Dollhouse Miniatures: A World of Minis

Limited Time Offer: Get a free month of Starlink. Check yours out today. 
*Over a $160 value in Canada depending on where you live.*

Dollhouse Miniatures give Tiny Structures that Touch of Real

Mini Projects at your Fingertips. Shrinking your world into dollhouse minis would be a captivating project to say the least. Tiny items take a lot of patience but the prize is worth it.

Ever wonder how anyone could have the patience and talent to paint on a pinhead? Those amazing microscopic paintings are mind boggling. Fortunately designing in miniature isn't so complicated. Nor as stressful.

Book Featured: #1. Painting Tiny Treasures Cindi Gordon 2000-08-02

Materials List for Dollhouse Miniatures

Miniature Design Material include These Types:

.. and of course we all know this list could go on and on. It is just the tip of the iceberg, sotospeak ..

Paper Crafts

* Paper Crafts for your Doll House - This category includes items such as: books, magazines, art posters, photos, current and antique novels, greeting cards, newspapers, calendars, various items of furniture, crafts, toys, money, passports, holiday items, and the list we are sure could be close to infinite. It's only limit would be your imagination.

Book Featured: #2. Miniature Books: 4,000 Years of Tiny Treasures

"Paper dollhouse miniatures are objects you assemble from paper, there are a wide variety of these available commercially and on the web.... Printables and paper minis are the property of the designer and may only be used for personal use unless you have the designer’s permission." - From About.com

Intriguing Paper Miniatures

The Tiny Details...

We find dollhouse paper miniatures intriguing with their oh so tiny details.

What do you have around you at this very moment? Do any of those things inspire you to shrink them?

Not literally, like the movie "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" or something. But just to attempt to shrink them by scanning, photo, or making a model.

Now to us an actual three-dimensional model-type such as: computer, toaster or whatever, does entail an extreme bit of calculating. So this, because of time restraints, is somewhat out.

We can however see shrinking our checkbook, passport or some other document though. Without too much trouble where that kind of project is concerned.

We have long admired the site where "Jim's Doll's House Pages full of Dollhouse Paper Miniatures" reside. We found them early on in our own quest to online life. Jim has the most amazing printable minis.

What fun to sit and create those tiny items for our doll's house.

The Turn Around...

These Pluses are on Your Side

....But, on second thought, considering the creation of paper material minis, and the thought of Jim's site.... and our earlier mentioned items of computers, etc., we realize that Jim has done all the work for us!

He already possesses those items in calculated measure for a wide array of doll house sizes. Awesome.

And because of that, we realize it would take us no time in creating whatever we wanted. Awesome again.

Just the thought of creating items in this size, just gets our creative juices flowing. We would love to start right now.

The beauty of owning a Doll's House site ourselves is: that we can do any project in miniature we set our minds to on any given day.

So hence the lead into our Dollhouse Paper Miniatures Project of the day....

Project: The Doll's House Magazine, December 09 Edition

Making a replica of none other than The Doll's House Magazine, December 09 Edition, in our most favorite scale. Barbie Scale. Play Scale.

Your Supplies

Supplies You will need for this Dollhouse Paper Miniatures Project:

• Ruler
• Pencil
• White glue
• Scissors
• Stationery clips
• Stationery Trimmer
• Computer scanner
• 1 Sheet of semi-gloss (semi-gloss is flexible)
• 1 Piece of regular letter size 8.5" x 11" (inches)
• Web page program or editor of your choice (we used FrontPage 2003)
• Photo editor program (we used PhotoStudio 2000)

Your Project Steps

1. The first step is to scan each side of your magazine. Front and Back.
    
2. Next use Jim's calculator found here to estimate the size of your finished dollhouse paper miniatures project. Special Note about scale: 100 pixels= 1 inch. We found this useful. As well check this page from Jim's site about scale.
    
3. Next shrink both of your scans to approximately 200 pixels in height. We left the check-mark beside "keep aspect ratio" and let our program figure out the width. Make sure you crop and fine tune your minis in a photo editor. PLUS make sure each picture is exactly the same in size. Even if you have to uncheck "keep aspect ratio" for one, it will not make any difference. But for the very first photo do use "keep aspect ratio". Let that one set the pace.
    
4. Save each picture in mini on your zip drive. (Because of computers going down we no longer save anything to our computer.)
    
5. Now enter your pictures into your FrontPage program, or the like, side by side. No spaces.
    
6. View it as if on a web page and print. Print 2 out. One on semi-gloss. One on plain letter size. The one on plain letter size is a pattern for cutting out a couple (2) pages for your magazine. The one on semi-gloss will become the cover of your mag.
    
7. Cut out your tiny magazine.
    
8. Using your plain letter copy, cut out more pages. We made 4. 2 pages, each folded, making your total of 4.
    
9. Next we folded our cover and glued the blank pages in place.

The Finished Product

Now that you see how a magazine is made, you have the information needed to do additional projects of similar nature.

Hope to see what you've all made in the future.

