December 10, 2014

    MERRY CHRISTMAS 2014!

By Christine Verstraete

I'm thrilled to again participate in this wonderful Advent calendar.

This year I'll share part of a project I recently finished. Well, they are never really finished, are they? 

Welcome to the Half Scale (1/24th)  Country House! This is going to be a stone house in the country. It's still in progress but I'm getting close. (You can see some in-progress photos at my blog.) The stone in front is now nearly painted and I am working on painting the stone walks, but for now we'll set that aside - it's Christmas!

The attic is all decorated for Christmas. Oh, won't the children just love that giant giraffe toy?

The visit is extra-special as this is Grandma's house. She loves welcoming the grandchildren for a visit and goes all out to make sure the children enjoy the holidays. She even makes sure their beds are all decorated for Christmas so they'll have sweet dreams - about sugarplums and Santa's visit, of course!

Grandma even hangs charming Christmas art on the walls to inspire the grandchildren's dreams.

Grandmother is a crafty soul and loves putting her own personal touch on her home and decorations like the Christmas screen featuring old-fashioned Santas with a glittery finish. (Warning: use glitter, wear glitter. ha! I like using the glitter glues to make it a little less messy!) The back is covered with a simple Christmas paper.

  ** To make your own screen, here is a great place to get free vintage Santa art - Vintage Holiday Crafts.com.

  * The screen is a simpler version of the screen pattern from my book, In Miniature Style II, which includes over 40 how-to projects plus photos and profiles of other miniaturists and their work. (ebook, PDF and print) The book's screen how-to has a unique wood base and house-style roof, also made of wood pieces The patterns are in 1-inch-scale (1/12th) and half scale. (1/24th).  (There is a photo of a Valentine style screen, plus all links, on my website page.)

** You can also make a similar style screen instead using vintage Christmas cards.

 ** I love the old cards! Here's a cute array of animal and other Christmas cards at Vintage Holiday Crafts.com. (I shrunk the images below. Right click to save and they will come up the right size.)

Another fun idea is putting the cards in a bowl on a table, or as I did here, create a stringer of cards to hang on the wall or across the fireplace opening by gluing cards to a decorative braid or string. (Just make sure you don't hang one upside down as I did the first time. ha!)

I hope you enjoyed visiting Grandmother's little house in the country! I plan on adding more photos to the website and blog as I get the house done, so be sure to check there.   (I have to finish painting the stone, then add flower boxes and shutters, along with gardens. I'm off to order more plant kits, my belated birthday gift, Dec. 7!) 

You can also send me an email at the website contact page and sign up for my (very) sporadic newsletter with news of my writing and miniatures. I plan on actually finishing more things in 2015, and also am toying with a short project booklet! So stay tuned!

Merry Christmas and the best in 2015 to you and your family! 

Go back to the advent_calendar_2014 . 

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