My First Needlepoint Experience

One of my new year's resolutions is to learn how to needlepoint. I didn't want to start on a miniature scale, so instead, I bought myself a plastic canvas and used some yarn to make a coaster. I used an image I found online for the pattern, and here it is.

Needlepoint Coaster

I got the hang of needlepointing, so I got my first needlepoint kit and started working on it. It is a beautiful humming bird design which is printed on the canvas with all the threads included.

Half way there!

This is my progress so far and I'm at a half way point.  I'm realizing how tedious and time consuming needlepoint is!

The humming bird is a complex design with more colors involved compared to the coaster, so I find it quite challenging. I have to think ahead on which colors to stitch first, so I can securely stitch the colors that have only few stitches. Even though, I was extremely careful, I still managed to miss some stitches. :-(

Close up

This is how the back looks and I'm not even sure if it's supposed to look like this.  Does it even matter how it looks on the back? Anyway, thinking of doing this in miniature scale seems more daunting than I initially thought!

The back.

I hope everyone is keeping up with their new years resolutions! Have a great week!

1/144 Scale Gingerbread Mansion is Complete!

After much studying this weekend for my school exam, and with no work, I had the rest of the Monday afternoon and evening to work on my Gingerbread Mansion and I finally finished it!

1/144 Scale Gingerbread Mansion!

The porch and the balcony was no problem, but the roof was tricky. I had to make sure the glue was invisible, however it was impossible for this one part of the roof which had an issue with the fitting. I struggled with it, so I got glue everywhere and now it looks messy and ugly. But the good thing is that you can't see it from the front.

Close up.

Back of the house, next to a quarter.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how it turned out!

The primary green platform is not very appealing, so I definitely will do something with it. I want to do some landscaping on it, but I have no idea what to do. Do you guys have any suggestions? Also, where would be a great place to look for landscaping stuff in this scale? Any info will be greatly appreciated! :-)

Thanks for reading everyone! Also I want to welcome all of my new followers! Have a great week!

Gingerbread Mansion Update

Woohoo! An update on my 1/144 scale gingerbread mansion!

This is what I've done: I've put all the walls and the floors, the railing added to the second floor, and the stairs installed. It's looking more like a house now.

Here is a bird view before I placed the attic floor, so you can see the staircase:

When I was putting up the second floor, some how the kit was not fitting in place, which caused the floor to bend. I was puzzled, because everything else was fitting nicely. I had to cut the slot wider to make the floor flat, which worked (thank goodness!). However, the wall papers were no longer lined up to the floor. It was too late to redo the wall papers, so I was thinking how to fix the problem. Then, *light bulb!* I cut thin strips of white paper and glued them along the bottom edges of the walls to resemble skirt moulding. They perfectly covered the imperfection and I love the look! I wish I had thought of this earlier so I could've done the first floor walls.

Now I have the roof, porch, and the balcony left to do.

Also, I started a Facebook page for Crafter's Delights! Please visit and like the page! I would feel so loved! Thanks!

Click on the logo!

Thanks for reading everyone! Happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend!

Miniature Mouse

Hi everyone!  I finished crocheting my miniature mouse wearing a purple dress. Her name is Clara, and she's 34 mm tall when standing, while 24 mm tall when sitting. Her dress was challenging to make, but it was well worth it. I absolutely love the added ruffles with the white trimming. Plus, purple is one of my favorite colors! Available for sell here.

Hello friends! My name is Clara!

I also love how her legs are turned in and pigeon toed; it make her extra cute and girly.

She even has a tail!

Thanks for reading everyone and I would like to send a warm welcome to my new followers!
Also, don't forget to join my giveaway! It ends on 2/14/12 on V-day.

Thanks for reading!

100 Followers Giveaway!

Hi Friends! The time has come for my 100 followers giveaway!  Wow, now I have over 100 followers! I'm very grateful to have so many wonderful people reading my blog! Thank you so much everyone! I definitely feel the love from everyone who comments on my blog!

Giveaway Prize!
*Note: Ring holder is for display only. Not included in the Prize

The winner will receive the following items; all made with love by yours truly :-)

Hello Kitty charm made with Swarovski crystals. Perfect on a cell phone or a purse!

Fashionable Colorful button ring embellished with Swarovski rhinestone.

Miniature Crochet bear named Cookie. He needs a new loving home!

