{Flutterby Bakery} Cafe Chairs

As promised...... A post with pictures!

Maybe not the most exciting of pictures (I mean I kind of think they are, but I guess it depends on what you are really in to whether or not chairs are exciting lol).  I was originally just planning on buying 3D printed little cafe chairs, but the more I looked at them the more I thought, I bet I could make these from wire. (Also I had seen a tutorial for making a table and chairs from wire for 1:12 scale, so that really got me thinking I should try it out myself).  I'm always torn with stuff whether to make it myself or buy it finished (or whether to make something from scratch or from a kit..... in that case kit usually wins so I don't have to do the math to scale stuff down and cut the pieces lol) I really love to be able to look at something and know that I actually made it myself (also it's usually cheaper to make myself), but also some things either aren't going to be worth the time and effort to make rather than buy or the homemade version doesn't turn out quite as crisp and clean looking as the purchased version.  In this case both of those things were factors I figured might come in to play, so I decided to try making just one and see how it turned out.

    I started by looking up the height and such of similar cafe chairs and determined that I would need my finished chair height to be .75". I also decided that .25" circle for the seat should be okay, which was easy because then I could just punch it out of heavy cardstock (actually I ended up using watercolor paper because it was the thickest thing I had around the house, but also I think it was a good idea because the moisture from the glue and paint is not going to affect it unless it gets awfully wet). I needed something a little more substantial to make the seat look right and not too thin though.  Fortunately I had just bought a package of different sizes of jump rings from Walmart the other day and one of the sizes was the perfect size to make the base of the seat out of.  I glued 2 jump rings together to get just the right look.

   

After making the first one I still wasn't 100% sure how I felt about it, but it was relatively easy to make and was cute so I thought it was worth making some more to see if I could do a couple things I wasn't completely happy about a little better (mainly getting the legs a little smoother and straighter and the seat needed to be a hair lower), after making the second one I decided I did like them enough to use and go ahead with making so I made a 3rd last night and will probably make a couple more today or this week.  For the actual construction, I have so far done it 3 different ways as I figured out what made it easier or didn't work as well, so I'll go through each way real quickly..... its basically the same steps, I just did them in different orders......

so..... for the first chair I made......
I started by bending a piece of wire to form the back of the chair and the back legs.  I brought several things to the work table with me to try bending it over because I wasn't sure what was going to be the right size, but this small screwdriver ended up being perfect, not only for this piece, but where it gets smaller near the tip worked perfectly for the smaller loop on the back (but I'll get to that in a minute lol)

I bent a much longer piece than I needed first and then after I had the arch measured the legs and cut them to length.  I found that a pair of toenail clippers worked fabulously for cutting the wire for this project.

Oh, also this is 24 gauge wire, probably should tell you that. lol.... so now back to making it..... 
After I had cut the legs to length I laid it down flat and put a couple dabs of glue on the legs where I wanted to seat to be and balanced a jump ring standing up on it and left it to dry.  (This is also where I realized that 2 jump rings would be better so I added another one.)

If I have one thing to say about making these (in any of the methods I used) it's to let the glue completely dry and set up, I really have patience issues so I often don't do this and then it makes it more difficult because I have to hold things together that should have already been set, but I'm sure it's so much easier of you let it completely dry first lol.  My next step this go around was to add the front legs, I bent a piece or wire so that the bent top fit inside the front of the jump rings, dipped it in glue and then stuck it in the jump rings

Because of how I did it this go around I ended up having to hold it like this until it was dry..... well I say until it was dry, actually I got tired of waiting and tried to cut the legs to length before it was dry and it ended up making the front legs and one of the back legs (because they also were not completely dry I don't think) come off so I had to try to add a few more dabs or glue and balance everything and get it lined back up properly and then keep it still until it dried......

    Once that was all dry I glued the paper I had punched out onto it for the seat, then glued the small loop into the back of the chair, by dipping the ends into tacky glue and attaching them to the edge of the back of the seat.  I laid the chair down on its back to do this so that the back was nice and flat and lined up properly {apparently I didn't take a picture of this though lol}.  Then I used some gloss white craft paint to paint the jump rings and the top of the seat.

For my second go around I had a couple of things I wanted to try doing differently to see if it made it any easier.  To start with I started by making the seat completely first...... gluing the 2 jump rings together and then gluing the seat on before I started putting the whole chair together.

