I was born in Athens, Greece in 1974. I have a degree in graphic design and I love art. I started as a scale modeler 20 years ago and for the last 8 years, I have been working as a diorama and miniature artist. My dream is one day to see this artwork in museums introducing the art of miniatures all over the world. Maybe in this way, the world will seem more beautiful…

Check out these cool little dioramas. See more HERE.

A little diorama with a winter scene, dangle-y clouds, and a pierced snowy background sky. This was SO fun to make!!! All the details are blogged here: melstampz.blogspot.com/2009/11/dioramas-pomegranates-caar... and here is a full pictorial showing each step in making it: melstampz.blogspot.com/2009/11/diorama-tutorial-whole-lot... Happy Crafting! :o) Mel

I made a little paper theatre a while back for Alpha Stamps and have been asked to do a little walk through of the project. It may not be little (sometimes I get carried away), but you might find one or two interesting tidbits if you follow along :) To create the Sea Adventure theatre I used the Punch & Judy Paper Theatre Kit. The kit comes with a black cardstock and old paper pieces. I stuck the two together which gives the piece a little more heft and stability. When working with paper I prefer to use rubber cement. It sticks really well AND it doesn't wrinkle. The important thing to remember with rubber cement is that it sticks to itself. Coat both pieces of paper with a thin, even layer (remember to go all the way to the edge!) and then press together. No wrinkles and very little mess! The next thing I did was to gently score the back side of my pieces. I scored every edge that needed to be folded. This will help to keep your edges even and give you a crisp edge. Scoring the back of the piece keeps the old paper front intact and you won't see the black card poking though any scores that were made too deeply. Next I start slowly adding edging and details. Here I've used Black Zig Zag Dresden Borders and some seashells from the Travel Adhesive Borders. While that's drying I moved on to the roof. To create some visual interest I layered clear black stickers of the Art Deco Travel Ads Collage Sheet I attach the roof using white glue and hold all the bits in place with clothespegs while it sets. Clothes pegs are so handy to keep around and hold things in place... I've got dozens of them in the studio. Now I move on to creating the side pieces. I like to edge all of my cut out work with black or brown. I simply run a loaded paintbrush over the edges so that they don't stand out. You can see on the dodo below where I've painted the edge. Something else I often do is sand my edges. Here is the cut edge of an arch for the sides. Pretty darned bumpity eh? I just use a bit of regular old sandpaper to smooth those jaggedy bits right down. Much better! Here's one of the completed arches for the side of the theatre. To help with the addition of the decorative trim to the roof of this project I used a strip of wood that was about 1/8th" square. I painted it black to help conceal it. This is glued to the overhang of the roof... ... and makes keeping the trim in place much easier, adding another layer of stability. The base of my theatre is complete. At this point I'll begin adding more decorative bits. Here I've added corners to the trim using snippets from Baroque Dresden Borders and the heads from Metallic Mini Brads. I've also added a Metal Hand and placed a faux pearl in it's palm. The sides get mounted into place and I've added some sea shell charms too. Next to make is the paper bunting that swags across the top and sides of the theatre. I cut out little triangles of paper, using double sided scrapbook paper. I dab the edges across an inkpad to finish the edges. With a small dollop of glue on my work surface, I wipe a small amount of glue on the top back edge of the triangle. On a taut piece of string I place the triangles evenly, leaving a little space between each one to keep it flexible when it dried. When this is dried I can cut the pieces to fit the necessary length I need for my project. For the little floating ship inside I take a piece of the black wood I painted earlier and glue it to the back. I used this wave collage sheet and, with rubber cement, attach the images to scraps of the black card from the theatre kit. (Psst... If waves aren't your thing Alpha Stamps has a selection of collage sheets featuring different backdrops to fit this theatre.) Bending the edges I'll be able to attach them to the interior of the theatre. I placed them at about 1/2 inch intervals, giving a 3d effect. Here are all the wavy bits installed. The ship and the light house are from the Travel Stamps Varnished Paper. A few more additional touches to the exterior including a Compass Button and the bunting we made earlier and it's complete! Ta Da! Here's the whole thing totally fancy and gussied to the gills :) ***ETA: Alpha Stamps has all of the materials to create this theatre on sale until June 2nd! Hop over to the blog for details :)

Innovative creativity from PaperArtsy. Paint, stencils, and techniques galore for any mixed media enthusiast to enjoy.

