Making Dollhouse Pansies From Paper

This is a tutorial that I have been promising for quite a while, so here it is, finally. It is a difficult one to do a tutorial on, as the components are so very tiny. So you will have to pay attention to the steps of the process. If I am unclear, please contact me....

This is the type of pansy I will try to make. It is the old-fashioned variety, which is bigger than the ones most of us are used to today. The finished pansy is approx. 1/4" (4 mm) across, which translates in Real Life to 3" (7.5 cm). However, it would be next to impossible to make them any smaller, and it is kind of "set dressing" anyways; if it is recognizable and more or less in scale, it works.

You will need: 4, 1/8" (2mm) paper circles, and 1 heart in a similar size, in your choice of colour (the wee pink things just below the leaves); a tiny green circle or star; a stem wire tipped with yellow paint; small oak leaf punch-outs; fine-tip pen or colouring pencil in a darker colour than your flower colour; and the usual like glue, needle for shaping and piercing, tweezers, shaping mat and the like. I use a brick of oasis to hold my flower parts as I "build" them.


This is where you need to pay attention to the steps, as my camera couldn't photograph them clearly, due to the tiny size. CAUTION: This is fiddly!


1. Pierce hole in green centre, thread onto tipped stem but DO NOT glue.
2. Colour tip of heart and sides of 2 circles.
3. Shape by drawing a V with a line up the middle, using the edge of a needle, on all 5 flower petal parts.
4. Glue 2 plain discs to the star or green disc, at approximately the 11 and 1 o'clock positions; another way to look at it is a pair of mouse ears, edges barely touching.
5. Glue 2 coloured discs, coloured edge in, at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions.
6. Glue heart, point in, at the 6 o'clock position.
7. Carefully push up this assemblage to just touch the coloured tip of your stem. Allow to dry. When dry, bend stem 90 degrees, just behind flower head. (There is usually enough glue residue to grab the stem, but if you wish, you can always add a tiny bit more.)
8. Vein the leaf shapes. Glue onto stems. NOTE: If you "plant" your pansies, place the leaves very close to the "ground" at the base of your pansy plant; if you are putting them into a vase, glue leaves but leave enough stem below them to sit above the edge of the container.
9. You can add a bud; just bend it down at quite a sharp angle.

Here is a photo of the finished product; as I said, it is very difficult to get these tiny flowers into decent focus with my inexpensive camera, and they would insist on swivelling around in the oasis block. Remember, the finished flower is only 1/4" or 4 mm across! I hope this gives you the idea.


Look up pansies in Google images; there is such a wonderful, incredibly wide variety of colours and colour combinations to choose from. Hopefully, this set of instructions will work for you....

Confession Is Good for the Soul, They Say....

It's been quite a while since I posted anything, but I haven't been doing nothing, just nothing in the way of miniatures. It has been quite clear for a while that I have too many hobbies; besides miniatures, I enjoy embroidery, knitting, quilting and small-scale sewing projects. But all these hobbies take up space.


I do have a dedicated workroom space, that was built into our house. It holds my sewing table and equipment, but I share it with my daughter who is a costume designer. When she has a commission, I tend to spread out to other areas of the house.

This is my dedicated "sewing" room, which is also supposed to house other hobbies. However, space is at a premium here, too much fabric for me to feel comfortable working with saws, glue and paint. This room is where I sew, keep all my how-to books, and most of my fabric supply. To the left of the chair, not shown in this photo, is a 6 ft tall bookcase, which has half of its shelves dedicated to housing my smaller miniatures; the rest of the shelves hold magazines and baskets with partially completed fabric-related projects. One of my current make-space projects is to cut my fabric scraps into standard sizes, so they will take up less space and be more easily available. That has been one of my non-mini projects this month, along with cutting some pieces for a tote bag, and the pile of stuff in the centre is for a quilt carrying bag, yet to be made, of course.

This is my secondary work space, the place where I tend to do all the messy work of sawing, painting, sanding, gluing and the like. It has a lovely view out the window; currently it is all snow....
This is my old dining room table, from my early twenties, hidden under a plastic tablecloth and right now, absolutely cluttered with stuff that needs sorting out. The boxes at the left belong to my daughter and contain some of her costume-making supplies. The doll hanging above the table is an old east Indian marionette; two-faced, with an elegant two-tone costume and a rather scary mask face.
There are also two old Indonesian stick puppets living elsewhere in this space, which is intended to be a family room.... Beyond the left side of the photo is our television viewing area. Upstairs, where it is quiet, is intended for reading and listening to music. Our house is built into a hill, which means that our "basement" is actually mostly very useful living space. Just beyond the paint tower, is a double door to the downstairs patio. (It is, of course, buried under snow right now!)

This is the tertiary work area, just to the right of the computer desk. It is an unfinished built-in desk, ideal for holding works in progress and assorted games, etc. The desk is unfinished because the heavy oak desk top insists on warping, so it is forever being straightened. The thing under the picture is a piece of armour - I did mention my daughter is a costume designer, and that is the edge of her sewing dummy on the right of the photo. My book vignette is there, along with my Japanese vignette, and of course the two halves of my Tudor apothecary - the outside is finished, I just need to furnish it! It seems that whenever a horizontal surface appears, it doesn't take long for it to be filled up...


