My lucky streak continues!!

I'm so excited!!  I won this fabulous set of Danny Shotton kitchenware in the incredibly generous giveaway at Mitchy Moo Miniatures - thank you so much!!

Pepper has some great tutorials on her blog so make sure you visit and check them out.

All of the lovely things I've won recently definitely deserve a more salubrious home than my minis storage box and now that the restoration project is finished (photos to come soon!) I can get busy and create the French kitchen - mind you I'm not sure that Emily would have the faintest idea what to do with most of these - I don't think she's too well acquainted with the culinary arts ;)  

Easy image transfer methods from Karen, aka The Graphics Fairy

Karen at "The Graphics Fairy" has thoughtfully rounded up 12 easy image transfer method tutorials into one post on her blog - click HERE to go directly to it.

She also has a section on her blog now for Transfer Printables - make sure you check it out too. 

Thank you Karen!! 

Image source: The Graphics Fairy 

My giveaway surprise prizes revealed

This is the 'surprise package' that the winner of my recent giveaway, Jennybee, received: an aged table and cupid with a little set of mini mail as well as the set of doilies.  

The mini mail was included for everyone who won the doiley sets (I didn't realise until I saw this photo that I'd forgotten to 'age' the edges of the envelope and postcards!).  The tiny photo in the envelope is of my mother as a young girl.  She's now becoming a bit famous in the mini world - oh how she would blush at the thought.

A few of you have noticed that I haven't been very active around Blogland for a while - I've got quite a lot of non-mini projects going on at the moment which are taking my time and attention but I hope to see more of what you're all doing soon - as well as get back to doing some mini work myself!

My 'guilty secret' is that the dollhouse for the little girls hasn't progressed beyond what you see on the post of 25 January :(   If I don't get busy on that again very soon it'll be lucky to be delivered by NEXT Christmas!  I hope I'll be back shortly with some progress to show you :)

And lastly a note to say 'HI' to new Followers, thanks for dropping by!  

I've been lucky!!

I was recently the lucky winner of Susan's giveaway, the prize was this pretty hand-crocheted 1:12 scale shawl.  The thread is very fine and as you can see it's perfectly made. 

As always I'm amazed at Susan's skill with thread and hook. 

Be sure to visit her blog

minicrochetmad

and see more of her lovely work.

Photo credit: Susan @ minicrochetmad



Giveaway draw...

Congratulations to new blogger Jennybee!! 

The surprise package and a set of doilies is yours!

Click here to visit Jennybee's blog 

"The Dark Side of a mini addict"

The winners of the remaining three doilie sets are

Debbie @ debbie's mini thoughts and creations

TINK-SONIA @ MINITINK

malu2 @ Malu's Minis

Can you all please email your addresses to me at normabennett@hotmail.com so that I can post your prize packages to you.

As promised here is the link to the online miniatures

store where you can purchase these laser cut paper doilie sets

Fairy Meadow Miniatures

Lorraine presently has two sets on the website shown here with the stock numbers,  the price of each set is AUD7.90 so they are an affordable way to bring a little something special to your miniature setting.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway, and a big welcome to new followers!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 My humble apologies for the dreadful quality of my giveaway draw photos - they certainly don't do justice to my handsome assistant :)  I have no idea what's going on with the camera today, or is it the photographer??  Next time I think I'd better leave the photography to the expert, my assistant's mummy, Lamina at doabit

500 Followers giveaway is finally here!! CLOSED on 14 Feb - WINNERS ANNOUNCED SOON

At last - my giveaway announcement! 

I have 4 sets of these pretty lasercut paper doilies (1/12 scale) to giveaway,

one set for each of the first four names drawn

PLUS

the first name drawn will also win a small 

The final day to enter is Valentine's Day - 14 February 2012

_____________________________________

As usual this giveaway draw is only open to Followers of this blog

(but it's not too late to become one!)

You may advertise this giveaway on your blog if you wish, but it is not a condition of entry.

Good luck everyone!!

