Miniatures with Helping Hands Craft

A couple of weeks ago Dave from Helping Hands Craft reached out to me and asked if I'd like to do a collaboration. I am always crafting something - or at least attempting to! - so it sounded like a perfect match up. A lovely goody bag arrived in the post a few days later, now it was time to see what I could make from it. :D

When crafting in miniature the three things you can't do without are paper, glue and scissors. From there you'll want to branch out into fabrics, paints, embellishments, etc, but those are your base elements. This meant I had a really good selection of basics and extras to work with. 

There were a few bits I put aside for a full scale craft project - expect to see something with that wood slice and leaves gracing the blog in the near future - then I got my thinking cap on...

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ART

Much as I wish I was, I'm no great artist. But even for the artistically challenged there is plenty of scope to be creative in miniature...

I used some craft lollipop sticks, glue, and paper to make a 1/6 scale child's easel. To make the whiteboard part I cut up the clear plastic pouch the brushes came in and stuck it to some white paper = one super simple wipe clean surface. For the blackboard side I just stuck some black paper in place. Then I used some plain white paper for the kiddy painting. 

To actually paint I used a pair of wire cutters to strip the plastic off a colourful paperclip. Then I cut a few bristles from one of the craft brushes and glued them into the tube. That done, I just cut the bristles to size. Hey presto, working miniature paintbrush.

The frames leaning against the side of the cot were made from craft matchsticks, paint, and glue. One picture is the paper backing from the brush pouch which had a cool circle design, another is a scrap of wallpaper and a letter slip from a Smiggle pencil case, and the third is about as good as my sketching gets. The 'glass' in the frames was more of that plastic pouch, cut to size.

I made the notebook on the floor by cutting some paper to size, folding the pieces in half, then sewing them together to give it a threadbound look. The stickers were made by gluing a picture to a sticker, then using a hole punch. All you need to do then is peel and stick.

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CARD MAKING

Basically, any card you can make in full scale you can miniaturize - providing you have the patience!! I must confess that I, er, do not. I did have a go at a tiny pop up card. Then accidentally stood on it... So here you have a super simple card made from paper, markers, glue and a star.

I also made the noticeboard from a cork backed coaster, glue, and lots of little cut outs from magazines, etc... I made another with an aceo frame I had lying around. The knight figures on top are from the Micro Playmobil castle set.

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FURNITURE

Over to the very much work in progress 1/12 scale house now for some more miniatures. I mixed the glue with some water, tore up an egg carton, and paper mâchéd it to a sample vinyl floor tile glued to a rectangle of packaging polystyrene. I still need to finish it off with paints and top coat, but I'm already pretty pleased with my faux stone fireplace wall. 

In the main bedroom I glued some scrap bits of wood together to make a dressing table. In the mirror you can see the 'fitted' wardrobes I made from plastic coated foamboard - the rail is a thin straw glued in place with the help of a couple of Hamma beads.

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JEWELLERY

Those little wooden stars were just begging to be turned into doll jewellery. I got out my metallic marker pens to colour them in, then glued one to a small jump ring to make a ring. The necklace was the tag chain off a Smiggle pencil case glued to a bigger star. 

For the headband I first tried a paper clip, but the Rainbow High head is a lot bigger than your standard Barbie doll. Out came the craft wire instead, to which I glued some more stars.

I'm going to make some human sized earrings from the stars too. I've got some plastic earring posts on their way, so then it'll just be a case of gluing them on.

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OTHER

This section is a bit of a cheat in that I didn't make this stuff myself... But it does show how much you can make from just a small range of materials. This is my mum's latest project. When we visited I snapped a photo of this photo backdrop room made from a shoebox. The textured walls are made from tissue paper glued to the box and then painted. The plant pots are glue lids partly wrapped with string. The plants themselves are just paper cut to size and coloured with felt tip pens.

My mum has way more crafting patience than myself. I like small, self-contained projects. My mum just made Marianna a whole doll house from little more than scissors, paper and glue. Go mum!

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GIVEAWAY

If you fancy having a go at making some miniatures of your own, fill out the Gleam widget below for your chance to win a mini craft hamper. It has a mix of embellishments, papers, a cute little Jane Harrop miniature toy fort kit, plus a whole lot more. :)

Mini Craft Hamper

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