Popping Popcorn

I met new friends at the Philadelphia Miniaturia show 2 weeks ago. (Show was amazing for anyone interested -- multiple rooms of vendors! Well worth the time and hotel room to fully see everything.) One of my new friends mentioned she saw a popcorn string to hang on a Christmas tree: the kind with cranberries strung in between each popcorn kernel. And I remembered that was one of my "to do" list projects. So using my new friends as an excuse to not feel guilty about playing with miniatures, I "popped" right into mini mode and decided to make us some.

The popcorn I had made last year (Post of first popcorn I made) wasn't going to be enough for my project, never mind being enough for both my new friend and me. So, I got to work making more popcorn. Mixed about 3 parts white FIMO clay with 1 part translucent. Added a tiny dot of yellow and created my skinny snake to pinch pieces off of. Rolled hundreds of little balls, some got indented/poked with a needle, and then 2 or 3 were stuck together to create a "popped" kernel:

One round, one indented

Pushed 2 rounded together and the indented one is on top

My little popped kernel

Roughly 1/16"

My army of kernels (colonels? Lol)

Dusted a few with some darker brown chalk to resemble burn marks but you can't really see it

Then I had to "string" them. The cranberries were easy; they are beads. But the miniature popcorn had to be glued onto the strand. Plus I need the string to be flexible so it can be put on any tree (or garland or where ever my friend will put hers) so I can't just glue the kernels to the cranberry beads. First attempt was on nylon invisible thread. Big mistake. I could hardly see it to glue the popcorn in place. Plus it was very rigid. So I quickly switched to white thread and that worked great.

Threaded the beads on but glued the kernel to the thread allowed for the flexibility I'd need!

Friend's 2 foot long strand has been mailed to her and now I'm working on my shorter strands to go in to my miniature Christmas scene.

2 foot long strand

Up close

Still flexible!

But before I can work on my christmas scene, I have to first deconstruction/spray paint/renovate my childhood dollhouse into a witch's home!

Memories Before the Demolition (Artply Rutherford)

The Artply Rutherford was my first wooden dollhouse. I had received a TOMY plastic dollhouse when I was 5 years old, but the only real memory I have of it was that the dishwasher had a rack you could pull in and out: that detail blew my 5-year-old brain. But this was my first assembled "from wood sheets that you punch the pieces out of" kit (aka tab-and-slot kit). My mother bought me the kit when I was 13. I don't think she expected me to do much with it; probably assumed I'd lose interest part way thru assembling it and she'd have various wooden pieces laying around her basement. But I assembled the shell that first weekend and then spent the next 7 years, on and off, finishing it.

There's supposed to be a little porch roof over the 2nd story French doors that I obviously lost or couldn't figure out when assembling, but ultimately that will work out better for my future plans for this house...Anyway, 13- to 20-year-old me made a lot of mistakes. I was still learning. 

Overall view of interior

Some things I'm impressed I did: second story stair railing wasn't abandoned like all the other stair railings were, windows have their interior trims in place (some of them even painted to coordinate to the room), the bathroom door is on a hinge! Other things bother me to no end: tower railing is off center, didn't use proper glue for wallpapers, painted after house was assembled...the list goes on but you get the idea.

Painting after assembly means lots of paint where it doesn't belong, like on the porch floor

Some window trims didn't get painted on the sides cuz I glued trim on before painting them and I didn't want to risk getting the trim paint on the house

Many warped shingles - used the wrong glue

Broke original front door and 20-year-old me replaced it with this Houseworks door that unfortunately makes transom window above look like a gaping hole

2nd Story doors also got replaced - better fit, but why are knobs halfway up on all my doors? LOL

Very impressed hinges still work, but again, knobs are in place for the 9-ft tall people who live in this house. LOL

Has bugged me for a while that railing on tower is off center. Didn't bother me enough to do anything about it though.

My stained fingerprints left marks on the white wallpaper while installing the trim in this room

For some reason I didn't paint the ceilings in this house? (Also can see my awful streaky glue job on the wallpaper to the left there.)

I love the play room in this house, but using Elmers glue to attach wallpaper was the completely wrong thing for 14- or 15-year-old me to do! Every single glue streak is seen.

