Category: mini’s

seriously, what are the chances?

Published on by Quandie13 Comments

My friend/picker Sue picked up this cute little toy dresser for me recently.

It’s not an antique, or a salesman sample, or anything like that.  But it is pretty darn cute.  If only it wasn’t missing the mirror.

Sue thought I could get a new one cut for it, and maybe so.  I do wonder how difficult it would be to cut that oval though.  So I decided to just paint it in and see what I could find in my transfer stash to fill that spot.

But first up, I removed the knobs.  They are OK, but I knew I could do better.  Especially since I already had some fabulous small glass knobs on hand (from D Lawless Hardware).

Next I gave the piece a good sanding, and then a good cleaning.  Then I followed that up with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  The existing finish was pretty dinged up, and I much prefer the warmer shade of the Drop Cloth over the original white on the dresser.

Then I added the top half or so of the small Petit Rosier transfer from I.O.D. to the front of the dresser.

The small (11″ x 14″) version of the transfer fit almost exactly across the width of the drawers, what luck.

FYI, this transfer has been retired.  You can still find it online, but supplies are limited.

Next I pulled out my Classic Vintage Labels transfers from re.design with prima.  I knew there was an oval shaped label in that set and I was hoping it would be the right size and shape to fill that spot where the mirror once was.  I will admit that I was thinking to myself, ‘what are the chances?  probably pretty slim, right?’

And look at that!  Pretty much the perfect fit.  Seriously, what are the chances?  Things like this rarely work out this well.

Once I’d also added the “les roses.” wording from the I.O.D. transfer to the top, I sanded the edges of everything and then added a coat of clear wax.

Then I popped on the glass knobs.

I think those knobs elevate this piece just a tad, don’t you?

Finally, I lined the drawers with some pretty floral scrapbook paper.

How sweet is that?

I staged it simply with a lovely little round floral dish that Sue also found for me, and some vintage jewelry.

This would make a fun jewelry box, you’d just have to come up with some little boxes or something to put inside the drawers to prevent everything from becoming a jumbled mess.

But really, this piece could be used anywhere to hold small items … like perhaps your large collection of reading glasses … or is that just me?

I already happen to have a mini with the Petit Rosier transfer on it of my own …

So today’s project is for sale (locals only, no shipping available).  Be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

One last thought on this project; this is not the sort of thing that anyone is going to make their fortune on … or really even be able to pay the bills with.  I paid $12 for the dresser, $18 for the transfer and $9 for the knobs.  It didn’t take much paint or wax, so I’m not counting those things.  Plus I have a lifetime supply of scrapbook paper, so I’m just happy to be able to use that stuff up.  But, that means I have $39 into this piece, which would be perfectly fine if I was keeping it for myself.  However, I usually sell pieces like this for $48.  So, if it sells at that price, I’ve made about $4.50/hour for my two hours of labor.

Choosing to change out the hardware and add that expensive smaller I.O.D. transfer would not be wise choices if I was in this for the money. Instead I would recommend using pieces from the I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfer (also retired unfortunately), or the newer I.O.D. Brocante or Traditional Pots transfers.  Although those are more expensive at around $30 each, I can get 10 or more projects out of each one.

Luckily I’m not in this for the money, although I try not to lose money on any of my projects!  I really enjoy the process of creating, and in the end I’m happy that I can sell most of my pieces and I don’t have to become a hoarder.  Or, worse yet, take them to the Goodwill.  But I wanted to at least mention this for those of you who may be trying to make a buck.

If you sell your items, would you bother with a project like this?  Or do you stick to items with a higher profit margin?  Or maybe you think my price is too low and you could sell it for more?  Leave a comment and let me know.

itsy bitsy, teenie weenie.

Published on by Quandie21 Comments

It’s not a yellow polka dot bikini, but it’s definitely itsy bitsy, teenie weenie.

It might be difficult to judge the scale based on that photo, but I can tell you that this little guy is 2 3/4″ tall by 3 1/4″ wide.  The knobs appear to be beads that are just glued on.

Here, maybe this photo gives you a better idea of the size.

I believe this probably qualifies as 1″ scale, if you are familiar with such terms (as in 1′ is reduced to 1″).  Way smaller than yesterday’s mini.

Now you may have thought that I should just leave this one alone, but you know me better than that by now, right?  Of course I painted it!

And of course I found some itsy bitsy transfers to add to it.

This is a mash up of transfers from I.O.D. , re.design with prima, and Tim Holtz.

