The Roofing for Kate's Cottage

Hello everyone,

So how is your week? So far I have been busy as ever. Extra house cleaning, changing every room into our winter curtains, bedding, carpeting. Well let's say in November I always tend to have everything ready before I start decorating for Christmas. This year flew so fast. Gilbert is getting better everyday but still have a long way to fully recover so I try not to let him over do it. I am also busy with my everyday work, family, kids and yes I almost forgot busy with My Miniature World like always. A few would ask how you do it all? How do you mange with a house and 3 kids? Yes believe it or not I do it. Real house, family and duties are always my number one priority but I always manage to fit in my passion in between. There is always a different pattern as long as I do everything.

So I have worked a bit more on my lovely little Tudor Cottage called Kate's Cottage. Now I am working on it's outside before I really start concentrating on decorating the inside.

The Roof for Kate's Cottage

After finishing the beam work for the inside I started working on the roof. I really tried hard to make it look realistic both from the inside and the outside. I started working firstly on the inside of the roof. Being a small cottage I wanted to give it a thatched effect roof so the inside had to be adapted for it too.

Painting the inside of the roof

I first started by painting the inside of the roof with a very dark brown. I have painted it in a way that there were areas where it is really dark and others lighter.

Adding sack cloth

To give it a textured effect, using pva glue diluted with a little water I pasted sack cloth strips to the inside of the roof on top of the painted ceiling using a thick paint brush.

painting the sack cloth ceiling

When the ceiling was fully dried it was and just right, I started shading it with a mixture of browns. Some light, medium and darker brown.

Finishing the painting of the ceiling

When all that was done I added some camel like color as basically the thatched roof used to be made out of straw and similar material. Finally I placed the roof in it's place and started adding the beams inside.

When the thick beams where fixed in place I started working on the more narrow ones and placed them between the beams.

I was thrilled how the room looked with the new ceiling. It gives it more character and just right for this cottage and style.

The ceiling inside 

Then the headache started as I didn't know how I was going to make the roof from the outside. The instructions of the kit suggested to use plaster which I didn't like at all. I thought of getting the miniature hay that they use to make thatched roof for miniatures but still I didn't like it. I came across this sheep wool like fabric in a dark color and an idea just came to my head.

I decided to use it for the roof. So I used pva glue to glue the fabric to the roof panels. I have turned the edges around so I could bring out the curves at the trim of the roof and it looks much more realistic.

Brushing down the fabric

As the wool of the fabric is like sheep wool with that curly texture I had to brush down the wool with one of those metal hard brushes. When the fabric was brushed down I used a backcombing comb to make the streaks in the fabric and in the mean time I sprayed the fabric until it was soaked with matt acrylic varnish. This will keep the fabric stiff with the pattern of the streaks and quite solid.

The roof of the cottage using fabric

And this is how the roof looks like so far. 

I still need to add the top trimming and the chimney pots and so on. The trimming will have the same fabric affect.

Hope you liked what I have done so far with the inside and outside of the roof and maybe you will also find it  useful.

Keep tuned for the next update on Kate's Cottage. Hopefully I will be finishing the outside very soon.

Take Care and See you Soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

Miss Leah's Boutique makes it on print!

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Here in Malta although the days are still slightly warm during the evening, it is getting chilly and I have been busy organizing our wardrobes for the change of the weather. Somehow even if it is still November, Christmas is in the air.

I am pleased to say that My Miniature World Group on Facebook has reached over 500 members and it is just great to see others posting and sharing their creations. I want to thank you all for being such an amazing bunch. I also want to thank our Face Book fans as My Miniature World on our face book page has reached over 12,000 likes. Thank you for all the encouragement. 

It has been almost a year since Miss Leah's Boutique was complete and it gives me great pleasure and pride to say that Miss Leah's Boutique made it on print on the Dollhouse Miniatures Magazine issue 48. 

It has a four page article with lovely pictures and how it all started in Regent Street. You can all read  and see the full article here A Stroll Down Regent Street! 

Here are some of our favorite pictures of the boutique which have been featured.

