Papercraft Patisserie Cafe Work in Progress

The paper doll-house dioramas from Sanwa Paper Co. caught my eye a long time ago but I just did not conjure up enough patience to sit down and in fact work my way through 14 pages of printed templates to get one done. But I managed to finish half of the patisserie cafe set today.

In the process of attaching the base to the walls. I used tacky glue for the base and realized that was a bad mistake. Because tacky glue is extremely "wet" and takes time to dry. It puckered up the paper and gave it soggy spots.

The rest of the cafe was attached using Beacon's fast-grab glue so no more soggy spots there-after.

Putting the inner cupboard together with glue. This cupboard is a lot of cutting work - especially the curved edges.

The assortment of tools used in this venture - craft knife, pen knife, tweezers, two sets of rulers and a scorer. The basic scrapbooking equipment. :)

Here's a half-completed set-up. There's still more miniature folding to go. But as you can see, the papers that I have used are very strong and it holds up all that ceramic plates and glass, along with the miniature air-dry clay food. More cutting and folding tomorrow!

Miniature Wagashi Box

I started on the miniature Japanese sweets or wagashi (和菓子) box project last night. The designs are made from traditional wafuu (和風) designs, which are usually of Japanese flowers like the sakura or chrysanthemum, or patterns like arrows and waves.

The box looks easy to fold at first -- even with a modified template but when it comes to cutting through the nooks and corners to make the double-folded sides, I thought I was going to be blind! :)

The purple set is the first finished box. On it are the words - 如月彩さくらもち (Febraury Colours Sakura-mochi) Patterns are all modifed and printed using CS Photoshop. I didn't make any process pictures as I was just too eager to get the box done. Maybe I'll do a process set for the next box in magenta (you can see the templates in the background.)

I think the box is around 2.5cm by 1.5cm for the inner box. Approximately a 1:12 wagashi box.

Filled it up with some of the candied fruit I made a few days ago. I think this definitely needs very tiny wagashi to be placed in it.

I will probably be making more of these boxes with different designs next week. And maybe some little wagashi to place inside.

Misu Donuts and Strawberry Blonde Hair

Completed the Misu Donuts (fun parody of Mister Donut) project with just a box to fold and some more paper bags to go. These are roughly 1:4 size donuts but I seemed to have gotten the scale of the folded bags wrong -- but anyway, that can be easily corrected.

Here's some more on the tray with a penny for scale.

Julia dons strawberry blonde wavelets today and appears to be waiting for someone to share her Misu Donuts with!

Vacation Projects. Time Check. Hobby Check

After working hard for two weeks, I finally get a breather! A week of rest - or rather indirect rest (Since I will still have to be finishing up a lot of administration on the side.) Over the past month, I have been making a lot of little parts and wondering how in the world am I going to make use of them -- I suppose they will all be turned into board-magnets and scrapbook embellishments since most of them are ranging between a scale of 1:6 to 1:4.

It's been roughly 3 months since I started working on clay miniatures. The returns have so far been fulfiling. I feel like my time is better abused, I have made a few more friends and I have got myself some pretty resin (aka Miss Julia) to indulge in.
I am hoping to finish up these old fashioned donuts today, along with the cruellers and twisted churro rolls in 1:4 scale and make some paper bags for them.

The other project this week is the CBC Challenge : Waffles. Here's a start-stack that I need to work on. Probably I will be adding some Belgian waffles to the mix.

Little Note :
I have cleared up the materials I bought to start on sewing doll clothing and other accessories for my resin indulgence. They are all snug in my bedroom's shelves now, away from the strong-smelling paints and varnishes are stored in my study (where I work on my miniatures). Miss Julia looks extremely tired after helping to clear away the fabrics for her new dresses and she has plopped onto her armchair with some green tea to relax. I doubt I will be writing about doll matters and sewing forays in this blog. There would most likely be a new one up once I get to it.

Miniature Boxes, Again!

While still in the craze of making miniature boxes -- I found some more templates through Google Japan and the daunting Japanese blog ranking sites and with a few apt keywords. Today's boxes includes : a cake-box with curved handles and a see-through window, and a tray for you to put your cake on, a roll-cake box, an old-fashioned cookie box with a paper liner and  my familiar upright cake-box with a new design.

I caved in and bought myself a proper cutting mat with self-healing properties from Spotlight instead of using the tattered $2 one that I gotten from Daiso. Cheap things don't last I guess. :( The usual tools I use are the same : two craft-knifes with different edged blades, a school penknife, a metal rule, flat and sharp tweezers and manicure scissors.

I have included two more new tools to my miniature box repetoire as well : a wood carving flat-edge and a scrapbooking flattener. The wood carving tool (get one with a flat or slightly slanted edge) is used to mark and score the folds on the boxes, making folding a *lot* more easier. The scrapbooking flattener does as it says -- flatten folds.

Instead of tacky glue, this round I used Beacon's 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue. It is, according to its label - fast-dry, instant grab and dries clear. It is great for grabbing those small slips and corners of your boxes and getting them to stick together within a second. The only tacky part (forgive the pun) about this glue is that it is fast-dry and once it goes into drying, the glue stretches into thin strands much like super-glue. At times, because of pressure, the glue may rise upwards to the opening and "bubbles" over.

Which makes it very irritating to handle. The trick I used with this glue was to make a very tiny hole for its opening and capping it away when I put it down -- so you don't get strands or bubbles.

So here we go: the three boxes made today - and I placed some of the miniature choux cremes and swan cream puffs on the cake box's pull-out tray. The blue box in the second photograph was made a few days ago -- its a very simplistic folded box with a napkin liner. I filled it with some cookies that were made for the February project. A US penny is placed for scale.