Untitled Jem Fern Blog

arts and crafts by jem fern

[jem-fern]

Miniature Project: Happy Camper Caravan (Rolife)

Okay, here's the first project where I got really silly with it! I made a LOT of changes to the og Rolife kit; I made all the outside furniture from scratch, added an awning and a shelf and a fence, and even completely revamped the interior as well.

These official pictures show a little of the original kit's features:

The exterior was cute but the weird little signs and paper-based grass and BBQ weren't terribly inspiring, while the inside was just a few random kitchen elements with a printed floor and printed carpet. The bed was just a fabric platform (with a plate of fruit on it??) and the colors were mainly brown and yellow in contrast to the cute pastel exterior.

So of course I completely remodeled the caravan:

I used math paper to paint floor tiles and also hand-painted all of the wallpaper. The kitchen bench is painted with sparkly nail-polish for that Formica look, and I made utensils, a fruit bowl (from a cool button), a shelf of containers and cups, and of course a tiny camping fridge! The little stove is also a remodel, but I kept the tiny chopping board and fruit.

The 'bedroom' features a shelf of toiletries, comfy blankets and pillows, books, plants and a little postcard taken from notepaper.

I also added a little ivy-leaf mobile to balance out the composition:

(From the second picture there you can see the repaint of the og kit chair and a little pastel-themed handbag under the bench.)

The final touch was a little pile of camp activities on the bed:

By far the most work on the exterior was finding a suitable finish for the paintwork. I eventually settled on pink printer paper, painted over with a brighter pink acrylic paint, and finished with two layers of clear nail polish.

Also time consuming was creating the base; the kit just came with a printed grass cutout and some plastic moss powder. I added gravel under the caravan (as most campsites might have), larger pebbles and plastic grass strands, dried grass and plants that resemble lilies and harakeke, often seen in the wilder areas of Aotearoa. The mat is cut from a place-mat.

I also made a cool wire-and-post fence! I only really had access to that thicker wire at the time, so its not completely to scale, but it looks amazing anyway.

Here are some details~!

On the roof-rack we have plenty of luggage and a guitar, and I added a towel (and improved the rack as it sat too high on the og kit),

Whoever lives here is prepping for a hike and a picnic! They have their retro ipod, maps (printed from real pamphlets found online), headphones and of course a picnic basket with snacks and sunnies.

Plants decorate the flat surfaces outside. I made the shelf from scratch as the kit came with a weird brown table thing that I didn't like. I also used the shelf to make an extra light for the outside, as the kit only had the one light on the inside. The lantern is a plastic straw large enough for the LED with a cardboard cuff and a button on top.

The BBQ area is a little under-decorated, mainly because I ran out of ideas for this area. I have some plans to finish it with some BBQ tools and crockery. Proud of the tiny jandals, though!

A big kitty at the back, alongside the revamped bumper. The plate comes from some travel-themed scrapbooking paper (ignore that its from colorado lol). The cat was found at the thrift store, badly worn and covered in stickers (someone had tried to turn him into a pendant!). I cleaned him up and painted in some details - now he's the campsite cat~ (of course in real life, all cats should be kept inside for their own safety and for the conservation of local wildlife)

Peeking in through the windows! And the door:

So yeah, while I do have a few more ideas to keep adding to it, I'd say the Happy Camper kit is just about finished!

The kit makes a great starting point for a more advanced project, but I didn't use much of the original furniture or even the smaller elements. Overall this was an amazing project for me because I love camping So Much (I have like five lego campervan kits lol) and I just had so many ideas as I was making it.

[jem-fern]

Miniature Project: Free Time Bookshop (Rolife)

An extra miniature miniature project here - the Free Time Bookshop is on a smaller scale than other Rolife kits, and it has a forced perspective scaling as well, like a booknook. Items in front of the shop are larger than those at the back, so it gives the impression front-on of a larger item.

I made some edits to the colors inside, and added a few extra elements. Here's a photo of the bookcase configuration before I finished the back wall. The plant is my own work as well as the absolutely tiny Discworld model hidden on the top shelf.

After taking this photo I added tiny hand-written labels for the shelves and little door mat. The kit also came with headphones, a ladder, and a little door, presumably leading to the main body of the shop.

On each side there are two little windows; I added a few more decorative postcards and small elements on the shelves.

Outside there are more books and a cat bowl! I added some extra plats and moved some elements around.

I think I made over 50 books for this little bookshop! Overall, this was a cute little project - it would actually make a great booknook if you removed the wide windows and overhanging roof. (And the kits in this series are significantly cheaper than the booknook kits!)

[jem-fern]

Miniature Project: Summer Afternoon (Cuteroom)

My second miniature kit was a Cuteroom kit that I also got for $12 at the same thrift store where I bought Cathy's Flower House. It's a fourth-wall style set that makes a little scene in a box-frame.

This time I was a lot more confident making changes across the board, from extra components on the dresser and table, to creating a different lighting system and plants.

Whoever lives here has just made themselves a tasty afternoon tea of coffee and macarons, and settled in to read a book. I wonder what called them away?

I'm particularly proud of the tiny SLR camera I made from black card and tin foil. The bird portraits are from a greetings card with brown paper rope as frames.

The jam-jars and fruit bowl are the main jem-originals on the dresser, aside from extra books and shells and plants. The preserves are little off-cuts of clear tubes stuffed with jam-colored yarn, and the fruits are mostly beads.

This kit was pretty cool, but of a lower quality than the Rolife kits. Most of the elements were paper-craft rather than solid crafting items (all the original plates, cups, figurines etc were just paper). The furniture however is all cute as hell and its cool that it makes a little shadow box to finish - even if the manufacturer didn't account for the bulky battery box!

[jem-fern]

First Miniatures Project: Cathy's Flower House (Robotime)

This was my first miniatures project, a Robotime kit that I bought from a thrift store for $12. I made a few additions but mostly kept the final piece pretty close to the kit.

These pictures show the furniture pieces before I made any major changes:

Making this kit meant making plants. Lots and lots of plants. I feel like plenty of clutter is what makes a miniature scene pop, and this kit delivered.

Here are the finished furniture pieces, before I built the outer walls:

Tiny post-it note and tiny canvas made from snippets of real post-its and canvases.

Most of the additions were miniature shells, but I also made a few extra plants and plant pots.

By this point I was starting to scour the household for tiny bits and pieces. This elephant incense-stick holder made a great feature plant pot.

And then there was this tiny kitten plucked from my miniatures collection. The little gardening coat was a fold of left-over fabric.

The lighting system was extremely exciting as I've never crafted with electronics before!

Finally, putting together the outside details. I added a few pebbles and moved around some of the elements (and got rid of one very ugly pot lol):

Overall I really enjoyed this project and it did light up a bit of a fire for miniature kits for me! I was shopping online for more even before I finished it. Looking back there are some changes I would make but it's genuinely a really good kit.