Miniature Inspiration: Emma Metcalfe's Doll's House Pub

So you know how my long-term doll's house project is furnishing a Victorian pub, right? I may have mentioned it! Anyway, when this amazing pub by talented miniaturist Emma Metcalfe appeared on the Dolls House Emporium's Facebook page last week, having won third prize (third?!) in their Creative Competition last year, I just knew I had to show you. I want you to see the kind of amazing work that got me into miniatures in the first place. 

It's the quirky, personal touches. The way Emma has created something that we would never get to experience in the modern world. I was blown away by her creation.

Emma also won the competition in 2011 with her Welsh nineteenth century cottage. I also adored this project. I really like Emma's use of Welsh slate, something I have incorporated into my doll's house to honour my own link with the Snowdonia area, having visited my grandparents there all my life. 

If you could create any scene in miniature, from any time period, what would you choose? This is one hobby I don't think I'll ever fall out of love with.

How to Be a Thrifty Crafter, Part 2

Hello my dear crafty chums! Today is the second in my thrifty crafting feature (part one here). 

I was in my early teens (stop me if you've heard this story before - this is going somewhere!) when I first stumbled across the idea of owning a doll's house as part of a hobby, rather than a child's toy. I had grown out of playing with my own beloved house years before, but as my grandad had made it for me and it was very special I didn't feel I could move it on to a new home, so it simply sat in the spare bedroom, ignored.

One day I was on a visit to Rochester with my family when I spotted a shop selling doll's house miniatures. I was instantly captivated by the idea of grown ups having doll's houses, and collecting furniture for them. I could create my dream house, or even my dream world, from any era - and I already had the house! 

There was just one problem. I could see from a quick glance in the shop's window and then a Dolls House Emporium catalogue that I had fallen in love with a hobby which cost a lot of money. I'm talking hundreds. Thousands. It's a popular hobby for the middle and upper class retired, and no wonder. I was a teenager with a minuscule income. I quickly realised I was going to have to use my imagination and a lot of creativity to turn my doll's house into the vision I held in my head. 

That Christmas, I received just the help I was looking for, in the form of these two books:

Andrea Barham and Patricia King opened my eyes to the world of making your own doll's house miniatures out of things you have hanging around your house. Perfect! Since then I have made all sort of craft projects - not just miniatures - simply by looking at household objects from a different perspective. I have added many items to my 'must have' crafting list, and I'm going to share this list with you... (yes, we finally made it to the end of my little story!)

The contents of my dressing table are made from household finds. Bits of lace, an old keychain, a candle made from a birthday cake candle and a button, and a perfume bottle made from beads. 

1. Head for your jewellery box. We all have old costume jewellery which is now out of date or broken. Grab these items like Gollum and clutch them close to your chest. They are incredibly useful for all sort of crafting projects. Next, any old Primark handbags, embellished shoes or belts. Cut the shiny bits and buckles off and add those to your pile. Old costume watch? Keep that too. Hurrah!

Just look what clever Patricia King made with an old pair of sunglasses. I'm tempted to wrap some old frames with washi tape and wear them when thinking up crafty plans...

2. We're on a roll! Head out to the garage or shed. Take a note of any semi-used pots of paint or cans of spray paint. Look out for wire, garden twine, lovely pebbles (perfect for painting!), varnish, metal washers, plywood and balsa wood. 

3. Think like a child. Remember junk modelling? Very handy when it comes to thinking about packaging. Never throw anything out without checking to see if there's anything useable on it. Cereal boxes provide useful cardboard, lipstick cylinders, toothpaste lids, metal wine bottle tops... the list goes on!

An old disposable razor and a toothpaste tube. 

Another of Patricia King's creations.

