Roomboxes and vignettes given as gifts over the years

A friend and I were talking last week about the minis I had made for other people and I said I had no idea how many there had been. So I sat down and made a list.

Although I've been doing minis since about 1980, they weren't a huge thing in my life until about 1995. My first gift was to my sister, Marie, and was a wall hung nursery to commemorate the birth of one of their boys. I don't have a picture of it but looking back it was pretty primitive.

The next was a gift for my mother to celebrate her 79th birthday in 2002.

For years, my DS Carol and I took our children camping in the summers. In memory of those days, I made her this camping scene.

After 14 years at W. D. Cuts, inn August of 2003, I began working at Sir George Simpson School where I worked until my retirement at the end of March, 2007. While there, I made. as gifts. four Christmas vignettes (as part of Secret Santa); at least two decade birthday vignettes, three retirement/leaving vignettes, and a roombox for our vice-principal, Dennis, who was on sick leave with cancer.

In 2005, I made a miniature of his office for the vice-principal at W. D. Cuts School in honour of his retirement.. That was an early attempt at a "replica" of a room.

Because of Gerry's office vignette, his daughter, Andrea, asked me to display miniatures at Leo Nickerson School for several years at Art Days. In addition, she asked me for a donation to a silent auction at the school. As my donation, I made a miniature of her art room. I won my first ribbon at the Show and Sale with this one! Really pleased with it. Andrea bought it at the silent auction and Joanne and I always displayed it at Art Days. It was so much fun to see the students look at it then say, "Oh, my. That's our art room!"

As part of Arts Day, I have also donated at least two rooms that students could enter in a draw for: 

Teddy Bears' Picnic and Three Bears' House.

Along the same line, I made a https://stalbertmini.blogspot.com/2012/02/finishing-touch-to-scrapbook-vignette.htmlfor a silent auction by Glenora Childcare Society where DD Leanne worked at the time.

More to come tomorrow....

Couple more things for the Attic

I was disappointed last post about the mini of Vern's softball recognition award. First of all, when I glued the brass to the wood, I got Gorilla gel glue on the paper...plus the paper wasn't very clear. So I reprinted the paper - still not great - but much better! So I peeled off the first print and replaced it with the second (also printed on a label).

 Not great but much better....

Vern was a Master Electrician. I sized his ME license and framed it in MS Word.

Over the years, Vern had purchased several Inuit art pieces. We had four of them framed and hanging in our homes over the years. Some years ago, I gave two of them to Sean and Julie while the remaining two stayed in my condo. I had put copies of those two in my Bombay House. After Leanne moved into her townhouse, I gave her those pieces. Fortunately, when it came time to work on the artwork for the Attic, I had the pictures in my files so could copy them.

I printed all three on a 4" x 6" photo paper and will show you tomorrow how they turned out.

Tuesday night...

Normally, we would have a M.E.E. workshop tonight (and it was to be a jewellery box designed by Tina. BUT this morning we had a cold weather advisory and had to cancel. (Our club by-laws require that meetings be cancelled if the temperature (with windchill) is below -25C). The advisory was lifted later in the day but by then we had already sent out the cancellation notice.

In any event, I went to craft night in the building instead. Last night I came across a hanging that Vern had been given to recognize his contributions to St. Albert Softball. Before I give it to Leanne, I thought I should do in in miniature for Vern's attic for the grandchildren. (Then I thought of another list of things that should go into the attic but that's a story for another day.)

So I put it on the scanner and came up with this:

Shoot! The file of the picture of the actual thing was too large and wouldn't upload....

Anyway, I uploaded the miniature to a 2" x 4" label:

I cut out the centre and attached it to a piece of very thin brass from my stash. 

I cut a piece of basswood 1 1/4" x 7/8". filed the edges round with an emery board and stained it. Then I glued the picture of the words on the wood using Gorilla gel glue. Then I took a stylus and marked the indentations around the borders of the wood.

Not great...but

New additions to my stash...

Art Gallery (or I guess I should say, galleries)

This brochure from the Visual Arts Studio Asssociation (St. Albert) has some great pictures for future Art Galleries.

Joanne and I visited the St. Albert Museum and the Art Gallery of St. Albert. The picture on the left is a fridge magnet and the four pictures on the right are ones from the brochure highlighting both the museum and the art gallery.

My dear friend, Cheryl H. from Nova Scotia, finally got together the other night and she gave me this wonderful Hallmark ornament that will be perfect for the three room roombox!

These great modern magazines were a gift from Christine Verstraete 

 My DS Marie gave me some Christmas gifts to add to my stash!

This was a collection of sheer curtain samples:

There are 38 white pieces

and 30 various colours.

Each piece is 21" long and 6 1/4" wide. So lots of possibilities. Unfortunately they are all 100% polyester and will not be easy to deal with.

But I will try...

Thanks to the Pretty Pleater that I borrowed from Joanne, I will give it a try. Found this tutorial on youtube

.

DS Marie, bless her heart, also gave me these "kerosene lamps". They are hollow inside so I think I can put an LED light up inside them.

Only one has a flat bottom so it can stand on its own but that's something that can be dealt with.

Little House on the Prairie

This is such incredible eye candy for those of thus who watched the show.

http://littlehouseontheprairie.com/interview-with-eric-caron-little-house-on-the-prairie-model-maker/

Enjoy!

Mini Day Out, February 29, 2020

For several years, I've held a Mini Day Out in the Social Room of my condo building. It's been awhile so I decided that it was time to hold another one. To my shock and dismay, it's been almost four years since the last one. I guess with so many of our club workshops being held here, they sort of got lost in the shuffle.

They are simply get-togethers of people who love miniatures. Anyone is welcome to come and work on UFOs, bring problems to get ideas for solutions, and just share ideas.

Attendees share the rental cost ($50.00) of the room and I will supply lunch.

I realize that many of you are too distant to attend but if you live close enough and would like to come, please email me and I'll send you the information.

Further, if  you are ever planning on being in the Edmonton, Alberta, area and would like to get together with fellow miniaturists, please email me and I'll try to plan a get-together.

Some projects from Tuesday's meeting

I took these samples to the meeting along with supplies and tutorials. Most members had seen them before but a few of the newer members hadn't.

The bowls, hair spray cans,  the canned goods, and the Lysol spray cans are made by quilling either regular quilling paper (the bowls) or my own printed designs (the spray cans and the canned goods).

The shampoo, conditioner and bubble bath are made from Lite Brite pegs.

 The salad is made from artificial snow. Instructions are here. This salad bowl is a cabinet drawer pull - one of about a dozen my DS Carol gave me.

These child size personal flotation devices are really easy to make.

 Here are the instructions for them in three sizes.

My birthday gift from M.E.E.

Barb S. will be away during March so she gave me my birthday gift on Tuesday night. It is exquisite!

Lots more to tell you about the meeting but that will wait until tomorrow. Just couldn't wait to show you this!