Today I'm going to show how I create my fanciful desktop dioramas, like those pictured here. A diorama is a "three-dimensional miniature or life-size scene in which figures, stuffed wildlife, or other objects are arranged in a naturalistic setting against a painted background". For this project you will need to find a small box with a "window" in the lid. I found these stainless steel spice boxes online. Make sure that it is deep enough for several layers of images. This little box is 3 inches square and 2 inches deep. You could also use a wooden shadow box like this one that I found at a local craft store. You can draw and paint your own motifs, use pictures from books or magazines, use rubber stamp art, or clip art from your files. I'm using one of my own illustrations for this project. I've taken motifs from the illustration and reduced them in size on my computer so that they will fit into a 3" square space. Then I printed them on white card stock. If you are using art that is on lightweight paper, such as images from a book or magazine, use a good paper glue and glue them onto card stock or other sturdy, heavyweight paper. I'm going to use that flower patch square that's in the right hand corner for the background, so I made sure it is at least 3" square to cover the back of the box. Next I place the box on top of the background art and trace around it with pencil. Then I cut it out just inside of the lines. I cover the back of it with a thin film of glue (I have used both Aleene's Tacky Glue and E6000 Craft Glue and either one works fine) and then place it inside on the back wall of the box, pressing it firmly to make sure it lays flat. IMPORTANT STEP: Each piece (except for the background square) is going to need a little 1/4" tab at the bottom for gluing. I always draw it in with a pencil so that I don't forget it when I'm cutting out the pieces. Next I cut out the other pieces that I plan to use. I use small, sharp scissors that make it easy to maneuver around tiny details. I fold back each tab and crease it really well, then fold it back out half-way so that it is at a 90 degree angle from the front. I put a nice glob of glue on the bottom of the tab of the first element, a flower, and place it about two-thirds of the way into the box. I tamp it down with my finger to make sure it is firm against the bottom. I add the wheelbarrow about one-third of the way from the front... And I add the watering can at the very front of the box. Next, I round off the edges of the tab on the piece that will decorate the top so that it will have a nice finished look to it. I place the lid on the box... ...and then glue the top piece right behind the lid and center it. This is where a ruler comes in handy. And voila! A little 3-D miniature world to enjoy! I hope this gets those creative juices going and that you'll have fun creating your own diorama with images you might find in a vintage children's book, using rubber stamps, or better yet, using your own drawings! Not feeling crafty today? You can choose from an assortment of dioramas already made up and ready to adorn your desktop -they are available in my Etsy shop: Susan Faye Originals. Thanks for visiting!

