Plants, plants, plants

I've noticed that dollhouses look far more finished with things like pillows, wall art, and plants. There's especially a lot of bang for your buck with plants. While in real life, I am the Ted Bundy of plants, in my dollhouse world I am a world-class gardener. Sort of.

This past week I've been making plants. I bought kits from SDK Miniatures - two spider plants, an African violet, and some daffodils. So far I've made a spider plant and an African violet.

These are photographed in the unfinished attic of the unfinished Whitney/Primrose, with a Bespaq gorgeously decorated end table. I still cannot believe I managed to score that on Ebay for $8 - it has a price sticker on it of $40. It really is lovely, and just goes to show that sometimes you really luck out on Ebay.

The SDK kits make beautiful plants, in spite of my questionable plant-making skills.

Yesterday I smuggled home a ziplock bag of coffee grounds from work (a bizarre version of embezzling?), so I'd have dirt for my plant pots. (Here, the coffee drinkers pretty much stick to instant, which is really not helpful for plant design.)

I got a book/pamphlet on Ebay about making dollhouse plants out of florists' tape and wire. Easy instructions, and materials that are cheap and easy to find. The books shows about 20 plants, giving directions on assembly, and giving leaf patterns.

I found some utterly adorable tiny terra cotta clay pots at Michael's. They are a tad bigger than the wooden ones I've painted. Of course, next to the SDK African violet pot, they seem gigantic. But that's OK - I've killed plants in all sizes of pots.

This plant is made with masking tape leaves. The tape is folded in half, with the wire running up the center. I painted the leaves a darker green, then added swipes of paler green and flecks of yellow. I cut the leaves, and inserted them into a pot I'd prepared by gluing florists foam topped with glued embezzled coffee grounds. I will need to reshape/bend the leaves better, but this is not bad for a first attempt, I thought.

This one was done with florist tape leaves - the tape is folded in half, and glued toether with a wire running up the leaf. This one also needs the leaves reshaped.
You can see the evidence of the embezzled coffee grounds better in this photo. Perhaps I should remove this picture, to protect the guilty innocent.

I have masking tape leaves drying now for another plant, which I'll make later today. I'll also set up some floral tape leaves as well.