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Have you ever noticed that most doctor's office waiting rooms are populated with a variety of greenery (real or silk), fish tanks and pictures on the wall? How impractical is this? Chances are that when you are sick, you will see the doctor anyway, regardless of how pretty their waiting room is. It would cost the office a lot less not to add these dust catchers to a waiting area. So why do they do it? Well, it is a plan. These little "homey" touches are meant to have a calming effect on anybody who has to spend any time in there. Admit it, you sit more sedately when there is something to look at, but get restless when your eyes can't land on anything interesting! This is the way humans work. Take all the trinkets/curiosities/pictures out of your living room and sit there for awhile. I can almost guarantee that you will feel that something isn't "right" in a very short order. We all need bits of personality hanging about our real houses, so it follows that we need it in a mini setting too. The projects I have chosen are meant to give your mini house a bit of extra personality. Have fun!

Rubber Duck, you're the one!

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If you are a fimo beginner, this is a most satisfying project to do because of the simple design and quick construction.

Small amount of yellow, brown, orange fimo
Small knitting needle or a darning needle
ceramic tile (to work on, optional)

Instructions

First, condition your clay. The purpose of this is to make it soft and warm. If it is already soft, do not be fooled. It still needs to be kneaded. I usually play with the clay for about five minutes or so.
Take a small amount of fimo and shape it into a fat teardrop. Gently curl tail end (skinny part of teardrop) up. This makes your body and tail.
Roll a small ball of yellow to form head, and attach it to the end opposite the tail.
With a small knitting needle, press in eye holes.
Roll a teeny amount of brown fimo and put into eye socket holes.
Roll a tiny ball of orange and form into a blunt teardrop. Attach to duck's face. If the beak is too pointy, gently push the nose in a bit.
With a small needle, press in nose holes.
Wings are made by rolling a small teardrop and flattening between your fingers. Curl up the tips, and attach to ducky's side.
Bake for 45 minutes at 250 F.

Fern

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Every house needs plants. It is the rule! This simple fern will brighten up any dark corner.

Supplies

Green florist tape
Aleene's (or another high quality) glue
Sharp scissors
crayola model magic (or other air drying medium)
mini dirt (can be dried tea leaves, or railway model dirt)
Wooden turning/bead/commercial pot
acrylic paint

Instructions

If you bought an unfinished wood turning/bead, paint with acrylic color of your choice. Allow to dry.
For the leaves, I glued two pieces of florist tape together. The leaves on a real plant can vary in length up to a maximum of a foot and a half (so in mini it would be an inch and a half), but I cut them shorter so I could have a desk plant. Remember nature is not good with exact measurements, so vary the lengths of each frond.
When fronds are dry, fold in half length wise. Open up again and trim the rectangle into a triangle.
Holding scissors at an angle, snip into the florist tape (almost but not quite to the center line) to make a fringe. Trim triangle if you think it should be skinnier. Repeat for as many leaves as you need (I made about 11).
Take a small ball of CMM, and apply glue to one end. Insert into pot. Apply glue to top of ball, and press into your dirt. With the sharp ends of your scissors, create a hole in the middle of the CMM.
Gather the fat end of the frond around a needle tool, apply a bit of glue and stick into hole you made in the last step. Push it down gently, trying not to rip the tape. If you do accidentally rip it, though, just rearrange it a bit so it doesn't show. Arrange the fronds in two layers. (The second should straddle the first). Try to arrange the fronds in such a way that the glued ends are hidden.
Allow to dry for 24 hours.

Box of Stuff

This is a fun box to put together. I made a needleperson's box, but it can be filled with anything you wish it to be. A great project for placing those odd small miniatures you have.
Supplies
Cardstock
Ribbon (preferably a soft cotton type. You can also substitute strips of cloth for this, but the nice thing about ribbon is that the edges are finished).
Bits and pieces for your box.

Instructions
- Draw a box onto cardstock. The size of the box will depend on how big you want the base, plus the width of ribbon you buy.
- Now you need to separate the base from the sides by drawing pencil lines. Measure into box the width of your ribbon on all four sides and draw pencil lines (allowing for them to overlap). This will form four small squares in the corners.
- Cut out box with exacto knife or scissors. Remove the little corner squares. Score over the pencil lines with an exacto knife lightly, so as not to sever the cardstock. Fold what remains into a box, and secure the edges (with either a bit of tape or glue)
- Glue ribbon around box sides, and when you get all the way around, neaten the edges and cut your ribbon. This finishes the outside of the box. From here you can either add more lace inside the box, or add a bits of fabric.
- To fill the box, decide what you would like. I made several items for my NP box. For extra needlepoint cloth, I rolled a small cylinder of 28 count aida and glued it to secure. For the book, I was fortunate enough to get some book stamps from some company or other. I glued that stamp to several pieces of cardstock, trimmed it square. Very simple, but very effective. I made an extra pack of needles out of a bit of brown florist tape and thin beading wire, a reading glasses case out of a scrap of leather and a bead, and a piece of needlework embroidery by stitching a simple pattern, gluing to a small disk of thin cardboard and a thin strip of cardstock formed the top of the hoop. DMC floss can be simulated by taking the real stuff, separating one strand out, winding it around an appropriately sized form and tyed in the middle. Then put a small label over the center.
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  duck and fern copyright, February 1998, Kim Bulback, QOM

Kim's Project Page

Rubber Duck, you're the one!

Fern

Box of Stuff