4. Now you've gone shopping in your home, it's time to shop from other people's! Once or twice a year I email friends and family, and ask them ever so nicely to have a clear out. I make it easy for them by giving them a list of things I'm looking for. The first time I did this I was in the sixth form, and hadn't told more than one or two close friends about my crafting hobby. They found my requests a little odd at first, understandably, but then they really got into the spirit of it and produced some brilliant finds, including a guitar plectrum (perfect for a spot of Tatty Devine-style jewellery making!), an old locket - which I made into a double photo frame for my doll's house, and some handy bits of driftwood! Since then I've handed this list out to work colleagues and family alike, and always find they're genuinely interested in hearing what I'm planning to make with it all. And as you never know what you're going to get your little gifts can inspire all sorts of new ideas. 

I have popped my full list of the items I ask/look for here, but first, a little word about storage. You'll need it. I only store small and medium items. There is no need to keep every cereal box that passes through your home - if you need cardboard for a project, you know it's in the cupboard. I am making my own Christmas crackers this year so have kept (and microwaved to get rid of germs) twelve loo role centres, but I don't keep the centre of every loo roll used in my house! You don't want to become like one of those poor hoarder folk off the telly... 

If you're collecting small items such as jewellery findings, I learnt early on that they need to be carefully stored and easily accessible. There's nothing more annoying than losing a precious hour of your Sunday afternoon to hunting for that teeny tiny cabochon. I use a box with lots of compartments, so I keep earrings, beads, brooches, chains, etc, in separate sections. 

I like this way of storing because I can easily take a look inside to remind myself of what I have in stock. 

I mentioned in my last post useful shops for art and craft materials. If you're struggling to find handy items for free, of course there's always car boot sales and charity shops. I've found loads of handy bits of bobs from those. It's also been known for me to buy cheap jewellery from Primark, only to dismantle it an hour later. They often have sale racks full of costume jewellery - score! 

The jewel on my mini Jubilee hat was a Primark pendant, bought for £1.50. It's supposed to look like Kate's engagement ring. 

Some handy books and blogs if you fancy having a bash at crafting with household items:

How to Make Jewellery With Tatty Devine

Dolls House Accessories, Fixtures and Fittings

Making Miniatures

Making Victorian Dolls House Furniture

Earth-Friendly Crafts: Clever Ways to Reuse Everyday Items

Junk Genius: Stylish Ways to Repurpose Everyday Objects 

Pretty Nostalgic Magazine

Inspiring blogs:

Junkaholique

Lulastic and the Hippyshake

Do you make things out of household finds? I'd love to hear about your projects!

Have a collectible Monday,

P.S: If you have borrowers residing in your home, please treat them kindly and at least leave some useful items for them to borrow. Bea seems to think we have some here, as she thoroughly sniffs around all the skirting boards every morning.
PPS: New buttons will be in the Etsy shop before the end of the week :)

Cath Kidston 'Make Your Dream Room in a Shoebox' Competition Entry

Oh friends, why oh why do I give myself these challenges?! When I spotted on the Cath Kidston website early last week that they were holding a challenge to create your dream room in a shoebox, well, it felt like I couldn't not enter. Competitions where you get to make something in floral in a tiny scale don't come along very often, after all! Never mind that my to-do list was growing by the day and that I started a new job this week, I set about finding myself a shoe box and getting stuck in. The results are not to the standard and detail I usually like to employ in these projects, but here is my entry in any case.

Despite not leaving myself very much time I always love these sorts of projects, using the initial ideas I jot down and then adding others in as the scene develops and starts to tell its own story. The little china dog turns up in many of my miniature projects, but think he'll find his final home in that 1940s house I hope to create one day. I can see him with a new sign around his neck that reads, 'Wot no bananas!'

And I'll definitely be making more mini teepees in the future!

A Very Special Birthday Tea Party in Miniature

Three years ago in June, it was my nan's 80th birthday, and all of the family gathered together to celebrate. I nervously handed over a very special handmade present, carefully wrapped and topped with blue ribbon...

Just before Nan opened her gift I turned it round for her, and she saw this inside...

...A very special 80th birthday tea party was waiting within! 

