margaret_loves springtime!

...and Easter, and chocolate eggs, and bunny rabbits!

Happy Easter, everyone!

margaret_loves aqua again

While I still had my blue polka-dot place mat up as an accent wall, I made a quick boy's bedroom. The matching headboard is from a notebook cover that happened to match. 

margaret_loves aqua

I spotted a place mat today at Wal-Mart for $1, and I purchased it solely for its mini potential. It is translucent, and I thought it could make a cool wall or modern screen with the light coming through it. I taped it up on the window side of our Ikea Expedit room divider/cube shelving. Initially, I thought the pattern suited a children's room or maybe a toy store, or perhaps a colorful kitchen, and someday I might do just that. But I finally decided on a bathroom, and I was able to incorporate many of my own creations and re-purposed items along with some swap items from studioseven (Mini*Aesthetics). I don't actually own any miniature bathroom fixtures, but I have made some of my own. The shower is made from a plastic box, part of a plastic notebook cover, and stainless steel contact paper on Lego tile. The tub is a soap dish with earring backs for taps and clip-on earring backs for feet. The sink is a cardboard box with thumbtack and beads for handles and knobs. The towels and rug are cut from a washcloth.

margaret_loves a finished challenge

I am so glad to have a great group of followers and miniature blogger to join in on my first mini-challenge! With such a new blog, it is amazing to already have found a supportive community to share ideas and inspiration! 

The challenge was based on taking a patterned paper to use as jumping off point for a room or miniature scene. The paper itself should be bold, and possibly chosen at random/out of your comfort zone. It was meant to be a creative challenge, and a challenge it was. I honestly found myself wondering what the heck I was thinking bright pink and animal print? :) It took at least three different setups before I decided to just call it quits, and pick some photos. Here it is, loud and wild...

Frankly, I am relieved to slink back into my comfort zone now that this is over...

Please go and check out the creative and bold designs by my fellow bloggers who also love a challenge!

Mini*Aesthetics created a colorful, modern kitchen

Jazzi Minis designed an eclectic and lovely scene for a faux magazine cover

Mad for Mod is ambitiously building a modern loft bed for an adorable owl themed children's bedroom (with paper selected by her son) 

I am so impressed everyone! Now it is time for one of you to come up with another challenge for us! That's right, I just challenged you to come up with an idea for another challenge!

Bluebird Antiques and Home Decor

I was working on a living room scene with some of the items from my swap with studioseven. The room never seemed to look right, as much as I changed around the furniture and added/subtracted accessories. I had so many items I thought that I could really create a home decor shop, so I took off. I modeled it after small town antique shops with one of a kind items everywhere you look and a homey feel. I also used a bird motif thanks to the cute felt birds Alisa sent me in the swap, so the Bluebird was born. It is pretty cluttered and crazy, but I spent so much time working on it that I wanted it to count for something. Thank you to studioseven for many of the accessories including the felt birds, many handmade pillows, potted plants on the mantle, birds in the fireplace, blue "M" on wall, clothespins in basket, pinecone and crystal ball charms, artwork, and felt rugs. If you are curious where anything else came from, leave a comment. 

margaret_loves A Challenge!

So, I've had a idea rolling around in my head for a while now, originally inspired by a post by Mini Modern.  It is a simple miniature challenge inspired by a sheet of scrapbook/patterned paper chosen either at random, by someone else, or something with a pattern/style out of your personal taste/comfort zone. I have already designed a room around a piece of scrapbook paper once that my husband picked out for me  (Time Travels )  The paper itself should become a major feature in the final room, such as wallpaper or flooring. This time I selected some paper  myself that was far out of my comfort zone and challenge myself to design a room around it.

Hello loud animal prints with pink/orange/purple/brown color scheme! It is pretty wild, and the patterns are on a giant scale compared to 1:12. I have to make it look like an intentional choice that belongs in the room :)

So here are my ideas so far. I am pairing it with black and white modern furniture, along with some clear acrylic pieces. I may use some animal print items to pick up on the pattern, and I will be using pink and yellow as accent colors. I am thinking it may turn into an L.A. fashion editor's office, or maybe a musician's loft. Something about it says girly punk rock :) Anyway, I will post what I finally come up with.

So now I invite you to try this challenge yourself. Buy a sheet of scrapbook paper, or choose one at random from your stash, and design a room around it. Post a picture of your paper and your mood board and then show us where it all ended up. What do you think? Does anybody want to play along?

Studio7 Boutique Hotel

After a lot of playing around and fiddling, I completed my first scene using studioseven of Mini*Aesthetics items from our miniature swap! I was excited to create a bedroom featuring the gorgeous and luxurious bedding she made by hand. As I tried to put things with it, I got the idea that it could be a luxury/boutique hotel room. The lighting and the aqua color made me think it could be somewhere tropical, perhaps? Either way, it would be a great relaxing getaway :)

This room is in one of the units of my cube shelves (Ikea Expedit) unit, with one side covered in tracing paper. The lighting sometimes cooperates, and sometimes it doesn't. This one came out pretty dark, but you can see the layout of the whole room.

