Beach House Part 2

Before the fun could begin, I had to lay out the land.  I used foamboard and built up three layers so the house will be a little higher than the beach.  Also I wanted the pond inset a bit so I could naturalize the area around it.  The house is on a 12 by 12 board that can be slid out if need be, also making it possible to take it to a show (just in case).

This project truly proved to be a house of cards:  every piece affected every other piece.  The walls had to fit around the floor, the doors had to fit into the walls and rest on the floor, the windows need to fit over the wainscotting and also leave room for the pictures I wanted...  Change one thing and it domino affected everything else!

So first I laid out the floor tiles and glued them down to the wood sheet.  Now I had something firm to work with!   I needed to cut only 2 pieces:  this proved to be quite the headache and my cuts were ragged-edged.  Luckily my baseboards will hide the edges so I was okay!

I then decided to add a 3mm spacer to allow room for the wainscoting and baseboard so as not to obscure the pattern along the edges of these lovely tiles.  

Next I laid out the garden and pond.  I wanted 2 chairs to be out there so I needed to place the pond to allow for a sitting area, and room for my 3 weasel sculptures.  

A 7 inch tall stone wall will surround this little garden, to keep the blowing sand out and provide some privacy and shade.  Foamboard provided the base to which I will glue the embossed stone paper, but the pattern repeated too frequently on the paper so I ended up cutting it into strips, shifting the design up and down so no pieces are alike.  

Wooden "posts" will hide the seams.

Next:  the needle felted backdrop!  I used a wool blanket because it's nice and stiff and almost stands on its own and is the color of sand.  Mom had the brilliant idea to attach loops to the blanket with little dowel pieces and put them through the little gap all around the shelf to hold it up.  

It worked really well!  

There was a lot of sky to needle felt... a lot of sky.  I was a bit overwhelmed by the size of the thing and luckily had a eureka moment!  I could get a prefelt in blue and safe myself a lot of work and time!  Fibrecraft came to the rescue and I purchased a sky blue 1/2 metre which turned out to be just the thing!  I had a blue sky without a sore hand and thumb!

Then the fun part:  pulling out all my colors and choosing the fibres to create the beach of my dreams.  

Ah, the colors and textures!

For the sky, I used a Romney braid from 3dogknits called "The Blues".  I pulled and cut the colors I wanted from this plentiful braid, placing the darker shades over the land and lighter, more hazy shades over the water.  

I also mapped out the beach sand and shoreline.  Now it was time to move the whole thing onto the big table and save my knees!  

It was at this point that I realized my lovely French doors had swivel hinges and would not be able to open the way I imagined.  So I took the doors apart (cutting off the threshold to do so) and put on wee brass hinges so the doors now will open all the way like real doors.  Also I added pretty little lever handles to the inside of both sets of doors (they only came with handles on one side).

Next:  the walls!

Beach House Part 1

I've enjoyed building and collecting1:12 scale miniatures since I was very young.  And my goal with all my 2D needle felting is to create the perfect beach.  So when this idea came to mind, I saw an opportunity to create something really special.

It started two years ago with weeding the books to end up with valuable real estate:  one empty shelf.  This shelf would become the home of a miniature beach house with a needle felted beach and a garden with a pond (made by a local artist and purchased in Kincardine) and weasel sculptures (found on etsy a year ago).    

Planning began in earnest last fall with a mock-up made of cardboard.  I needed room for three chairs and three tables and a few dog beds (and bowls), no other furniture.  This was meant to be the perfect spot to come and while away the afternoon, eating fancy pastries after a leisurely stroll on the beach with the pups, the sunshine, the heat but with a cooling breeze,  and the gentle sound of the waves and seagulls. 

I took chairs from other doll houses to test my room size and layout.  There would be French doors and lots of windows for lots of light.

Then the threat of a post strike put urgency into getting started as I wanted this to be my Winter project.  So I started in October to gather supplies and purchase what I needed.

Since there is very little furniture, I wanted a really lovely floor.  I found it on etsy!  Check out Gravik and shop owner Ihor who is in Ukraine (which made it an extra special find considering the war going on there).  I purchased 2 sets and Ihor was kind enough to include some extra cut pieces after I mentioned I was concerned about being able to cut the tiles.   (It turns out that these tiles dictated the size of my floor, so I would have to cut as few as possible!)

Then I bought the flagstone embossed paper and stone wall paper for the garden from Greece, the etsy shop starboc2.  

I was then shopping in the The Netherlands!  I don't travel much but my credit card does!!!  Vio of MiniaturesbyVio on etsy was very helpful and custom made the arched window I purchased, along with two smaller windows and some kits to build tables.   

 

Back to Canada, I found the French doors I wanted and got them from MforMiniatures.  

I wasn't concerned about the wood as Amazon had what I needed (sadly there are no hobby shops where I live) and they don't use Canada Post.

