The Perfectly Landscaped Dollhouse

Etsy Team MIDS (Miniatures in Dollhouse Scale) Feature:

Miniature Artist Golden Unicorn Minis

Is your dollhouse lacking curb appeal? Do your 1/12 scale dolls stay in their chambers & avoid lounging on the terrace, even on the best of days?

Let me recommend you to Golden Unicorn Minis, THE Dollhouse Landscaper whose name is in every fashionable doll's mini-rolodex.

Don't worry! You can still catch up with the styles of the dollhouse elite. Check out some of the pieces that could spruce up your dollhouse's tired exterior:
(Click on any of the pictures below to go directly to the item listing)

Start with the front door. Place one planter on either side of the entrance & have instant grandness (grandeur?). Whatever the word, you'll have it!


Climbing roses. How much more romantic can you get? Put some of these winding their way up the dollhouse facade, & I can practically guarantee a miniature Clark Gable will come strolling round the corner.


Does the lady of your dollhouse have a green thumb? Even if she doesn't, just put this out by the back garden, and all of her neighbors will be convinced she really does know the difference between a rose & a tulip!


I know you're going for prettiest castle on the block, but can your really hope to compete with the Tudors without a lion's head wall planter?


As the centerpiece of a garden or the focal point of the grand foyer, this wonderfully intricate statue & bowl of flowers completes your mini layout.

Well, I hope you (& your dollhouse!) have profited from this little lesson in mini curb appeal. To continue your look through the catalog of mini landscaping, be sure to visit Golden Unicorn Minis on Etsy.

Happy Chocolate Day!

That is what Valentine's is all about, right? You mean I have it wrong?!


Enjoy these very Valentine-y finds from the talented artists on Etsy.com...

Ok, first things first. Need a card? Running out of time? Behold the solution. This card is emailed to you for you to print out immediately. Forget the store! You've got Valentine's Day covered.

By moderninkstudio




I'm all for jewelry, but make it handmade! Ethereal & charming, this is the perfect ring.

By jessicavanneste


Don't ask me why a little knitted heart with eyes gets me, but this is just adorable. Instant smile. You'll be remembered for this one.

By Zantie




Want a fun fact? This cake is 2 inches tall. Don't believe me? Go ahead, buy it! You'll see. Valentine's Day comes even to dollhouses.

By BlueKittyMiniatures

The name of this temptation? Orange Twist Oreo Truffle. Click on the picture & see if you can read the description without drooling. I dare you.

By sugarsmitten


Hope you enjoyed the show! By the way, you now have no excuses to meet Valentine's Day unprepared - sorry! Oh, and if you don't have someone special to buy for, I'm sure yourself wouldn't mind getting one of these from you.

Out of the Project Tube...

I work in miniature. What would be a pile of scraps for one person could become an entire project for me. So I always have tiny pieces of STUFF left over that I don't want to throw away, because my next mini masterpiece might call for it! My solution? Pill containers. Grand, I know.

I use tiny containers, like the kind you can buy that have 7 small stackable containers for you to keep a week's worth of pills in. These become my great & wondrous Project Tubes. Seriously, one tube of containers could hold everything I need for an entire project.

So, what's in my latest Project Tube? A bouquet of a dozen red roses! Seems perfectly normal to me...

I make these roses as accents for my toothpick dolls, & decided to let them have the spotlight all to themselves for once. Each rose is handmade, formed on the tip of a toothpick. The bouquets have three different sizes of rose - a bud, a normal size, & a fully opened rose.

I have to admit, the hardest part about these bouquets is wrapping them in that iridescent film! Fiddly stuff. But the end result so charms me that I put up with it. Having chocolate within reach helps, too.

These rose bouquets are available in my Etsy shop.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Goals for February of 2009

New month, new schedule. And hopefully, some accountability in getting everything on the list done!

Ambition requires patience, as I'm learning. Small steps, & you will get where you want to go. The trick is to know where you want to go, & then plan your path.

So, have plans? Have goals? A dream you want to conquer? The first step is to make a plan. With that in mind, what are your goals for February?

