Little Craft Cottage: Outside

The little craft cottage also has a garden to relax in and do some gardening for a change. The green spot is in full bloom now, the grass has been cut and weeds pulled for the photo shoot.




Thanks to the warm and sunny weather this summer, it seems like the apples have ripened early. An apple for everyone willing to do some raking!




The green, green grass of home is actually an old towel painted with brush. The idea was found on Minttumeirami's blog, the tutorial is in Finnish only, but with many great pictures.
The garden path is made of real gravel (intended for aquariums) that has been glued to the cardboard base.




The trellis consists of natural wood, i.e. small branches from the forest. The climbing plant is probably a Clematis. The leaves are cut out with a leaf shaped punch and winded between thin double wire.




These are real driftwood shingles covering the cottage roof - not at all easy to cut with a kitchen knife. Should have looked for a miniature axe.




The cottage, formerly known as shoe box, is glued onto double cardboard. This tiny world now exists on the bookshelf next to gardening books.




When the night falls, the lantern will give a little light to the garden. Twilight is always the perfect time to think about the day gone bye and the one ahead.



Enjoy the summer. Be outside.

Little Craft Cottage: Inside

This little craft cottage is my first miniature project and it features a creative space for an artisan working with yarn and textiles in 1:12th scale.




The rustic style cottage room decorated in shades of blue and grey is fitted into a cardboard shoe box, which was exactly the right size. Some furniture pieces and tiny accessories are commercial, paper and textile stuff is completely homemade.




There is a sketching in progress on the desk and a cork inspiration board on the wall to help with idea generation. Newspaper is waiting to be read and some correspondence to take care of over lunch break.




Toothpicks are so perfect for pencils. Found the idea in the zakka life blog, there is a great tutorial for making these as well.




The chest of drawers is made of matchboxes cut in half, legs and pulls are just metallic spacer beads. The stool is made of matches glued together as other small wood material is really hard to find. The stone flooring was quite easy: teared pieces of cardboard glued and painted.




For the shelf unit, I found a box where the 'shelves' were already there. It's not very strong, but enough to hold the sewing machine and all the supplies, books and notions quite well.




The fabrics are folded over pieces of cardboard and fixed with glue. Same with thread and ribbon on printable cards.




All the yarn in the stash is real wool in cobweb and lace weights. The chunky knitting basket is crocheted of medium weight cotton.




As for books and magazines - I just diminished the ones from my own collection...




When there is work in progress, coffee must be available at all times, why not serve with style on a silver tray.




For after dark hours and burning the midnight oil, the hanging ceiling light can be switched on. It's a battery LED light, no electricity and wiring needed.




For the size comparison, here's an oversized apple from the big world.

Half a day sweater

Winter meets spring - woollen turtle neck sweater with snowdrops, completed in just a few hours. The lower body part and neck are worked in the round, sleeves are knitted flat and sewn on.




The sweater is in medium ladies' size in 1:12 scale: the body part measures 5 cm in height and 4 cm in width. It is knitted using lace weight merino wool (1400 meters per 100 g) and needles 1.5 mm (US size 000 apparently and not -1 as I first thought). Knitting tension is 60 stitches and 70 rows to 10 cm.




Here is the colour chart for snowdrops and grass, would probably pass for crocuses and cyclamens just as well.