Special Holiday Offer!

 Just a head up, I don't plan on being online much this week. Working on some handmade Christmas gifts, (would love to show you, but can't until I give them out-It's not a surprise if the people I'm giving them to see their gifts online first) a few other things, and of course-Thanksgiving. So until I post again, please enjoy this mild attempt at online advertising;

For Artisan Miniatures, Art Prints, Postcards, Ornaments, and Jewelry-Check out my Etsy Shop; https://www.etsy.com/shop/KyleLefort

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***Hey Holiday Shoppers!***

From now until December 4th, 2013, Take $1.00 off of your order! At checkout, Just enter coupon code,

HOLIDAYSHOPPER2013

And along with this offer, while supplies last;

Purchase any Digital Art print or postcard from my Etsy shop, and receive a postcard, as a free Thank You gift with your order.

OR

Purchase any miniature, jewelry piece, or ornament from my Etsy shop, and receive a small free mystery Thank You gift with your order. -Possible mystery gifts may include; a postcard, small crafting supplies, and miniatures, (items may be store bought or my own handmade creations not currently listed on Etsy)

(Offer expires on 12/4. Limit 1 per household, Thank you)

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For Artisan Miniatures, Art Prints, Postcards, Ornaments, and Jewelry-Check out my Etsy Shop; https://www.etsy.com/shop/KyleLefort

Feels Like First

A place online where you might be surprised to find miniatures; DeviantArt. Recently, the DA staff was talked into adding a miniature section (It's under, "Artisan Crafts", btw), but outside of that, I also submit my work to a few of the member formed groups.

One of the groups, Little Dreamers, had a holiday contest last fall/winter. I entered just before Thanksgiving with this scene (which you may remember);

It won third place! Since I've entered a handful of group contests, but had yet to get past semi-finals, I was pretty excited.

And there were prizes that came along with third, donated by some of the group founders (Thank you).

A brick of polymer clay, two tiny plates, and a pile of tiny fruit slices from Small Creations by Mel.
A pack of head pins, mini-plates (which were a pleasant surprise), and a cake stand from Bon AppetEats.

Thanks again, you two!

And on a side note, last weekend I went to a model train and toy show over at the Erie County Fairgrounds. It was mostly trains (which are neat setups to see), but there was also a table for a local dollhouse/miniatures club. Found out there's actually two local clubs, and that just a few blocks away from my house someone has a Bostonian, which I've been invited to go see for myself (might take them up on that if I run into them again closer to town). None of this was planned and I really enjoyed it. If you've ever been outed as someone with a dollhouse to someone who isn't into minis, and forced to then explain 'everything' (frequently), then you know how great of a feeling it is to meet someone, in person, who understands the fun of it already. It's like winning a game of Marco Polo, that you didn't know you were playing.

A Quick Sale on Etsy

I was thinking about having a small sale, and there are quite a few seasonal items in my shop, so...

Semi-Random December Sale!

From now until sometime Tuesday Evening (whenever I change the prices back),
Everything in the, "Seasonal Minis and Decor", section of my Etsy shop is on sale.
No coupons needed, Sale prices are listed in the item descriptions.

Please visit the , "Seasonal Minis and Decor", section to see the new sale prices.

All purchases made through my shop by 7pm(EST) Tuesday 12/11, will be shipped out on Wednesday 12/12.






 Happy Holidays.

A Happy Thanksgiving to All & to All: Look What I Made

Somewhere in my memories there is a turkey shaped basket filled with dinner rolls at Thanksgiving dinner. And for some reason this year, I just felt the need to try and make said turkey basket, in miniature.

My first attempt was embroidery floss woven around bead wire on a cardboard base. The glue I used didn't hold and the cardboard kept bending, making the wire twist around and slip out of place as I worked. The end result was pretty lop-sided and the basket ended up looking more like a goofy brown swan than a turkey.

I thought that maybe if I used polymer clay instead of carboard, I could get the results I wanted. Of course, I already spent way too much time on the first attempt. Despite that, one morning I made out a template to trace onto a slab of clay, because I did want to try again. Then later online I saw that one of the DeviantArt groups I belong to is having a holiday contest. See? I was supposed to try again!

The contest is still open for a while, and I'm still working on my Cubebot Challenge entry (Dec. 1!), BUT since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I had to be done with this project by...well, right now.

Once you make the basket, of course you need to sculpt and paint tiny rolls to go inside. And because I like making scenes so much, I needed to make a few more things to go with the basket. So I dug out the paper punches and made leaves. Then I made some ridiculously tiny construction paper chains. Thought I was done, but the table looked like it could use a center piece. I sculpted some candles, coiled a strip of paper for a candle holder (with leaves and seed beads), glued it all together, and finished this project by sealing the basket/rolls/candle holder with Polycrylic.

Am I happy with the results? Yes. Do I actually have a place to put all this stuff now that it's done? Nope. Not until I finish the dining room in the Van Buren...could be years.

So everything, except the table/back drop is being listed as a set up on Etsy. Will anyone buy a Thanksgiving themed mini decor set after Thanksgiving? I dunno, some people buy holiday minis year round, so maybe. I'd rather try to sell it and help fund the Van Buren rehab, instead of packing it away forever and potentially losing or breaking parts by the time I'd get to use it myself(in which case I'd still have to make a new set anyway). I'm just happy keeping a photo this time.

