Miniature Monday: Make an easy Potted Palm House Plant

If you don't have access to laser cut kits, you can make this mini potted palm tree using leaves from the floral section of your craft store.

The leaves I'm using are 2 1/2 inches long (not including the stem) with bendable wire in the center and I used 8 for this plant.

























This photo and video show how I cut each leaf to look like individual mini leaves. They don't have to be perfect.

Mute before you watch the video, my dog was barking at the mailman lol.

If you've decided to paint any effects on your leaves, now is a good time.  I didn't paint mine because I was satisfied with the color.  Once you have cut all of the leaves (and painted them), gently bend each. 

Take 2 of your prepared leaves and attach them at the stems with floral tape. I usually wind the tape around 2 to 3 times.

























I add the remaining stems two at a time, and a little lower each time. I also put each set on the opposite side so that the leaves are evenly distributed.

If your floral tape is dry, add a tiny bit of tacky glue to keep everything secure.  Winding the floral tape around the assembly creates the trunk.  You can paint this brown using acrylic paint.  I fill a pot with air dry clay and glue the trunk into the center.  You can cover the clay with moss, gravel or treated coffee grounds. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks for stopping by!

Miniature Monday: Flowers from my Collection

These flowers are from Artistic Florals Miniatures.  They are new to my collection.

Aren't they lovely?  What are you collecting lately?

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Miniature Monday: Lehigh Valley Miniature Show

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Last weekend, my girlfriends and I attended the Lehigh Valley Miniature Show.  The show is hosted by the Lehigh Valley Small on Scale Miniatures Club. You can click HERE  for their website.   We make the 2 hour trek from Brooklyn to Pennsylvania every year and really enjoy the show.  It's a small show, which is perfect for me since I take forever to look at each table.  I always manage to find incredible miniatures from talented artists.  I'll be sharing some of my goodies over the next few posts. 

I spent a fair amount of time at Arlene Finkelstein's table (Artistic Florals.)  She's an inspirational miniaturist who loves to teach others her beautiful techniques.   While I love flower making, I LOVE flower buying even more.  Remembering how hard I worked on the lemon tree she taught me, when I saw this orange tree on her table, I bought it immediately.

These two arrangements caught my eye and I had to have them for my kitchen roombox.

 The two tiny pots on the right are 1/2" scale sunflowers.

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Miniature Monday: Lemon Tree

Last week, a group of us got together to work on lemon trees.  One of my friends put the kits together for us and we spent the day at her house chatting and turning wire, paint, clay and paper into this:

My very first miniature lemon tree! I love it. The only thing I would do differently next time will be to put more branches in, but I am very pleased with my first attempt.

The branches started out as about 9-10 pieces of wire, twisted together and coated to look like wood.  Then the flowers are assembled with each being glued on individually, as are the leaves.  The lemons were last.  I kept having to make sure they were hanging properly.

The friend who put the kits together and hosted us doesn't have a web site, but sells at shows and through other vendors.  Here's a sampling of her work: Artistic Florals by Arlene  and Artistic Florals 1/2" scale- she is awesome!

A great resource for pre-punched petals and punches is Hanky Panky Crafts( http://hankypankycrafts.com/ ).  I've purchased many of their punches and books.  I have to warn you though, miniature plant and flower making is addictive!

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Miniature Monday: Flower Shop In Progress

I've been taking some of my plants and flowers out of their packaging to furnish this shop I have in progress.

Thanks for looking!