Missing Willow Farm

Here come the holidays! It won’t be long until snowy weather hits and we have our homes decked out for all the winter festivities. I’ve never been to any of the European holiday markets but can visualize a diverse mix of multicolored booths each one selling prettier things than the last to make your holidays bright. In that spirit I have a miniature holiday market project for Alpha Stamps to share with you today, one that features a 1:12 Scale Market Stall and a bunch of snow globes, ornaments and other tiny sparkly bits.

Let me start by saying the market stall is easy to put together using a bit of tacky glue. I always lay out a structure so I know which surfaces will need to be painted and which will be papered. I chose a dark blue acrylic paint for the roof, floor and supports and Craft Consortium Dark Grunge Tone papers for the shelves and exterior walls. To add a little bit of sparkly interest to the very top shelf, I painted a Snowflake Border with silver paint and adhered it to the rear wall.

For the base that the stall sits on I chose a wood tone paper from Craft Consortium. The floor of the stall will be glued onto the base and the side stall supports need be inserted into slots in the market base. Rather than papering the entire base and cutting little holes for the slots I just cut the paper to fit around the holes as in the photo below.

For the front counter assembly, I attached the small counter support painted blue in the photo below. It supports the actual countertop which is papered in a brown textured cardstock.

For the front of the stall I used one of the new Snowy Winter Village 6×6 Paper Set. This set features so many pretty little snowy scenes it was hard to choose.

This is what the stall looks like assembled and before all the goodies are added. The front brace for the roof piece was decorated using an Iridescent Acrylic Snowflake Charm flanked by two of the Acrylic Snowflakes and a couple of Flatback Pearls.

With the stall ready to open for business, I set to making cute little wares and decorating little glass globes in as many ways as I could think of. The first thing I tried was coating the interior of some 12mm Round Glass Globes with metallic acrylic paint to make round pearly ornaments. I thinned the paint with a bit of water to make it flow easily and dripped enough inside the globe to coat the interior and set them aside to dry. The globes are secured to a plastic water bottle cap using double sided tape to keep them upright. Tacky wax is also great to use to secure globes in place while decorating.

To display them I assembled the new 3 Sections Curved Display. The interior was painted brown and the exterior covered with a scrap of woodgrain paper. This piece comes with two dividers that can be glued in place wherever you want them. I elected to use just one of them. The pearly globes went on the right and a few of the 18mm Acrylic Snowflakes on the left all to be sold as ornaments.

I also assembled one of the adorable 1:12 Chipboard Sleighs that I painted the color of gingerbread with white frosting trim. It holds a couple of the 15mm Iridescent Acrylic Snowflake ornaments, too.

Next I moved on to filling tiny clear containers with snowy scenes. Every one I made started the same way, with a base of white cardstock cut to fit the base.

A few of these contain my version of a miniature glitter village, which started with house shapes cut from polymer clay using an x-Acto knife. I made some plain white and others different colors with a thin layer of white clay ‘snow’ on the roofline.

After baking, the colored houses were accented with a Bright Flowers Polymer Clay Slice Mix. To finish them all off they got a thin coating of tacky glue and were tossed into a container of extra fine glitter and left to dry. I also made some white and green polymer clay tree shapes to be included in these little scenes.

All of the ‘snow’ in these little scenes are just a sprinkling of diamond dust glitter. The trick to getting everything in place is to hold the lid upside down with the loose glitter inside and glue your decorated base to the inverted lid. Once the glue dries you turn the piece right side up and the glitter falls onto your scene like freshly fallen snow. For this one I used a small wide mouth jar I had on hand to stabilize the piece while the glue set.

Here’s the finished Clear Cake Stand with Lid that holds a white glitter house village.

Here are two little scenes mid-assembly. The one on the left is a glitter tree surrounded by a couple of Tiny Polymer Clay Candy Canes that sit inside a 15mm Round Glass Globe Dome. On the right is a colorful glitter village in one of the new 3 cm Tall Clear Cake Stand or Domes.

This pretty little village sits inside a Large Glass Candy Jar. This is the one piece that didn’t need to be held upside down while the glue set. I assembled the village onto card stock, dropped it into the candy jar, added diamond dust glitter and popped the lid on.