I had the little tool tote and the bucket in my stash of dollhouse décor from back in the day when I had a pretty fabulous dollhouse (you can see it here).  I ended up sending that dollhouse out to my in-law’s place because I didn’t have a good spot for it, but I hung onto a handful of little things.

The tool tote was in the attic in my dollhouse …

But clearly it needed a coat of paint and a transfer as well.

Both the dresser and the tote are painted in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

The bee transfer on the tote is part of a re.design with prima knob transfer with some bits trimmed away.

Naturally, I had to line the drawers with some pretty paper as well.

I had to dig to find some scrapbook paper with a small enough floral design to look appropriate in these drawers, and that floral paper was perfect.

Seriously you guys, how frickin’ adorable is this thing?  I can hardly stand it.

I’m definitely going to have to hang onto this one for now.

What do you think?

the historic styles mini.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

You may remember that I picked up this little mini dresser while garage saling recently.

I knew it would be a fun one to restyle.

I started by sanding it lightly, cleaning it and then painting the outside in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Then I added some bits and pieces from I.O.D.’s Label Ephemera transfer to the top and front.

I really wish someone would come out with another typography transfer.  I just love this one, but I am getting a little tired of re-using the same wording over and over.  And of course, it also is retired so eventually retailers are going to run out of their inventory.  It would be fun to have something new, wouldn’t it?

I gave it a pop of color on the inside by painting it with Fusion’s Laurentien.  I wanted to use an all in one style paint, like Fusion or Dixie Belle’s Silk for durability.  After choosing some October Afternoon scrapbook paper to line the drawers, I decided that the Laurentien was the perfect color to go with the paper.

Rather than flipping up on hinges, or having a top drawer, this little dresser has a lid that comes off.

This piece would be fantastic as a jewelry box, but I chose to style it with crafting supplies.

I mean seriously, how cute would this be for keeping some of your crafting supplies organized?

But using it as a jewelry box would be a valid option as well.

I definitely prefer the ‘after’ version, how about you?

This one is for sale, so if you’re local (I don’t ship) be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

gardening small.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

After taking some time to evaluate my garden after our recent hailstorm, I’ve realized that although some plants were quite damaged, some weren’t really impacted too much.  My large leaved hostas are toast.

At least the ones where the leaves were unfurled.  There were still a few varieties that weren’t up all the way yet, so that was an unexpected bonus to the cool spring we’re having.

My tulips all bit the dust as well.  Ironic, right?  They survived the winter, and then the deer, only to succumb to hail.

But for the most part, plants with small leaves, like the sweet woodruff …

and the brunnera were just fine.

Which brings me to my smallest plants of all, the ones in my fairy garden.

As you can see, the fairy garden fell victim to the hail much like the rest of my garden.  But it’s easy enough to fix a toppled birdbath when it’s only 3″ tall, and once the hail melted I could see that there wasn’t much damage done to the fairy garden at all.

This seems like a good opportunity for a fairy garden update.

My fairy garden lives in an old cracked bird bath that I purchased at a garage sale.  The crack meant that it would no longer hold water and function as a bird bath, so that made it perfect to plant in since it has drainage.

If you’ve been following me for long, you may remember that I gave it a refresh back in 2018.

Since then only two of the perennials have reliably returned each year.  One is the bright lime green mini hosta called Feather Boa, and actually it’s doing so well that it’s threatening to take over.  I’m going to have to pull it up and divide it again soon.

I keep trying other miniature hostas, but so far none of them have made it through a winter.  We bury the fairy garden in a big pile of leaves up against the house for winter to give it some extra protection from our ridiculously low temps.

The Berberis thunbergii ‘Concorde’, the dark purple ‘shrub’, has also come back each spring.  The Barberry has not retained that dark purple coloring though, now it looks like this …

I suspect this is because it doesn’t get enough sun.

I always add a few annuals to the fairy garden each year.  Unfortunately, I rarely know the names of them.  I buy most of them at Bachman’s (my local garden center) and they are just labeled as ‘pixie plants’.

I added a little vertical interest with this next one …

It will be interesting to see how that one performs.

I also added something from Stepables this year.  Are you familiar with them?  They are low growing ground cover plants that can handle some foot traffic.  They are supposed to be good for planting in the crevices of a flagstone walkway, for example.

This one is called Blue Star Creeper and I hope I can keep it blooming in my fairy garden this summer because those tiny blue flowers are super cute.

