Printables

During the five years (almost on the day) of my miniature making, I resisted printing out things from the web. Fair enough, I have searched every site that offers printies, for the same purpose I search online stores: to get ideas. I once printed out a pattern for making a shoe box, which was very helpful. But being primarily a recycler, I felt that printing out a book row or a painting or a wine-bottle label is less challenging than finding it in a magazine or catalogue. I still feel the same, but I have allowed myself to persuade myself that perhaps some things might be fun to print out, and that they would still demand some work.

Anyway, my children gave me a colour printer for Christmas. I haven't been out of the house since then so I haven't got the right paper. I have printed on standard printer paper and, where necessary, glued onto card. All these printies come from the same site, that I highly recommend, Jim's Printable Minis.

 

Now, honestly, all these I could have made myself. In fact, I have made very similar miniatures. I have made both fake books and books that you can open and fake rows of books (see for instance this and this and this). I have a hat box, exactly like this one, in my Victorian house, made from a flowery greeting card. I haven't made envelopes, because I haven't needed them (and I still don't know what to do with them). 

Lesson learned? It is fun to try various techniques for miniature making. I will go on searching sites with printables and perhaps discover things I hadn't thought about before I had a colour printer. For instance, I can now make miniatures of my own books. But this is another story.