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

New Project - Miss Leah's Boutique

Hello friends,

Another weekend has arrived and finally I got a chance to show you what I have been up to in the last week. The last few days here in Malta has been very humid and quite hot. The Summer break for the kids is almost at it's end and at this time of year I start getting a bit nervous as they start a new scholastic year.

After several requests that I had I finally opened 'My Miniature World Group' on Face Book. Here everyone can share their dolls house projects and miniature creations. It will be good to see you there and to see my followers works. You can join in by clicking on the right hands side link or here My Miniature World Group - Face Book

I also  wanted to welcome a new follower of my blog. Welcome Shaairah!

So today I will be sharing with you my new project called 'Miss Leah's Boutique'. This is another discontinued kit by The Dolls House Emporium which originally was called 'The Bell In'. This will go along side to my other dolls house called 'Matquel's Antique's & China Shop. As you all know Matquel's was named after my first two children Matthias and Raquel and as little Leah came along almost 2 years ago,  it was time for her to have a shop named after her just like her siblings.

So firstly I started by dry building the property. It is a good sized house with 3 floors. The Shop window is exactly like Matquel's and they will eventually look great together.

 The first room will be the boutique. The second floor with be part of the boutique but in quite a private sector. There will also be a small changing room. On the third floor here Miss Leah will work on her new designs and makes the dresses.

This house will be based on the Victorian Era just like Matquel's. After giving it a dry built I painted it inside out with a base coat.

I wanted to do something a bit different for the outside. This time I opted for bricking the outside walls with the stencil which I found it very easy to apply.. After stenciling all the walls I shaded every tile with acrylic paint. I darkened the grey and gave some more colours to different bricks.

After and Before

The shading and colour contrast 

When that was all done. I started working on the shop front, windows and trimming. The shop window I painted it in cream and dirtied it with brown paint to age it a little. The brown paint also brought out some definition of the shop window.  I have also designed the shop sign which I made with my home computer. I have added some Victorian labels. I am really happy how they turned out

Shop Window and Sign

The shop labels

The whole front

After all that I started tiling the roof. I have a also added the batons on the dormer window's roof and painted it grey. I have also weathered it by smudging some brown paint. I still have to add batons to the straight roof but before that I have to add the hinges.

The Roof

The dormer window with batons

And here is how the whole shop looks like at the moment.

Miss Leah's Boutique's Front

I hope you have enjoyed watching what I have done so far. Now I am hoping to finish some work on the inside. Keep tuned for more updates on this project.

Take Care and wishing you all a happy weekend.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

At Last! The Toll House is done!

Hello dear friends,

Hope that you are fine and are enjoying your weekend. August is here and in Malta we can say that August is the worst month of the summer. It gets really really hot, but I have to admit compared to other summers this year was quite mild. Any way I wanted to welcome a new follower to my blog. Welcome Colmar Robmac.

Finally the renovations of my Toll House are complete. It took me a while to finish off the bricking of the walls. I am so pleased how it all turned out and it was definitely worth it. I can still remember how petrified I was to even think about taking that step. 

I have added some more miniatures and accessories to the sleeping quarters of the toll house. I have changed the heater as the previous one was too modern. Thanks to my father this is definitely much better and I love the little details.

The New Heater

I have also filled up the empty trunk that was in the bedroom. I have turned it into the hunting chest. In the Victorian Era Hunting for foxes was one of the greatest hobbies. So I have filled it up with some miniatures that I have made myself.

Empty miniature trunk

The Hunting Chest

Finally I connected the electricity to the the Toll House and it just looks fantastic when it is lit up especially in the dark. It gives it that little extra oomph I guess. I just wished I was small enough to crawl in and stay there. 

The Lights on

I also added some accessories to the door. I think it does look much better than bare.

Door Accessories 

And finally I have managed to brick all the walls and roof. It was not an easy task but I am pleased with the results. Finally I did achieve what I wanted and I think it couldn't get any better than this.

The Complete Toll House

Here are some final pictures of the inside of the toll house.

The Pantry

The Drawing Room

The fire place and safe

The Secret passage behind the book case

The Stair Case behind the wall

The Sleeping quarters

I hope you have enjoyed the final stages of my Toll House. I have also made a small Video of it. In the Video you can see the how the Toll House was decorated before and after the restoration. Hope you will enjoy it.

I have also made some more miniatures that you can find at my Etsy Shop My Miniature World Shop. Here are a few of the new items.

I also completed my 12th miniature Downloadable book call The Wild Swans which you can also find at my Etsy shop. The Wild Swans

Hope you have enjoyed today's post. Next time I will be sharing with you my new project. So please do keep tuned.

Take Care and see you soon.

Hugs

Rebecca xxx