Return to Beginning Paper Crafts

Polymer Clay

* Polymer Clay - Used for many miniature objects such as: Dolls, food, small appliances like clocks, kettles etc., brickwork, cookware, stoves, tiles, baskets, and candle-holders, to name only a few.

Book Featured: #3. Making Miniature Food and Market Stalls

"Polymer Clay is an oven baked modeling compound, widely used to sculpt tiny dolls house objects and food, scale dolls and figures, and scale models." - From About.com

Pewter

* Pewter - Any art form seems to be the order with these. Say you were wanting to place small items in your Doll House to create an artsy look.

Book Featured: #4. How to Cast Small Metal and Rubber Parts

"For instance with small ornaments, wall decorations, or different accent pieces. These would do. Plus for a castle creation, there are medieval items to consider such as Knights, swords, warriors, and various period display items."

Clay Sculptures

* Clay Sculptures - Mainly used for constructing figures. Some of the sculpting compounds used include Sculpey and Super Sculpey, Fimo, Magic Sculpt, Milliput - Silver Grey, Milliput - Terracotta and last but not least Green Putty. Sculpting has its rewards, especially if you are wanting to design your own original period figures.

Book Featured: #5. Creating Lifelike Figures in Polymer Clay: Tools and Techniques for Sculpting Realistic Figures

"Sculpting is probably the finest art in the Games Workshop hobby. Unlike painting, you start with nothing in your hands but two strips of blue and yellow stuff, and if you have patience you will watch your minis grow steadily, from the very beginning of knitting the Green Stuff together and to the final touches."

Featured Design Program of Our Choice: 
Chief Architect Home Designer Architectural

Never be at a loss again for how to design certain aspect of your dollhouse. For the outside as well as in the inside. Use all the information available at your fingertips to help you become the best you can be at design. Have the most fun designing your own miniature structures.

Woodcrafts

* Woodcraft - In this category we find anything from balls, blocks, books, boxes, buckets, rolling pins, wheels, school bells, to food items, etc.

Watch the video, below, on creating a wooden miniature:

Resin Casting

* Resin Casting - Used to make figures for your Doll House or any object you would like to cast in miniature.

Book Featured: #6. A Beginner's Guide to Mold Making and Resin Casting For the Hobbyist

Some compounds for casting include: AquaResin, Azbro Wax, Bondo, Castilene, duoMatrix, Epoxy, Foams, Forton MG, Gypsum, HydroShrink, HydroSpan, Latex, Magic-Sculpt, Magic-Smooth, Masterworks, Polyurethane, Polyester, Silicone, Vatican Stone, Winterstone. 

Porcelain

* Porcelain - In this category you will find items like vases, dinnerware, pitchers, dolls, cups, shoes, fine china....

Watch this fascinating video of intricate artwork in porcelain:

Embroidery Designs

* Embroidery Designs in Miniature - "Dollhouse Miniatures are fun, and anyone can do them, according to expert miniaturist Elizabeth R Anderson. Her enthusiasm and understanding of the subject have resulted in a wonderful, easy-to-follow book....

Book Featured: #7. Beginner's Guide to Miniature Embroidery

She guides the reader through an exquisite selection of samplers, flowers, fruit, birds, butterflies, figures, animals and silhouettes in a series of clear, practical projects, which are suitable for all levels of embroiderers."

Persian Minis

* Also worth mentioning are Persian Minis. Tiny pictures of Persian origins are awe inspiring mainly because of the attention to detail of these mini paintings. Think of replicating one of those to include in your Dollhouse Miniatures Collection!

Book Featured: #8. Mostly Miniatures: An Introduction to Persian Painting

"A Persian miniature is a small painting, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works.... The origin of the Persian miniature is difficult to trace. The art form reached its peak mainly during the Mongol and Timurid periods (13th-16th century), and was heavily influenced by Chinese paintings as the Mongol rulers of Persia brought with them numerous Chinese artists to the court." - Persian Miniature History

Not that we are aspiring to be like the ancient art forms but it is possible to obtain a professional quality with the right knowledge, skills, and tools in any form you pursue. Especially where creating your imaginative dollhouse miniatures are concerned.

Purchase you own tiny objects from our Toy Shoppe online!

Select any Miniatures Book Below ...

Leave Me a Like

Search this Site

Recent Articles

• 
• 
• 

1. Own the Barbie House of your Dreams

   Aug 27, 25 12:45 PM

   
   Explore Barbie House. Dream of owning a unique Barbie Dollhouse? Explore Barbie's World online today starting from this page.

   Read More

2. Antique Doll House. Do you want to part with yours?

   Apr 30, 24 01:51 PM

   
   The antique doll house is of the rare, extremely collectible type. Do you have one? Whatever you do be positive you want to part with it...

   Read More

3. Our Latest News Today

   Dec 06, 23 01:42 PM

   
   Our Latest News Today in every shape, size and assortment. Check here for more on your all-time favorite Doll House topics and unique ideas.

   Read More

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (KJV)