Here is a polymer clay snowman I made to fit inside a Tall Glass Cloche with Cork Base. The carrot nose was stiffened by baking it for 5 minutes before inserting it into the snowman’s head. The base has a bit of decorative trim and one of the Tiny Silver Snowflake Mix topped with a white snowflake from the Blue Penguin Polymer Clay Slice Mix. I love to use slice mixes in my crafting and find myself coming back to them project after project to use bits and pieces. This particular one also has tiny pearls and adorable penguins along with blue and white snowflakes.

This little scene inside a Mini Glass Dome – Bronze 25mm Tall was assembled using a Tiny German Fairy Tale Tree topped with a 5mm Gold Flat Back Star. At the base I added a snowman from the 8mm Resin Christmas Cookies/Ornaments Mix.

As I was playing around with these little wintery settings I thought it would be fun to put a tiny snowglobe inside a snowglobe. I glued an Iridescent Water Bubble Microbead onto a small silver bead. The stand is a tiny round wood block painted silver and topped with another Tiny Silver Snowflake.

I was happy to get to play with the new Tiny Ornament Frame Sets to make Christmas ornaments for the market. They were colored with pastel metallic acrylic paints and topped with the new 10mm Iridescent Color Snowflakes.

The snowflake ornaments are displayed in a couple of the white plastic bowls from the White Plastic Mini Serving Dish Set.

These colorful and sparkly Christmas ornaments are nestled inside a Mini Ornament Box.

They’re made from 1cm Clear Glass Globes that were embedded with microbeads, colorful glitter, Iridescent Water Bubbles and Iridescent Mylar Flakes set in resin. Here is the set-up I used to keep the mess down while working with the globes. The small plastic cup helps catch any spillage from the fillers. A dollhouse spoon actually helped the process of filling the globes.

These next steps involve working with UV resin. Before getting started, make sure you are familiar with all of the safety precautions recommended when using resin. Here is a good primer.

Once I had enough mix-ins I added UV resin until the globe was full, stirred everything well with a straight pin and cured them under UV light per the resin’s instructions.
I got the idea for making mini liquid filled snow globes from my daughter who makes dice sets for tabletop gaming. She told me about liquid core dice which my miniature-addled brain immediately thought hey, those might make awesome teeny snow globes. I googled liquid core dice tutorials and found there are a lot of instructional postings and videos available. Here is an example.

The basic idea is to mix glycerine and water in a 1:1 ratio, add a bit of rubbing alcohol and use an eyedropper to suspend whatever sparkly mix-ins you want before sealing your globe container with resin and curing under UV.

I found those Iridescent Water Bubble Microbeads and the Iridescent Myler Flakes along with colored glitters make the prettiest snow globes.

There are two ways to seal the globes. The first is to add a drop or two of UV resin inside the globe and cure under UV light for a minute or two. This is followed by applying UV resin all around the top of the globe and curing it again.

The second method is to make a ‘lid’ by dropping a small of resin onto plastic and curing it under UV light as shown below. This hard resin lid gets attached by applying liquid resin around the globe’s opening (I use a toothpick for this), setting the lid on top then curing under UV. I always go back to add another coating of liquid resin or two over the entire lid and cure again to make sure there are no leaks.

The light source I use for curing is a UV Nail Lamp.

Here is a filled 25mm Round Glass Globe that’s been mounted on a Small Antique Gold Crown.

Here it is after a good shake.

And another

Here are some smaller versions. The smaller ones are made from 12mm Round Glass Globes and the larger from 16mm Round Glass Globes.

The two on the left are attached to 10mm Antique Gold Embossed Donut Spacer Beads. The larger gold one is mounted on a Fancy Bronze Large Bead Cap and the blue one sits on a 25mm Round Raw Brass Filigree Setting.

Not interested in dealing with liquids? Just use resin without them. The final project won’t swirl when you shake it but if you just want something sparkly to sit on a shelf it probably doesn’t mater. Add your mix-ins, fill the globe with resin, give it all a good stir with a straight pin and pop it under your UV light.

Here are two versions made using that method. Still pretty, right? The 18mm pink globe on the left sits on a Large 25mm Antique Silver Bead Cap.

