New project in the making: Beach hut

Since dear husband is away , I have more time to take on projects, and this one is a futile attempt to make the Summer last longer; also, because I had seen this kit a long time ago, and wanted to make it:

It started by purchasing a beach hut kit from Seaside Miniatutes.  The have a lot of sea-related projects in several scales for you to make.  I stuck to 1:12, because it's my favorite, and the one easier to find accessories for.  So I chose this model, and was super excited when I received it in my home just 5 days later, this Monday!  I also bought a director's chairs kit, with the intention of using them in the hut.

Upon recieving it, the first thing I did was lay out the pieces, and do a dry fit to see what would be the final result; also to measure the actual size of the hut for the decorations.

Soooo cute!

It's more square than I thought it would be

Love the little windows!

So, first step: before any glueing, painting the outside!  I had been perusing the internet for pictures of beach huts, and most of them are very brightly colored.  That's why I have chosen a bright blue - I love blue too.

Starting the painting process

It takes a while to paint everything.

This was the end of Monday evening.  On Tuesday I kept adding coats of paint to the model.  It took 3 coats for the paint to look uniform.  But the blue shade is lovely!

While everything was getting dry, I went to Veronique's shop to choose a floor and a wallpaper for the inside of the hut.  She made things easy for me with a coastal design for the wallpaper, and another for the floor.  First step: the floor:

Perfect!

Then, the back wall.  To make the pattern, I simply laid out the wall on top of the paper and traced the contour.  Then I cut to shape with a sharp blade.

I even had time to make the side walls.  Then, the light was fading and it was time to stop until next day.

It's starting to look good...

On Wednesday, I started by putting some pullers on the doors.  I had purchased these a long time ago, I don't even remember for what, but I liked the industrial look:

Very nice!

While the pullers were getting dry, I started with the front wall.  Since it has windows, it obviously needed a "glass" on them.  So I cut some pieces of acetate to cover them:

Once covered, it was the wallpaper's turn.  This one was more difficult because of the windows, but I did exactly as the same as with the back wall: lay it on top of the paper, trace whatever was redundant and cut the pieces - I did the tracing before I put on the acetate on the windows, to be able to use the window cuts.

It was a good thing that I kept the paper cut from the doors frame.  It would come in handy later...

Seeing how it is looking...

Love the earthy tones!

I spent some time playing around with furniture for the hut, to see what could go well and where.  The light faded again, and I stopped the work until the next day.

Today I started by painting the outside of the roof.  It is a soft black, to create constrast with the hut:

While they were gettting dry, I decided that I really did not like the blue doors as would be seen from the inside of the hut, and decided to wallpaper them with the remnants from the front wall - the piece I was wise enough to save the day before.  So I cut the acetate pieces for the windows glass, and wallpapered them:

Cutting the wallpaper to size

Covering the windows

All done!

 To make the exterior look cute, I added a house number on top of the door frame:

I love seahorses!

Now, a difficult part: the doors.  The kit says you have to glue them, open or closed at your discretion, but I wanted the option of being able to open and close them at will.  So I decided to try something risky: I stuck a pin in the edge of the doors, and made a hole for them in the door frame.  Ideally, doors would be able to swing, but since I do not have a base to hold them (the front wall is glued to the edge of the base), maybe they'll fall.  It's worth a try - there is always the possibility of glue them later...

The wait is over: now to glue the hut together!  Instructions said to glue the back wall to the edge of the base.  Then the sides - but I did not know if they were on top of the base or to the edge too.  It turns out that they were glued on top of the base, so now the wallpaper does not match in the corners.  Oh well.  That won't be very visible when the furniture is put in place:

Now the front wall.  It goes on the edge as well.  Apparently, the doors hold well in place.  One has to be very careful when moving them, but I am happy I don't have to glue them down.  On retrospective, for once it would have been better to glue the pieces together and then put the wallpaper, but what's done is done.  The mistakes are not very visible unless you know they are there.

I will let everything dry in peace for a few hours.  In the meantime, I will play with accessories to put on the hut when it's finished.

I still have the roof to work on, but I think I will tackle that next week - I will have some free days, so I hope the work can keep going steadly.

So, as I said, I started playing with a little cabinet with sink that I got for the hut.  It looked like this:

I fell in love with it the momen I saw it.  Mostly because many sinks I have seen were vintage/Victorian, and this one has a design that can be very modern - with the right accessories!

So what I did (something that I had been wanting to do for a long time!) was give the counter a marble look.  To do that, I followed carefully this very precise tutorial from Jessica Cloe.  Here are some pics of the process, and a pic of the finished counter:

I choose carefully the more ornate part of the marble decoration

Some dry fit

All finished!

I am not too sure about the faucet.  I will try to find a prettier one, but if I cannot find it I will probably just paint it black.

