Instagram 1k Giveaway Competition

To say thank you to all my followers on instagram, I am running a giveaway competition.  

I will be giving away the following little pack of #onebrownbearhomewares together with a set of amazing mini prints from @theprintablestudio!

All you need to do is:

-       Follow @onebrownbear and @theprintablestudio on instagram

-       Tag a friend and whether you want to win the AU (Australia) or (OS) Overseas giveaway.

AU prize pack (open to Australian residents only) contains:

-       1x Geometric art print set from @theprintablestudio

-       1x Rug

-       2x monochrome vases

-       1x succulent box

-       3x monochrome cushions

-       4x assorted mini books

(bookshelf not included)

OS prize pack (open to anyone outside of Australia) contains:

-       1x Geometric art print set from @theprintablestudio

-       Your choice of 2x printables from my Etsy store 

Competition closes Sunday 5 June 2016, 5pm AEST.  Winners will be drawn on Monday 6^th June 2016.  You can enter as many times as you like as long as each comment includes a new tagged friend and whether you are AU or OS resident.  Winners will be picked randomly and this competition is in no way associated, sponsored or endorsed by Instagram.

How to make a miniature Refrigerator

You can use cardboard if you have it, but I prefer to use foam poster board as it is a lot stronger.  You can find poster board in craft shops, Kmart, Officeworks, Spotlight etc.  It has a thin layer of cardboard on the outside and is filled with foam, this makes it far easier to cut than using balsa wood of the same thickness.

 Start off by cutting out the door, 2 sides and a back to the fridge.
My fridge door is roughly 12cm x 6 cm, with the side being slightly smaller 12cm high by 3cm wide.

Glue the fridge together to form a box.

Next cut two squares out of very thin cardboard for the front of the fridge.  This will make it look like it has doors.

You can also use thin cardboard for the top and bottom of the fridge.

Using cardboard again cut some handles for the fridge.

My fridge is going to be black with silver handles so I painted the entire fridge black first.

I painted the handles silver and slightly 'curled' the cardboard to make the handles stick out.

How to make a modern miniature bath

Modern dollhouses need modern bathrooms, and so that means one of those beautiful big freestanding baths with a view out the window... right?

You will need- a plastic bottle, air drying clay, rolling pin, craft knife, baking paper.

Firstly you need to find a bottle which fits the space!  I found this soap refill bottle to be perfect for my house, but on hunting around the house, there were numerous shampoo, baby wash, house cleaner bottles which would also work.  The reason I used the soap bottle was that it was already white and the 'walls' seemed to mimic a bath perfectly.

You want to the cut the bottle in half first (or maybe 1/3rd of the way down).  Put it back into the bathroom and look at it to see how high you want the walls to be, and look at it overall to try and get the scale oflength and height right

I found that scissors were slightly easier to cut around the top just taking small sections off at a time.

So if you wanted you could stop here - but I wanted my bath to look a little more life like so I added the clay to make the 'walls' of the bath look thicker and the texture to be more like porcelain.

Next break out the clay, if you haven't used air drying clay, it is quite different to the polymer clay which needs to be baked.  It is a lot softer and sticky, so I rolled it out on baking paper to save it from sticking to the bench!

Firstly roll out a bit long snake, making it quite fat so that there will be enough clay to cover the walls of the bath.  I rolled the snake out and then wrapped it around the bath to ensure it was long enough (although it will end up a bit longer once you start rolling it out).

Make sure you use plenty of clay so that the walls will be 'thick' NOTE: The clay will shrink on drying.

Place your snake on some baking paper and start rolling it flat, I found that rolling across it on 45 degree angle to work at first and then rolling the whole length of it.

This clay can be quite sticky so it might take a few attempts, and while you are messing about it will start drying and this also makes it easier to work with.

Once you have rolled it flat, lay the bath on top and ensure you have enough clay to cover the 'walls' of the bath and little left over to go over the lip.

I did not put any clay on the bottom of the bath because I was happy with the height.  I also did not put any clay inside the bath, so it remains plastic, which means it could actually hold water!

Wrap the bath in clay and fold it over the lip, try and make the 'seam' of the clay at the back where it will be placed up against the wall.  Do not push the clay hard onto the bath, the clay will shrink when drying so you need to make sure there is plenty of room between the clay and the plastic.  You almost need the clay to be 'too big' or 'baggy' around the plastic container to take into account shrinkage.

Hopefully it is looking something like this now!  I used my craft knife to trim the inside so that the clay was just under 1 cm from the lip of the bath.

Pat the sides down and smooth out any bumpy bits as best you can.

If you want a tap roll out another 'snake' and bend the top over like a walking cane.  Ensure it is taller than the bath and that the end will actually be pointing into the bath!

Next - place it in a nice warm spot to dry for 24 hours.

Once the clay has dried you will need to sand it back to make it smooth.  Make sure you use a fine sandpaper (150 grit) to ensure it does not make big scratches in the clay.  If sanding does not remove all of the cracks you can refill them with more clay and stand to dry for a few hours.

Once sanded, give the bath a coat of white paint to make it nice and shiny.

If you  have some scrap material, fray the ends and hand them over the bath as towels for decoration.

How to lay miniature wooden floor boards

I have seen floor boards laid before in houses and haven't really thought much more of them.  I usually just used scrap paper for the flooring.  But with my new house the floor was really rough and I thought laying wooden flooring would be the best option.

I brought a brand of balsa wood flooring called balsa basics from Bunnings, but they can be found at most craft stores.  I also used the balsa wood craft glue (there is also a PVA balsa glue which is less messy)

 

When cutting the end off the balsa glue, make the smallest hole you can so that only a small line of glue comes out, this ensures less glue seeps up in between the planks.  Balsa is very soft so can easily be cut with a box cutter, but also keep a pen handy to mark the cuts you need to make as you go.

I started by just laying the planks down without glue.  Figure out the best way to lay the planks where you are not cutting into too many corners or doorways.

Where there are tricky spots that require planks to be cut to specific lengths, map those out first by marking the boards with a pen and cutting them out with your box cutter.

It is best to work on small spaces at a time.  If you cut out the whole floor it is quite easy to get the wood all out of place when you are trying to pick it up to place glue under it.

Once you have mapped out all the tricky parts you should be able run the rest of boards in fairly straight runs.  I tried not to make my joins line up, by cutting the lengths of wood randomly.

At this stage I would run a line of glue, and glue the planks down straight away, ensuring to keep pushing them tight up against the row laid previously.

Once you have glued all the floor boards down give them 24 hours for the glue to dry completely.

Before and after of sanded boards

 Once completely dry, sand the boards with fine sandpaper (I used 120 grit).

Wrap the sand paper in a block of wood, as this helps give an even sand.  Start by sanding on about a 45 degree angle across the boards.  If you sand slightly diagonal to the direction of the boards you shouldn't catch a corner and chip or pull it up.  Balsa is extremely soft wood so don't push too hard or you will sand big scratches into the wood.

The fine wood dust then helps to fill the gaps left between any boards.  (See before and after photo to the left)

 I was really impressed with the end result so I have not stained them darker or put a varnish over the top.

It is important to remember that the balsa glue can leave white spots on the top of the timber if it is not sanded off.  So if you find a lot of glue was pushing up between the cracks when you were laying the flooring it is really important to give them a good sand to remove the excess glue and be mindful that you may end up with a patchy finish if you decide to paint/stain/varnish them.

If you have a really small space you could consider using double sided tape as a cleaner, quicker option.