Here are a few of mine:

- Finish the Queen of Hearts (guess I better get started!)

- Finish writing a tutorial I'll be doing for CDHM.org in March. Some advanced doll techniques will in here - stay tuned for more details!

- Finish my book of the month for February (Seth Godin's Purple Cow - it's a short book, no excuse not to finish it!)

- Lose 2 lbs. I figure I can do that much.

- List several toothpick doll clips & magnets I'm finished, but am procrastinating about taking photos of.


Imagine yourself on February 28. What will you have gotten done this month?

Queen of Hearts - I've finally started her!

One of my goals this year is to finish a doll about every other month. My schedule says I should have one finished by the end of February. So maybe it's time I got started :)

Remember my original Queen of Hearts sketch? This lady scares me, honestly. I don't know what I was thinking when I drew that design, but now I'm paying for it - this is a difficult project!

First, some supplies:

- Various pairs of scissors, reverse pliers, 6-inch ruler, glue

- toothpicks (those do help when making a toothpick doll)

- Thread color catalog

- Impossible sketch (hanging up)

- A mess of embroidery floss (yes, that is the technical term. A herd of sheep, a gaggle of geese, a mess of thread)

- A bowl of fruit (1 navel orange & 1 Fuji apple, chopped into bite-size pieces. Works well when there's no chocolate in the house.)

Humble beginnings, but we all have to start somewhere...

Her design calls for a nice, full skirt. This is layer 3 of a 4-layer petticoat. I start down around her ankles, & keep adding layers until we reach her waist. No, the woman will not be able to move. You'll notice Sleeping Beauty lurking in the background often. She has consented to be my reference model for this project.

Ok, 4 layers of petticoat done. Now we start the tricky process of adding all those decorative skirt layers. She'll end up with the following layers:

- subtle pink & white striped underskirt

- black & white stripe detailing

- black satin overskirt, pulled back to reveal the pink underskirt & black & white stripe

- hot pink over-overskirt (I really should come up with more elegant-sounding names...) with fringe & rose accent

This is the first layer - the sublte stripe underskirt. If you look closely, you can make out the pink & white striping. You'll see this layer is only in the front, for two reasons:

1) The back would be covered up by the black satin skirt.

2) Adding this layer all the way around would add bulk to the back. When you're working in such a tiny scale, even one layer of thread can make a difference. She needs to have a shapely silhouette, without extra bulk.

Ok, the first of 4 decorative skirt layers is finished. Now I'll start the black & white stripe detailing (see the original sketch). But first, I have to outline exactly where this detailing will go. Look closely, & you'll several lines of a single strand of white thread. Now, I just fill this part in with the striping.

I'll post more progress in a few days!

Want to know more of how I've done a certain technique? I'm planning a doll tutorial in the next month - tell me what you'd like to be in it!

This Blog Invests in the Riches of Proximity

JemJoop, who has skills at mini-making that I am simultaneously in awe of & envious over, has awarded Angela Michelle Dolls with the lovely Proximidade award!

As originally described....

This blog invests in the riches of proximity! (rough translation). Proximidade, translated from Portuguese to English, means vicinity or neighborhood.

This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. (blogging makes us close by proxy; friendly neighborhoods linked around the world). Blogs that receive this award are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. (effort is made to maintain a quality blog in terms of blog etiquette, response, and audience - just because) *Note to reader: It does not escape my attention that the mere posting of the award is, in itself, a small measure of self-aggrandizement. I never said I was perfect ;-).

Our hope is that when the ribbons of these awards are cut, even more friendships are propagated. (post the award, and grow more friendship by passing it on) Please give more attention to these writers! (be an active friend of their neighborhoods) Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award. "

OK, so I don't have 8 (I need more blogging friends!), but here, in no particular order, are a few of my sincere nominations:

Wonders of Whimsy

Ramblings of E

Pumpkinhaus

Pickles on Pizza

Missficklemedia.com

(If you've already been nominated, just consider this a confirmation of your wonderful-ness as a fellow blogger-friend :)

Hope you enjoy strolling through these lovely blogs!