I was going to paint to whole piece white, but after I saw this picture, I decided to leave it unfinished.  Now off to fill it up with goodies!  I may add a shelf inside the left door cabinet to store stoneware... We'll see how that goes!

Book nook: Explorer cabin

A new book nook, made with the same kind of box I made the Nurse's Office.

For this one I don't have a particular reason I did it.  I found some time ago a beautiful steam trunk from Heidi Ott, and I liked it so much I wanted to have it.  I thought about including it in the museum scene, but it was way too big for that.  So when the box came into my possession, I decided to feature it there.

The wallpapers are the creation of Pixel Market, as well as the ceiling, pictures and the floor.  

The right side of the trunk features a human skull, a box with microscope slides, a microscope, a rack with glass tubes, a handmade box with mineral samples, and some fossils:

The minerals were a gift from a coworker

The microscope slides are the creation of Ana Circea

The fossils are also from my coworker

The left side of the trunk features a vintage cetacean poster, books and a drawer with more nature posters.  The posters are the creation of Lost Miniatures.

The books are the creation of Evona at Artsy Miniatures

So happy to have finally finished this one!  The handmade wood box took a while to finish, but that's because I am lazy to work with wood sticks :)

I am very excited with my next project, with is going to be a beach hut!  Hopefully, more on that soon...

Free printable! Mermaids coloring books

It's Summer time!  My holidays are just around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than with printies :)

Since it is Summer, we start with a couple of coloring books featuring mermaids - what says Summer more than mermaids?

HERE you have the file!   As always, please feel free to print as many times as you like, gift them to friends and pass the file along to anyone (links back are nice too!).  Just please do not sell the file or your creations.  Thank you and enjoy! ♥

Finally! The Japanese room decor arrived!

Customs had me waiting for more than a month to get my stuff!  I even had to submit a lot of documentation online for the package to be released.  Just crazy!

But finally, it's here!  I painted the shelf units immediately, as I was eager to put them in place.  A simple sanding and black paint did the trick:

Love the modern, simplistic style

 And this is how the room looks now, with everything in its place:

Wow, a lot of new things!

The picture if finally in the wall.  I used the big unit to display a battery operated lamp, an orchid, and some boxes - they hide objects inside when not in use, such as the food when the table is being used for other purposes - like studying, writing or playing.  I still have to put a couple of pictures on the silver frame.  You can also see the aquarium:

A tray with sushi waiting to by munched, and a tea jar with painted goldfish (from Reutters).  Also, new plates and a sake set:

I designed and made the floor lamp, and printed it on vellum paper, and used a balloon light inside to ligth it.  The beautiful katana and stand come from the talented hands of Manu, and the set of pictures from Ana Circea.  The books are the work of Véronique:

The outside walls are still not printed - I am lazy to go to the shop, LOL!  I have a vase and a smaller set of teapot and cups that need to be painted.  Hopefully I´ll do that soon...

Something new, never done before

Following up with the Japanese scene, I had purchased a long time ago a kit to make a pond - with gravel, rocks, plants and fish.  However, the recipient was more intended for a garden or an outside scene, so I opted for doing an aquarium instead.

I was surprised when I caught myself thinking that Reutter boxes looked very much like an aquarium.  You just need to turn them upside down, both the clear plastic cover and the base:

Reutter box without the brand paper

... and turned upside down

It didn't take me long to design the aquarium.

I was nervous about mixing the resin for the "water", but I had brought home graduated cylinder to help with measurements.  I had to do 40 ml of water and that was too much for a couple of 5 ml syringes, which was what I had at home.  It turned out OK, and I poured the mixed resin in the aquarium:

I was hoping the fish would float, but it didn't happen...

Still, I love the composition!

I set everything apart so the resin would settle without incidents.  This morning I checked up on the tank, and I noticed that the resin had yellowed a bit, but not too much - it looks a little like murky water, but still everything can be seen clearly:

I am very happy with it.  My furniture is still stuck at Customs, so I have rescued an old table to put it on until the new ones come.

Book Nook: Nurse's office

One of my husband's students brought us a gift some time ago.  She said it came from her mother, as she was very happy to see her daugther well adjusted and working hard, and thought it was thanks to my husband's mentoring.  Well, the gift in question came with a box, and I thought it would be nice to gift something back inside such box, and what better than a little mini scene.  The student's mother is a head nurse in a hospital - we all know how much they have been working since Covid struck, and I thought paying homage to her profession would be nice.

So here is the finished scene for her:

Except for the furniture, the jars and the stethoscope I had everything at home

Almost everything is made of paper

The gloves boxes I made scanning one that I brought home from the lab

The file holders I designed myself

Poster from the Covid prevention campaign

... and another one denouncing violence against medical personnel

The subway tiles wallpaper comes from Pixel Market, and the floor from Jessica Cloe Minis.  I am very happy how well it turned out.  I do hope the recipient likes it as well.