New Quarter Scale Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus Shelf and Outfit Kits

 

These are two new Quarter Scale 1:48 Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus shelf and outfit kits that are now available at an Intro Price in my Etsy shop. Included in the Santa and Mrs. Claus outfit kits are their shelfs with a snowflake design and boots with a fabric Elf doll for each of them. These kits include a maple veneer shelf kit and fabric kit to cut out for their outfits. Can't believe Halloween in over already!!

New Little Red Riding Hood Toy Theater Kit

New Miniature Toy Theater Kit

For years I have loved Fairy Tales and have collected many antique Fairy Tale books. I really have enjoyed finding many variations of the same fairy tale from about 1860 to 1950. Only the images from before the 1930's are the ones I use in my projects, digital and kits for copyright reasons.

I used many of my antique children's books for the images in this toy theater which I designed with inspiration from antique toy theaters.  My favorite Little Red Riding Hood book is from 1896 and that is the one I used for the front header and images on either side. Another book I used has a fabulous rose cottage on the cover and I used it for the granny and then wolf in the window scenes. I also used photo shop to design the scene behind the mother and Little Red. This theater is something I've thought about designing for a long time so I found it really exciting to make.

This kit is nice to make up because it is a fabric panel and glue doesn't stick to it, the scenes are on photo paper. It would look great in a child room on a desk in one twelfth scale or in an outdoor scene in half scale.

New "Joyous Noel White Christmas" Kit & Ballroom Dancing

The days are shorter in winter and they do seem to go by so quickly with Christmas soon approaching soon. I'm sorry I haven't been visiting all the blogs I would love to visit. We are busy with my mini business and enjoying ballroom dancing...we even try to find the time to practice during the day. We are taking 3 classes from a terrific instructor during the week. I love all the dances and social contacts as well as the exercise but if we don't practice I feel overwhelmed with some of the moves. Thank you so much for visiting my blog, I appreciate it so much and your comments.

In the photos above I am showing a new kit I have been working on for a while now. As most of you know I have collected antique French postcards for years from France and my favorites are the Noel ones, especially with Pere Noel & toys. They are such fabulous images and such a joy to repaint and fix up, I have spent hours doing this to the ones I sell as digital downloads on Etsy, I thought it would be enjoyable to use a few of the images in a miniature project kit. You can see Pere Noel with toys and children in the pillows, stockings and on the cones.

I have designed this kit on a fabric panel, where I have designed the pillows, cones, hearts and stockings in a paint program using snowflakes and scrolls as accents then ironed it onto very fine white batiste cotton. The edges don't fray so they are fun to cut out and easy to put together with the white bias tape I include for backings and the stars as well. Templates are used for the stars with directions on shaping these. Aluminum wire mesh is included for the trees and stars which are easy to make. Silver ribbon is shaped for the other 2 or 3 trees. Silver medallions are also included as accents.

The hearts and cones can also be used separates on a miniature Christmas tree or as a garland on a fireplace so this kit can be used very creatively. Everything is included in this kit except the wicker love seat and fire place. This would be a fun project for your miniature Christmas scene.

Mini Hugs, Jean

New Advent Calendar Kit and a biref History of the Advent Calendar

New For Christmas:an Advent Calendar Kit Since this is my favorite time of year, I really enjoyed designing this Advent Calendar.  I looked up the history of Advent Calendars in Wikimedia and  I have written a brief synopsis because I found it really interesting. To find out more please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advent_calendar. The first known Advent calendar was handmade in 1851. According to the Lower Austrian Landesmuseum, the first printed Advent calendar was produced in Germany by a protestant bookshop. Other authorities say that a Swabian parishioner, Gerhard Lang, was responsible for the first printed calendar in 1908. Lang was a printer who made 24 little coloured pictured that were affixed to a piece of cardboard. Several years later he introduced a calendar with 24 little doors. He had about 30 designs until 1930 when he went out of business. Sankt Johannis Printing Company started producing religious Advent calendars with Bible verses instead of pictures behind the doors. After World War 11 Richard Sellmer of Stuttgart started making the Advent calendars again and this is why they are so popular today. His company maintains a stock of over 1 million calendars worldwide. His company today is called Richard Sellmer Verlag. Since that time many families have enjoyed putting out an Advent Calendar on Dec. 1 to enjoy counting down the days until Christmas with an image related to Christmas, candy, chocolate, or other gifts. Wikimedia mentions that handmade Advent calendar have become popular projects with artisans and we see them including fabric, felt, chipboard and small boxes. The concept of the Advent Calendar has recently broadened to include Countdown Calendars, which I also thought would be great for a miniature scene, including birthdays, Easter, Halloween, graduation, last day of school, retirement and more. It was a real challenge to come up with the calendar design and 24 tiny gifts. Since I have recently finished a Gingerbread House Kit, I thought that gingerbread would be a good choice for some of the gifts. I made various shapes in a paint program and enjoyed decorating the designs. I designed the other stuffed style gifts with my digital drawings. Cutting out one of the designs each day might be a nice way to start the calendar. The calendar includes gifts: 2 crowns, a gingerbread house, star, wreath, 2 teddies and 1 chocolate look teddy, dog, cat, Santa, snowflake, 2 owls, an elf, 2 stockings, doll, snow man, butterfly, 2 candy canes, a heart and a mitten. The calendar part has fabric strips with numbers to glue onto the fabric backing and trim. I hope you will enjoy this holiday season as much as I do.

