinner ornament, and Barb again, CBC

My friend, fellow miniaturist and upstairs neighbour, Barb, came by yesterday afternoon to see what I had purchased at the Show and Sale and see my displays. Had a great visit.

Later, I looked through my stash and purchases to see what I could possibly use in the Potluck dinner ornament and came up with these things:

Think these will work over the table and chairs on the right hand side.

Wanted to hand this from the ceiling for it's too large and blocked the tree so it's out.

Had thought to cut off the golf tee as a base for a table to go with the furniture below. The golf tee will still work but that piece of lazer poop will not. Need something a big bigger in diameter and thinner in depth.

Found these great 1:24 scale Christmas card on Jim Collins/Small Stuff 

 printie site. (One of my all time-favourites!) Plan on putting them on the left side of the room.

Maybe chair seats and/or cushions on the furniture.

In the meantime, Barb had gone through her stash and found some things she hoped would work for the scene. 

And I had gone through my collection of the first five years of American Miniaturist magazines and found several needlework patterns that I thought Barb might like to try as she does incredible needlework in both RL and miniature.

So I visited her this afternoon and we had a wonderful session of "What do you think?" Those brainstorming sessions are the thing that Zoom sessions will never replace.

One of the ideas that we came up with was changing the colour of the furniture from Debbie from the yellow/gold to a forest green. Another was making small cushions from the plaid ribbons and possibly covering the chair seats on the table chairs with the plaid.

So it's coming together in my head, at least.

In other news, I heard from the CBC and the filming of Ann's kitchen has been delayed until mid-October. Bless her heart, Ann has agreed to that and my daughter has that week off work so we will be able to take the kitchen in then. Looking forward to it.

The Show and Sale

Sunni had been kind enough to take my displays in on Saturday afternoon so all I had to do was go in and turn the lights on in Ann's kitchen.

Joanne and I arrived at 9 because she had made a lovely display in Joanne Prodor's memory and wanted to get it in the Show room before it opened. The first non-member face I saw was Diane who has attended our Show and Sale for years so we had time to exchange a few words. Lovely to see her every year.

Next I saw three members from Saskatoon who stayed in the hotel this year. (Last year they stayed in the guest suite in my condo.)

Once the doors opened, I headed to talk to two dealers who were having birthdays, then to greet some special out of town dealers whom I hadn't seen since last year.

Then went shopping! (In no particular order!)

Bought this lovely little kitten and carrier from member Loretta who flew up from Wisconsin for the S&S which she has done for some years. It's 1:48 but I plan on using just the kitten in my Potluck dinner ornament.

Got this luggage set from Gay. She had several kits for them but had two finished kits so, of course, went that route.

Picked up these kachinas from Marg W. who got them in Arizona. They're about 2 1/4" tall.

I have several pieces of Canadian First Nations' art so everything may become a museum display.

Got this great IKEA type miniature from Dainty Little Dollhouse from Saskatoon.

 All the drawers are removable. Not sure yet just where it will go.

Picked up these kits from Gay. The bedroom furniture in the Bombay dollhouse is mostly made from these kits. Will find someplace for them!

Debbie M., a dealer and distant member, joins us each year. She was kind to gift me with this set of 1:24 furniture, some of which will also end up in the Potluck dinner ornament.

Picked up this stand mixer to put in Ann's kitchen as a 'thank you' for Ann's lending me the kitchen for a couple weeks.

Also got this gorgeous brass easel from Gay and the light works!

Had an enjoyable conversation with Gay's mother, Gladys, and their table neighbour, Bob Frances.

The following pieces were from Donna of I Love Minis Canada. Her Etsy shop is here.

Bought this because I have it in real life. It will go in Ann's kitchen as a further 'thank you' for the use of the kitchen. (That's is own fitted packaging at the top of the picture.)

This set of mixing bowls also come in its own fitted case and also comes with a whisk, a spatula and six smaller bowls - two each in three sizes. Worth every penny!!
This purchase was personal. I have that set of mixing bowls which we received as a wedding present 52 years ago and which I still use at least weekly.

While the Show and Sale was lovely and, as you can see, I bought some beautiful pieces (some of which I actually have plans for LOL), the real joy is seeing friends, old and new, that I often only see once a year. And helping man the Membership table gave me a wonderful chance to talk with prospective new members and hear what they've been doing and/or planning gives me a new enthusiasm that I hope lasts for at least a few of my own projects.

And while I like that our meetings and workshops are now on Zoom, it's so nice to meet new members in person and talk one on one.

I must apologize that I did not think to take pictures of all the wonderful displays that club members brought in this year. There weren't as many this year as there have been in the past but the work was stellar and it's always a joy to see where members imaginations  and skills take them.