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Also, as previously mentioned, there are Christmas items headed for the Etsy shop too. I'm debating whether or not I should post them this week or hold off until after Thanksgiving. From the business end of things, now would be good, but...If you're not familiar with U.S. holidays, Thanksgiving is all about being thankful for what you have in life, but then the day after Thanksgiving is referred to as, "Black Friday" (A store's income is listed in red if they're not turning a profit, so hopefully after all the Black Friday sales, they'll have made enough to be operating in the black again-get it?). It's pretty much just a day of people going nuts and buying tons of stuff for great deals, you know, for Christmas. I'm sure there are good intentions in there somewhere, although it's gotten so crazy (Friday starts Thursday at 8pm kind of crazy). I'd rather we all just take time out of our lives to enjoy a holiday before we run off to get ready for the next one. I dunno, I'm still thinking it over.


Anyways, if you're in the U.S. have a Happy Thanksgiving, and if you're elsewhere in the world... hope you have a happy Thursday. :)

Some WIP & a Made Up Holiday

I've got some family that lives out of town, and as it turns out, we won't be together on Christmas or Thanksgiving this year. The solution to this problem? A Pseudo-Christmas celebration, like right now.

OK, I did get a two week notice, but let's see you try to both buy and make a handful of Christmas gifts in two weeks when you normally would have a couple months ( *Mmhmmm* ).

And, while I'm typing up this post-I'm also working on throwing together an adorable table top Christmas tree for my mother. Basically, after my stint at a craft show last year, she thoughtfully bought me a faux-tree better suited for a show table (sadly, no shows this year though), which I then volunteered to use for Pseudo-Christmas. First, I was told not to bother, but any other tree we might have would need to be dug out of storage, along with all the ornaments. I've still got some leftovers from the show, a couple experiments I haven't quite figured out yet, and some new ones that should be up for sale on Etsy this week. Plus, let's face it, I'm a crafty person (So I got this).

And while all that can be summed up rather quickly, I have been a little pressed for time, making a few gifts (for my niece again) along with an assortment of Christmas items for the Etsy shop. On Friday, I was hoping to have all gifts made, bought, sealed, and wrapped, but then I got caught up in running errands. Was I annoyed? A little, but some of it was kind of fun. And I came home with some remnant bin finds, which led me to my fabric stash in the basement, which is when/where I decided to post some teasers about what I'm working on right now.

Since Billy has a semi-permanent table to sit on now and it looks terrible as-is, I decided to add a yard(or at least some sort of ground cover). No budget, but I had this gray, liner type fabric (Billy's upstairs carpet is the same stuff-in blue) that I thought could work...if I paint it maybe... I tried it out with the Halloween scene and then left it there, hoping it would grow on me. It didn't, that's OK though because my remnant find of the day was that same material in, "Outdoor Green", 30% off (ha-Ha!...I'm such a dork).

 

Didn't have time to work on it, so I just rolled it out to see how it looks 

(already much better than brown beat up table).

So that's WIP 1.

WIP2.  Maybe it should be #1 because I'm currently working on it, but...Christmas stuff!

Been working on these since September, I'll let you guess what they are.

Mixed Media Ornaments 

The bottom one is a gift, top right still needs paint, but the other two I'm hanging on the tree tonight. More on the way. I keep looking for excuses to do mosaic work, sort of as practice for some ideas I have about the Van Buren. Speaking of which...

...No that's not the Van Buren. It's a neat little shelf/cabinet I picked up at an antique co-op 2 summers ago. It's not really an antique, but I got it for $20. From my understanding, front open houses are pricey, so this really was a find. I'm mentioning this house because, like the Van Buren, I want to do exterior stonework siding of some sort. So I think I'll use this little guy as practice. Better to have to redo a botched siding project on the small house instead of the big one, really though I can handle mosaics. How hard could faux stone siding be?
This isn't gong to happen for a while though so, oh hey, did I ever post about my type set drawer?

I got this one last summer at another co-op. I've been wanting one for a while now. They're neat because: A) If I were a graphic designer and/or printer, "Back in the day", (like before I was born) I'd probably use a printing press, and would have a bunch of these filled with letter blocks. And B) I wanted something like this to display my mini work. I had to glue together some spots, and clean it, and seal it (because there was so much smeary ink/grease in the sections, I couldn't use it otherwise), but I still think I got a deal on it. The WIP part is that I'm still considering adding some scrap paper to a few sections for color.

If  you're keeping score, I think this next one is WIP #5...

Progress with what I'm doing with the lamp shades, and some other house accessories. I like where it's going, but it's slow work, so it might be a while before any of these make it to the shop. Also, I think I made more lamp shades than I will use for a while, so maybe I'll start selling batches of lamp shades? Or DIY lamps, what do you think?

Lastly, (I really need to go finish decorating that tree) WIP #6,

Wood and vinyl...hmmm, What am I making?

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this, and are intrigued. Will I finish it all? Maybe...I'm also working on a couple challenges too, we'll just see how it all goes.

I'm going to finish decorating so I'm not up ALL night (and then it's family time).

 So...Happy Pseudo-Christmas!