Wonders in Miniature Show online Nov. 8 & new Gingerbread House & kits & AIM magazine 48

Shelly Norris' Wonders in Miniature online show http://wondersinminiature.weebly.com/ starts today Nov 8 and goes until Monday. So many terrific dealers, I've had so much fun visiting each of them. The 3 Vintage Gingerbread Kits shown above, in 3 scales, I am selling as roundtable kits for $5.00 each during the show. We are also offering a selection of mini Christmas books from my originals and kits in 2 scales at 25% off during the show dates. I have had so much fun designing a few new kits for the show.

The upper photo is a new Gingerbread House and Accessories kit. Designing it reminded me so much of the fun I would have each Christmas making Gingerbread Houses and cookies for my sons, they really enjoyed devouring it too. This will last much longer and would look great on a mantle piece or under a tree. I have designed this kit and printed it onto a fabric panel with the Gingerbread House, Gingerbread and Star garlands and ribbons with gingerbread men. The fabric panel looks less shiny than the paper panel printed on laser that is also included with accessories. The fabric is very forgiving too and so easy to glue. These can also be used to decorate a Christmas tree. There is also a paper kit with wrapping papers suitable for wrapping gifts or rolling for display. Also included are 2 pieces of self sticking ribbon that can be striped into narrow strips and used to make bows and many lollypops and other accessories to add to the Gingerbread House scene. This kit is $9.00 during the sale.

I am also showing a new Christmas baby outfit kit for both a newborn and larger baby. These can be adapted to fit Heidi Ott dolls as well. You can also see the tiny doll I enjoyed designing I called Candy Kiss which is included in the Newborn Kit. You can find these in the sale page on the link through the sale banner on the top of our home page, they are $9.00 during the sale too.. http://jdayminis.com

In October we enjoyed a terrific Mediterranean Cruise and visited Aix en Provence, Florence, Rome, Venice, Greece and Turkey. We were going on tours each day from 6 in the morning until nearly 6 at night. It made me realize how much I missed waking up really early so I started waking at 5:30 each day since we have come home and designing. It has been so energizing and I seem to be getting so much more done. Aside from a cold I brought back I've been feeling very invigorated but I do feel like going to sleep much earlier and nearly fall asleep in ballroom dance classes in the evening. I hope to put up some photos from our trip soon.You can also find the wonderful and free new AIM magazine here http://www.scribd.com/doc/181358539/AIM-IMag-issue-48-pdf

Hild-Tove Hellander Aslaksen's Baby Girl's Roombox

Hild-Tove Hellander Aslaksen from Norway has recently created this wonderful Baby Girl's Roombox where I was delighted to see she used my baby fabric panel kits. I found her photos on facebook and she generously offered to share them with me so I could show them to you. She has done such a fabulous job with this room box, I love all of her tiny details in this display.

The kits she used included: Precious Pink, Noah's Ark, Sunrise Jumper and Blouse, (she added a lovely buckle to the design), Pink Hearts 'n Flowers and Pink Rompers. Thanks so much Hild-Tove!!

Hugs to everyone, Jean

I just had to add this photo of our Slippers, who in now nearly 15. She had her tail wrapped around her favorite toy. Casey's most recent blog  http://caseymini.blogspot.com/  showed her cat, Widget. He reminded me so much of Slippers, when she was younger, small world, lol. Smokey, not shown is Slipper's younger brother and he looks much like Widget too.

