Using your scraps and crafting cheaply: Foamboard

Good afternoon folks,

Now to start this off, if you are a dollhouse purist your not going to like this post. Some of us insist on using wood when wood is required, tile for tile etc ..this might be more for the model builder in you..so you might want to have gander anyways!

Some of you may be new to miniatures or building your scenes, roomboxes or vingettes and some of us just want to make scenes without spending alot of money on our hobby

That is where Jane likes to be..in the bottom of her messy craft bin..looking through scraps and seeing what can be crafted from junk!

Any way... lets talk about foamboard, polystyrene sheets, foam core.. paper covered foam sheets..yada yada..

Now you know you can create simple roomboxes from it and its pretty sturdy when you shore it up, Great tutorial by One inch minis by Kris .  You have seen my foam board structure which I covered in toilet paper clay ;)

I thought I would show you a few other uses for the scraps or if you simply want to try using it to replicate other materials.

Primary step would be to remove the paper from the surface the best you can, I simply pull it in strips and sand the top with a large fine sand pad.

STONE:

Foam board is really simple to create older brickpatterns, stones, paths steppingstones..etc

You can simply line in your patterns with a sharp pencil slowly lining first, then going over those lines again to recreate patterns

I did a simple flagstone type pattern here in pencil then dotted it a bit with the tip and eraser to create dents and holes. You can make your lines relly deep also..

You can straight paint the foamboard with acrylics or do a mix of sand, glue and paint to get the effect I did here, it adds a little more texture. Start with a dark color.

You then would add more white to a bit of your color in this case grey to add lighter or worn spots..do this along the raised areas and edges of the stones Darker spots can also be layered about in dabs to really layer the effect. 

As you can see the process is really quick, I put mine infront of a fan and added this scrap of grass and bits of foam that may or may not have been stuck to my desk ;P

Pretty effective for landscape and really cheap.. 

WOOD:

Wood can be recreated in the same way, I would think it better for worn wood/sheds, boxes crates bins..I am sure you can create a cleaner look..but I think in fantasy *chases butterflies*

Start by lining the foambord with long lines accross your surface, then deepen those lines to create the board pattern.

You can then go about laying separate boards and maybe nail holes to recreate wooden planks. 

This scrap of balsa wood is called a rough line scraper < no not really but it will assit in creating gouges in the boards if you want to make a more worn surface with texture

You can go about scraping in lines with a wire brush, firm bristle brush or homade scrap tool!

Do a better job than this..this is just for quick example..

Then once you have the details you like in the foamboard you can go abouts painting it with dark, then light then striped etc to replicate grain.

Here is a better version from my theme house...

Here are some more things you can play with, again these are works in progress but it shows you some of the things you might want to try..thinking out of the "money box"

Painted wood roof, foamboard

Old desk base pattern, carves pretty nice  

Mid century modern couch for my Theme House. Balsa wood, coffe stirrers and balsa wood.. This is just the foam board carved to create lines for the fabric, see you can create pillowed cusions pretty easy without having to sew...cause I can't...at all..  

Well I hope this gets some ideas sirring for you, I simply wanted to show you by using cheap materials and not alot of time you can create some base objects for your builds. 

Just get in there are create!! glued up fingers, painted pants and a dab of foam in your hair!! *heheheharhar* * crazy stare*

Hugs~J

Geschenke ...from afar!: Also I am going to go crazy for another fair! *twitch*

Good day you fine folks of far away places!

I wanted to show you some gifts that a fine lady sent to me, of course she had to blow my socks off with a massive package of oooo and ahhh!

Brigit of http://biwubaer.blogspot.com/ sent me this big ol' box of wow!

After I pick up my jaw from the floor I opened all these gorgeous boxes and .....

..After I woke up from passing out... I read all of Brigit's wonderful notes! Brigit sent me many wonderful things for every project I have and hope to create! ** as you can see I opened a box..and then celebrated by eating the Marzipan...there were a lot of boxes..I ate a lot of Marzipan **

Brigit has sent me so many wonderful magical gifts my tower is going to be soooo awesome!

The detail in her work is just amazing this piece with the flying pages and dragon is ...wow..

I love her little house displays look at this wonderful Halloween piece with painted jack 'olanters and the old trees, gorgeous!

Of course the winter house and Christmas minis were perfection as well, I love her little ornaments.

Of course Bigit has a Etsy store, I left links above for your to find some of her amazing minis here is her blog if you have not has a visit http://biwubaer.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much Brigit for your generosity and thoughtfulness..gift battle..begun!

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I also wanted to let you know I intend on joining the local Christmas Holiday Fair this year, so I will be working on projects for that. I have some ideas to create some minis scenes, polymer clay covered boxes and a few bits of jewelry and charms to fill out the table. I never expect to get a lot of money but I think just making a appearance and sharing our mini and macro hobbies is a great idea to do if you can.

Here is a little foam pumpkin I carved for Halloween, kind of like my Easter Egg I want to do a mini scene each holiday...a sneaky peek ;)

Here are some simple wood boxes and book hide-aways I am going to play with, also I thought maybe a permanent gingerbread house with clay might be a good sell.

and of course there is this...I still have to finish...*twitch* crazy stare*...

I hope all your mini adventures are going well!! Maybe we should work on some candy displays together for halloween? 

Hugs~J

Fall Giveaway Winner is.............

Good morning folks!

Tomorrow is the first day of Autumn for us and the perfect time for you to be fall inspired! I tallied up the names as they were posted and here is the list:

1. Shelly Norris
2. Traci Johnson
3. Cheverly
4. Isabel Ruiz Alonso
5. Annejuli Valentine
6. *Mieke*Petitevictorianrose*and*PastTimeChildhood
7. Kristine PaperDollMiniatures
8. Cinderella Moments
9. Prim2Pink
10. Drora's minimundo
11. NarinaNäpertää
12. Eva - tatalamaru
13. Giac
14. mcddiss
15. North & Cooper family
16. Melli
17. Meritan nukkis
18. BiWuBär
19. Jane Chérie
20. Kikka N
21. Elizabeth S
22. chapchap73
23. Mª LUISA GARCIA RAMIREZ
24. Chris P's Minis and More
25. kellyannmo
26. Fabiola
27. Plushpussycat
28. Jenny Costa
29. Pippibär
30. carmen
31. MelyGiunta
32. 12Create
33. Maria Ireland
34. Lindsey Dormer
35. Yolanda Morán
36. Xintara
37. Mi mundo de miniatura 

I then did 1 to 37 in a random number generator and the result:

This giveaway's winner is  Pippibär so Melanie please contact me and send me a address via email so that I can send some fall your way :)

Thank you to all who participated, we will resume our regularly scheduled maddness this week and I have some amazing gifts to show off from talented friends!

Hugs~J

Minifanaticus Fall Giveaway!!!

Good evening good folk!

I thought since we are about a week away from the first day of Autumn it was a good time to rummage around in my scraps and throw something together to help usher in the Fall!

So here is what I've come up with so far:

Autumn inspired basket centerpiece with pine cones, gourds and assorted leaves, berries and acorn's... a few pumpkins and some leaves:

I have found my life sized version of this mix and am about to decorate the table with the Autumn flair!

For this giveaway its my standard rules.... you've been a reader you know the deal....tell me if you want it or not and we will do a random number thang' on September 23rd.

I am going to get back to crafting soon so... expect to hear more of my crazy ramblings about...errr..well being crazy *smirk*

Hugs~J