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!

Tutorial: Paper Doilies

I have been spending some time at bf's office, trying to set up my website, http://snowfern.com...but since I get easily distracted, I wound up spending more time catching up to my favourite mini blogs. It has certainly been a loooong while since I've caught up to the latest mini trends, and what with two of my fave Japanese blogs (Nunu's House and Megumini) featuring beautiful lace doilies, I decided to attempt some of my own.

Of course, my attempts are juvenile compared to their works, but I thought to share what I'd learnt and figured out with the help of online resources (love you, Google!).

This link taught me the basics, and how to make plastic templates, but I am still figuring how best to utilize them:
http://www.theartfulcrafter.com/paper-pricking.html

This one I found extremely useful too, for the variations in hole sizes:
http://www.gemscottage.com/Projects-Paper_Piercing_Tips.html

The basic principles hold for pin pricking in miniature, scaling down means scaling down the needle sizes, thickness of papers and learning how best to hold the mini papers, which meant I had to fiddle about for about 4 days at the office before coming up with the following tutorial. Please remember that these are simply recommendations by me, and how I work. I will greatly appreciate comments and suggestions on how to further improve these techniques :)

OK! Time for the tutorial!

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PREPARATION WORK

I initially thought it would be costly, what with P*rgamano tools (a famous paper piercing tool brand) costing upwards of USD$10 per tool -_-" That and the needles were a little too thick for 1:12 scale. SO I MADE MY OWN! woot woot! And you can too, so simple!

Craft knife

Needle (stainless steel)

Clipper/Wire Nipper

Clip the needle to about 1inch, or shorter. Be careful so it does not fly into your eye, or elsewhere to be discovered only when someone steps or sits on it :X hold on to both ends, and try and avoid hurting yourself.

 My Daiso craft knife cinches together rather snugly, so the fine needle is held rather well in the centre of the crosshairs.

However if your craft knife is like this older one I have, then simply position the needle off to the side, making sure that it is snug and will not wiggle too much.

There you have it! your own needle tool :D You can also use thicker needles to vary the size of the holes, or if you're up for it, put a few needles together in a row or pattern for triangles or crosses. Play around with it!

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YOU WILL NEED:

1-inch scalloped edge punch (pictured is EK Success brand from a scrapbook store)

OR

1-inch circle punch (pictured is Carla Craft from a scrapbook store)

OR

Circle template (pictured from Daiso)

Pin pricking tool

Low tack adhesive tape

Scissors

Packing material (the translucent foam sheets used to pack plates in) or other 'soft' material to provide padding to prick into

Cutting mat

Paper, 80gsm printing paper, or 70gsm pastel coloured papers 

Save the above pattern onto your computer, or print it directly off your browser onto 80gsm paper (or of your choice).

For this cake doily project, print it at its original size. This pattern was made to use with a 1-inch scallop paper punch that I have (shown below), but can also be used with a normal 1-inch circle punch.

Fold the paper. I folded it till about 5cm widths. Keep folding until you get a 'fan'.

Place the folded 'fan' onto the padding material, and work on a cutting mat so you don't ruin your table :P

Use your other hand to hold down the papers, and your main hand to prick through the design perpendicular to the table. 

You can hold the paper up to the light to check if you've missed any holes (you can see this pic for example, I missed one dot).

Finished!

Admire your work! :P ok but seriously, I would recommend punching the papers 2 at a time if your punch is blunt like mine :X You can sharpen your punches with aluminum foil (or google for how to care for your punches). I did, but I sorta ruined them when trying to punch plastic (don't do it :~( )

Align the design to your punch. PUNCH!

If you don't have a punch, then use your circle template, and draw a circle, and cut using scissors.

WAIT! Don't throw away your template yet! You can continue using the same piece of paper and template to make more! Simply stick a piece of low tack adhesive tape onto a section of paper further down (up?) and keep going!

You can also vary the design by omitting or adding more pricks to the template :)

Or, align the scallop edged cutter a little differently, to get a different design!

I have made a few other designs, and will offer plastic templates up for sale if anyone is interested :) Will update soon-ish!

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TIPS:

- Insert the needle into the papers vertically for neatest results

- I personally find that a piece of low-tack, clear adhesive tape makes it easier to prick through the template without the sharp needle 'snagging' onto the paper

- Try not to align the design too close to the edge of the paper, especially if you are using a punch

- Do not use too many papers (folds) at one time, you might snap your needle and hurt yourself

COPYRIGHT STUFF:

You may use the above doily template for both personal and commercial projects. Please do not distribute or modify the doily template. If you wish to share this tutorial, I would appreciate links back to this post http://snowfern-clover.blogspot.com/2011/03/tutorial-paper-doilies.html but it's not absolutely necessary. Please do NOT copy or modify this tutorial in any way, thanks for reading :) 

I hope you have found this tutorial useful, comment if you have! :D :D :D