Kit, Kat and Basement Mosaic

Last night I took this close up of our cat Smokey just as he turned around on my lap to look up at me. Was he ever surprised! Hard to tell he is thirteen, he still looks and acts young. Maybe he is getting older if he let me take his photo, lol, he has always been totally camera shy.

The next two photos are of our basement where I store old, vintage cooking utensils and odd pots. The doors shown go into our larder. I painted the old concrete walls years ago and still enjoy them. I loved the way the rocks were showing in the concrete so I enhanced them. The other area is one basement entrance way that I fixed up years ago too, painted the floor, walls and made a mosaic out of broken tiles and ceramics then added odds and ends I have bought through the years for a rustic look, very little cost and it was so much fun. The water fountain does work but it is more useful as a table. We sort out all of our recycling in that room on the other side where there is also a heat pump.

The middle photo is a new Toddler kit I have recently designed to go with the mothers Vintage apron I showed in a previous post. I called it Ginger Spice Apron and it is available from my web site or eBay store. I had fun putting it on an antique paper doll in a paint program. Thought the kit really looked like a Victorian Swim Set. I have shown how I made the vintage, rustic hanger on my tutorial photo blog.

Free Printable Valentine Cards, B.C.Winter Olympics, My Mom's Cookie Recipe, New Kits

First I would like to thank all of my followers, such an inspiration visiting your blogs and knowing you care if I'm here. My apologies for not listing in Dec., we went on a wonderful three week, four continental cruise. We visited Italy, Spain, France, Gibraltar, Morocco, Canary Islands, Brazil, Barbados and Dominica and then home from Florida on time to celebrate Christmas. Everywhere we visited was so special, took so many photos that I hope to share.

It is very exciting here in BC as the 2010 Winter Olympics is starting in Vancouver today. I live in Victoria which is really close. I wish I had tickets but it is great to watch it on TV. Right now I'm watching the Torch Relay as it makes it's way to Vancouver. As the Poppytalk blog mentioned "Go Canada Go"!

I'm offer free Valentine Printable postcards and cards shown above, the first should print in one twelfth & quarter scale and the second set of images is larger. There are beautiful cards from a lovely postcard album from 1910 I bought last year and couldn't resist sharing them.

The next three photos I've shown above are new kits I'm offering through my eBay store and my website http://jdayminis.com  January and Feburary are my favorite design months as my mini business is often slower but that hasn't happened this year. To make more time in my day we've started waking up earlier and going for walk, it has worked well.

One kit shown above is called Newborn Queen of Heart's Baby. One customer mentioned she was going to use it for an Alice on Wonderland scene which I thought was a terrific idea.
I designed it using images from my vintage childrens Queen of Heart's book.

The apron kit is called Vintage Ginger Spice Apron. I have inherited many beautiful vintage aprons my grandmother and mother used to wear. I wanted this to look like an old apron from the 20's to 50's. I designed the gores and square bodice with a bias tape look as was used in so many of the designs or that era.

Today was my mother's Birthday and I miss her since she passed away. I've been thinking of how she really gave me a love for baking. She always said she loved blending the butter and sugar by hand and I do too. In memory of mom, I thought I would share her favorite cookie recipe that I enjoy making too. Since I need a gluten free diet, I just substitute for the 3C flour...rice flour and tapioca flour. The blended raisins really help to hold the gluten free cookies together. It is a lovely moist recipe.

Mom's Raisin Cookies

Blend with a spoon: 1 Cup butter and 1½ C. white sugar until smooth

Blend in a blender until the raisins are pretty well liquified:
2 eggs
3 T. milk
1 C. raisins

add: 1½ t. soda
1½ t.cream of tartar
½ t. salt
1 t. vanilla
3 C. flour

Spoon onto baking sheet and bake until golden brown and still moist. Bake at 350° for 8-10 min. or 325° in a convection oven. I like to add 1 C. chocolate chips, nuts or raisins or all.

All the best,
Mini Hugs, Jean

Presentation Box Kits

These are some presentation kits I offer through my web site and eBay. I'm showing a couple of the covers too. I have always loved dolls in presentation boxes and had always wanted to make a Victorian doll in a presentation box and finally did last year. I the long way getting there. I started with the sewing kit, then I designed a jewelry box kit, baby doll and her clothes then a quarter scale version, a paper doll sewing kit and finally I designed the Victorian doll in a presentation box. It also works very well for a quarter scale girl and her Victorian clothes. It is funny how creativity works for me, I don't seem to just think of an idea and then make it, it seems to evolve, lol.

