Dyeing bottle brush trees

I'm in a 'use what you have' kind of mood lately and been wanting to dye some of the bottlebrush trees that I have on hand. The directions are to remove the original green color by soaking them in a solution of bleach and water. I used various strengths and as you can imagine came out with different shades of green down to a creamish color. Further directions said to used dye to recolor. With only some food coloring on hand I decided to give that a try. The blues and blue greens did not turn out well at all. The green trees you see below are the result of watching and removing from the bleach solution at different times. A dozen of the pink were sent off a few weeks ago for a swap, they are my favorite. They all look much better in person. One thing I'd like to add is that different results were achieved with the different brands of trees. One batch literally melted. I never did achieve a nice clean white color so if you have, please let me know your secret. You can play with the shape of your trees by fluffing up or squishing down the bristles.

These are going to be fun to fix up and decorate.

Wow. What a difference a light box makes.

With some extra time last week and the realization that my photo journaling skills need a big boost, I decided to make a simple light box for photographing miniatures. 

 

In the next two photos, the subject, a birdhouse kit by Northeastern Miniatures, was photographed on a tabletop under the conditions offered by the day.

 This next photo was taken in the lightbox with the white background in place.

 These last few were taken with the black background. The lighting used was moved around a bit and they were taken on a very cloudy day. The daylight conditions still have bearing on the outcome, I think but these are much better to me than not having used the lightbox. You will see in the last photo a much different outcome.

 This one was taken in the evening under artificial lighting conditions. I do like the outcome but obviously still have a long way to go.

My blog post title box is still missing..........has anyone seen it? 

1:48 scale Greenhouse project

Hello eveyone! Today I wanted to introduce you to my half scale greenhouse project and thought to pass on a little tip as well.

I found this little greenhouse while still living in Florida back in 2008 and started working on it after we settled here. It quickly got set aside again after I rejoined the workforce.

Faux painting has always been a passion of mine and I love playing around with colors like the stone on this project. You are still able to see the original color on the inside. Don't mind the empty vines, they will bloom again soon. Actually, you might be able to see that the glass cracked in transit so this really is a cover up. Speaking of cover ups, there is a product on the glass in these photos which is explained below.

This flooring is a section of wallpaper that has been in my stash forever. If you are like me you change your mind several times before making a final choices and I am now thinking that this floor is a bit too gray for the Hawaiian light. I have also started carving out the support columns and archways that mimic the front side.

Here is my little tip for you. Paint some type of  masking product on the glass prior to painting. 'Painting' this product on was much easier than applying tape before painting or scraping with a razor after. This particular product is part of a line meant for glass etching. It is super easy to apply AND remove. If you look at the top right roof section you can see where it has been removed.