Tutorials & Tips

How To Build a Vacuum Table

During my move, my vacuum table was damaged. All was not lost though, I’ve decided to show you how to make one while I remake mine. Since I’m just copying my old one, some of the photos will be different from the written instructions you’ll need to do to create your own from scratch. What is a Vacuum Table? Vacuum tables are devices that use suction to securely hold work pieces during machining. They are most commonly used during CNC cutting, whether with a mill or router, or with a drag knife. They…Read more

2015’s Top 5 Most Popular Posts

Let's start the year off with a quick look back at last year's top 5 most popular posts. These were some of my favorite ones to write, I'm so glad everyone enjoyed them as much as I did! If you've missed one, now is a great chance to catch up. (#6) Barely not making it into the top five, is the most recent of our tutorial posts on Scale! This post explains and has pictures of many of the common doll scales, including standard 1:12 dollhouse, half and quarter, Barbie and American Girl Doll.   #5 Our…Read more

Holiday Ornament Gift Exchange (with Tutorials!)

Yesterday my club had our holiday party. One of the traditions is to do an ornament exchange. Everyone makes a number of ornaments (however many people are participating) and then we all put one ornament into each paper bag around the table. As this was my first year, I didn't know what to expect, and for a long time I was stumped on what to make. Eventually I got the idea to make tiny paper stars. I'd made a bunch in high school, and I figured I could attach a loop of thread…Read more
Exacto Knives: Everything You Always Wanted to Know (but were afraid to ask)

Exacto Knives: Everything You Always Wanted to Know (but were afraid to ask)

It's just a simple hobby knife, right? There can't be much to it. Well, that's sorta true. It is a simple enough knife so that even beginners can use it with success, but if you take a bit of time to learn all about these knives and the proper way to cut and care for them and their accessories, you will graduate from amateur to professional. Let's start at the beginning. What is an Exacto knife? X-ACTO is the brand, and it is a type of hobby or craft knife. Over time, the…Read more

Printies | The Ultimate Guide to Making them Yourself

In this month's post, we explore dollhouse printables, or printies. These are images that are sized and scaled perfectly to be printed out from a home printer and used in a dollhouse or miniature scene. We'll learn how to make our own high quality printies. This post is pretty long and contains a lot of information so buckle up and hang on. After we get through the 'lecture' we'll do a follow along tutorial project so you can practice what we've learned. Sourcing your Image Raster & Vector Images Follow Along Tutorial Paper Quality…Read more

10 Mistakes New Miniaturists Make and How to Fix Them

I asked veteran miniaturists about some common mistakes new miniaturists make, and from there, I've compiled a list of the top 10 mistakes. As an added bonus, I've included methods of how to fix each mistake if you've already fallen victim to these perils. 1. Starting with a Dollhouse A little roombox also lets you explore what time periods, styles, and scenes you'd like to model. It's quite common to discover that what most people start off thinking they'd like to model (a house) they'd rather portray a small flower shop or 1920's train…Read more