I must confess that I have yet a fourth work area; whenever I work with polymer clay, I do it at the breakfast bar in the kitchen, as it is handy to the stove and the sink. But when I am done with the thing I am working on, all the boxes and tools go right back into basement storage. I have one short wall and part of a longer wall there to keep all my mini bits and pieces.


And I further confess that I lost my camera for several weeks; I found it today, under an old hope chest in my bedroom. Guess I couldn't find it because I didn't look in the right places.


My soul does feel a little bit lighter! Bear with me, I have to tidy and sort some more before I can allow myself to get back into creating more miniature havoc. Oh, further confession, when I do cross-stitch embroidery, I do it upstairs in the living room, so I guess there is also a fifth work area....

Happy New Year

We had a very busy holiday season; two guests left just before New Year, two are on their way to the airport right now, and one is still with us for a couple of days. There has not been enough time to do any posts lately! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and that Santa left you minis.

I got some minis, some intended and some serendipity.

These two readable mini books came from my younger daughter; one is a Book of Hours, which I had said I would like to add to one of the two prie-dieus I now have, The other is a medieval herbal, which will go into the Tudor Apothecary workshop.

A set of mouse rug coasters will go into my vignette settings; as they are mounted on foam, they will have to be recessed into their settings to be totally believable, but that can work by simply making a thicker floor than I usually do. A stocking stuffer from one of my two western Canadian children.

This is the serendipitous gift; a box that held two small bottles of Armagnac brandy. The centre divider slides out, and the lid is plexiglass with a wooden handle, that also slides out. This will make a perfect small vignette that will not take up too much space, something that is becoming more of a consideration for me.

And finally, a half dozen small paper punches; I have to compare these with punches I already have, but if they are duplications, there are half a dozen people who will be very happy to receive them! These small paper punches are becoming increasingly more difficult to find in my part of the world. They came from one of my children out west, as a stocking stuffer.

I still intend to put a pansy tutorial on the blog, just have to be back to normal in the household, as it takes time and space to put a tutorial together. Happy New Year!

UFO'S Being Finished, But Very Slowly

This is the base of a Welsh Dresser, designed by Chris Dukeman, from the September 1993 Nutshell News. I can't remember why I began making this, perhaps it was a test to see if my woodworking skills had improved over the years. I probably made this 8 or so years ago, not long after I retired. What stumped me was pin hinging - I had had very poor results with this. However, I decided enough is enough, I will finish this.

So I managed the pin hinging, and although it isn't perfect - the left door won't open as easily as the right one - I am happy with it. The knobs for the cupboard base are small, hand-carved wooden beads I picked up at a second-hand store, held on with tiny brass sequin pins.

The cupboard will be painted, so to begin the aging process, I stained it, quite irregularly, with my favourite water-based stain, Ipswich Pine.

This will eventually be covered with two shades of medium-blue paint, one straight from the jar and the other tinted to be either lighter or darker than that, I haven't quite decided that yet. And I am not sure if the bead knobs will accept paint, either. Next up, I need to make the top of the base, and then the shelved portion above; this will require heavy machinery, as it will have to be cut from a piece of much larger wood. My Carpenter-in-Chief is rather short of time, these days, working on other projects and we have Christmas company arriving from Germany this evening. Perhaps I can get him to give me a couple of minutes this afternoon....

Once this is finished, I will decide whether to keep it, or put it up for sale. It may make a nice display piece for one of my other projects, or for a yet-to-be-determined future one!

Back At It, In a Very Small Way

That's kind of a double joke, as these pieces are small and also miniature! We've had a bad week as far as weather is concerned, including a 24+ hr. power outage at the height of a severe snow and ice storm. However, we are back to abnormal, i.e., it is foggy and raining, definitely not Atlantic Canadian December weather.

So I decided to finish some of the many UnFinished Objects sitting about in various boxes, etc., and I managed to (almost) get 3 done; I say almost, as I still need to add knobs to the doors on the back of the painted Tudor commode, which will go into the Tudor house. The design on the front of the box is taken from medieval ceiling paintings which appeared when centuries of soot and grime were removed from a very old church (A.D. 1100) in my home town, Maastricht in The Netherlands, a couple of decades ago. The flowers are daisies, poppies, and cornflowers, which grow along all the corn fields (wheat fields for North Americans!) in that part of The Netherlands.

My grandmother, known as Bonma as she grew up in Belgium, used to have a commode on the landing of the house she shared with one of my aunts; only hers had a rug-hooked colourful cushion on the top. Well, she was over 80, and the bathroom was all the way downstairs and at the back of the house!

Also put the handle down on the leather tankard, and gave it a bottom; this will go to join the other leather jacks in the Tudor marketplace. And then there is the angel blowing a horn; I needed to develop the courage to drill into the narrow wood (1/8" or approx. 4 mm). It only took me several years ;o) 

There are many more bits waiting for a final step or two or three. It is so busy this time of year, that I am having to make time to do minis. However, I am hopeful that Santa may bring me the components for a Christmas Market stall - which is why I am finishing  some Christmas-themed minis!