The 16mm blue one’s pedestal base was made from sandwiching a Black Flat Disc between two 12mm Fancy Antique Silver Rondelles along with 10mm Antique Silver Twisted Closed Rings. Those were all attached to a Round Silver Filigree Bead Cap or Mini Base. Everything was secured with E6000 glue. I love the height of this little assembly.

Not interested at all in adding resin to your craft supplies? Here are two versions I made just by squeezing some Stickles glitter glue into a globe, using a toothpick to coat the inside and leaving to dry. So sparkly!

The blue one sits on a 10mm Antique Silver Crown or Stand.

The stand for the gold one is made from a Bronze Dot Pattern Fancy Saucer Bead sandwiched between two 10mm Antique Bronze Twisted Closed Rings on top of a Brass Patina Bead.

The simplest option for including some holiday sparkle in your miniature scene is to simply fill a globe with glitter, seal with a dot of glue and attach some holiday images to the outside. I used the Gingerbread Tiny Christmas Stickers here. The smaller globe sits on a 13mm Tall Fancy Crown Bead Cap. The larger is on a stand made from a Fancy Round Bronze Nail Head glued to a Fancy Drum Spacer Bead.

Here are a few close ups of each shelf with everything assembled. There is a Waving Snowman in Top Hat on the top shelf along with a Mini Baby Penguin. The market is open for business!

Sitting alongside my Cookie Houses and Hot Cocoa market stall I’d say my version of a European holiday marketplace is coming along! Now to figure out which one to make next…

A great big thank you to Alpha Stamps for having me as a designer! You can find all of the wonderful supplies I’ve used right HERE

I have a miniature art studio project for Alpha Stamps to share with you today, one that features a new corner room box and some fun newly arrived furniture and decorative pieces.

This little scene uses the 7 x 9 Corner Room Box with Window. Before starting any room box I dry fit it together to determine which side of each wall is interior vs exterior and mark them as such. I was going for a slightly industrial loft look for this studio so started by bricking the interior wall with the window in it. I covered the assembly tabs with painters tape then, working in sections, I used the same tape to hold a Small Brick Wall Stencil in place. The raised bricks were made using modeling paste, which I spread through the stencil openings with a palette knife. The stencil was carefully lifted off and rinsed with water and the wall was set aside for the paste to dry. After a few hours I moved the stencil to a new section to repeat this process.

Once the bricks were completely dry I painted the grout using a light gray acrylic paint.

From there, I chose a combination of acrylic brick colors and just randomly painted and layered color on each brick until I was satisfied with the result. The small brick pattern you see in the background is a sheet of scrapbook paper I used for inspiration.

The Double Layer Window – Plain comes in two pieces. To fit with the industrial look both sections were painted black before gluing in place.

Love how the bricks came out! I wanted the rear wall of the room to have the appearance of shiplap so covered it with a light wood grain paper. The floor got an antique reclaimed wide plank look. Both are Wood Textures papers from Craft Consortium. The little bird painting is one I did for this project, along with the red bird and the lemon. The birch paintings come from a watercolor greeting card I painted years ago that was just cut down to size and framed with a couple frames from the Mini Frames Set.

Rather than stenciling the exterior walls I decided to use a one of the brick texture papers from Craft Consortium. Before assembling the room using tacky glue, I used the window wall as a template to cut the exterior building paper.

The furnishings for the art studio are some new pieces as well. Alpha Stamps carries a series of cubbies that can be stacked into a huge variety of configurations. I chose to use a Single Cubby (set of 2) plus a 4 Cubbies Square Block and a 6 Cubbies Rectangular Block for the display case. They were painted in a dark brown before being stacked and glued to each other. The rear wall and ‘floor’ of each cubby got a muted neutral paper to help show off the contents inside each cube. Since the single cubby comes in a set of two, I decided to reverse one of them and give it a faux drawer front using the new Cubby Faux Fronts Collage Sheet. There were SO many great options to choose from I had a hard time deciding!

The feet for the display case are made from Wooden Pushpin Box Feet – Set of 4 that were painted brown and glued onto antique brass jump rings I had in my stash.