My little garden angel is getting pretty ratty looking …

I may have to do some experimenting with the Dixie Belle Patina Paint on him next!

If you like my fairy garden, you should see my in-law’s!  I’m going to make a point of getting some photos of it to share with you guys this summer.  But until then, do any of you have a fairy garden?  If not, I highly recommend it.  You can fit one in just about anywhere, it’s much cheaper, it’s much easier to take care of than a full sized garden, and apparently it won’t suffer much from hail damage.  So I say, garden small!

 

the café cupboard.

Published on by Quandie26 Comments

You guys know I just can’t help myself when it comes to mini furniture.  Today’s piece isn’t quite up to my usual standards.  I usually prefer more vintage pieces.  But when I saw this piece at the thrift store I thought ‘why not?’.

First up was removing the faux punched tin inserts.

I could have just painted them, which may have improved their look somewhat, but I didn’t care for the wheat theme.  So I tossed them.

I had a couple of ideas in mind for replacing them.  I considered using window screening like I did in this mini-cupboard of my own.

But then I couldn’t find my stash of old screening.  It’s out in the carriage house somewhere, but I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time digging for it in the sub-zero temps we had while I was working on this one.

Next I thought maybe I’d just use some drop cloth fabric.  But in the end, I couldn’t come up with a good way to install it that would look neat and tidy on the inside.  Hot glue, maybe?  But I know myself well enough to know that making hot glue look tidy is a bit beyond me.

And in the end, I really wanted to be able to use some transfers on the doors, so I decided to just cut some new inserts out of a very thin piece of wood.  But … that didn’t quite work out either.  I didn’t have any wood that was thin enough.  So Mr. Q came up with some heavy duty cardboard that he had in his bookbinding supplies, it’s meant for creating book covers.  I cut that to fit, and then painted it, which worked out quite well.  I was even able to add the transfers to the pieces before installing them.

Then I just glued them in place (with regular glue, not hot glue).

The outside of this little cupboard is painted in Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy, and the inside is painted in French Linen.

I pretty much chose those colors simply because I already had them out for the barrister bookcase that I shared last Friday.

You may have noticed by now that I also added some ‘hardware’ to the front of the cupboard.

That’s not exactly meant to be ‘real’ hardware.  It’s a scrapbooking do-dad, made out of very thin metal (Hobby Lobby carries the Paper Studio brand).  The color it comes in originally is called ‘antique gold’.

These come with little brads to attach them to paper.  I used some little tack nails that I had on hand to attach mine to the cupboard doors.

I also tried to give them a new look with some of Dixie Belle’s Gilding Wax in Zinc.

The Gilding Wax had nothing to grip onto because the metal had a slick, shiny coating on it. The usual remedy is to scuff sand the surface in a case like this, but this little latch is very small.  I wasn’t really able to rough it up as much as I wanted to.  I ended up with a patchy sort of look.

Still, it looks pretty cute I think.  And by the way, in case you are looking for them, those transfers on the doors are from re.design with prima’s Classic Vintage Labels.

There is only one of that design in each set (I just happen to be addicted Classic Vintage Labels and have purchased several of them).  I cut out just the wording and didn’t include the laurel wreath that surrounded it.

I really haven’t decided whether or not to hang onto this one.  It does look good on the shelves in my living room though.

This was a fun little project to tackle on a cold January day.  And really, any of the changes I made to this piece could apply to a larger piece of furniture too.  Replace cupboard door inserts, add hardware, change the color of hardware with a gilding wax, add transfers, modify transfers by eliminating portions you don’t want to use, and of course paint.

What do you think?  Am I tempting you to go look for some mini furniture at your local thrift store?

the mini’s.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

One of my readers recently gave me the idea of sharing a flashback post on all of my mini’s (thank you for that idea Connie).

Since I’m in the middle of working on a bunch of Christmas items, and my bench makeover isn’t quite finished, I thought this would be a great way to create some content that wasn’t hopelessly out of season for you guys today.

Plus, it doesn’t take much encouragement for me to share my favorites, starting with this one.

It’s the perfect spot to perch my mini camera.

That is actually the 2nd look for this piece.  I’d originally painted it in Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Eulalie’s Sky.  In fact, it was the first thing I ever painted in milk paint.  Eventually I re-painted it in Homestead House milk paint in Limestone when I unified my mini non-collection by painting them all the same color.

Adding the IOD transfer on the front was definitely the icing on the cake though.