Next I again formed the back and back legs piece and cut the legs to length, but I also made the front legs at the same time, measuring them to length (so I though) before gluing them to the seat.

Then I glued the front legs in place first with the seat sitting upside down (so that the legs were up in the air as they dried.

In this case I think I actually did let this dry completely before moving on, but that was probably only because I ended up having to leave the house for a while at this point lol.

Then I glued this whole assembly to the back piece.  By having the front legs already glued in place I was able to lay it on its side to dry on the back, which would have worked great, except that my front legs did need to be cut just a smidge shorter and I didn't let the back completely completely dry before I tried to do that so it came off a little bit and I had to re-glue it, but by then I was able to stand it up to dry and make sure all the angles were correct.

This time I painted the jump rings and paper seat before gluing the other back piece on, because the paint was a slightly different white than the wire and it's not really noticeable when they are just next to each other, but when I got some of the paint on the wire it was noticeable, and it was pretty much impossible not to get the paint on the inner back piece if it was already in place.  I let the paint dry and then glued the last piece in place the same as I did with the first one.

And then for the third one, rather than gluing the front legs in first with the seat laying upside down, I went back to gluing the seat to the back first (but with the seat already assembled like the second chair), with the back of the chair laying flat and then after that was dry (except it wasn't really) I glued the front legs in.  My thinking was that I would be able to stand it up to dry since the back was already attached and the top of the seat already in place, and perhaps if I had let the glue on the back completely dry and had has the front legs just the right length this would have worked, but I had to trim the legs slightly and the back wasn't completely set so of course, you guessed it, I had to reglue that so it ended up laying on it's side to dry again, which worked fine.  From there on I did  it the same as with the second one, painting first and then gluing on the inside back piece.  Over all I think this was probably the best way of doing it so when I make the last few I'll probably be doing it this way .......

So , if you were a good enough sport to actually read through all that here's your reward {lol}..... a couple pictures of 2 of the chairs set up with the little table I made a while ago, sitting in front of the wall, where they will ultimately be in the bakery.

{Backyard Art Studio}&{Flutterby Bakery) updates

{Flutterby Bakery}
    After my string of little projects recently (haha... I just realized... string.... they were bunting... on strings..... okay moving on....) I'm kinda at a standstill again for the bakery.  I did just order some more molds and supplies to make the rest of the baked goods to stock the display cases so when those get here I need to get those made and the cases stocked before I can move on to putting the structure together.  The other project I still need to finish for it before the structure goes together is the tables and chairs for the bakery, oh! and I need to get a work table together for the view of the kitchen through the door (and I suppose I should do something with the walls back there too lol) - I keep forgetting about that part for some reason lol, so I suppose I do have some more stuff I could work on while I'm waiting to finish off the baked goods..... I'm dying to get it finished and put it all together and decorate the outside to look like a cake!!!! . I'm also still on the lookout for a cake stand to put it on and am having trouble finding one in the right size and especially that isn't white.  I bought one that could maybe work, but it is white and I really don't want white because I think I'm going to have the "icing" on the outside of the cake white.  If I don't use the one I bought for this it's okay though because I would totally use it for real cakes.  I also saw a cute candle stand at Hobby Lobby that if I were to glue a round board to the top would work well, and since it's not a real cake it doesn't really have to be a food safe cake plate or anything lol. I'm dying to get it all finished it's getting so close to being done, it's going to be so cute (if I do say so myself lol). Also I want to give myself permission to start another project and not have too many going at one time.

and speaking of multiple projects going on at one time.....

{Backyard Art Studio}
    I really haven't worked on this one hardly any in a long time.  There's really not much left to do before I can put the structure together.  I still need to get 2 more windows for skylights and one more sheet of brick for the exterior.  I'm planning my next step to be painting the bricks, but honestly I've been kind of putting that off because I'm too picky about exactly how they look so it's a little bit stressful for me (lol) I did the first sheet while I was watching a movie so that's my plan for the other two walls worth..... perhaps I'll watch the 10th Kingdom again lol, that'll give me plenty of time to get it exactly how I want it to work. (I am hoping that I haven't waited so long since doing the first one that I forgot exactly what I did..... but I think I wrote the color formulas I used down so that would be the biggest deal lol).  Since it's an art studio there's not a lot of furniture for it, but there's a lot of little accessories and art work and stuff to make and I want to do flowers for the outside around the porch and a porch swing with a little sketchbook and some pencils and stuff sitting on it like someone just walked away from it.  I'm really planning on putting a lot of detail and effort into it since I'm doing it for a contest. Also since it's for a contest, I have to have it done by a specific date so I better get my butt back in gear on it (don't worry though the entry deadline is December 16 - or something near then - so I've got plenty of time still, but I would like to have it done well before then.)