Cheers, Jean

New Kits for February

It has been a while since my last post. My mother died in October after battling Alzheimers for eight years. She was in the final stages and after a seizure she couldn't eat or drink. Always hard to loose a parent and have life changes. She always recognized me when I would visit.

I bought a new lap top and it has Vista so one of my old paint programs wouldn't work. It has been a bit of a learning curve, which I have enjoyed but it has been hard to feel productive. I'm really thrilled my new program, Corel Draw Graphics Suite X4. I'm also getting used to Corel Designer. I love Corel's Paint Shop Pro and Corel paint both of which I have used for quite a few years. I really enjoy digital scrapbooking and use many of the same ways of designing for my kits.

For anyone who might love colour as much I do, you might like to visit or join.
http://www.colourlovers.com
I joined recently and I've been having a wonderful time. I especially enjoy designing palettes and patterns to lift my spirits or represent how I'm feeling or use photos as inspiration. All the colours and designs are so inspirational.

Recently, I've designed a new kit in my new program and have it available in three colour patterns shown above. It is called Newborn Cheerful Baby in Aqua, Mauve and Blue.

Cheers to everyone, Jean
http://jdayminis.com

July book of the Month and Magic Kit

Our son has been performing as a magician since he was three years old and he is 26 now. I have always wanted to make a magician's scene. I finally did it in quarter scale as a silk fabric kit. There is a shelf with a Merlin costume, hat and books. It also includes a magician's table, fold out suitcase filled with magic tricks and posters etc. It was so much fun and I hope others might have a miniature quarter scale boy in a scene who would enjoy practising all these tricks. It is available through our web site and eBay store.

My new Book of the Month for July, shown above is available through eBay and our web site for half price for the month of July. It is called Flower Children of Summer. This book has such wonderful, whimsical illustrations by Elizabeth Gorden and was originally published in 1910. I was so pleased to notice in a Romantic Homes magazine this month that they featured a beautiful Enchanted fairy tea party for young girls. It is a great magazine for miniature ideas. In this Once upon a time tea party, they had young girls looking at a vintage Flower Children book with illustrations that I used in my Flower Children of Spring book. There were beautiful dragonfly cookies with everything in mauves, pinks and green pastel colours mixed with vintage items. Very inspiring! Diane Sedo who produced the article has a web site with wonderful fanciful ideas. http://sentimentalcelebrations.com/home

Cheers, Jean

Summer's Here!!

The first photos shows two new quarter scale French Country kits I had fun designing. The first kit is a French Country Chair, Table, ottoman and lamp. The second kit is a dresser with mirror, accessories and the settee.

For June on eBay and from our web site I'm offering two new books because we were taking a bit of a break in May and I was late getting my May Book of the Month finished.

The first, photo shown above is the Book of the Month for June, Gimbels Summer 1909 Catalogue that I reproduced from my original showing from Paris, London and American fashion styles.

The Book of the Month for June is reproduced from my beautiful antique transformation children's book called The Fairy Ring. This one twelfth scale version is not movable but has many of the rings with the stories.

The last photo shows a new quarter scale kit I recently designed which is a doll house for a quarter scale house. It has two finished floors inside that you can see from this photo.
Included in this fabric kit is the shelf, apron, bag, tiny house, doll house with extra wall covers, shingles and flooring covers. I was thinking that a miniaturist who likes to work really tiny might enjoy making fimo furniture for this kit. Or you can do what I did and leave the furniture for your quarter scale family to make, lol.

While I was having a break, I organized my collectibles room. I had so much fun arranging various collections into vignettes. I have enjoyed seeing vintage displays in so many beautiful blogs. You can see many of these through my favorite blog links on the right. I hope to add photos of some of these arrangements soon. Sure feels good to get so organized and it has really helped me appreciate what I have. By for now, Cheers, Jean

April's Book of the Month and Newborn Kit

This week I finished my new Miniature Book of the Month for April called Funny Animals. I have it offered at half price for April through my eBay store and website. I reproduced this mini book in one twelfth scale from my Victorian original ABC book published in 1906, it has the most delightful illustrations.

The "new" newborn fabric kit was designed as a smaller version of the toddler kit you can see in a previous blog. The shelf and books are not included. I loved designing this kit to use scallops, polka dots and stripes in my favorite pink and white. This set could also be adapted to dress a very tiny miniatures baby.

Cheers for now, Jean