The little open back shelf I painted white reminds me of an Ikea shelving unit. It was made from a 6 Cubbies Rectangular Block – Open Back. The Shallow Work Table is another new piece and I gave it an architect/drawing table look by painting the top white and the legs black.

The pretty oriental looking rug came from the Aubusson Dollhouse Rugs Collage Sheet. I printed it on velour paper to give it a bit of a fuzzy feel. I also added a plain cotton drop cloth stained with a bit of acrylic paint. The stool comes from a Set of Stools – 1 inch scale. The legs were painted a dark blue and the top papered with a Honey Bee Home Essentials paper.

I of course used the Tiny Craft Room Labels Collage Sheet for a few practical accessories for the art studio. I had some miniature turned wooden bottles in my stash that I painted white and added gesso and acrylic paint labels to.

I glued stamp pad labels onto black and white foam sheets then cut them out. They fit perfectly into the tray from the Square Wooden Boxes with Lids in Tray. One of those cute boxes found it’s way into the cubby display case.

The Tiny Craft Room Labels Collage Sheet also has rubber stamp labels. Those got glued onto slices of flat wooden dowel that I stained with a wash of watercolor paint.

The finished rubber stamps were tucked into one of the Small Plastic Tubs – 19x15x5mm. a Taller Plastic Tub – 19x16x10mm was used to store the 4 Piece Mini Ruler & Triangles Set. The smallest Tiny Plastic Tubs – 15x11x5mm was fashioned into a little bunny shrine using with the addition of a Tiny Blue Fairy Window and a Tiny Resin Bunny Rabbit.

The stamps and inks sit on top of the open shelf along with a Mini Black Rotary Phone.

Inside the open shelves sit the mini bunny shrine as well as some pottery I made a few years back and some fun things from my stash.

Now for a closer look at the cubby display. I used a Chunky Glass Bottle with Lid to house some colored pencils. Just below that is one of the Square Wooden Boxes that came with the tray and a Mini Potted Fern. There’s one of the Mini Succulents – Set of 3 just below it. The next level holds a Square White Canister with Lid and a Tiny Round Serving Plate. The cigar box was made from a Mini Cigar Box Set and the Mini Cigar Boxes Half Sheet. Below that are a 1 Inch Wide Mini Vintage Suitcase which I imagine holds art supplies for plein air painting outdoors, as well as a Yellow Baby Duck. The 28mm Brown Fruit Bowl next door is full of Red Apples – 1:12 Scale.

Below the duck is a snow globe I made from a hollow glass globe that holds Iridescent Water Bubble Microbead Mix mounted on one of the bead caps from the Mini Cake Stand Kit. You’ll also see one of the gorgeous Mini Colbalt Blue Vases and some Mini Books with Blank Covers that were covered with images from the Tiny Little Books Collage Sheet. Those are joined by a Small Green Frog. To the right of this display case sits a Two Inch Tall Wicker Basket filled with two Razor Grass Plants.

Sitting on top of the Shallow Work Table are the 4 Piece Mini Ruler & Triangles Set along with Miniature Crayons in Box and the Tiny Set of Pencils sitting inside a Metal Paint Can with Lid.

Those paint brushes sitting inside an Even Tinier Bottle were made from toothpicks, burlap fibers and a teensy bit of tin foil tape.

I painted the bottom of a Tall Wooden Ladder and added a cardinal brad for inspiration. The red bird painting on the Miniature Easel with Blank Canvases is a work in progress. There’s a Miniature Paint Set in Box sitting on the stool and the 15mm Tall Glass Jar on the drop cloth has some tinted resin in it to represent a paint brush rinse cup.

The Miniature Easel comes with two blank wooden boards. Those got tucked into a Wooden Storage Crate with Metal Screen Sides along with another Mini Frame and a scrap of mat board.

A bird’s eye view of the finished room.

A great big thank you to Alpha Stamps for having me again as a guest designer! You can find all of the wonderful products I’ve used right HERE

Alpha Stamps recently announced a few new tiny dollhouse options and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them! One is a Quarter Scale Dollhouse that stands just under five inches tall and the other one is an even smaller version that has holes on each side so you have the option of turning it into an ornament. I started with the smaller of the two, a Quarter Size Dollhouse Ornament. This one is included in the November Kit along with some awesome things you can use to decorate the interior with.