Another of the mini’s that I’ve kept for myself is this one …

I use it as a jewelry box.

The third piece in the photo of mini’s above is one that I actually parted with.  I’d had it tucked inside a cupboard for a couple of years and decided that I wasn’t enjoying it enough to keep it.

So I brought it into the shop where I sell on consignment and sold it.

Even though I didn’t paint this next one, it’s still a piece that I haven’t been able to part with.

It’s perfect for holding all of my washi tapes.

This next piece is another one that I haven’t painted.

I haven’t really come up with a purpose for this one, so for now it lives inside a birdcage out on my front three-season porch.

Don’t even ask what possessed me to put it in a cage.  Who knows?  But I like it.  I keep debating whether or not to sell it though.

I also can’t really explain why sometimes I want to paint over these original finishes, and sometimes I don’t.  With the piece that I shared last week, I painted over its original yellow paint color.

This next piece is another one where I painted over the original paint …

mainly because the inside was a dark red, and the outside a really dingy cream color.  I just didn’t love it.

It turned out super adorable in a new color scheme though, and it sold quickly.

Here’s another hutch that I painted up.

I really wasn’t in love with those colors on that vintage wallpaper liner, but it was so perfectly vintage that I left it along and just painted the rest of the piece.  This one sold quickly as well, so someone must have loved it.

I’m not quite sure that this next one really counts as a miniature piece of furniture, but it definitely has the same flavor so I thought I’d include it.  This is another one that sold quickly, and who can be surprised by that?  Anyone can use an adorable button box to contain all of their mending supplies.

I’m not sure that this next one counts as a mini-dresser either, it’s more of a little storage box-ish thing really.  But I’m including it anyway.

I guess I can include anything I want to here, right?  It’s my blog, and I’ll post what I want to 😉

Anyway, that’s another one that I sold so that someone else could enjoy it in their own non-collection!

So how about, which one of these was your favorite.  Be sure to let me know in a comment.

good things come in small packages.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

My picker, Sue, knows me so well.  I’m sure as soon as she saw this tiny dresser she snatched it up for me.

Especially when she saw the price tag, which was $1.50.

I’m sure that there are some vintage lovers out there who would have preferred that I left it in its original yellow paint job (and P.S., that photo does not do the color justice, it was a bright yellow).  And I do agree that it has a certain aged charm about it.

But I tend to paint stuff.  In case you haven’t noticed.

So I cleaned it up, gave it a quick sand and then painted the insides of the drawers using a dark charcoal grey spray paint (because it’s quick and easy).  Then I painted the exterior in two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

To dress it up I added some wording from re.design with prima’s Paris Valley transfer.

I had to move things around a bit to avoid the knobs.  Seeing as I don’t actually speak French, I don’t know if the order I’ve put things in makes any sense at all.  French speakers everywhere are probably rolling their eyes.

But I think it’s pretty darn adorable.

I lined the drawers with some more October Afternoon scrapbook paper.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, October Afternoon was a local company here in the Twin Cities and they have been out of business for a while now.  You can sometimes still find inventory left over from various online retailers though.

I used to stock up at their annual warehouse sales, so I have a lot of their paper on hand still.  Since I rarely scrapbook anymore, I’m always happy to find other uses for it.  This particular design is from their 9 to 5 collection.

I staged this one up simply with my mini camera, a small photo and a little book.

That little book is a birthday reminder book.  It is inscribed to my grandmother from her grandmother on January 2, 1912.  My grandmother was born in 1898, so she would have been 13 at the time.

I’m fairly sure it must be in Norwegian, since that particular great, great, grandmother of mine was from Norway.

My grandmother must not have kept up the book, because I’m not listed on November 22.  For that matter, my mother isn’t listed on her birthday either.  Maybe my grandma didn’t need to be reminded of those 😉

This little dresser could be used to house all sorts of tiny treasures; jewelry, a coin collection, scrapbook supplies, mending supplies, etc, etc.

After all, good things come in small packages.

For now I think I’m going to add this little charmer to my own collection (or should I say non-collection?) of mini furniture.  I just need to find a spot for it somewhere!

a tiny dresser.

Published on by Quandie19 Comments

When I returned to the office at my day job after my recent trip, I found this waiting for me on my desk.  My picker/co-worker Sue had picked it up for me at an estate sale while I was gone.

Nothing special to look at ‘as is’ really, it was definitely in need of a makeover.

