Monday, January 19, 2015

Planting Seeds....









By The Light of The New Moon.....

I am Starting my Garden at the Very Beginning, Dear Readers, by Planting the seeds! And I could not have been happier than I was to see the recent post by Pepper of MitchyMooMiniatures blog, who not only Created a Beautiful selection of miniature seed packets, but she also Shared the file for others to use! Thank you Pepper! It is Generous Creative bloggers like you who make so many of us less Computer Savvy bloggers very Happy! I had been Longing to make a selection of tiny seed packets.... and so I jumped on her offer to share, and spent Saturday assembling the tiny little gems!

I am still sort of new to printing out files and have no idea how 
to re-size things unless I am following very careful instructions.... 
but I was able to make my printer do a respectable job with these seed packets!

And as you can see if you look closely, 
I wanted my packets to have "seeds" in them!
And what did I use for this, you might ask?
Why "Pepper", of course!!!
I think it gives that extra layer of realism 
to have something inside the tiny packets!

I made them all up... starting with the flowers....
and the tomatoes too, 
because they would be the ones 
that needed to be started indoors....

For which you would need to tear the corners when opening them....

So you could plant them in seed trays......
Indoors in the warmth on a cold Winter's day!

I have not yet made myself a "Vacuum Forming " tool, 
such as the one Pepper showed on an earlier post.... 
where she demonstrates making perfect little seedling "planters".
So I opted instead for the older fashioned single tray model....
made from the plastic packaging that came 
with a recent purchase of miniature doorknobs...

I saw their potential right away, and saved the packaging!

I cut the sections apart, leaving one side 
with a larger lip than the other side....

Then I added a small bead of white craft glue 
around the edge of the one with the larger lip...

Which you can see if you look closely!
And when it dried completely I painted this section black...

It needed several coats, on both sides....

The glue bead made a little edge 
to catch the cover and keep it snug!

Ready to fill with the "dirt" of your choice....
and plant with the tiny seeds.
And what better time for Planting than the New of the Moon....
When the Old Wisdom says the seeds are ready to sprout... 
and the strength of the Growing Moon will aid the new seedlings!

And to that End, I also painted more on the Moon Maidens...

 
The last three Maidens that march up the narrow stairs to the third floor 
were the most difficult of them all!
Above you can see the beginnings of the ones on the stairs.....
but I was not happy with the proportions of the one half way up!
And I realized at this point that I was going to need 
to incorporate the top floor railing into the painted portion of the wall!
I had already stained the other sections of railing, and punched out their "holes"
but now I realized I had overlooked the section on this side of the stairs!
Which was a good thing as I wanted to leave the "gaps" 
filled in order to paint the Maiden at the top!


Once I had located that section of railing 
on the sheets of punch outs for the kit, 
and primed and painted it, 
I could continue with the last two Maidens.
I painted over the middle one in order to fix her proportions 
now that I could see where she would reach onto the railing section.


And started the final Maiden that would represent 
the Dark of the Moon at the top of the stairs.


And before I went too far with the painting, 
I thought to test the fit with the attic floor in place
to see if I had the alignment correct....
And realized it was off by about an eighth of an inch!
(Which you can see if you look closely at the above picture!)

So I painted over the upper sections AGAIN, Dear Readers,
and made sure the alignment was adjusted properly!

And painted the final New Moon Maiden!
Which was just as well, because the latest version is by far the best...

Here she is partly done.....

And here they are completed...
Marching up the attic stairs... 
where they will be almost impossible to see....

Barely glimpsed at the top of the stairs.


But, like the New Moon itself.....
Or the seeds in the packets.....
Or the seeds in the Ground....
We will know they are there!
Isn't it Fitting then, Dear Readers, 
that I am planting the seeds
and Painting the New Moon Maiden....
Right at the Time of the New Moon!

12 comments:

  1. Hi Betsy,
    My friends will confirm that my iPad often sends slightly changed messages. Hope you could understand my previous comment.
    That was a clever use of the acrylic packaging for a seed tray and so nice that Pepper made the seed packages available.
    Take care. Janine

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  2. I love this idea with the boxes for new plants! Of course I would be sitting and thinking for a very long time befire I would find idea how to make them, lol!
    Good to see your Moon Maidens again! :)
    Hugs

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  3. Yes, I've seen the seed packets of Pepper too, they are wonderful and they always will be useful for a miniture scene, like you wrote in your post :)! It's so generous of Pepper to share them with us.
    The acrylic packaging was a good idea for making a seed tray, it looks wonderful. From now you can watch the seeds growing ;).
    Your Moon Maidens are a real work of art, Betsy, I love the way they came out!
    Hugs, Ilona

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  4. Hello Betsy,
    I am so happy to catch up on your blog...finally! the garden will be terrific. the seeds are such a great touch. But I must say your painting of the moon maidens just blows me away! They are incredibly beautiful and so well and realistically detailed. Betsy, I tip my hat to you again. Excellent work!
    Big hug,
    Giac

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  5. Wow, you did an excellent job with the printies but even better, what a great idea with the packaging. I actually have seedling trays like that =0) Yours look wonderfully realistic. I'm in awe of your painting skills. The Moon Maidens look fabulous!

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  6. Your ladies are really coming along...what is that feeling I get whenever I look at them? hmmm
    I like your seedling container as much as Peppers! Both are excellent choices.

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  7. La pintura en la escalera de las doncellas de la luna es realmente mágica. Un saludo, Eva

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  8. Thank you for sharing the link to Pepper's fantastic seed packages - I will have a look at her blog next, I have a strong feeling Rosey would like some... ;O) The way you've created your planter is stunning, what a clever idea - and the pictures of the planting table are awesome. You even thought of ripping of the edges of the packages... And what shall I say about your Moon Maidens... they are incredibly good. It's really a pity they will be hardly visible later on... but okay, we will know they are there and on this blog they will always be visible.

    Hugs
    Birgit

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  9. I do love those moon maidens.
    Seed packets! What an amazing little detail! Is it time already? It's only January!
    Out here we're looking forward to another snowstorm...
    Lots of love,
    Mom

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  10. The Moon Maidens are beautiful. And you had plenty of pratice before you painted the final ones,but it was worth it they are wonderful!!! ;-)
    Love the little seedpackets with 'real' seeds!

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  11. Hi Betsy! La idea de las bandejas con envases reciclados es muy buena y tus paquetes de semillas quedan perfectos...Las Doncellas de la Luna, son ¡preciosas! Un gran trabajo. Un abrazo

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