I just happened to have a blue stationary box that fit perfectly as a bed for the duvet and pillows Alisa made. The headboard is a wood flooring sample with mirrors from the swap. I made a small desk from another wood sample and my acrylic coffee table turned on its side. Desk accessories and plant are also from Alisa. Chair is Reac, and the side table is made by me. Bed tray is from my Re-Ment and eraser collection.

 On the other side of the room I have the television/magnet that was another swap goodie, along with a cool pillbox cabinet she created using stainless steel contact paper and clear beads as knobs. I thought maybe it could be a cool hotel minibar/minifridge in this case. Inside there are tiny cork board squares on each door! The tv stand is from DHE minis, and the blue containers came in the swap as well as the bookbag, pillow, and upholstered bench/ottoman.

Again with the lighting issues! But here you can see this couple is enjoying the room (they were also part of the swap).  It was fun to put this together. All in all, I believe I counted 24 items from our swap in this scene! (And there are still plenty of  items that I didn't use). I still have another room in the works using more swap accessories, so stay tuned. It really is a gift that keeps on giving :)

margaret_loves Swaps! (The Sequel)

I was SO excited to receive my package from Alisa (studioseven) from our Miniature swap. I opened the box to find this...

and these...

So many packages! I didn't know where to start! It took me about 30 minutes just to open all of them! It was just like Christmas morning :)

There was a little bit of everything, really. Bedding, artwork, accessories, rugs, paper, beads, books, electronics, dolls, so much Miniature goodness! I am so grateful to studioseven for her generosity with such thoughtful, creative, and handmade gifts!  I really feel unworthy now based on what I sent her now seems too little! Anyway, I will be posting pictures of some rooms I decorated using swap items soon :) Thanks, Alisa! Please go check out her new blog, Mini*Aesthetics! 

margaret_loves all-natural

I put together another scene in my Ikea Lekman box, this time a bedroom with a Zen/nature kind of theme. I  mainly just wanted to design a room around one of the new lamps I made :)

Here is the long description of credits since I seem to have used items from every corner of the earth and then some for this scene, with some unusual re-purposing as well :)

Credits: The bed is made by me using lots of foam, glue, and fabric raised up on a cardboard box with a flooring sample as a headboard. The lamp and most of the books are also made by me. The nightstand is Re-Ment and the chairs are from CB2. The television and white shelves are from DHE Minis. The trunk/chest that the television is standing was once a bright purple plastic accessory for my childhood Littlest Pet Shop toy :) I gave it a makeover.The flooring is real cork scrapbook paper from Michael's and the wallpaper is also scrapbook paper. The floor lamp is from a Call of the Small giveaway. The ottoman is a plastic bale of hay that goes with the horse trough serving as a bookshelf over the bed. These came in a big bag of plastic toys I bought at a thrift store. The wooden turtle I bought at a craft fair. The wooden tree is from a scrapbook store. I also used wooden toy blocks for end tables. The painting is from a card from a local art gallery by an artist named Ford Smith. The rest of the accessories are Re-Ment or commonly found miniature items from craft stores.

margaret_loves Black and white

As much as I love color, I also like to use a more sophisticated gray scale palette in a room sometimes. Of course I managed to fit in a few turquoise/teal pieces, I couldn't help myself :) This room definitely has some masculine and feminine elements, and it reminds me of an apartment for a hip young couple with plenty of income and an eye for design :) I used one of the cubes in my white Ikea Expedit shelving unit to create this room, and I taped tracing paper to the back wall for a translucent lighting effect. It was a dark and cloudy day, so the picture didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but I got a few decent ones. 

In this photo you can see my handmade sectional along with the Barcelona day bed and black shell chairs made by Reac. The acrylic risers are easy to find on ebay. I made the rug out of felt, and the lamp is also made by me. The flower pillow is a plastic button and the "laptop" is actually a pretend book from a children's toy set that I found at a thrift store. Coffee cup is Re-Ment, vase is DHE minis, and the books are made by me. 

In this photo you can see the other lamp I made on a mirrored table/cube from DHE minis. The purse is from a children's toy grab bag I bought at a thrift store. The shoes are Re-Ment. The textured wallpaper is from Michael's.

The television, black cube shelving unit and white vase are all from DHE minis. The accessories are Re-Ment, handmade, toys, or beads. Fireplace is painted wood from a craft store. Side table is made from a gift box and a wooden drawer. Espresso maker is Re-Ment. 

This photo is my favorite. I love my lucky finds in my plastic toy grab bag from the Goodwill store. The "laptop" and "pillow" are very convincing. And the lamp I made looks pretty good in this photo, and the blue color of the lamp base looks most true-to-life :)