Every item in the room box has been collected or handmade, and every piece symbolises something of significance in my nan's life. On the tea table is a pork pie because my Grandpa was a butcher by trade, his beloved pipe and favourite brand of Swan Vesta matches, as well as a box of Bird's Custard - the packaging from the decade my grandparents met - because it was his favourite custard brand. I painted the tea set the same colour as the one my mum remembers as a child. A copy of Betty's Paper sits on the left chair, perfect for the lady of the same name. The tea cosy was made from a pair of my grandpa's favourite corduroy trousers! My nan is a huge fan of a good old cup of tea, so I knew it needed to feature heavily in the scene... now you know where I get it from!

And can you see who's sitting on the chair?

One of my special felt hats - slightly wonky because it's the first I ever made. On the wall are photos from my parents' wedding, a family photo from when I was a toddler, and on the right, African elephants. My uncle and his partner lived out in South Africa for a couple of years, and Nan had a wonderful time when she went to visit. 

Birthday cards on the mantelpiece, and a photo of my young mum and uncle above, with a photo of my parents propped up there. The standard lamp to the left was in my childhood doll's house, and has been re-covered in fabric from my mum's cousin's bridesmaid's dress from Mum's wedding. 

I have never been entirely happy with the way the flames of the fire turned out - I would have liked them to look more realistic - but the potential for special effects was limited in this case!

It wouldn't be a birthday without a box of Quality Street chocolates. On the shelf is a duck. I love ducks and Nan used to take me to feed them when I was small. She lives by the sea in North Wales, and we used to collect shells together too, so they also had to be included. To the right of the shelf is a picture of mini me with my nan and her brother at her wedding anniversary. I couldn't find any photo frames to fit so making them was quite an experiment.

You may recognise this hat as one of the two I made as my celebration of the Queen's Jubilee this year. I gave it to my nan for her birthday in June to add to this scene, as she is the only one in the family to have been alive when our queen was crowned! The toy car is because my uncle and brother are both car-mad, and my brother owns a white VW Scirocco - his pride and joy. One of my favourite places to visit when I go to Wales is the Ffestiniog Steam Railway, one of my Grandpa's favourite haunts, so a book about steam trains had to be one of the birthday gifts.

A rather scary toby jug still sits in my nan's living room to this day, so here's my amused nod to it here! Winnie the Pooh and The Wind in the Willows are there because I now own copies of each from the 1920s, which belonged to my nan's father. 

A stunning Victorian grandfather clock chimes out every hour in my nan's living room and the whole family are so fond of it, so a grandfather clock stands in this room, too. At its foot is a carpet bag (again made from those corduroy trousers), a familiar-looking hat, a chimney sweep's brush, a black umbrella and a book. Whenever I visited Wales as a child I would watch Mary Poppins with my nan and found it utterly magical; it's still one of my favourites today. Nan has always appreciated literature and encourages my interest in it, so the Mad Hatter's top hat adds the final touch here. 

My favourite photo of my grandparents. My grandpa died when I was nine but I treasure so many happy memories of him, and the full-size version of this photo lives in my purse. I love how happy they look here. 

Nan has a table just like this one. She taught me to sew on a Victorian Singer sewing machine - a genius idea because a child can use the wheel to control the speed, making learning less scary. We often write letters to each other so here are a pile waiting to be read, and a cheeky bottle of her favourite ginger wine waits for later! 

My nan's brother's family are very talented musically, so the violin and sheet music represent this. 

The tortoise under the table? My mum and her cousins each had a pet tortoise when they were small - Topsy could apparently move surprisingly quickly when she wanted to!

There's the other one, hoping for cake, clearly. 

Birthday parcels wait to be unwrapped. The cushion is made from the fabric of a chair that sits in my nan's sitting room. Don't worry, I didn't cut a square out of it when she wasn't looking. 

A cheeky mouse running up the clock and a working electric light complete the scene.

I haven't been able to visit Wales for a couple of years so I was so pleased to finally make it over there last weekend and snap some photos to show you! It was such an exciting project to work on, with the whole family contributing ideas and memories for me to turn into items, and my brother made the box itself.

 I'm working on a smaller scale room scene at the moment, so hope to be able to share it with you next week.

If you could capture any scene in miniature, what would you choose?