I didn’t get a photo of the insides of the drawers, but they were lined with green felt.  So, I removed the green felt and then immediately painted the outside in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

Then I picked out some pretty scrapbook paper to use for lining the drawers.

Once I’d chosen the paper, I also chose another Dixie Belle paint color to paint the insides of the drawers, Vintage Duck Egg.  I thought it worked beautifully with that blue ribbon on the paper.

Once everything was painted, I sanded to distress the edges and then I pulled out some transfer scraps to add some personality to the outside too.

I used a combination of bits from the IOD Label Ephemera transfer and from the Tim Holtz Specimen rub-on’s (the butterflies and the numbers on the knobs).

Once I had the transfers on, I added a top coat of clear wax.

I used my tiny camera and an old family photo displayed in a vintage flower frog to stage my photos.

In case the scale of this piece isn’t coming across at all, this little dresser is only 7″ tall and 6″ wide.

Using this little piece as a jewelry box is the most obvious choice.

But I think it would also work well to store smaller craft supplies, like your washi tape.

Or maybe your metallic waxes …

It might also work well on your desk holding all of those pesky office supplies like post it note pads and paper clips.

It would make a unique container no matter what you choose to store inside of it.

This tiny dresser is for sale, in case any of you locals are interested (check out my available for local sale page for details).

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying the paint used on today’s project.

tiny cupboard update.

Published on by Quandie32 Comments

As you know, I have a fondness for tiny pieces of ‘furniture’.  I purchased this little cupboard at a garage sale quite a few years ago.  It was actually the first piece I ever painted in Miss Mustard Seeds milk paint.

That color is Eulalie’s Sky.

But then a little over a year ago I decided to unify all of my tiny pieces by painting them all white using Homestead House milk paint in Limestone.

I managed to break the glass in the door when I did that, so I replaced it with window screening.  I have to say that I kinda prefer the screening.

Then recently I swapped out the metal knobs on this one for some small glass knobs from D Lawless.  More for practical reasons than anything else, those metal knobs were sort of cobbled on with glue and they kept falling off.  I keep my chalk in the upper drawer of this little cupboard, so I need the drawer to be functional.

So that brings us to ‘before no. 2’.

Then recently I became slightly obsessed with one of the Iron Orchid Designs (IOD) transfers called Le Petit Rosier.

For those of you who are confused when it comes to IOD transfers, here’s the scoop.  Originally IOD partnered with Prima Marketing to design some transfers such as my absolute favorite, the Seeds transfer …

So there is an entire line of Prima Marketing transfers that were designed by IOD.  But then IOD branched out on their own and now have a line of transfers that are not from Prima Marketing.  Le Petit Rosier is one of them.  When you are searching for a place to buy IOD transfers, make sure you specify if you are looking for the older Prima Marketing line designed by IOD, or the newer IOD line of transfers.

After trying to resist buying any of the new IOD transfers (because I have a backlog of Prima Marketing transfers to work with), I finally caved a couple of weeks ago and ordered a few online.  La Petit Rosier comes in two sizes, so I ordered two of the smaller ones and one of the bigger ones.  Then I did this goofy thing that I tend to do, I ‘saved’ them for ‘just the right project’.  I call it goofy because obviously I could always order more when ‘just the right project’ comes along if I’ve already used these.  It’s not like I can’t ever get any more of them.

So rather than wait for just the right project to show up, I wandered around my house looking for something I could put one of these transfers on.  That led me to my tiny cupboard.

Only about half of the smaller sized transfer fit on the front (which explains why I originally felt it wasn’t quite ‘the perfect project’ for it).

But dang!  It’s adorable!  And I can always use the bottom half of the transfer on something else.

I love how the glass knobs allow the transfer to be the star of the show.

I did have some floral scrapbook paper lining the inside of the cupboard and the drawers before, but I switched that out for some French papers.  My friend Terri gave me this set of French ephemera for my birthday a few years ago.

Once again, I was ‘saving’ it for the perfect project when I could have been using it for any number of things.  What is wrong with me?

When I went through the things included in the packet of ephemera I found this French religious medal, so I hung that from the cupboard door.

After adding some little pieces of ironstone on the shelves, my tiny camera added the perfect final touch.

For now this little cupboard is on the shelf over the radiator at the foot of the stairs where I can admire it every time I go up or down.

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out.  Not that I didn’t love it before, but sometimes it’s fun to switch things up.

What do you think?