All participant must follow these super easy rules:

1. Be or become my follower with the Google friend connect on the side bar of my blog. This is pretty important, so please don't forget.
2. Post my giveaway on your blog (preferably on the side bar with photo). If you don't have a blog, you can post it on other social networking sites (facebook, twitter, tumblr, etc). Just make sure to send me the link so I can see it.
3. Comment on this post to let me know to count you in!

Deadline is 2/14/12 on V-day at 12 am USA time and I will do a random drawing to announce the lucky winner! Good luck everyone and have fun!

Evolution of Miniature Teddy Bears

Adding two new friends to the miniature teddy bear family. Meet Cookie and Mocha.

Hello everyone! Meet Cookie and Mocha!

Cookie is 38 mm tall when standing and 30 mm when sitting. On the other hand, Mocha is 34 mm tall when standing and 22mm when sitting.  Only 4 mm height difference because of Mocha's long legs, but Mocha is about 25 % smaller than Cookie.

Cookie

Mocha

Below is a photo of all of my bears lined up in the order that I made, and they're getting smaller and smaller. Also, I'm getting better at making them too, so I thought  it would be fun to call it "the evolution of miniature teddy bears"!

Evolution!

I'm glad to say that I'm getting a hang of crocheting in such small scale using only 0.6 mm crochet needle, but I still find it to be challenging and I still get frustrated at times. I've recently purchased some smaller hooks with 0.4 mm being the smallest. You have to literally put it right in front of your eyes to actually see the hook; it's that small and it looks so daunting! But I'm determined to make a smaller teddy bear using this sized crochet needle some day. I'm still working my way up there, so wish me luck!

0.4 mm crochet needle!

Before ending this post, I want to bring a warm welcome to my new followers! I'm so grateful that people find my blog interesting enough to follow! We are also getting close to my 100 follower giveaway!! Have a great week everyone!

Update on the Gingerbread Mansion

I apologize for such a late update on my gingerbread mansion. I got  a little side tracked from all the holiday shenanigans and other craft projects.

Since the last post where I hit a few bumps, this time, things are going smoothly.

First, I finished the wallpapers which turned out quite nicely. I also sprayed the wood floors with super glossy finish so they're nice and shiny. However, it ruined my tile floor so I had to change it to this. I actually like it better because it has a better contrast, so I'm glad it happened.

Shiny floor and a new tile floor.

I glued all the corner moulding and started gluing the walls together. I tried my best to fix the warping here and it worked!! Instead of wood glue, I used tacky glue, since it's stickier and thought it will hold the walls better.

Walls are up!

I finished painting the balcony, patio floors, and the patio steps. I also glued the railings to the second flight of stairs.

Stairs with railings added.

As I was working on my house, my sister made a comment about the color scheme that destroyed me with thoughts! She said the colors remind her of a Barbie's dream house! Ever since she said that, the house started to look more and more like a Barbie's dream house to me.......oh dear...

Barbie's dream house???

New Furniture, Mini Afghan Blanket, and 2012

My new 1/24 scale furniture for my Fairfield I got from my mom and my sister for Christmas! They're perfect and I love them so very much!

 The Dining set.

I want to reupholster the chairs since I don't like the fabric. I'm going to take a bold step forward and reupholster them with some needlepoint fabric, which means I gotta learn how to do it first! It will be #3 on my new years resolution list for 2012: learn how to needlepoint. This is going to be interesting ;-)

 The white bed set.

The bed set goes very well with this room. This room may be my favorite; very shabby chic! I even crochet a 1/2 scale afghan blanket to go with the bed!

Used a continuous granny square pattern. Super easy!

Since 2012 has approached, I want to take a moment to look back at 2011. It was a great and a fast year for me. It was the year when my obsession with miniatures started, the year when I finished building my first dollhouse, and the year when I learned how to crochet.  It's also the year I started this blog, so it's definitely a special year to me. I know there is going to be many challenges ahead, but I'm looking forward to the year 2012!

Wishing everyone's year 2012 to be filled with good health and success! Thank you for following and reading my blog!

Winner of my First Giveaway!

Happy New year everyone! Today is the day for my giveaway!

First of all, I want to thank everyone for participating on my very first giveaway! It was really fun.  As I promised, I did a random drawing for the winner using a number generator.

And here it is...the lucky winner is...drum roll please......

Maria Ireland!

Congratulations! Please claim your prize by contacting me with your postage info. My contact info is located on the upper left tab. Again, thank you everyone! I promise to do another giveaway once I reach 100 followers. I hope that's something to look forward to!