The Hydrangea Kit....Final

Well, I finally finished the Hydrangea kit I purchased in Chicago. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I completed the final three blooms and colored them like the others.  I then added some leaves and some taller sticks cut from an old grapevine wreath to give the arrangement some height.  The leaves provided in the kit were a lovely shade of green...however, since I was doing a dried hydrangea arrangement, I colored the leaves with some brown watercolor markers and used the end of a paintbrush on my mouse pad to give the leaves some movement. 

I'm happy with how it all turned out.

I have some friends that do not work with miniatures that see my blog posts through my Facebook account and they often ask me just how big the things are that I make.  I hope this next picture will help them out.  You can see just the size the arrangement is.  It is sitting on my fingers for this picture.  Sometimes it is easier to show someone instead of just telling them that one inch is the same as one foot.  :-)

I hope you have enjoyed the three plant kits.  I'm not sure what I'm going to share with everyone next, but I have some things up my sleeve.  Plus, there is more to do on The Mystic Path.

Till later!

The Hydrangea Kit.....Part Deux

Sorry this blog post has been a long time coming, but you know how life gets in the way sometimes.  Lately I seem to be easily distracted, but tonight I did take a little time to work on my hydrangea kit a little more.  It isn't a large update, but it is getting there and you can at least get an idea of how things are starting to shape up.

When we left off last time, I had glued all the small petals to one of the green painted beads and left it to dry.

I have now done that to four different flower blooms and let them dry.

After the glue was good and dry, I went at them with some watercolor markers.  I chose three different shades of beige because I want these blossoms to have a dried look to them.  As the time frame of the room box is supposed to be in the fall, it would look a bit out of place to have some pretty blue or lavender hydrangea in a vase.  I really wanted a varied look to them so the colors were applied very sloppy. 

The next to creating the arrangement was to put some green florist clay in the bottom of the vase.  The vase I chose is the wooden turned one I purchased in Chicago from Standing People Design Miniatures.  Their turned items are amazing and I love the different shades of brown and black in this vase.  I think it will look very nice with the dried arrangement in it.

After trimming the stems to different heights, I inserted them into the clay.  Originally I had planned on just putting the four completed blossoms in the vase with some of the leaves, but I'm thinking now that I need to complete the remaining three blossoms, limit the number of green leaves (the green just seems wrong for some reason) and do a tighter clump of blossoms in the vase, perhaps with some twigs added to give the arrangement some height.  

I think it is well on its way.  Now I just have to complete the three additional flower blossoms and get them dried and colored.  More coming soon.

Till later!

The Hydrangea Kit....Part 1

Hello everyone.  I sure have missed y'all.

Things have been a bit busy in my life between trips to Maryland and job hunting, but I promised you that I would start on the Hydrangea kit and I can't let my followers and fellow miniature fans down.

This kit is going to be in multiple steps as it is a more complicated kit.

To start with, let's look at the picture on the front of this kit.  This kit was created by Kimberly Hammer of Ambrosia.  Sure is a pretty picture on the front of the kit.  Let's see if I can make something even resembling her beautiful picture.

Here is everything that came in the kit.  There are seven stems with beads attached on the end, a lump of florist clay, a make-up sponge, two micro brushes, a beautiful white porcelain vase (I won't be using this as i bought a turned wooden vase for my arrangement), some extra wire for leaves, punched leaves and a small baggie of punched petals. 

The first step in the process is to paint the beads a dark shade of green.  As I was going to be doing a dried arrangement instead of the pretty spring flowers, I chose a slightly lighter shade (kelly green) instead of the pine green she suggested.  After you have painted all the beads, set them aside to dry.

While the beads were drying, I went ahead and started the next step.  You need to take each petal and use a ball stylus to gently cup them and soften the edges.  She suggests that you use a mousepad for this process and I should let you know that it would probably be best to use a white pad.  I wasn't thinking and used my black mousepad I use all the time.  This caused the bottom of each petal to be turned a bit dark, but as I was doing a dried flower instead of the pretty spring colors in her arrangement, I didn't mind and actually liked the shading it provided.  No mistakes....only happy accidents.

After the green painted beads have dried, your next step is to glue the petals to that bead.  She says to use a small amount of Tacky glue and then a touch of Zap-A-Gap.  Ok...I don't have that glue in my arsenal of supplies so I just used the Tacky glue and was happy with the results.  Starting at the top of the bead, you pick up a petal, touch the bottom to a puddle of Tacky and then gently place the cupped petal on the flower.  Continue in a random pattern until you have completely covered the bead.

This is what you end up.  This is one of the larger flower heads supplied in the kit.

On my next installment, I'll color the petals and finish the rest of the flower balls.

I know...much shorter than my usual blog posts, but don't look at it as being cheated, look at it as I'm stretching the post out to further enhance your reading pleasure.  HA HA!

Till later!