And several years ago, I thought about selling off the house, or even donating it, to make room for my ever-growing hobby. I had long since outgrown the house. I liked some of the accessories and the kitchen cabinets were very nice, however the rest of the furniture and decor wasn't really my style any more. But I didn't follow thru with getting rid of it because of the number of customers who came into my shop lamenting that they didn't keep their first dollhouse. And, technically this was my first dollhouse (my first wooden dollhouse and the first house I assembled). So I kept it, gathering dust and cobwebs, in the basement.  I am so glad I did keep it: because I'm renovating it into a spooky, not-quite-haunted-but-rocking-some-unearthly-vibes, witch's home. This project will barely be started on Halloween, but I had to at least start the process in October, right? That's kismet or something.

Summer Strawberries (CREATE Class with Sun Lemmens)

I took a NAME (National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts) CREATE class taught by Sun Lemmens of Nalladris. It was a Strawberry Cart class. First, we would assemble the cart and then paint all the items to go on the cart.

Assembling the wooden pieces...

Photo courtesy of my friend Julie who was also taking the class, better organized than me, and remembered to take pics

By the end of the first class this was as far as I had gotten:

Because of course I couldn't just assemble the cart as pictured:

Looks cute, but lets really strawberry it up!

I saw the opportunity to take this cart to the next level and got strawberry pattern fabric for the awning (which of course didn't arrive in time for class day) and I wanted to paint my wheels black but the black paint didn't dry in time to assemble them during class. During the week I finished up my wheel painting. And struggled with the fabric awning.

Thank heavens it was gluing and not sewing!

Wheels and awning on; just awaiting trims!

Wheels done and shadowboxing trim is on the front of the cart

Loving my strawberry flowers I painted on the wheel axels

Cart was finally complete and ready for the goodies! For that class we needed to prime all the 3D printed items that would go on the cart and then paint them. 

Again, photo courtesy of my better organized friend, Julie

What a difference priming makes! The details really began to pop out! (I actually remembered to take the next two photos! Just forgot the overall "before" photo of all the pieces we'd be painting.)

Detailing on the teacups really stands out now

Cake strawberries look less like sugar lumps once primed

It was a tedious process using the smallest paint brush I owned, but it was also fun. Steps to painting the waffle desserts:

Step 1: Primed

Step 2: painted waffles

Step 3: Paint strawberries on top and in the whipped cream filling

Step 4: add greenery to strawberries on top

Hand-painting the design on the teapot was cute, but on the smaller teacups and sugar bowl/creamer I was going cross-eyed trying to see what I was painting! (I have since bought a tool that holds the object while I paint it looking thru a magnifying glass. So I'm prepared for whatever future classes I take!)

Painting the teapot

Whole set finished

This was my first time using glass paint and I love the translucent look it gives to clear 3D printed objects!

Lemonade pitcher and glasses look so berry-utiful!

My milkshakes will bring no one to the yard because they will not be put on the cart (who would buy a milkshake off of a cart in the summer? Glass of melted ice cream, anyone?). I adore how they look, but I struggle to suspend that much reality for my miniatures (yes, many of my shop/restaurants have no bathrooms or kitchens and I can overlook that, but ice cream being sold outside in the open summer air? Nope, can't handle that. LOL) So, they will not be going on the cart -- they will be put in my 1950s Malt Shop.

My kids loved those pirouette cookies - so glad they are in these milkshakes!

Of course, I recall that I have an ice cream cart somewhere in my collection. Maybe I could put that by the Strawberry Cart and that would explain the milkshakes being on the cart: it was a crossover from the ice cream business!

Almost complete (real life strawberry for scale):

I am adding a few items to the cart. I needed to make strawberries for the empty baskets in the photo above (did you even notice 2 baskets were empty?). I broke out the Sculpty and started rolling and fussing...

Strawberry field

Not the most realistic, but they'll do...

Made some on "vines" so that I can make a strawberry plant or two to also be sold on the cart.

Some of these turned out very well - I'm berry excited about it

Filled up my extra baskets. They are not the best but from a distance they're pretty good!

Added some jam jars (by Elizabitzies; Elizabitzies Etsy Shop) and I'm still waiting on some chocolate covered strawberries (by CSpykersMiniatures; CSpykersMiniatures Etsy Shop) and now I feel like it's "done" (or as done as any of our miniature projects are - I still need to make and add the strawberry plants). Will add this to my goat-pulled honey cart and ice cream cart and have a little summer farmers market scene happening!

Milkshakes that may or may not end up on the cart

Empty white platter is for the chocolate dipped strawberries

Cute sign by Elizabitzies

Love the bunny in the strawberry patch below

My goodies on a tiered platter (all from class)

Whole cart, from the front, overall

Whole cart, from the back, overall (restock storage underneath; hope to find a little cashbox to put back there too)