Tom Bishop's Chicago International Dollhouse Show 2012

What a Show! This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to go to one of the greatest Miniature Shows on Earth. It was the Tom Bishop's International Show 2012 in Chicago. I missed last year's show and was so disappointed because I love to see what new items different artisans have created over the past 12 months for this show.

It's a Great time for many artisans to show off their talents on so many different categories in miniature. Some make custom lights fixtures, animals, furniture, buildings, flowers, even stained glass and pots and pans.

What makes this show so unique from the others is the items. You can easily find lights to light your dollhouse, but artisan hand create these lights and they can look so much like a real light fixture in your full sized home, that when you look at the picture, it will have you guessing, "is it real"? Even the animals, carpets, furniture, flowers and houses can just leave you in awe.

Well, I took some pictures but, I am so sorry to say that I got so wrapped up with talking to people that I have only talked to online or friends I haven't seen in years, that I found myself stopped at their table and I forget to take pictures of their wonderful items. I'm sorry about that and promise to do better next time. I was so excited to just be there.

Of course my first stop was to see Rik & Marcia Pierce. I learned from Rik how to do the stones in paperclay and have taken several classes over the years with him. I had such fun stopping by and chatting and talking with both Rik  and his wife. It's so fun to get a view of her new items. The one below, is incomplete. The insides is not finished. Some of the rooms has not been started on at all and other room are not painted yet.

This is of the Dragon Wizard Tower he is creating for one of his Clients. It's stunning!

Front with dragon head door

This is the back

Next, I saw my friend from the Greenleaf Forum Deana who has gone through a lot in the past year. We talked for about 2 hours straight! It was our first time meeting in person and she is just a sweet and funny & cool lady! Her gorgeous daughter talked to my daughter while her Mom and I talked then I realized we were standing across from Erik Goddard's table!! I LOVE his stuff! My Favorite was his roombox depiction of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado". My Daughter loved his Modern Scenes, it made her think of the Movie "In Time" that came out last year.

Rachel's Favorite

I then had the opportunity to see Dennis Nordman. He taught his first class this year and it was called "Wizards R Us". He is also a student of Rik Pierce. He was excited to be at the show selling and teaching. I met him 2 years ago while of course, I was taking one of Riks classes.

I then went to the doll room. I wanted to see my friend Bev Gelfand. She had a fabulous table and was just a Wonderful person to be able to talk to. She is so open and friendly. Her dolls were so Gorgeous! 

She and I together.

I also had a chance to see my other doll friend Gayle Clausen. Her dolls just brings a huge smile to your face!

 I had the chance to briefly see Jo Bevilacqua and her wonderful roomboxes and other items. Isn't this Fabulously Gorgeous!

 This one is a class she is doing at her home. This was totally Beautiful at the show:

These were just a few of my favorites and am so sorry that I did not take more pictures! If you have blogged things you got at the show this past weekend, please feel free to leave a comment with your blog address so others can see what you liked most at the show. Please feel free to visit the links provided so you can see more of their items. Unfortunately, Dennis Nordman does not have a website. When you click his name, his email will show up though. 

Hope you enjoyed the visiting my blog today!

Tracy Topps

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Castle Courtyard Room Box (Dollhouse)

 

This month, I have completed a few room boxes that I had started on a little while back and it felt so good to finish some of them. Today, I wanted to share pictures of the latest one with you. It is another Courtyard scene and it has me wanting to finally jump into making my Castle tower when I am finished with my last custom order of this year.

It is a 1" scale Castle stone scene and I have embellished the roombox to give the entire piece the elegance I felt it needed.The light by the doorway is from England and is lit by using a 9v battery. There are LED lights and battery pack that I added on the top lid to give the room extra lighting. It is so beautiful to view in a dark room at night.

This is a 1" scale room (1" = 1') and the size of the box is 9 1/2" W x 9"D x 13"H.   The  window and the door was handmade by me and is my own design. The window has a stained glass pattern that I created. The door and the female knights at the doorway were custom created and added to this scene to make it a bit more unique.

The stones are painted an even tone or grays and browns. I call it neutral colored stones so that depending on the lighting, the stones will look all gray or all brown. This item is for sale in my CDHM online store http://www.cdhm.org/user/minisontheedge

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. Thank you so much for viewing my blog. Next month, I will do my first Blog Give Away so stay tuned for more details!!

Castle Courtyard Box scene

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/▌*˛˚ღ •˚ ˚TRACY TOPPS ~♥~˚ ✰*
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AIM Free Dollhouse Magazine "Castle Life"

I promised to do better and keep up with blogging this year. Last month, I only did one blog post but have the goal of posting more this month. Everyone who knows me, knows how much I enjoy castles and anything to do with stones, bricks and stucco and turrets.

This months issue of Artisan In Miniature (AIM) Magazine features so many various styles of Castle and Castle "like" buildings from Artisans from across the world. I even had the opportunity to have some of my favorite dollhouses featured in this months magazine.

If you have a few minutes, take the time to check it out. To read it, Click the picture of the AIM Magazine cover below. I Hope you all are having a Beautiful Day!

Thank you for stopping by to visit my blog! 

Thought Of The Day ~
Just as pieces stitched together in a quilt warm our bodies, dollhouses built together with someone you love, builds memories in the minds & hearts of those who see it & built it.  

Tracy Topps 

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………. ....♥ •.¸.•´♥…………....

