Contemporary Shell Lamp

I thought I would start with this lamp, it's one of the first things I made and also wrote instructions for. Also, the kitchen is 1940's and I love the era, but I mostly do contemporary rooms now. No worrying about what does not belong in the scene because "They didn't make those in 19......".

This lamp is non-electric but it is easily made into an electric one. I use Cir-Kit Concepts lamp kits,
www.cir-kitconcepts.com

The things needed are: an auto light bulb, this one is a signal bulb, polymer clay, a toothpick, cupcake liners, a small gold bead to act at the finial on the top of the lamp and some card stock for the shade, and a flat gold bead that looks like a washer. And whatever you want to put inside the lamp, I used tiny shells.
Please read through the instructions, I usually leave something out in the items needed because I'm usually making things from what I have on hand.
Carefully cut the metal end off the bulb. I used a small triangular file for this. Please wear safety glasses for this. Sand the cut edge of the bulb after the metal part is off.
Use polymer clay for the top and bottom. I used brown to simulate wood, but you could use any color to coordinate with your room. Shape the clay to fit your bulb. I pushed the bottom of the bulb into clay so the bulb would sit right. I also made a small round bead to go the the top of the top. Make a hole through the bead to accommodate a toothpick. Bake your three clay pieces according to package directions.
While the clay is baking make the shade. Using the pattern, cut the shade shape from card stock. Glue together, for this I used Elmers, it's paper to paper and you can't beat Elmer's for this. Cut from card stock the round center for the shade. Make a hole in the center of this circle to fit the toothpick. Glue this circle inside of the shade. Let dry.
After the clay pieces are done baking and cooled you can begin to assemble the base. Glue the glass bulb to the base, making sure the bulb is straight all around. Ahhh, glue. What can I say, we all have our favorites. For this I would use something that is not flexable when dry, such as a tacky glue. For this I used Beacon's 527 glue, I bought mine from Wal-Mart. Fill the bulb with tiny shells. Glue on the top, Beacon's 527. Glue the flat gold bead, (you can make this from polymer clay and paint it gold) and then the round polymer bead you made onto the top. Let dry. Paint the toothpick a gold/brass color.
To finish the shade I used a cupcake liner because it looks like the pleated shades we have now. If you have a mini-pleater you could use it with the fabric of your choice. Make a cut between a pleat and cut out the bottom of the cupcake liner. Carefully fold along the pleats to compress them. I usually don't have to cut any excess liner off. All the liner is used to go around the cardstock shape you glued together earlier. Once you have compressed the cupcake liner, glue it to the cardstock shape, Elmer's. Over lap a couple of pleats.
Slide the finished shade onto the toothpick. Glue this assembly into the polymer clay bead on the top of your lamp. Let dry. Move the shade so that the bottom of the shade is above the top of the polymer bead. Glue the shade to the toothpick and let dry. Carefully nip off the toothpick just below the top of the shade. Glue a gold bead, round or oval, to the top of the toothpick.


I am knew to this, and the lamp shade pattern may not print out the size you need. From what I understand you can copy it into one of your programs and adjust the size. If anyone can help me with this problem, please feel free to offer suggestions. I am going to be putting patterns on the blog and need to have them the right size for you to use.


How did I do? Kris

1 inch minis, Kitchen Room Box

This is my kitchen room box. Before making this box I did a little research by buying a few old "Better Homes and Gardens" from a flea market, circa 1940. Let's take a tour. I made the box with a false back to allow for a window scene and pantry. The floor is painted to look like linoleum, the cabinet doors and drawers do not work, there's a teapot, round tin, toaster, a canner with jars of beans inside, a percolator, flyswatter, calendar, wall shelf, stove, canister set, sink, cookie jar, lots of stuff in the pantry, refrigerator, radio, table and chairs, cutting board and knife and the basket of tomatoes and beans.
I plan to share with you how I made most of the minis in the scene on this blog. If you have any questions about the "how to's" please contact me at my e-mail address.
I plan on expanding and selling KITS in the future, flowers, upholstered furniture and whatever else I think that you would like. Keep me informed, I'll do my best. Kris

Lets make minis

Hi my name is Kris Compas, "1 inch minis". With this blog I would like to share my methods, patterns and ideas with you. I make room boxes and I make nearly everything in them. I have recently been published in "Miniature Collector" magazine, (April, 2009), Wow! That was a thrill. My article was "Miniatures on a Budget". These are the rooms I will be demonstrating how to make along with the other things I dream up and figure out.

We're Going to Nationals!!

Jacob and his partner, Zach Harris, made ninth place out of 55 teams at the NCFCA Regional Invitational speech and debate tournament. Rebekah is so glad---because that means we will all be going to the national tournament in South Carolina on June 15th! Great job kids!!
Thank you Mrs. Stevens for being such a great coach! Great job Logos Club! PS. Christian won an award for being such a faithful timer--good job Christian!

L is for LOGOS! Happy debaters at a late night party at Laurie and Debbie's hotel room. Brave moms for inviting the whole club to their room at 1:30am! See picture below.