And I promise..... next post will be something with PICTURES!! lol :)

{Flutterby Bakery} A teeny tiny itty bitty update

And when I say teeny I mean teeny.... here it is..... are you ready?.......... I finally got the last mold I wanted (or at least I think the last one I'm going to get lol) and the 1:48 scale star tip that I've been meaning to order for forever now, which means I can hopefully get all the cupcakes and cakes done soon! Woohoo! The only other baked good I really want and am not sure about exactly is some fancy cookies...... I can make 1:48 scale round cookies on my own pretty easily (its a pain, but I can do it), and then decorate them with paint to look like icing, but I really would like them to be a fancier shape then just round (or oval, I can do oval myself okay), so I'm looking in to some other ideas/options for how to accomplish that..... or at least how to accomplish that without going stark raving mad making them lol.......

But yay! I'm excited to get cupcakes and cakes finished!...... and I can reuse all of these supplies for the fairy bakery (Buttercup Hollow Bakery) and Halloween bakeshop (Little Bakeshop of Horrors) I'll be doing after I get this one finished. (well and maybe one or two other projects finished too before I start another one..... but probably not, at least the Halloween one I'll probably start right away, or at least as soon as I find a suitable "building" for it.......)

{Flutterby Bakery} On a Tiny Roll....

Hehehe.... I must admit I'm quite proud with myself for the title of this one..... I'm feeling super clever over this one, because it's a play on words...... (although I must admit to feeling a bit less clever in having to explain it........ lol).... I'm on a tiny roll because I've done 3 little, simple projects over the past 3 days, AND it's also appropriate, because today's project involved rolling tiny little pieces of tissue paper!.... get it?! hahaha.

Okay so now that I've gotten that out of my system........

I started out today's project thinking I would put them on the wall with the buntings, but after I got them done, I'm not sure I actually want them there.  I think maybe if they were just a tad smaller I'd like them better with it, but I don't think I can make them any smaller.  But they were enough of a pain (although not nearly as much as I expected them to be) to make that I'm definitely using them in here somewhere.  So now I'm thinking maybe on the wall on the other side of the bakery with a sign or artwork under them..... I'll probably be waiting until I get walls and furniture more permanently in place, and have a couple tables and chairs to put along this wall instead of just the one table to get a better feel for the overall bakery before I decide for sure.  But I will say that up to this point I didn't have anything planned for that other wall so it may need something.

So.... how did I make these........

I started with a strip of tissue paper that was about 3/4" tall (I meant to try 1/2", but I guess I measured wrong or something, but while 1/2" would have made them just slightly smaller, which might have been better to go with the bunting, I'm not sure I could have actually made them work that small.... at least not the same way I did these). And, of course you could do these for any scale by adjusting the measurements. (these are largish 1:48 scale) To start with the width/length/measurement that isn't the height doesn't really matter, I cut it into little sections after fringing it.  If you've ever made life size tissue paper tassels these were made basically the same way, just tiny.  So to start with I {carefully} cut both of the long edges into fringe, leaving an uncut section in the middle of the strip.

Next I cut off small sections of the fringed strip

Then {carefully}rolled the strip up on itself (so that the fringe is at the ends) and then twisted the middle (uncut) section

Fold the twisted piece in half and then fold it over a string and twist it again to secure it.

And that's basically it.  It is much easier to twist it onto the string with it not near the others and then slide it over to where it needs to be next to the one before it.  And also if you pinch the string on both sides of the tassel between your fingers to hold it and help twist when you secure the tassel it makes it much easier.  If you did want it slightly smaller (this would be tassels about a foot and a half long in scale, give or take a little being taken up in the twisting process) you could probably trim them a little after finishing them rather than trying to start with an even smaller piece..... I'm not going to try it on mine though because I don't want to have to make more right now if I don't like how that turns out lol.  If you do though let me know how it looks in the comments! (or if you do them the same size as mine let's see how they turned out and where you're going to use them!)

