Things I've Made Archives - Page 7 of 136 - Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

How to Make Miniature Pumpkins

September 21, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

I just made these tiny miniature pumpkins as part of a larger project to be revealed in October. I love tiny and miniature things…they remind me of the Minecraft pumpkins only without the scary faces:

Each pumpkin was made with one of these little wood craft blocks measuring less than an inch tall. They can be bought in little packs at Michaels:

First I drilled holes in the top of each block wide enough to fit a bamboo skewer or small wood rod:

I spray painted them orange:

Then I used black craft paint and a tiny paint brush to paint jack-o-lantern faces on a few of them:

I used wire cutters to cut a bamboo skewer (the kind you make shish-ka-bobs with) into 1/2″ pieces for the pumpkin stems:

I poked each small stem into an old egg carton to keep them upright for spray painting. Just one coat of dark green spray paint was all that was needed:

When the stems were dry I dropped a dab of glue into the hole on the top of each pumpkin and pushed the stem into place:

So easy to make a bunch of these at once. You could use these for dollhouse pumpkins, centerpiece decor, and non-candy Halloween treats:

I’ll have a few other projects leading up to the same big project over the next week so stay tuned!

Space Craft: Solar System Necklace

June 6, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

This is a solar system necklace (or bracelet) project I used for Boo’s class this year. They were studying the solar system and we needed a craft for their end of the year camp out.

I love how they turned out and the kids had a lot of fun making them…I couldn’t keep the planets straight but the kids knew them frontwards and backwards!

Boo helped me pick out beads from Michaels that resembled each planet…like this one for Uranus:

We mixed and matched a bunch of other wood bead sets so that we would have enough for her class:

This one had a colorful assortment:

To make a few of them a little closer to the planet colors I spray painted them. I used stakes to stretch them taught across a piece of string:

With enough tension on the string the beads won’t touch each other:

A few light coats of spray paint does the trick:

For Earth I used green beads and just dabbed a little bit of blue paint on each one:

For the necklaces we used black pony beads as spacers:

I used elastic cord for the string:

Since I was working with a large group of third graders I cut each length of elastic cord ahead of time and tied a pony bead to the end so that the beads could be strung on and they wouldn’t fall off the other end:

We even presorted the beads into little bags. Instead of counting out individual black pony beads I just used dumped a tablespoon of each into each bag:

I also provided a paper plate for them to dump the beads onto so that they wouldn’t go flying across the tables and onto the floor. I like to be prepared and I knew we didn’t have a ton of time for each craft project we were doing.

The kids were so excited about their necklaces. I love how they turned out. I’d wear one myself:

I wasn’t sure if kids would want to add Pluto at the end so I provided an extra white bead just in case. They all included Pluto:

Miniature Books – A Tiny Book for a Tiny Book Show

February 5, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

**Update: This tiny book Rewild was stolen from one of the Tiny Book Show stops on the east coast, North of Asheville. We would love to have it back. No questions asked. If found, please mail to Ashley Hackshaw, P.O. Box 910, Bryson City, NC.**

Miniature books are just part of my obsession with miniature things. My friends Maya and Amy of the Creativity Caravan put out a call for tiny books a few months ago…for their Tiny Book Show. I love a challenge so I decided to make one to send them for their tour. I ended up making a tiny hardcover book, 2″ tall and 1.5″ wide” as seen below:

There are miniature book collections all around the world. The criteria is usually that the book is less than 3″ wide and less than 3″ tall. To browse some truly amazing tiny books check out the past competition catalogs of the Miniature Book Society here.

To make the book, the first step was to cut the little pages from Strathmore watercolor paper. I used nylon upholstery thread to sew the pages together as book blocks. Instead of reinventing the wheel I’m just going to link to a tutorial that I think explains it well if you follow the numbering system she uses. Just skip to “SEWING” in her tutorial. My stitches were so small I almost needed a magnifying glass:

Oncee the pages were sewn together I started writing out the story and illustrating the pages using a combination of gouache paint, watercolors and woodless colored pencils:

The illustrations were done from different photo references. I used tiny brushes for the paintings and just kept layering mediums until I was happy with the result. The lettering was done with the smallest Sakura Micron graphic pen I had:

Sakura white gel pens are a great way to add texture and lighten up areas that need highlights:

To make the hardcover I cut out the three cardboard pieces from a cereal box. I covered them with the only canvas fabric I had, and it happened to be yellow. So I just painted the canvas using brown acrylic paint:

The finished book binding:

I glued the front and back page of the book signatures into the cover, wrapping the pages with wax paper to protect them from glue. I sandwiched the book between two rulers and held it with a binder clip until dry:

The finished book!

Miniature Books = Tiny Paintings:

The story I chose was based on a short film I embedded at the bottom of this post that tells how wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone. Boo loves the story and so I decided to make her a small book that she’ll have to remind her of the power of nature. These are what the pages ended up looking like:

(Somehow I skipped scanning pages 4 and 5…but I already sent the tiny book off so I’ll have to update it when I get it back.)

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