The Show Went Very Well!

We got there early on Saturday, after mostly setting up Friday evening, so we had lots of time to add things, as we had 3 long tables for display and another for sales. As I ended up being the only one with things to sell, I just needed part of  a table. Marilyn is placing some last-minute deliveries. The little step stool under the table is for children; we put the miniatures, as much as possible, at adult viewing level, so children need a little extra help to be able to see.

Three of our CMHH 2015 projects were on display; this one is by Louise, called "Wine and Word", a book shop that also sells wine and cheese plates. I believe this one is pretty much finished; Louise was unable to come, as she had hurt her back. She built a patio onto her books, complete with flowers and flamingos (her trademark), with a tile floor and an iron railing. I could only photograph it from the front, but at some point I will get a side photo of it to share with you, with a better view into both the shop and the patio area.

This one is Marilyn's; her book vignette is an attic, and represents the book, The Picture of Dorian Gray - the man who never aged, although his portrait did. Marilyn placed an angled mirrored wall to the left of her vignette, so that when you look into the window, you see another whole room, which reflects the right side of the vignette, where the portrait is. It is also pretty much finished, she will add a chimney to cover and protect her lighting wires. This gorgeous window is the one which came with the project; I will have to think of somewhere to use mine. The wonderful bare light bulb in the attic
room really adds to her scene. Her walls are lath and plaster, with the plaster oozing out.

And here is mine, still unfinished; the lighting is provided by a small LED flashlight taped to the ceiling at this point! The books are glued together, but not to the box, and I think I will keep them that way to allow me access to the inside. The window display needs some fine-tuning, and I have to make about a linear meter more of books to fill the shelves inside. A small weathered copper mansard roof over the window is also in my plans. And like Louise's, I'd like to add a base so I can have a sidewalk around the front and door sides of the vignette; I am itching to add a Victorian street light to my scene....

There were some wonderful pieces on display; the artist's studio below was brought by Susan, and represents the studio of Tom Thompson, one of Canada's Group of Seven famous painters. The inside cover of the book tells viewers his story.

At this point the sun had come up, so I had someone stand between me and the windows so I could take a clear photo. We had quite a bit of snow on Thursday, so the reflection of early morning sunlight off the snow was somewhat blinding!

This wonderfully crowded book vignette was also brought by Susan, the sun is slanting across it but things can still be seen. It is amazing how much you can fit into one of these book boxes, and they are so nice to transport to shows, as everything is fixed in place and the whole just closes up like, well, a box!

I hesitated a bit over this photo, as the angle for it taking it wasn't very good, but I just had to include Susan's tree house; two little boys are inside, eating a pizza (one of mine, I think!). Their games are scattered around and one bicycle rests against the foot of the tree. I love this little scene, and just wish the photo had been against an uncluttered background. Perhaps I will get a chance to re-do it some time. It is quite tall, so I had to get some distance to get all of it into the photo.

We had a lovely display, and lots of interest at our table, and I even made a few sales which was rather unexpected as this was mainly a show for model railroaders. We may also have recruited new members for our club, as several people took the information slips we had on the table. Now we will have to see if new people will show up at our next meeting, in January.

Happy Saint Nicholas Day! He left lots of goodies to eat in my wooden shoe this morning....

Miniature Food

It's been a very busy 3 days, as I have been slowly gluing my book covers together and working on a commission as well as a new market stall. I don't often take commissions any more, but this is for a friend, and I just hope she likes it. She is making her book vignette into a wine and cheese shop, and is much further along than I am. I was asked to provide some of the cheeses.

Along with the various types of cheese, there are some cheese boards and some grapes, apples and pears to serve along with the cheese; the grapes should look nice placed on the grape leaves.

The fishmonger's stall has also gotten some more food items, although they still need to be placed a little more carefully! I usually use a piece of packaging plastic from blister packs to build my shop stock on, as it is so much easier to work on it flat and outside of tiny shelves or table tops. Recently I discovered that tiny glue dots called Zots work quite nicely to hold items invisibly in place. As the packaging plastic remains flexible, it is easy enough to bend it slightly to slide it into place on the table top or shelves.

I made a pile of plaice and five cooked crabs yesterday, and it took me most of the day! Now I have to rearrange the display to make room for these rather large pieces; they are partially covering the cod fillets and rainbow trout.

When I was a small child in The Netherlands, my mother would send me to the fishmonger to buy plaice; it was alive, so you chose it from the tank and the fishmonger would clean it for you to take home, nice and fresh. As I can't really remember the fish being gutted etc. I am assuming he did this out of sight of his customers!

The oysters and kippers are neatly packed into wooden boxes, decorated with seaweeds, while the scallops are in a lovely china bowl with blue and gold trim on it. In the left centre are some squid, and some lemons for colour contrast. All the fish in front of the boxes on the left and the scallops were made for me years ago by my older daughter.

Tomorrow I will need to take a look at my vegetable barrow and fruit stall, to see which items badly need to be redone....