Now I'm kind of thinking, wouldn't tiny little tissue paper pomanders be cute in there somewhere too....maybe hanging from the center of the ceiling or over the eating area, but I'm really not sure how I'd even go about attempting to make them this small lol..... if I do I will of course post it, but don't count on it lol ;) I will probably be figuring out something either decoration or lighting (possibly working, but probably non working) to put on/hanging from the ceiling, so be looking for that.

And don't forget if you try this project out for yourself I'd love to see your results in the comments!

{Flutterby Bakery} Another Little Project

I have another little project to share today that I worked on while watching the last part of the 10^th Kingdom mini-series I was watching yesterday while I made the fabric bunting (if you missed that post you can read it here).  I had mentioned in that post, I believe, about planning to do a doily bunting along with the fabric one, and I had intended to order doilies from Stewartdollhousecreations.com, because they have the most amazingly detailed tiny little doilies, but there were two issues with that... for one: they didn’t have the style doily I wanted in quite the right size and I wasn’t quite sure how a bigger size or different style doily would look and two: I am impatient, and would have had to wait until payday on Tuesday to order them and then wait for them to get here, so I decided to try my hand at making little doilies myself.  I had seen a tutorial on making dollhouse doilies on Pinterest a while ago, but they were making 1/12 scale doilies so I wasn’t sure how it would work for my 1/48 scale needs for this.  The basic idea was to punch the shape out with circle punch and then use a needle or pin to poke the holes for the design in it.   I tried it first with a plain round hole punch (because that was what I already had), and the punched design part looked promising, but overall I didn’t really like it, so off to Hobby Lobby I went to see if there was such a thing as a scalloped edge punch in that small of a size.  I think the one I found is meant to be a flower, and ideally for a doily it should probably have more bumps {?..... I’m not sure if that’s the right word…. Maybe it would be scallops…. But you get my meaning) that weren’t so deep {?again maybe not quite the right word, but I’m not sure how else to describe what I’m meaning lol), but I thought it would work for this well enough, and the punches were 40% off this week and I was sure I’d use it for something eventually if not for this, so I went ahead and got it (also this awesome pillow that I’ve been wanting since they first got it in -

  – IDK why there’s just something about it I love, I guess it reminds me of the woods and the mountains – and was now on clearance. Yay for still having money on my gift card I got for my Birthday! Lol.

   

 So I got it home and tried it out and, again not quite right probably for a doily if I was going to use it as a regular doily, but I really liked how it looked folded in half for bunting.  And if I need doilies to be used as doilies for something I would absolutely still get them from Stewart Dollhouse Creations.  I actually ended up being a pretty easy project (at least as easy as anything in this scale is lol), a bit tedious, especially since I probably could have put a little more effort into my tools and method, but really pretty easy.

  I started by punching the shapes out of paper….. I used a piece of notebook paper because it was what I could easily find, also it was nice and thin and at first I was just using it to test it out with since it was at hand, but I like the way it worked with that paper so I went with it.  Of course this meant having to try to carefully line the punch up on the paper so that none of the lines ended up on the doily, but that wasn’t a huge deal. {P.S. its a 1/4" punch.... approximately anyway so it would be a 12" doily in scale}

  Then I used a needle (because I couldn’t find my box of straight pins in like 30 seconds and the needles were sitting right out in the open….. like I said some of the tediousness of this probably could have been avoided/improved upon with a little more prep effort lol) to poke the pattern of holes.  I started by doing a circle around the middle and then mini “circles” (at least that was what I was aiming for) in each of the scallops/petals and a hole between each one.

(and yes..... again, with a little more effort I probably could have found something better to put them on to poke the holes.... and therefore probably ended up with more even holes..... but again, this was sitting right in front of me - it's a burlap canvas that had been a first attempt at strawberry handprint art with the little girl I babysit, and this one didn't turn out quite right so we did it over again, so this one was just extra at this point)

  Once all the holes were punched I laid it front side down on my finger and used a head pin (or a piece of wire would have been just as effective…. Probably could have even used the needle I used to punch the holes, but I was afraid I'd somehow manage to poke myself lol) to press across the middle to make a crease to fold the doily over the string, and folded it in half

  After I had several little doilies made and pre-folded I cut a piece of string (I used bakers twine again because it was sitting right in front of me- are you seeing a theme here? lol - , but just pulled apart one of the colored strands of it so that it was a thinner string), and put a dot of glue inside the folded doily and glued it together with the string in the crease, spacing them out appropriately for the scale.

