Saturday 6 September 2014

Making and Renovating Miniatures for Miss Leah's Boutique.

Hello my dear friends,

Hope you are all fine and you are enjoying your weekend. Have been busy like usual as now the kids will soon start school once again. I really hate September for that. I miss them so much when they leave. The house is so quiet and lonely without them. At least I still have one more year with little Leah to keep me company. 

Before starting off I wanted to welcome a new follower to my blog. Welcome Krista Dee!

Today I will be sharing with you some miniatures that I have been making and renovating for my new project Miss Leah's Boutique. I am still working on the dolls house but in the mean time I enjoy preparing some stuff and try to picture what I want for the inside of the shop.

Well as you might know Miss Leah's boutique has 3 floors. The ground floor will be the shop, The 2nd floor will have a changing area and will also be part of the shop. It will be mostly exclusive products for the elite customers. The third floor will be Miss Leah's private quarters.

I have quite a stash put away in a chest and I always go to it to see if I find anything suitable for my new projects. It is a chest where I keep my unused stuff or pieces which are hard to find.  I just enjoy going to the box and find some old pieces that have been long forgotten and then a project comes up where I can find them useful

My first piece that I have renovated was this chair. 


The Arm Chair before

When I first purchased it. I was so disappointed with it. It was a cheep chair. It came with a broken leg, The material was dirty and had lots of glue stains. I just chucked it in the chest instead of dumping it in the bin. I was definitely not going to use. it 

While roaming in the chest it came at hand and a brilliant idea came to me. I decided to give it a make over. So I sand it down a little. Removed the cushions. Gave it a nice pink color with some old style gold and made some new upholstery for it. I couldn't believe my eyes that it turned out so well and that it was worth keeping. 

The arm chair renovated.
My second miniature that I wanted to work on was this miniature bust. I have two more of them which still need to be styled out.

Miniature Bust
 At first I thought that they where to big for a 12th scale. But then again they would look great as mannequins. As this one has hair hair a bit in the way I had to make a small Victorian hat, I also made some jewelry on her as she has a bare neck. I am really glad how this one turned out.

The Miniature bust transformed into a mannequin 



I also had this piece of bare wood furniture which I decided to paint and decorate. The little rose was also made by me with polymer clay. This piece will also be added to the boutique.

Hand painted hall table



Another piece of furniture which I have transformed was this little wardrobe. To me it looked to plain and I definitely needed something richer for my boutique.  

The Small Wardrobe before the renovations.
This wardrobe definitely need a change both from the outside and inside. I first started working on the out side. I added some definition with gold than I added some painted borders to the doors which I really enjoyed doing It came looking so perfect and definitely the style that I was looking for. 

The little Wardrobe after renovations



I was so pleased with it that I decided to decorate the inside of it. So first I lined the wardrobe. Added a shelve. I have added small trimmings and lace. Made some Victorian magazines. Printed posters to add to the inside of the door and I also made some buttons out of polymerclay. The little undergarment hanging in it was also made by me. 

Inside the wardrobe 



 Finally I made a small sewing basket. This one was made with tapestry canvas using a water bottle cap. You have to stretch the canvas on the cap and add glue to it. Once set and removed the canvas will keep it's shape. Then I lined the basked and made a little latch made out of the tip of a tooth pick.
The accessories where also made by me.

The hand made sewing basket




I also had the pleasure to make some Victorian dresses with some help from my friends.

Victorian dresses for the boutique 





I hope you have enjoyed what I have made. Next time we will meet I will be sharing more progress of the project. 

I also wanted to let you know that my 13th miniature book is out to download. This one is called 'The night before Halloween. Here is the link to download it. The Night Before Halloween download

The Miniature book The Night before Halloween. 
Well that is all folks. Hope to see you all very soon. And don't forget to keep tuned for more updates. 

Take Care and see you soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

8 comments:

  1. Your make-overs are superb! and I love the sewing basket :)

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    1. Thank you so much Susan. I am so glad that you liked what I have done so far.

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  2. Your make-overs are fantstic. I like the pieces for the Boutique.

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    1. Thank you Faby for your lovely comments. I am happy that you liked them. xxx

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  3. Amazing work on the armchair, I can hardly believe it's the same one! The wardrobe has also been transformed into a beautiful piece of furniture! If your miniatures are this good, have you ever thought of renovating real furniture!?
    Kind regards, Brian.

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    1. Thank you so much Brian for your lovely compliments. Sometimes I can hardly believe myself that I actually transformed them myself. I think I can handle the miniatures but I doubt that I can do the real furniture. Honestly I would love to give it a go.

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  4. Pretty stuff! Love that chair and wardrobe! I'm making a ladies boutique too. It's amazing how plain pieces can be transformed with some paint and art. In Miniature Style II

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    1. Thank you so much Christine. I am glad that you liked it. x

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