A teapot shop - 3rd and last part

Hello dear readers,

Finally the hanging tea shop facade is finished.

The roof is made from 3 rows of ceramic tiles glued on a piece of card stock.
The lamp is made from a bead and findings.
The shop's sign is  printed in green and framed, as the windows, under acetate.
The wooden rectangle is what the box will stand on.

I named the shop "Choopchick", in Hebrew.  A nickname we use here for the little knob on top of every teapot's lid.   I'm not sure what the origin of this nickname is.

I also added triangles made of sturdy clay stones to the sides at the top of the box in preparation for the roof.  If you look carefully you'll see a hole in one of the stones, above and in the middle between the two windows.  I pierced the stone while the clay was still wet.  The lamp will be fixed to the hole.

A trial fix to see how the box will look with the roof on .

Finally, the lamp fixed, the roof painted and permanently glued on.  Also the part underneath painted and fixed.  Now the house stands firmly on its own as well as hangs on the wall.

A look at the box from the back.

From the side.

Hanging on the wall.

Not every one has access to a kiln and ceramic clay, but the stones can substituted with egg carton bricks or wooden strips, according to the imagination.

This one is the 23rd of my shops.  Some of them are over 10 years old and all have Hebrew names.  I made many more, as gifts to  close friends and beloved family members.  Except for going over with damp cloth once in a while they all look as good as new.

I wish you all happy creative days with blessings.

A Teapot shop - Part 2

Hello dear readers,

You've seen the merchandise in the shop's window and now I want to show you how it looks inside before the front cover.

Four square wooden pieces are glued to the top part corners.  Two large craft sticks are cut and glued on top of them to prevent the cover from caving in.

The card paper cover.

A piece of  clear acetate, cut to size, is glued to the undersides of the opening in the card cover.
The whole piece is glued to the box.

Material used for the false windows.

A plastic fruit basket.  The cut out side will make two windows.

Here you can see the windows, each one is framed with 4 matchsticks and painted with green acrylic paint.  I glued on pieces of clear acetate underneath.  You can see here how I make the inside of the windows using narrow pieces of lace and a magazine cut out.  The 1/4" square dowel is for the windowsill.

Assembled and ready for the cover.

Now comes the fun part of decorating the cover with ceramic stones.  I still have to make a roof,
a shop sign, a "lamp" and a flat stand for the shop so it can  either hang on a wall or stand up. I'll  try to finish the project this weekend and post the third and last part early next week.

I wish you all a wonderful summer weekend and blessings.

A Teapot shop front - Part one

Hello dear readers,

For making this little project I use a small, rectangular shallow wood box.  It originally contained delicious dried figs.  Alas, can't  be found  anymore on the market but I saved some empty boxes.
I never throw away wooden boxes no matter what size.



Here is a photo of  one of my hanging shops.  The following photos will show how I make them.

First thing I do is drill two holes to thread a wire for hanging the box.  I make sure it's right in the middle so that the box will hang straight.

After installing shelves made from tongue depressors,  I fill them with mechandise, usually minis in my stash and items I create myself.  This time it's going to be teapots but very small ones.  (All the  1/12" scale teapots I created last week are too large for this shop.)

There were 4 silver plated little teapots sent to me by  blog friends.  I had to add more to fill up the shop's window.

Assembled some metal beads and jewelry findings as you can see in the photo below.

Glued them together.

Added white Fimo parts and baked them together.

I love the combination of shiny chrome and white ceramic.

I hope you are all having a lovely Sunday.  The best to all and blessings.

  

Miniatures made from scraps

Hello dear readers,


these are hot August days we are enduring right now.  I'm either on my daily visits to my husband at the recuperation clinic or at home.  Both places are air-conditioned else I'm not sure if I could be able to do any work.

I decided to make miniatures from scraps and things lying around.


