Framed Miniature Front Door

Today I'm sharing this framed miniature front door. What I like about this miniature project is that it also doubles as decor as it can be hung on the wall.

Check out the video at the bottom of this post for the full run through of how I made it. But first, here's a few details.

I created the brick wall by using a handmade stamp made from a rubber. I used this technique a lot when I was at uni, as you can see here.

I added some 3D elements to give the piece some dimension, like the plants on the doorstep. These were made using little bottle brush trees which I trimmed to give a flat side and painted a more realistic colour.

I think these would make great presents to celebrate a new home or commemorate leaving an old one. They'd be easy to personalise and you could even write the house address on the mount.

Miniature Food Made of Salt Dough

Do you remember when I made a tiny table full of miniature salt dough food? That was 9 years ago!

So I thought it was about time to give it another go and see what other food I could create (and see if my skills have got any better).

I decided to focus on pastries and made croissants, pain au raison, cinnamon swirls and Danish pastries.

Check out the video at the bottom of this post for the how to!

After baking the salt dough I painted the pastries with acrylic paint and used PVA glue to give them a shine.

I also made a little wooden tray out of lollipop sticks because presentation is everything. This is a tiny brunch I'd like to go to!

Fish Painting

Last summer, during our holiday to Austria, we visited Schönbrunn Palace. The palace grounds are so large they even house a zoo, which is apparently the oldest zoo in the world!

(They also have a bakery which offers apple strudel demonstrations!)

We spent a long time in the zoo, starting with the aquarium. I loved all the different colours and shapes of the fish and knew I wanted to make some art based on what I'd seen once I got home. 

I created this painting in about an hour. I wasn't too concerned with getting all the details exactly right, I just wanted to play around with different materials and show all the colours.

For the background I used watercolours to make it look, well, watery! 

I painted the fish using gouache paint as I find the colours are more vibrant than watercolours and it's easier to control. I added some gold acrylic paint which shimmers in the light like the real fishes scales.

I added details and brought out the shadows and highlights using colour pencils.

I love how this turned out and I'm really happy with the slightly messier style and mix of textures.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing festive period. You can check out the highlights of my break in the video above. I've been making these Christmas video for 6 years and I love looking back at the old ones.

I thought I would take this opportunity to take a brief look back at 2018 and share some things that maybe weren't mentioned on the blog.

Andrew and I ended up taking quite a few trips this year starting with Holland in February (I highly recommend the pancake boat in Rotterdam!). We also went to the South Downs and the Peak District, where we stayed in some great Air BnBs. Then we ended the summer with a holiday to Austria, visiting Vienna and Salzburg.

August marked us being in our house for a whole year and earlier in the year we got our bathroom re-done. It involved a week of showering at our parents' houses and using a bucket to flush the toilet but it was worth it!

We got engaged this year!

There's no big proposal story here. We just started looking at venues and went from there.

This year has been fantastic for my little craft business. I set up an Instagram account for my felt dogs (and other animals!) which has really helped it grow. Check out @lisasfeltfriends to follow along.

I made at least 55 custom felt animals this year, plus all the standard felt animals I sold in my Etsy shop.

How was your 2018?

Wood Burned Dog Keyrings

It's been a while since I picked up my pyrography tool. To get some more practise using it I decided to try making some keyrings featuring...you guessed it; dogs.

I bought these wooden ovals from Ebay, which already had a hole drilled in them. Perfect for making keyrings.

I roughly drew out the image in pencil first and then got going with the pyrography tool. The trickiest part is that you can only go darker, you can't make something lighter again. So if you accidentally go too dark in one spot, you just have to make it work.

Check out the process out drawing one of these below!

Quick Painting: Stonehaven

I made this painting as a little break from sewing all the dogs. 

I keep a folder of my photos that I think might make good paintings so when I decided I wanted to do a little painting I just picked an image out from there.

The picture is of Dunnottar Castle in Stonehaven, near Aberdeen. I visted there two years ago with my cousin and friend as my cousin went to university in Aberdeen. The trip was something of a castle tour as we hit up three in two days during our visit.

To create the painting I roughly sketched out the image on to water colour paper before painting it. I then went over the painting with colour pencil to add more details.

See the video below for the whole process.

Lisa's Felt Friends

I've recently set up an Instagram account for my felt dogs, and other animals, called Lisa's Felt Friends as I want to try and grow that little business.

Here are some of the new dogs I've been making that you can find there.

These are a couple of custom dogs I made recently for Woof Wag Walk.

And I've been branching out from just dogs with a cat and a sloth! There's a couple more cats in my shop as well as a panda and a koala.

So if you're interested in seeing which animals I'm making, follow along

And don't forget my regular Instagram is @lisagharrold to join me there too.

Christmas 2017 Video

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I'm just popping in to share my Christmas video - enjoy!

My Christmas Video

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas break. I had a great time seeing lots of family and friends. The only thing I asked for was some digital kitchen scales which shows how much of an adult I've become.

Here's my video of all the Christmastivities I got up to including; ice skating, my friend's winter wedding, a few trips to look at Christmas decorations, family gatherings and Christmas Day itself. Enjoy!

Are You Filming?

After almost 3 years I decided it was time to make another 'Are you filming?' video.

This one features both genuine clips of people still not realising I'm not taking a photo (when will they learn?!) and clips of people mocking the original compilation, which can be seen here.

Enjoy!

Christmas 2015

I'm just dropping in to share my Christmas video.

It's been a fun few weeks, kicked off by Christmates, followed by a family trip to London, then five straight days of family starting with the big day itself.

I used one of my Christmas presents to make the video; Adobe Premier Elements, which I received along with Photoshop. Though somewhere along the way a minute and a half of blank video got added to the end, so just ignore that. I'm still figuring it out.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and have a happy New Year.

Christmas 2014

I hope you all had a good Christmas. I did, thanks for asking.

My whole week was full of festive fun starting with a trip to London to see the Railway Children with my family, then the annual gift exchange with my friends, then Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Boxing day with my Mum's side of the family, and finally the weekend with my Dad's side of the family.

Thankfully I've still got the rest of this week off before I'm back at work.

Here's a video of clips from the week, including quite a few of me dancing in my pjs.

You're welcome.

Painting: Malvern Hills

Having four days off in a row is perfect for doing a big painting, which is just what I did this past week.

This painting is based on a photo taken on lasts year's camping trip during a walk on the Malvern hills.

I thought it would be fun to record some of my process and present it at high speed.

Here's two hours in two minutes.

And here's how those figures ended up.

I'm really pleased with how this painting turned out, and I'm currently searching through my photos for inspiration for the next one.

Christmas Time

New year, smew myear.

I'm still riding the Christmas train!

I just finished putting together this video of all my festive gatherings.

The song is It's Christmastime by Mr. Speaker, a local band who write songs for charity.

I saw them performing this December, and last December, when they were at the Letchworth Arts Centre and I was working on the bar both times. They are guaranteed to put you in the Christmas mood. I'm not saying now, but bare that in mind for next year!

They even have a whole album of original Christmas songs. These are my kind of people.

All their music is available to buy from here and you make a donation to their chosen charities in the process.

And, I guess I should wish you a happy and healthy new year. Or whatever.

I love Christmas!

This Week I...

...went camping!

While I'm busy washing clothes and enjoying the luxury of a flushing toilet I'll leave you with a few videos from my trip.

My cousin and I getting interrupted.

A clip from the camp fire.

And a group of us getting lost in a maize maze!

It was amazing.

What have I missed while I've been away?

Video Time

Today I wanted to share this quick little stop/start animation that I made using magic sand.

I'd forgotten how fun that stuff is!

Whoah, plot twist. Who saw that coming?

I've also updated my 'Are You Filming?' video so here's the extended version.

Still makes me giggle. 

My highlight is my friend Laura in a cupboard.

Are you filming?

Just a video for you today. Enjoy!

This is something I've wanted to put together for a while, and finally got around to doing it.

I had to look through 3 years of videos, but that was fun.

It's a lot of people asking the same question.

My highlights are:

* My old housemate Lucy getting scared by a knock at the window

* My sister doing 'Mr Napkin Head'

* And my friend Robyn's observations at the begin and end of the video. Well Robyn, it isn't just you who says it.

Maybe I should just buy a camcorder and then there'd be no question as to whether I was filming.

But then I wouldn't get these laughs.