2:00am in the hotel room with many Logos club members at the Regional Invitational tournament in Arlington, Tx. this last week celebrating a great tournament. Bring on the PIZZA!
Rebekah had a very popular speech about a young cockroach girl named Josefina, who is receiving suitors for her hand in marriage. She did not break to semi-finals with her humorous speech at the Regional tournament although she had won to semi-finals in two previous tournaments. Jacob broke to semi-finals with his persuasive speech, but he will not get to compete at the national tournament with it. He made third place in the finals round at last month's tournament.
Am I a proud mother? Of course I am! And a little teary eyed in this picture. Great job kids!


Jacob and Zach discuss their case on Free Trade with Mr. Remke who gives an economic seminar to the club shortly afterwards. Jacob will be flying to New York with several debate friends to attend a week long seminar on Economics from May 25-29th. You can imagine how excited he is about that!
Rebekah talks to Laura and Emily before the seminar. Laura is also going to New York.
Christian gives the second affirmative constructive speech, while his partner, Julia Rosenberger flows his speech in the background.

Christian asks cross examination questions of Evan Stevens.

Beach Visits

In between trips this February, Tim took the family for a day at the beach in Galveston. Rebekah and I decided that would be a great way to spend her spring break...

So in March, I took her to Corpus Christi for a week. We had a very 'girly' vacation! Swimming, shopping, movies , getting our nails done, lattes, sunbathing, and eating out. It was a perfect reward for all of Rebekah's hard work and mom's too!
Dolphins near our boat at Corpus Christi.

This picture was taken on a paddleboat tour of the bay.

Here Rebekah is attempting to attract dolphins to pet. We took another tour with a group called "Dolphin Connection". The dolphins played and teased us, just following along side our little boat. It was amazing to see how friendly and playful they were.


Rebekah feeding the seagulls on her senior trip to Corpus Christi this March.
Rebekah was determined to get in the surf. We swam three days...the first day it took 20 minutes for me to get all the way in. The next day I heard the water was warmer---65! Brrr!

Ruffled Skirts and Ribbon flowers

Here's a cute project for Spring!
If you are following my blog and recognize these dresses, please don't mention it to the family who wore them as I wanted it to be an anonymous gift. I know hardly anyone is checking this blog. :o) Making skirts from cotton krinkle cloth makes a nice skirt with so little effort! I used a ruffler foot to gather these layers of a tiered skirt and a rolled hem foot to do the hem for each layer. It took quite a bit of practice to learn how to use the sewing feet which can be purchased at any sewing store. The ruffler foot costs 30.00--ouch! But we make a lot of square dance clothes, so it was worth it. (You could use a coupon at Hancocks to get 40% off.) Also, great for curtains and anything else you want a ruffle on.

This was so easy! I bought the beautiful scalloped cloth on clearance last summer. No hemming required! I roll hemmed the upper edge and than gathered the ruffle and then sewed it onto the bottom of an inexpensive baby t-shirt.
I had made yo-yo flowers before but found another neat way to do these flowers quickly. Just make a quick basting stich along the upper edge of a 12" strip of grosgrain ribbon, pull the loose ends to gather and then tie in a knot to make the circle. Then stitch it down really good, especially if it's for small children. I pinned the rickrack in place then topstitched it to hold it. The leaves were difficult. I had to fraycheck the whole leaf to keep it from coming apart. Grossgrain ribbon is not good for this! I pinked the edges and then zigzagged the leaves on to applique them to the shirt. I also decorated a cheap canvas tote bag with these flowers--so cute!! and quick! The blouses were on sale at Walmart and cost very little and coordinated very nicely with the krinkle cloth skirts.

A Day at Grandma and Grandpa's

Donna with Colin and Brennan. It's the first time I've ever gotten to hold Brennon! He's just over a year old in this picture.

Daughter-in-law Amanda, holding Elisabeth and Andrew's first baby Lena. The girls got to know each other better over facebook. Neat!
Grandpa Tim takes Amanda and Matthew's first little boy, Colin, on a lawn mower ride. He will celebrate his third birthday at our house on May 18th!

Baby Lena, only a little over two months old, needed a nap. What a precious moment, just getting to sit and watch her and make sure nothing disturbed her sleep.

My dear sweet daughter-in-laws, Elisabeth and Amanda Rodgers. Amanda is holding Elisabeth's little girl, Lena.

Uncle Christian, our baby, who is now 14, is showing nephew Colin how to work his matchbox race track.



Like father and Grandma & Grandpa...like sons. Tim and I, and Rebekah and Christian, all play the piano, as does Matthew. So of course, my grandsons made a beeline for it as soon as they could. Aren't they cute?
Colin so makes me think of Jacob, who was convinced he could ride anything that had a key. Thank goodness, Colin didn't have a key. :o) He's ready to roll though!

Of course, no day at Grandma's is complete without meeting her chickens. Actually, these are Aunt Heather's chickens which I am babysitting indefinitely. Her house burned down at Christmas and she didn't have time to drive back and forth to the homestead to care for them. Brennan and Colin weren't a 100% sure they wanted to pet a chicken even if it was covered in fur!

Getting to know the grandbabies again!
Amanda with her 1yr old, Brennan. These guys aren't afraid of the camera are they?


Watch out Matthew! You may have a 'budding' country boy on your hands!