July | 2025 | Missing Willow Farm

Christmas in July

Christmas is still months away but no need to wait until December for holiday crafting! Get a head start with some brand new products from Alpha Stamps.

The setting I used was a Simple Scene Box – Riser Base, which was the perfect size for this project. It was assembled using tacky glue. The walls were papered in red and white and the floor received a hardwood pattern.

I started with a Shallow 3D Fireplace. The interior of the fireplace was covered in dark brick paper which I glued in place prior to assembling it.

The exterior received a raised brick facade by applying modeling paste to a Small Brick Wall Stencil held in place with a bit of painter’s tape.

Once the modeling paste was dried I painted it a light ivory then layered on some brown paint for the brick texture.

I wanted a wraparound mantle so cut a few craft sticks to size and glued them in place. Those got covered with a wood grain paper.

Love how it came out!

The Standing Tree Shelves is a brand new piece that gives you a great alternative to decorating a bottle brush tree. It’s shelves can be staged with Christmas packages, ornaments, holiday figures, treats, whatever suits your fancy. I painted it a Wedgewood green with a brown base and topped it with one of the Flat Back Gold Star Studs. I think this shelf would also look darling in a child’s nursery setting painted a pastel color.

For the base I added a Fancy Red Holly Berries Mix cluster flanked by two of the Frosted Berry Picks.

The lower shelf holds some holiday books made from Mini Books with Blank Covers and the Victorian Tiny Little Books Collage Sheet. I also included a Painted Santa Mug, a Santa Square Cookie Tin and a present made from a 1/2 Inch Wooden Cube Block wrapped in paper from the Christmas Wrap & Cards Collage Sheet decorated with a bit of ribbon and a little tree from the 8mm Resin Christmas Cookies or Ornaments Mix.

I painted a Tiny Bird House like a gingerbread house. It sits next to a Tiny Red Resin Wrapped Christmas Gift and a 14mm Peppermint Cabochon. The top shelf holds a Mini Resin Santa with Pack next to a Mini Resin Pink Cheeked Snowman. Sprinkled about are polymer clay slices from the Hello Christmas Polymer Clay Slice Mix and the Red & Green Peppermint Candy Polymer Clay Slices.

Above the tree is a Della Robbia wreath I made from a Wired Pine Needle Stem decorated with holly leaves snipped from a Mini Holly Leaf Garland and glued to Red Foam Stamens.

It was finished with the addition of Mini Lemons, Mini Oranges and Mini Pears and topped off with a bright red bow.

The new Curio House is just 2 inches wide. I painted it cream and red with a red roof made from Tiny Scalloped Shingles.

I had a chance to use a lot of miniature cast metal items in this project. Many of them are new and all of them have a lot of great detail. I started by washing them all in soapy water. Each piece got scrubbed using a toothbrush to help remove any mold release residue that may remain then rinsed and dried well.

I’ve never used a spray paint primer but decided to give it a try for this project. I used double sided tape attached to a craft stick to hold all the tiny pieces in place. Just a note that I’ve also painted metal miniatures with multiple layers of acrylic paint and am happy with both techniques.

I also used double sided tape to hold each piece for brush painting. This is the Cream & Sugar Set painted an iridescent pearl.

I painted the Tiny Metal Flower Pot with Saucer red and turned it into a topiary by dipping a ball head pin covered in glue and dipping it in Green Turf Grass.

Here’s the completed Curio House. The top shelf holds that Cream & Sugar Set decorated with tiny cherry stickers flanking a Santa image from the Retro Santa & Penguin Tiny Christmas Stickers framed in a Mini Gold Resin Rectangular Frame.

The bottom shelf holds a Doll’s Cat sitting on a QS Kitchen Chair, an Ornate Metal Goblet painted silver, a Verdigris Tall Flower Bead Cap holding a Pink Cream Variegated Tiny Paper Rose next to a Resting Bunny painted gold and the little topiary.

Those gorgeous candlesticks on the left are Tall Cast Metal Candlesticks and a Chippendale Candlestick painted gold and white. The Candle Holder with Fluted Base on the right has an antique bronze finish.

The stockings were super easy and I love how they turned out! I simply cut out stocking shapes from felt and glued the edges together. The top of the stockings were decorated with ribbon.

I made ‘presents’ by wrapping balsa wood and tucking in a couple of 3/4 Inch Red & Green Polymer Clay Candy Canes, a Chubby Polymer Clay Candy Cane and a Frosted Christmas Tree Cookie.

The little Frosted Mini Green Sisal Tree sits in a small spool that I wrapped in ribbon. The logs are just sticks cut to size that are sitting in a Fireplace Grate. The Fireplace Tool Set is cast metal painted black with gold handles.

The presents under the tree are wrapped 3/8 Inch and 5/8 Inch Wooden Cube Blocks. I used paper from both the Xmas Wrapping Paper Half Sheet and Christmas Wrap & Cards Collage Sheets. They are decorated with holly snipped from the Mini Holly Leaf Garland, a Tiny Polymer Clay Candy Cane, a cluster of Tiny Red Holly Berries and some red ‘berries’ from the 3mm Valentine Mix Nonpareils Faux Candy.