All my parcels arrived before the strike began and I could now plan the details so all my parts would come together well!

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Youtube Treasure

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all the talented people who share their instructional videos, skills and tips, on YouTube.  What an amazing resource and I really appreciate, enjoy and continue to benefit in so many ways!  

Thank you!

This Jack o'Lantern was made by following the instructions on The Felt Studio's YouTube tutorial to create a 3D vessel.  It was fun and a great learning experience!  I didn't believe I would be able to make such a round pumpkin from something that started out flat!!  

For those who saw this Jack on Facebook, I finally was able to fix the problem of the lid shrinking more than the pumpkin:  I used the cut out face pieces to enlarge the lid and now it fits much better!

A good start to January 2025

Good riddance to 2024!  In July I suffered a fractured bone in my right hand, in December I had septic bursitis in my left elbow.  So onto 2025 in which I hope everyone enjoys good health, inspiration and creativity!

As for me, I'm back to the graveyard, my favorite place.  This project started with an unfortunate purchase, a piece of think prefelt that was so lumpy I didn't know what to do with it.  I thought to wet felt over top...

...and chose greens and blues.  Sadly, the fibre I added did not fuse to the prefelt but still the end result was a lovely, dreamy landscape of sorts.

Which way was up?

A marshy pond perhaps?

Or a moonlit clearing?  

I went with the clearing after my sister said she could see a cemetery there!  Thanks Doris!  

Using my big garden kneeling pad, I laid out the piece and started adding landscape features:  earth and grasses and shrubs...  and a lovely huge full moon coming out from behind misty clouds.

When I had a background I liked, I cut out gravestones from paper and laid them out to see how to arrange them and to see what sizes would make the image 3D.

I then cut them out of very thin black prefelt and tacked them down.  A mix of a blue-y grey color was felted into the black and each stone got highlighting in light grey where the moonlight hits.  Shadows were also fun, in a greeny-grey color.  

And this was the end result!

Here are some close-up images to see the details of the gravestones.

In muted light, it looks even better!

For those who are wondering, I sewed three loops of felt onto the back and inserted a dowel through the loops.  I then used a piece of pipe cleaner to use as a hook:  since the image may not be balanced weight-wise, it was important to be able to move the hook to where it's needed to get the cemetery to hang straight! 

Hallowe'en Howl

 

The Autumn colors were lovely this year and a little late so the colors stayed almost until Hallowe'en, which was a treat.

Decorations seemed a bit lacking this year, or subdued even at houses that go all-out.

But there were some great ones!  Hi Sam!

We visited Elora and thoroughly enjoyed the weather and the Twilight Zoo invading the village, along with a giant Jack Skellington!

Hallowe'en night proved to be a little less friendly, with a downpour and rain from 6:30-7:30, just when the trick or treaters were out!  They were soaked, and yet they came:  in the end we had 72 soggy souls!

Our yard looked good, even though we didn't set up the cemetery and the extras.  

We ended the scary season with a lovely Day of the Dead altar.

Unexpectedly, though, this wasn't the end as we stumbled upon the Pumpkin Parade when attending a fibre event at the Museum on November 2nd.  The pumpkins had not yet been cleared away so we got to enjoy all the creative and creepy pumpkins!  

Here's my favorite!

Until next year, BOO!!

Can you hear the waves crashing?

When my sister was here on vacation, we did a paint-along on Youtube together, but we painted with fibre.  This was our aim, a beach with rolling waves washing up onto the shore.  Lovely!  It's a JOONY Art that you can watch here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5exfXe300A4

 

I had gathered the fibres together in advance and she brought along some that she thought would also be useful, especially textured fibres for the clouds and white caps.

It was a lot of fun, and we got pretty far along in our one session.

Afterwards, we both finished our pieces on our own and it's amazing how different they are!  Each is unique and beautiful!

We'll have to do this again sometime soon!  It was a good learning experience and really quite fun.

Friends at the End of the Day

I love needle felting beaches for dogs to run on, even if the dogs are only in my mind's eye.  It was time to make another beach...

I was inspired by two images, one of a pink sunset on a beach and one of two dogs sitting on a cliff.  I thought to combine the two and place the sweet dogs on the lovely beach... 

The pinks in the sky are a blend of 3 colors.

First I completed the beach, here it is:

I cut out the dogs from the picture I liked in a few different sizes and picked the one that fitted the best:

Then I cut the dogs out of prefelt (from Fibrecraft, lovely stuff to work with) and tacked them in place.  

I felt that the black dog was too harsh and looked like a silhouette so I was inspired by my sweet Russel to give him some white markings.  This also made his face easier to see.  Finally, I used a black bead to add a little glint to his eye.  Charming!  

The shadows made it look more finished, but they were a little short so I lengthened them...

These two have enjoyed the perfect day at the beach and are watching the last of the sunset, good friends and good times.  I like their story.