A little Valentine "eye candy".........

At Christmas, I shared my miniature Christmas tree and now with Valentines Day on my doorstep, I wanted to share photos of some of my favorite miniature Valentine scenes. For almost twenty-five years I was an active member of the Midwest Miniature Guild. The group is an upper Midwest organization that meets three times a year for an all-day meeting with lunch and workshops. I taught numerous projects during my years in the group and one of my favorite times to teach was at the February meeting. Many of us had dollhouses (I have a large one that my dad made me) and miniature room boxes and lots of mini scenes were created in acrylic boxes like those in the photos below. Each one of these begins with an acrylic box and then a "false" gift box top and bottom are created to make it look as if you are "looking into a scene in a gift box". Prepare to take a little tour..............

This is one of the first "Gift Boxes" that I made. I had this little tricycle and thought how cute it would look with a tiny teddy bear on it and so I drew a little pattern and stitched one up. :-)

You can see that he has a tiny valentine for his lady love, a tiny gift and a basket of flowers. This box and the one below stand about 8" tall. Items in these boxes are scaled 1" = 1'.

This box is probably my favorite "Gift Box" of all the ones that I have ever made (I used to take orders and sell them, don't do that anymore). I took pictures of all four sides of this box.............

In the photo above there is an extraordinarily large box of miniature chocolates! Each one is individually made from Fimo clay and look just like real chocolate! The lid of the box actually fits if you were to close the box of chocolates. Sitting atop the table is a tiny box for miniature valentines, a little brass candleholder (about the only thing I didn't make in this box), and a box of candy hearts. I drew the valentines and candy heart box and then colored them with colored pencils. The tiny candy hearts were made from pastel Fimo clay. The table is made from a 2 1/2" portion of a gift wrap tube with a cardboard circle glued on top. Then I sewed up the tiny tablecloth and glued it at evenly spaced spots along the base of the table.

No Valentines Day is complete without roses and these are made from red florist tape that I wrapped and turned to form the roses (now you know why I made that fabric bouquet of roses). There's a silk bow and a card for that special valentine. :-)

And on this side there is a tiny wrapped gift and another Valentine..............

and the final view has one of those bitty bears you can buy in a craft shop and another valentine.

This box is about 6" tall and holds a little fur bear that I bought at a craft shop. I cut the little hearts and strung them together, then glued fine gold cord to spell out "I Love You". There's another tiny gift and also a book of "Love Poems" for that someone special!

Remember to just double-click on most of these photos to get a close-up view of the miniatures.

This box is only about 4" tall and contains another bouquet of roses, more candy and another Valentine, a very fancy one, in fact.

This next photo is not very clear................

for these are the tiniest boxes of all. To give you an idea of how tiny they are, the little bunny Valentine measures only about 1/2" tall!

This photo above shows how the boxes compare in size. In 1991, I entered these five boxes in our Scott County Fair. They earned a Blue Ribbon. :-) That same year, I made five boxes for Easter, five for Halloween and five for Christmas. Each set earned a Blue Ribbon and the Christmas boxes also earned a Purple Grand Champion Ribbon all at the county fair. I could choose one set to take to the Minnesota State Fair and chose the Christmas set which earned a Blue Ribbon at the State Fair. These boxes are kind of like getting an "Oscar" as far as I am concerned. Why make so many? Well, I had made so many for other people that I was determined to make some for me that I could leave to my own kids. After I finished these, I quit making them for sale as they were simply too time-consuming for the amount of money that people were willing to pay. I still enjoy all my miniatures but in the late 90's with the kids grown and gone, I could turn back to quilting and handwork projects. I'll share all the other boxes on each appropriate holiday. :-)

Here are two final photos of Valentine greetings that decorate my house. I made the velvet frames and then designed the cross stitch that is in each frame. This was in the '80's during my brief Cross Stitch period. :-) The little bears are available at Michael's and I just glued some of my little Valentines in their paws. The velvet hearts came from Target.

When I drew the little Valentines and created all the "Gift Boxes", I was thinking of grade school days and how much fun Valentines Day always was!!! I loved picking just the right Valentine, then delivering them to the boxes or bags that we would decorate and place on our school desks. One always hoped there would be one from that certain boy!! :-) I had so much fun drawing the Valentines for these mini scenes that I enlarged the five or six little designs I drew to full scale and then drew 20 more Valentines that could be colored and cut. I began teaching it as a class in Community Ed in Prior Lake in 1998 and kids loved the opportunity to color, then cut and then "GLITTER"!!!! A couple of years ago, I realized the designs would be perfect for Redwork and embroidery projects. So, if all goes well, this year, I will stitch up the designs and you'll see them next year a few weeks before Valentines Day!

Hope you have enjoyed this little "eye candy" tour.

Have a wonderful Valentines Day!!!!

See you next on Sunday evening!!

Sandi