It’s a cute little thing that is ¾ inch deep once it’s assembled with a bit of tacky glue.

The kit comes with this Quarter Scale Dollhouse Furniture Half Sheet which includes this little wallpaper/flooring combo that fits perfectly inside the dollhouse when folded. It also included an oval rug image that I couldn’t resist.

I got out my smallest paint brush and painted the window frames and door frame overlay with ivory acrylic paint. The building’s exterior was painted a deep green. For the windows, I shrunk one of the images from the Stained Glass Digital Set Download then printed duplicates and glued them in place. This digital set has 29 images to choose from, each one prettier than the last.

I used something new (for me) to attached the building’s front to the main structure of the dollhouse – hinging tape. It’s a white tape with water activated glue. I cut a little piece to the size I wanted, scored it then set it in place. It was then painted over to match the green of the building.

The November kit also comes with this chipboard set of Tiny Flat Furniture Shapes for making little furnishings. Sooo many possibilities with these things. I knew I wanted to feature a few ‘treats’ inside the ornament so chose a little table top that got painted ivory.

The kit ships with a few wooden blocks/rounds included that you could use as a table base but I had this single carved bead in my stash that matched perfectly. I set the table with a chunk of cheddar cheese and a cluster of white grapes made from polymer clay. I made a cracker using the Mini Silicone Biscuits and Bread Mold and topped that with a slice of pepperoni from a polymer clay cane. Charcuterie anyone? Stop by for a snack!

I attached a wire loop before gluing down the two roof sections. It was finished with the installation of Tiny Scalloped Shingles. I added the smallest little 7 mm Resin Clock Cabochon (another kit item) and a tiny porcelain mouse to welcome you home.

Next up is the Quarter Scale Dollhouse. Here are all the pieces laid out ready for assembly. On the left side of this photo you’ll see the horizontal piece that acts as a divider so you can get two floors inside the structure. I wanted to use the entire height of the dollhouse interior so set that piece aside.

The interior was going to feature some sort of dark woods. This Meeting the Wolf Collage Sheet has the perfect gloomy feel. I cut around the Red Riding Hood image (sorry, Red!). The side walls were cut using the dollhouse walls as a pattern before assembling the structure.

Looks pretty gloomy to me! All of the structure’s edges were painted before assembly.

The front of the dollhouse has three facade strips with windowpane and doorframe cut outs. I used a brick paper from Honey Bee Stamps Home Essentials for the exterior. The window openings were marked using the facade strips as a template. The openings were then cut using an x-Acto knife.

I painted the window grilles (yes, I had to google what those things are called) black and chose a really pretty yellow/orange image from the same Stained Glass Digital Download Set as before. The front of the building comes together like a layer cake. The structure front has the stained glass images showing through the window. This is topped with brick paper that has the window openings cut out, then the papered facade strips. Before all those layers get glued down….

I attached the front of the building to the side using my new best friend hinging tape. I cut a piece to the size I wanted, scored it, glued it in place then painted the fold brown so it would blend in. Love love love those stained glass windows!

The hardest thing about the 1:12 Gingerbread House was choosing the colors I was going to use. These little things are so fun and satisfying to decorate.

For embellishing the finished house, I pulled from the Mixed Fruit Polymer Clay Slice Mix, the Polymer Clay Cakes Slice Mix, the Minty Cool Christmas Polymer Clay Slice Mix and a few slices of a Polymer Clay Lime Cane. The roof is trimmed with Stickles Sea Glass glitter glue.

I look forward to making a few of these little gingerbread houses every Christmas and finding new settings to place them in.

The Quarter Scale Dollhouse includes a set of door and window frame trims, those all were painted ivory. The roof was finished with more of those Tiny Scalloped Shingles. Final details include a Narrow Cabinet Door Handle and a set of Raw Brass Box Feet Cones.

The gloomy woods were completed with a section of mini green grass mat for the ground and a few model train trees for the forest.

Happy Holidays and thanks for stepping by! You will find all of the pretty little things I used for these projects right HERE.