  To put it on the wall I first laid it out to see where I wanted it to go and then, like with the fabric bunting, just put a dot of glue behind the doilies.  For this one I ended up doing every other doily instead of all of them, which I did on the fabric bunting….. with the way I had it laid out it was easier than trying to get to each one and keep it in place and it really only needed every other.

  I’m pretty sure this wall is still going to need a little something more on it, but I haven’t decided just what yet, and I may wait to decide until I see it with the back wall and the furniture in place…. I am going to do some looking on Pinterest though for possible ideas in the meantime. I mocked it up a little bit and took some pics to get a little better idea (for me and for you...)

I also have 2 doilies left on a bit of string, so I need to figure out how I can use them in the attic roombox….. perhaps hanging out of a box or trunk? Anyone have any other suggestions? If so feel free to leave them in the comments!!

I should really know better than to make plans......... {lol}

You may remember a couple weekends ago, I posted about the big plans I had for the weekend to get lots of stuff done on several different projects, but especially for the Backyard Art Studio....... well as you may have guessed from the lack of posts since then, I really should know better than to make plans for getting stuff done..... lol.  I thought I would have the whole weekend basically to myself (my hubster was at work during the day on Saturday and was going to be out of town from after work through most of the day Sunday), but as it ended up I didn't actually get hardly any time at home that weekend and, really haven't had a chance to work on anything since.  But, today I ended up with a free day and it is super hot outside so I have no intention of going out any more than absolutely necessary, AND I found a DVD copy of The 10th Kingdom that I had forgotten I bought like a year or more ago...... (does anyone other than me remember the 10th Kingdom? It was a mini series that was on in the late 90's or very early 2000's....... I loved it, so I of course had to buy the DVD as soon as I saw it).

    So needless to say it's highly unlikely that I'll get any housework done today while watching the 7+ hours of mini series, so I decided to do at least a little bit of what I had wanted to do the other weekend (although I'm not going to do too much most likely, because I ended up putting most of  what I'm working on away last week because I need to finally get the table that's been in my living room since Easter out of here, so I don't want to get too much back out until I get the living room and craft room back in order... anyway....)

    I have however had a tiny little project that I did a couple test pieces on and then has just been sitting there waiting for me to do more with for a couple weeks, so I worked on that this morning.  It was actually super simple, much more than I thought it would be, because I found cloth tape in the scrapbooking section of Michael's, I think it was.  One of the side walls in Flutterby Bakery is going to have bunting banners for decoration.... teeny. tiny, itty, bitty bunting banners.  I want to have one that is doilies, I have yet to order the doilies though so I couldn't make that one yet, but I also wanted one that was colored round bunting.  I originally though I would punch out paper circles to make the bunting out of, which would have been a total pain, but using the cloth tape and punching circles out of that worked pretty well, and then it's also fabric bunting which I like the look of better anyway....

the materials... minus the bakers twine I used as the string

I punched holes out of the cloth tape using a regular hole punch {1/4" punch,so they would be 12" in scale}...... it worked pretty well sometimes there would would be a few treads it didn't quite cut and I'd have to cut them by hand, but that was no big deal. they didn't really have any with small enough prints for this tiny a scale (except the polka dots kind of worked) so I just lined up the punch with the part of the pattern I wanted to use.

because it is "tape" and already has adhesive it made it super easy to just lay the bakers twine (which I pulled apart so there was only one strand each of the white and turquois-y color instead of 2 of each) across the middle of each circle......

.... and fold it over onto itself to make the bunting.

then I put a dot of glue on the back of each half circle to attach to the wall

it looks a little lonely up there on the wall all by itself, but there will be at least one other doily one up there with it, and then there will be a couple bistro tables and chairs on that side of the bakery underneath the bunting.  I'm also thinking about attempting to make a banner of tiny tissue paper tassels, but I don't even know if that's really a possibility this tiny, and if it is if I'm really insane enough to try it...... lol