The Boutique

Hand Made Miniatures

The lovely Counter with the sophisticated cash register

The Dressing room

Some accessories that I made

Madam De La Vega being served 

The Sewing room

Some of the lovely hand painted miniatures 

The Work table

The cupboard and accessories

It has been such a wonderful experience making Miss Leah's and I enjoyed every minute of it. It brings with it so many memories and exciting moments. Miss Leah has really gotten used to Regent Street and she can't imagine not being part of it. 

We also have a new movie of Miss Leah's Boutique which you can see below.

There will be more shops added to Regent Street and we will also be having more adventures. I am sure that Miss Leah will be involved some way or another and to give you a little peep of what we will be waiting for the next year I want to present to you  Miss Quelina.

Miss Quelina

Who has followed Miss Leah's diary will know too well who Quelina is. Quelina is Leah's sister who has been with her every step since Leah moved to Regent Street. Quelina is another lovely doll made by the amazing Beverly (Beverly - Designer - Dolls). Quelina owns Matquel's Antiques & China Shop with their brother Matty. 

Here are some Pictures of Miss Quelina with her sister Miss Leah. 

Miss Leah and Miss Quelina at the boutique

Quelina came without a hat so I have decided to make a matching hat myself just for her and it fitted in so well.

The new hat that I made for Quelina

The good news is that if everything goes as planned next year Quelina will be renovating Matquel's Antiques & China Shop. One of my lovely projects that I can't wait to transform. Most of the renovation will be done on the outside. I will be changing just a little from the inside and adding more miniatures. I am really excited about that.

So in the mean time Quelina will be staying with her sister Leah.

Quelina at No 35 Leah's

This is all for tonight. Hope you have enjoyed it and are looking forward for next year's renovation project of Matquel's.

Next time when we will meet there will be more progress of Kate's project so keep tuned for the next update.

Enjoy the remaining of the weekend.

Take care and see you soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx 

Halloween Lantern - Miniature Project

Hello friends,

Halloween! So spooky night it is! This means that this will be the last post for the month of October. It is not one of my favorites but it does bring sweet memories of my childhood when I used to go trick or treating. My first years of my upbringing was in Canada and Halloween was and still is very popular. I enjoyed visiting the neighbor hood for yummy goodies. In Malta it is still very new so today I carved the pumpkin in a Jack O lantern. The kids love it.

Halloween Lantern

After that I decided to make a little Halloween Miniature Scene. I  never thought of actually making one before but I had found the little lantern and thought that it would look just perfect to make a spooky project.

 

I started by covering the metal T light candle holder and set it up as a small table. I used orange cardboard and printed a Halloween pattern to make a table cloth. Then I cut out a piece of black cardboard to cover the floor for the scene.

Table for the setting

I got myself some copper wire that I had and made some spooky style trees. I covered the copper wire in floral tape.

I made three of these trees and painted them in a very dark brown. I set them up against the window sill and glued them to the flooring. Then I added some cobwebs which I made out of the quilting fabric and printed out some bats that I cut out and stuck around the trees.

Adding the trees, bats and cobwebs

After that it was time to add some miniatures and so my polymer clay was out of the box. I made some pumpkins, a skull, a cauldron full of sweets, a baby dragon, a spider cake, some spooky cupcakes and a pumpkin tea pot and cup.

Spider cake and cupcakes

Pumpkin tea pot and cup with candles

baby dragon and cauldron full of sweets

A stack of carved pumpkins

A skull

Like always not all miniatures fitted in the scene as it was quite a tight space but I am just pleased how it looked.

I still thought that there was something missing to the scene so I added a small rice bulb on top to light it and it was just perfect. I couldn't believe that it could come out so well.

The Lit Halloween scene

So tonight I am enjoying seeing this little lantern all lit up. This proves that you can use anything to create a miniature scene. In the past few weeks I was also busy making Halloween Miniature Ceramics which you find available at My Miniature World Shop at Etsy

So this is all for today folks. I hope you are enjoying your Halloween. Next time we will be meeting there will be an update on Kate's Cottage and it's progress so make sure to keep tuned.

Happy Halloween to All 

and to All a Fright Night!

Take Care and See you soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx