The high school concert last night was quite nice.  They had four groups:  Percussion assemble, jazz band, orchestra and band.  Each group preformed extremely well even though some of the selections were quite difficult!

We're in a cool down for the next several days.  Highs only in the low 80's and 70's with a couple 60's thrown in.  My type of weather.  There's even a few days of rain scheduled but I'll believe it when I see it!

I still haven't adapted to the time out here...I keep waking up at 3:00am but last night or should I say early this morning it was 2:17am.  I think I am going in the wrong direction!

Yesterday I started working on the miniature studio planning on spending only a few minutes on it...well...I spent the entire day working on it.  I had forgotten how much I love creating miniature.  

I had made a complete house out of a small box...living room, dining room & kitchen on the first floor, steps going up to the second floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom.  Unfortunately it was lost in the fire.  I think when I get back home I will begin making a complete house again but adding a couple rooms like a library and a studio.

Anyway, here's how the progression went.  After creating the studio (walls and floor) I created the furniture.  (All of it is out of cardboard, paper and fabric with a few beads thrown in.)  Here's the plain cardboard pieces...

Next, I covered and/or painted the furniture.  I added a floor lamp and using some batting scraps added a design wall...

Now it was time do some decorating.  First I worked on the desk area and design wall.  I added one each (nine patch, six patch and four patch) blocks plus a couple of strips to the design wall using beads to represent pins.

On the desk I added some small fabric pieces on the paper to work into a block plus a bowl full of cut strips.  (To make the bowl I cut a piece of paper about 1 1/2 inch by 4 inches.  I marked the paper into four sections lengthwise, folded down three fours of the way one fourth at a time and gluing each fold.  I attached the ends together and then clipped the remaining fourth all around which is the bottom.  After pushing the clipped edges up, I cut the circle the same size as the bowl and attached with glue to the clipped pieces.  To make the tiny pieces of fabric stay in the bowl, I dipped one end in glue before adding to the bowl.)...

Next I worked on the shelf.  To make the books, I cut two pieces of cardboard for each book in various sizes and then covered with tiny pieces of colorful paper.  I made two boxes out of colorful cardstock.  I folded several small strips of cloth, gluing the ends and then gluing the strips together to make a stack of fabric.  Finally, I cut a picture out of a piece of decorative paper, made a triangular stand and glued the picture to it...

To soften the cardboard edges I applied a layer of tacky glue.  Here's a couple of pictures showing the final studio.  By the way, the floor of the studio is only three inches square to give you an idea of the size of the miniature studio...

What fun some scrap cardboard, scrap fabric and glue gave me.  I know that not everyone is into making miniatures but I bet if you really thought about it you would find something to create that was a lot of fun but using very little money and lots of scraps.

Speaking of scraps, do any of you remember a small magazine called Pack-O-Fun?  It was crammed full of ideas to make things basically using only items that were designated for the 'round file'.  Back in the day (Yes, I am that old) there were lots of craft magazines.  I have three binders full of articles that I saved from those magazines.  

My guess is that one of the reasons for those magazines was to encourage women to stay home taking care of the family.  That's unfortunate because I was/am definitely for women's rights (as well as racial equality) and I did work outside the home but I also enjoyed crafting.

I know that I can find ideas on YouTube, Pinterest, etc. but there was something about picking up one of those craft magazines, enjoying looking through and discovering new ideas!  I wonder...does anyone really craft anymore?  I hope so because it really is a lot of fun...

Enjoy your day...

Talk with you tomorrow...