1:12 Caladium hortulanum

 the weather in Singapore has been really warm lately, and thus dampened my enthusiasm for making clay minis. so i decided to work with materials that did not melt in my hands :P

next to Eva's cute little acorn house!

i found a wonderful plant tutorial quite a long time ago, and tucked it away in my bookmarks for until i could find a way to incorporate it into whatever project that would call for greenery. you know how you would print out little projects that you hope to get to 'some day'? i have quite a number of folders of stuff like that :P for those who might want to add another project to that folder (if you haven't already!) you can find it here:

http://les-miniatures-de-victoria.oldiblog.com/?page=articles&rub=212034&nba=3

googletranslate was a great help, and i did manage to get them out within half a day (with plenty of distractions of course, courtesy of a little four-legged 'helper'). initially i was going to finish them with a satin varnish, but initial results looked too plasticky to my taste, so i switched to matte and i think they look pretty good! i don't really like round pots, prefer angular stuff so i picked out a Re-ment planter from the home centre series and used it :)

in case you were wondering what i printed it on, i used a regular old 80 gsm copy paper, but would much prefer something thinner, and set to best photo quality setting for matte papers. the instructions are pretty self-explanatory, plenty of pictures are in the tutorial!

* forgot to add earlier that i did run a green pen down the sides of the leaves to hide the white paper, i think it makes a world of difference! oh and of course that i crinkled up the paper too before i varnished it....

i'm not sure why, although i do like flowers in a 'please don't buy me flowers i prefer them in the field' kind of way, i would much prefer a beautiful green plant. i remember learning about poisonous house plants way back in primary/elementary school science, and caladiums really stuck in my mind. firstly, for the way it rolls off the tongue, and then because they just look....so happy! i really like the shapes of them, and the colours. if ever i were to own a plant (*snort* it's amazing i kept my dog fed and watered daily as it is, and she has to remind me) i would probably pick a hardy green leafy one, like these :) just don't let the kids touch it!

i hope this planter will brighten up my nook a little. going off to try and do a little 'mini-baking' now that the weather's a little cooler today :) hope you enjoyed my little show-and-tell!