Happy New Year 2016

A Happy New Year to all my friends and followers, I wish you lots of love, laughter and of course many hours of creativity splashing that paint around.

This is the January 2016 issue of the Dolls House and Miniature Scene magazine and what do you know - my very own tutorial showing readers how to recreate Norbert Goeneutte’s The Boulevard de Clichy under Snow, 1876, is the main feature on the front cover!

Of course those who follow me on facebook  will be well aware of this but I'm sure you'll all forgive me, I'm just too thrilled to be right there as the feature piece!

I don't really do New Year's resolutions (and it's too late anyway now), but this year I intend to blog more regularly. I hope to be able to bring you some miniature tutorials, some general chit chat and of course my new diary, which will hopefully be even better than last years. I'll get some photos taken of the last couple of weeks of my 2016 diary and then put together a new blog post for you here.

What are your New Year intentions? Did you make any resolutions and have you stuck to them?! Let me know in the comments section below.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The festive season is most definitely upon us and it's time for me to write my Christmas cards. I'm already late with the Australian ones but that's OK, after so many years of sending them late it's now traditional to receive those ones sometime in January.

In this blog post I just want to say...

MERRY CHRISTMAS to one and all!

My #Inktober sketch diary for October 2015

Have you heard of #Inktober ? It's a challenge to do ink sketches throughout October and happily fits perfectly with my October sketch diary entries :)


Such a lot happened in week 40. Rory-dog had his first birthday which we celebrated by making sugar-free carrot cake muffins for him :) We had 2 noone-will-want-to-nick-these bikes-for-uni to fix up; I had my first German class; and we had the big uni drop-offs too. Exhausting!

week 40

My first empty-nester week was made more bearable by having Rory-dog to sleepover at the weekend. He's a darling.

week 41

Week 42 was a quiet one. I'm learning to knit and you never know, with a following wind I might just have a cushion cover done by this time next year...

week 42

 My children live in the laptop now.

week 43

Week 44 was such a fun time! Rory-dog came to stay for a whole 5 days - we were BOTH exhausted by the end of Sunday.

week 44

You can catch up on previous entries here:

• January 2015
• February 2015
• March 2015
• April 2015
• May 2015
• June 2015
• July 2015
• August 2015
• October 2015

Making a miniature dolls house picture frame

How I make my miniature frames

ACEO: image size 2.5 x 3.5 inches, overall frame size 4.5 x 3.5 inches

What I used:

• A mini mitre box (I got mine from my local hardware store for around £3.50)
• 2 screws, a screwdriver and something to secure the mitre box to (I used our portable workbench)
• Wood glue
• A junior hacksaw with new blades
• Beading 
• A corner clamp (I made mine out of lego)

Warning and disclaimer: this project requires the use of sharp implements. You are welcome to follow my steps at your own risk - do not attempt this project unless you are over 18, in full possession of your faculties and fully competent with a hacksaw.

Using my secured mitre box and the junior hacksaw, I cut the end off the beading at a 45 degree angle. 

I then measured the beading against my miniature artwork and marked off where the next cut needed to be, making the beading 2mm smaller than the painting at both ends to allow for overlap. I then cut the beading at a 45 degree angle so that the inside edge is longer than the outside edge.

To get the opposite sides exactly the same length I used the first piece to measure and mark the opposite one.

I repeated this for the other two sides, checking for fit as I went along.

Using lego I built a 90 degree wall. With a thin layer of glue on the cut edges, I pressed them together whilst keeping them both pressed against the lego walls - this means that the frame will be square.

The team decided we needed some packing to hold everything nice and tight

The team making an ACEO sized frame:

 I think the workers did a great job, don't you?

 

I'm on the front cover!

My miniature Monet is on the front cover of this month's Dolls House and Miniature Scene magazine!

And I got a wonderful write up from the press team over at Folksy (the lovely British company who host my shop):

folksypress 

Stephanie Guy on the front cover of Dolls House and Miniature Scene 

We were very excited to spot artist and Folksy seller Stephanie Guy on the front cover of the November issue of Dolls House and Miniature Scene magazine.  

Stephanie is a professional artist who works in watercolour, oils, acrylics and ink, and specialises in Dolls House and Miniature Paintings. She works to commission and can take on orders for personalised paintings. She has a regular column in Dolls House and Miniature Scene magazine, which is the most popular dolls house magazine in the UK and is published by Warner. 

You can see Stephanie’s full collection of miniature dolls house paintings in her Folksy shop - she even has miniature spooky Halloween scene if you are decorating your dolls house for Halloween! in her Folksy shop 

How fabby is that? I'm a very happy bunny today.

Sketch Diary September 2015

Welcome to my inky world!

The first week in September was taken up with rescuing the disastrous blackberry jelly-jam with bottles of liquid pectin. Thankfully I had three days with the part-time pup to help me recover :)

week 36

Ah the weather was kind during week 37. We borrowed my dad's touring caravan and took it off to the Peak District for a few days.

week 37

Highlights of week 38 included a couple of days with Rory (the borrowed dog) and singing in the church choir at a wedding on the Saturday.

week 38

On the 21st September my new super duper 15mm thick yoga mat arrived - I am the envy of the class :D

week 39

The last week of the month was a busy one. Rory was 1 year old so we made him a set of special birthday muffin cakes - basically carrot cake without any sugar. Yum said Rory and wolfed the lot down, paper and all. Lots of bike repairs happened during the week in anticipation of the university drop offs, which were on Thursday for my son, and Saturday for my daughter. They've both settled in really well.

You can catch up on previous entries here:

• January 2015
• February 2015
• March 2015
• April 2015
• May 2015
• June 2015
• July 2015
• August 2015

Sketch Diary August 2015

Here's my sketch diary for August, another fun filled month in the Guy household!


Highlights of week 32 included a trip down the mines at Castleton and a walk along Froggat Edge in the Peak District at the beginning of the week, and a night at Derwentwater Youth Hostel in the Lake district at the end of the week.

week 32

Week 33 was very tense, Thursday was A level results day - thankfully the results were AMAZING and daughter Kit is now packing for university :) At the end of the week Rory (our part-time pup) came for his first overnight stay.

week 33

Week 34 was fun, we went to a friend's 50th birthday party on the Saturday

week 34

Week 35 contained the disastrous jam making experience. I was making blackberry and apple jelly but I think I measured the sugar wrong and had to take an emergency trip to Sainsburies for liquid pectin to sort out the vast quantities of blackberry and apple juice that I had made :')

week 35

You can catch up on previous entries here:

• January 2015
• February 2015
• March 2015
• April 2015
• May 2015
• June 2015
• July 2015

I do hope you're enjoying your peek into my world.