Inspiration For Custom Dollhouse Scenes

Have you ever wanted to start a project but felt kind of stuck with your idea? Have you wanted to make your dollhouse or miniature scene to look authentic as it would in real life but when you looked at your scene you noticed it was missing something but you were not sure "what" it was missing?

Thank Goodness we don't live back 20 years ago before the internet! Now we can use google and type what we are looking for in the search engine and come it with MANY google images or you can do a search on Flickr or even Webshots. 

The other week, I was at the gym with my daughters and while they were in their class,  I decided to do some research online. I needed to see some real life pictures of things I want to recreate in miniature.  I couldn't walk the track that day because I had hurt my ankle a few days before ( no, not from doing Turbo Fire but from walking in high heel shoes ) .

I decided to look online (on my iPod) for some pictures. I did a Google search because I wanted some inspiration for the next project I wish to start building. It's castle related and while I was viewing pictures, I found this great blog called Citadel and Fortress  There are some great pictures there. I also played with the words in my search and I am amazed at how many pictures came up!

I also did a webshots (community search)  and found so many wonderful pictures of different parts of castles! You can see some of them by clicking  this Webshots Castle Link

Here is the link to the Flickr Search I did. I wanted to see the different stone patterns and also look at the designs and it helped me to better visualize what I want to make. You can do these searches for anything including "inside the home" pictures by searching for the term "kitchen images" or whatever you are looking for.

I totally fell in love with this persons album though

Netherlands Castles and Gardens

I also fell in love with this shot of detailing :



As you can see, I searched for Castles and came up with shots of beautiful garden scenes and much more. So next time you have an idea, don't be afraid to look online for pictures to help inspire you. You may find yourself adding many different elements from various pictures you saw online!

Thought of the day ~  "Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."  Mark Twain or you may like it said this way ~ "Don’t argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and beat you with their experience". Greg King

Hope you all are having a Fantastic week!

Tracy

Dollhouse Sword In A Stone Tutorial

Do you Love Castle scenes and medieval things? What about the King Arthur? Do you want to do something neat and fun for your fantasy miniature setting? Well, why not try out this tutorial I did a little while ago. It is a Sword in a Stone tutorial. You can see it here it was published in Greenleaf's Gazette in July 2007:

Doll House Tutorial

I love making things that are different and the sword in the stone was one of those things that I had a ball making for some of my friends. Please enjoy the tutorial and please share pictures with me of yours when you create your own item!

When a person mentions Creative Paperclay,© people in the dollhouse community often times automatically think either Stonework for the dollhouse structure or they think fireplace. Well this month, I am challenging everyone who wants to take the time to even “play” with paperclay to think outside of the black package!!

A year ago, I participated in a swap and wanted to make something different with things I had around the house. I had some pretty toothpicks that look like a sword; I had some cardboard and packing peanuts and a pack of paper clay. My son had some small jars of “Testors” Hobby paint that modelers use for painting the model cars (Mine were purchased at Walmart) I had metallic silver and metallic blue. And then it hit me. Why not make a sword in the stone scene!!

The items you will need are:

One sword shaped toothpick
One ¼ fl ounce bottle of Silver or gray enamel paint
One ¼ fluid ounce of Metallic Blue
One ¼ fluid ounce of gold
One oval shaped piece of card board (Mine was 3 ½” L x 2 ½” D)
Paper clay
Wood Glue
1 ½” paint brush
One Styrofoam peanut
Green foam (found in train supply stores)
Some leafy looking plants
Gray, Brown and black acrylic paint (for painting paperclay once it dries)

First, you take the sword shaped toothpick

 and cut off curved handle part so it will look like this

Take your silver or gray paint and paint the lower half of your sword as shown in the picture above. Set it aside to let it dry.

This is the picture of the hobby paint I used

  

take your piece of cardboard and smear wood (or tacky)  glue on top of it

  take your packing popcorn and place it in the center of the cardboard, (you can stack a second one on top if you want a bigger stone):

 Next, take your wood glue and smear it as evenly as possible over the popcorn

  roll your paperclay to the thickness of pie crust

 Scrap off the clay and lay it flat on top of the cardboard piece like this

 take your paint brush and pounce all over the cardboard to make the clay more shaped and defined and to help it adhere to the cardboard & foam. Be gentle but firm enough so that it looks something like this when completed

 Now, take your sword and put glue on the tip and place it in your stone

Take your blue & gold paint and paint the handle. I do this part now because of the fact that it can now stand up and dry while both sides get air so there will not be any red from the original toothpick showing.

 let the Paperclay dry. It can take up to eight hours in some locations for something like this to dry in some areas. So be patient.

Once your clay has dried, it is time to paint the stone.

Take one tablespoon of water (from a measuring spoon NOT from dinnerware spoon) and add one drop of Gray, Black and brown acrylic paint

 stir that together, paint the Paperclay all over with that mixture then let it dry

 take one drop of brown paint and
add 3 drops of water and swish your brush one time on the front, one side and back (it can look sloppy don’t redo the swish strokes). You only want faint hints of those colors so do NOT add more paint

Next do the same with the Gray paint and it should look like this when dry.

Now, let’s add some greenery:

Add glue all around your structure like this

 Now add your Green foam all around it like this

 Now add your leafy green leaves and flowers

 Now you are finished! Enjoy building an entire scene around this

Thank you for viewing my blog!