Kitchen scales. The body is made from  painted styrofoam  market trays. The metal plate above is part of a Hanukkah candle holder.  These are sold at craft stores in packs of nine at about 25 cents of a US$ each.  The  round balance gauge is a printable from the net inside a pill bubble.

Among the things in Maria's parcel of gifts were three rather large mushrooms, probably designed to be planted in a garden scene pot.  This is a teapot made from one of them.  The two others will be turned into tiny fairy houses.

The fairy house mushroom teapot led on to other teapot houses made from Fimo covered scraps of craft wood.

Here is a teapot made from a glass bead.  I bought a bracelet strung on an elastic band with eleven of the same bead and tiny silver caps separating one from another.  This too was a cheap find at 0.25 US$. ( I can't resist beads, especially at this price.)  The other ten will be turned into
hookahs.

I am working on another wall hanging shop.  I hope to able to fill the window with teapots but the ones you see in the photos above are too large for the scale.  I'll try to show you how I make the
box in my next post.

A warm welcome to my new followers and blessings to you all.

Tatiana's gifts

Hello dear readers,

To see these gorgeous tiny little dolls, all hand crafted by my wonderful friend and artist Tatiana,
is to wonder how incredible her work is.  As I already mentioned, our post services are very slow. I almost gave up hope that the parcel sent to me for my birthday, early June will ever arrive.  It did so almost two months after it was shipped.  I almost wept with relief when I saw what miracles it contained.

Six tiny little dolls and one a little bigger. Each tiny character can stand up on his own.  Their clothes too, are very special and perfectly suit them.

Poke  the picture to see the bigger boy's jacket trimmings. He looks like a character from bygone days.

These delicate roses in their green vase are simply gorgeous.

A lovely decorated cake, to celebrate a spring birthday.

Tiny-tiny chicks

With colored eggs in a lovely box (For an Easter scene).

Another lovely nostalgic box.

Very romantic with  letters, perfume bottle and necklace.

A toy!

And they all came packed in this little box.

THANK YOU  DEAR TATIANA FOR ALWAYS BEING HERE FOR ME AND FOR YOUR BEAUTIFUL GIFTS WHICH I ALWAYS CHERISH AS MY TREASURES.


It's almost the end of the week and month.  I wish you all a lovely weekend with my blessings.

Maria's gifts

Hello dear readers,

A  few days ago I received from Maria  a parcel containing my  Birthday gifts.  It took over 6 weeks to arrive.  The overseas post services in my country are becoming slower and slower each time I wait for my mail.  To make up for the long wait, here is what my lovely and very generous friend sent.


Craft items and punches

Sweet little figures

knitted teddy bear by Maria

 


Miscellenious

Thank you my dear friend.  These can keep me busy for a long while.

Another Birthday gifts-parcel arrived yesterday, containing gorgeous, handmade miniatures to drool about.  I shall show you these in my next post, after I take photos.

I wish you all a happy weekend with blessings.

Hookahs

Hello dear readers,

First of all let me thank you all for your kind wishes and words of comfort which warmed my heart.
There is little change in my husband's condition.  He still has to wear that awful stability device for at least two more weeks  and is unable to stand up and walk.  After his discharge from  hospital, we moved him into a nice home where he gets 24 hours daily care.  I visit him daily for a few hours.
I don't know when or if we'll be able to bring him back home but now at least he's safe and more adjusted to the situation.

Although I've been several weeks away from this blog, things seem to have happened by themselves. over a hundred entries a day and one astonishing surprise.  My blog has been selected as one of the top 100.  I know all of you deserve this badge.  I feel humble when I see the incredible work you do and I'd love to share this award with all of you.

Here is what I managed to create these last few days.

Hookahs (Made from beads, gold acrylic paint, long sewing pins, metal parts of cloth-padded buttons and pigtail elastic bands).

Unable to go to the beach this year but with a large stock of seashells, I made more seashell decorated wooden boxes.

I wish you all  happy summer days and blessings.