(When the winners are announced I will also tell you where you can purchase these tiny doilies online, so even if you're not lucky in the draw you can still have some in your dollhouse.)

~ this giveaway draw is now closed  ~ 

the winners will be announced here soon 

Renovation rescue - way behind schedule!

I can't believe it's 25 January already! - and I still haven't finished the dollhouse renovation that I'd planned to complete by Christmas!

When I found out that the little girls who will be the new owners of this house would be out of town for Christmas, and several weeks afterwards, there was no pressure to finish it so quickly.   This also meant that I could take more time and make it look better than if I had to hurry. 

Click here to read how I found this house and rescued it from the garbage truck.

Progress so far...

The bathroom will be inaccessible when the front bathroom wall and the roof go on, but it will be able to be seen well enough through the doorway.  I bought the little table in a discount store for $2, painted it and added the basin, tap, etc.  The basin is a bit of packaging from a box of chocolates, the faucet is made of covered wire.  The toilet bowl is made from a laundry powder scoop.  The shower head is made from covered wire and a couple of buttons.  The shower screen is plastic sheeting with the blue plastic covering left on one side so that it looks like coloured glass.  The shiny white wall and floor surface is high gloss photo print paper.

The basic furniture for the other  rooms is all ready to go in when the renovation is complete - which it nearly is.  More on the completion of this project later.

Giveaway coming soon!! - please wait for details!!

I haven't forgotten I promised a giveaway in January - please wait a few days for me to post the details and then you can enter :)   Thanks for your patience!

Christmas Presents - big and little

How lucky am I??  Lamina (@ do a bit) made me these gorgeous cushions for Christmas - the 'human size' ones are her own screen printed designs, and the 1:12 little cuties are inkjet computer printed copies.  She's a very clever, very creative - and generous - gal :)  Thank you Lamina!!

Click here to visit Lamina's blog to see more of her creative projects.

Photo credit : Lamina @ 'do a bit'

Guest post: by Lamina from "do a bit... everyday" - printed cushions from original designs

Hi there everyone, my name is Lamina from "do a bit... everyday"!

I am thrilled that Norma asked me to do a guest post about my mini cushion makeover here at make mine mini :)

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me, leading up to Christmas ... I bought this really cute little dolls house furniture set for my sister's little girl, but I wasn't really loving the cushions that came with it! So I decided, in the midst of all the craziness last week, that I would give the cushions a makeover... Yes I am slightly insane! Not sure how I found the time but I did!

:: cushion makeover - before

I prepared the fabric by soaking it in bubble jet set 2000, ironed the fabric onto freezer paper and then using my ink jet printer, printed my little designs onto it and then sewed them up into cushions... it was very easy!

:: cushion makeover - printing

:: cushion makeover - sewing

Voila... new cute little cushions!!!

:: cushion makeover - after :)

And when you turn the cushions over...

:: cushion makeover - after

I printed different images on each side of the cushion so she can mix and match! I used my own designs... rainbow cloud, home sweet home and the cupcake designs which I had screen printed on kids tops, cushions and tea towels. It was so much fun doing this little project.  I'm so please with how they look, they are so cute and my sisters little girl absolutely loved them :)

Thank you Norma for giving me the opportunity to show off my cute little cushions on your gorgeous little blog... it was great fun!

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

Cheers,
Lamina
do a bit... everyday

The treestump house

At last some pics - I finally found my camera (safely hidden in a box on my workbench).  I'm just going to show you the finished piece today, I'll do a post on some of the process later on.  


Nice of you to visit, please come on in.

Please join the daddy and the little boy for a cup of tea while I relax upstairs.




It's such a lovely view ...




Perfect pattern for a treehouse bed don't you think?  We don't have any jungle animals around here though ...



Perhaps you'd like to take a stroll outside and meet some of our neighbourhood creatures...

Mind the step!



The little frog seems to be a bit reluctant to jump into the pond.



One of the bunnies is missing a bit of his ear, it could have something to do with jumping head-first out of the bedroom window...

I hope you enjoyed your tour, won't you come back again?
It's fun to play together.