The rug is an image from the Small Retro Xmas Tags & Labels Collage Sheet printed onto velour paper.

Thanks so much for your visit today. There are lots of new supplies to play with, I hope you are inspired to make something festive! You can find all the supplies I’ve used right HERE.

Pretty Bird Bakery

I love it when I get the opportunity to play with new products from Alpha Stamps and today’s project used quite a few. The new 10×8 Counter Room Box has a built in shelf across the rear wall that I turned into a bakery. I decided to go with a modern layout and decorated it using brick, wood and tile papers with craft sticks painted black for the trim.

This Counter Room Box comes with a 2.5 inch deep built-in shelf across the rear wall making it a terrific setting for all types of settings, particularly retail space.

I used two of the Arch Top Facade Bookcases- Short for storage on each side of another new piece – the Bread Rack. This display is the same width as the Arch Top Facade Bookcase so you could easily use 3 of them across the counter if you have no use for a bread display in your project.

The Bread Rack is like a bookcase with angled shelves as you can see here. What I love about this piece is it could be used in a setting like a farmer’s market or corner store as a standalone shelf to display all kinds of things.

A bakery display shelf obviously needs loaves of bread! All of the molds I used for this bakery project came from Alpha Stamps. A few of them are older ones I had on hand and a bunch are brand new, like the Mixed Bread & Croissant Silicone Mold. I started by filling every cavity of the mold with paper clay and let it dry. Once unmolded, I was able to select the ones I wanted to use and then made multiples of those.

All of the paper clay breads and pastries were painted a light color then ‘baked’ using different shades of brown pastel chalks simply applied using my fingers.

A few of the pastries got further surface treatments like the addition a coating of clear nail polish for a glazed look. These large croissants were dipped in chocolate by mixing liquid polymer clay with dark brown pastel chalk dust then baked to set.

I used the Mini Silicone Mold – Many Sizes Bundt Cakes to make donuts. The sugared ones were given the baked look with paint and pastel chalk then covered in glue and dipped in superfine glitter to emulate a sugar coating.

Paper clay baguettes are displayed in a container from the Round Basket Set. C’est bon!

The one set of treats I made using polymer clay instead of paper clay were the cupcakes. I made two flavors – lemon and chocolate. What’s great about these new Mini Silicone Cupcake Molds are they can go right in the oven. The mold comes with cupcake liners and frosting. I added a layer of ‘cake’ using polymer clay textured with a toothbrush. They are displayed on Mini Cookie Sheets.

Here’s another new piece – a 3-Tier Cupcake Stand. It assembled easily with tacky glue before painting it white. All of the colorful treats look beautiful in this display. The majority came from the Pink Resin Sweets Mix with the addition of a Miniature Chocolate Cake, a Pink Cupcake with Cherries, a Cupcake with Chocolate Frosting & Cherry and a Crepe Cake with Strawberries.

I made a selection of pies and cheesecakes from polymer and paper clays that got displayed in a new 1:12 Kitchen Cabinet that I left the doors off of. It got a wood grain paper exterior with black trim and flat wood button plug feet to raise it up off the floor.

A Shop Counter was decorated to match with black trim and the same Moroccan tile as the main counter front.

Here are the bakery shelves filled with goodies.

Next to the lemon cupcakes on the left are some Square Strawberry Jam Jars. The middle shelf holds a tray of teddy bear pastries from the Mixed Bread & Croissant Silicone Mold and some jars of lemon curd made by curing yellow resin inside an Even Tinier Bottle topped with a slice of Polymer Clay Lemon Cane. The bottom shelf holds croissants sitting on Plastic Serving Trays.

Underneath all these gorgeous loaves of bread you’ll find a tray of danish next to some Japanese Melon Breads.

This shelf has cocoa containers for sale sitting next to the chocolate cupcakes. These were made by painting White Resin Cocoa Containers dark brown then adding a label from the Vintage Pantry Labels Half Sheet. The middle shelf holds some citrus pound cakes made from paper clay braided loaves coated with white liquid polymer clay and topped with slices of Lime, Lemon and Orange Polymer Clay Canes. Next to those is a set of Clear Canisters with Lids – Set of 3 that I filled with slices of polymer clay cane sweets. Below is a tray of cinnamon rolls next to some assorted donuts.

Next to the 3-Tier Cupcake Stand on the 1:12 Kitchen Cabinet sits a Cherry Cake on a new Mini Cake Stand and the basket of baguettes.

The shop counter holds a Bronze Cash Register next to a jar of frosted cookies made from the Mini Silicone Mold – Biscuits & Bread sitting inside a Large Glass Candy Jar. A meringue pie sits atop a Tiny Doily on one of the new Mini Cake Stands. There are also a couple of danish nestled inside a Mini Bakery Box with Windows ready for takeout.

Finally, the bakery needed some art for the walls and I chose the Oiseaux de Mode Collage Sheet which translates to ‘birds of fashion’ and is how I chose the name of the bakery. These charming images were set into some frames from the Mini Frames Set.

Thanks so much for your visit today. There are lots of new supplies to play with, I hope you are inspired to make something wonderful! You can find all the supplies I’ve used right HERE.