One of the coolest parts of the hobby for me is taking immersive pictures of my painted miniatures, like the kinds you seen in my narrative posts. The way I created the background was to print a large stock photo, glue it to a foam core panel, and propping it behind the terrain and game mat. While this worked fine, it was annoying to use as the picture would fall often and I had to shoot at very specific angles to make it work. I also tried out using a lightbox setup, but I wasn't satisfied with that look either. So I made a new photo booth instead. I took some pictures and I'll provide steps on how I made it. Materials and Tools XPS Foam, 2'x2'. Velcro Adhesive Strips 20''x30'' Photo Paint (Black, Dark Grey, Light Grey, White) Foam Cutter (Either knife or hot wire) Large Paint Brush Scissors Aluminum Foil Step 1: Photo Backdrop The background photo is the most important part of this build, as it will determine the overall feel of the photo booth. It has to fit with the setting that you work in, so for fantasy there can't be any modern items in the background, like telephone poles which can pop up in a lot of landscape photos. The scale also has to fit the type of models you will be photographing. This is more of a feel than a science, but you can gather what should look right with your models. Another important item is the resolution of the photo. These pictures will be printed at a 20''x30'' size, which requires high definition photos. I used Pexels to browse for high def photos, and the added benefit is that these are free stock photos, and often don't require attribution so you can just throw it onto your blog or instagram or similar. Once I had chosen what backgrounds I wanted (I chose 3), I downloaded them and got them printed. Here in the US, I used Costo Photo Center, which I like as it is cheap and the online tool tells you if the photo you chose is too low resolution or requires cropping to fit the size. I chose the 20''x30'' poster option, which runs $9.99 per photo, at the time of this tutorial. Once selected you can move on to the next step. Step 2: Shaping the Base The base of the photo booth is made from XPS Foam, which you can buy at a hardware store. It should be in the insulation section, and comes in different sized panels and a variety of colors. I got the pink 2'x2', as this is the most common material crafters use for terrain as it is easy to cut and texture. This sheet cost me about $5, and you only need the one. Next I measured out cuts I was going to make. First I cut a rectangle that was 24'' wide and 14'' tall, as I didn't want a large board for storage reasons. Before I made the cut I made sure that I could still take a picture with the largest and tallest models I had with the base still in view. On each end of the rectangle, I measured 10'' on each short end and drew a point. I then drew another mark at the midpoint of the long side closest to the 10'' marks. I then drew a symmetrical curve connecting these 3 points. I made the back of the diorama curved for two reasons. For one, it means that I can take photos from different angles instead of straight on like before. Secondly, the curve gives rigidity to the photo, so that I don't have to glue it to posterboard to get it to stand up straight. The curve is relatively shallow so as not to make the background too obvious. You will also note that the background is larger than the base. Honestly, that just boiled down to the fact that the store didn't have any larger foam panels. When you make these cuts you can use either a knife or a hot wire cutter. If you use a knife, make sure it's nice and sharp so that you don't tear the foam, as a smooth finish is important. If you use the hot wire cutter, use it in a well ventilated area. I went outdoors to cut mine. Now all that's left is to texture the foam. Pick a side to be the top surface, then take some aluminum foil, crumple it into a ball, and roll it along the surface you chose. This will give the foam the appearance of stone. You can do as much or as little of this as you'd like, or even switch out for a different texture. I went with stone as it is the most "neutral" surface to me, and can go with any of the base designs that I use for my minis. Step 3: Connecting the Background to the Base Take the velcro adhesive and cut six strips of the "loop" side and stick it to the curved side of the base. Firmly press and hold these as they will be seeing a lot of use. Cut six strips of the "hook" side of the velcro of the same size, and velcro them to the "loop" sides on the base, but leave adhesive covering while you do this. Now that those are firmly in place, take you photo background and line it up with the base. Remove the adhesive cover and attach the photo to the base. You may want someone to help you here. Hold the join firmly and let go. The curve of the base should give the photo rigidity, so it should stand on its own. If you have multiple backgrounds like me, use the first one that you connected to the base as a template for where the velcro should go on the other photos. Now that the construction is complete, it is time to test the design. In the below picture you can see that the background is a little floppy: roll it up with the photo on the inside and rubber band the tube shut. Keep it that way for a day or so and it should resolve the issue. I put a Stormcast Stardrake in the center as an initial test. It definitely achieves the effect I was going for. It was also at this point where I realized that there are tents in this photo of the forest, but oh well. It's not as easy to see with a larger model like this one, or that's what I tell myself. With construction done, now you can paint the base. Step 4: Painting the Base As I was going for a stone effect, painting the base was fairly easy. I started with a dark grey basecoat, then I drybrushed light grey fairly heavily over the entire surface. I then drybrushed white lightly over that. To finish I thinned down some black paint and used it to wash the entire surface and blend all the tones together. I used an old bottle of black paint, which separated and gave the wash a brown tone for some reason, but it worked out and I like the result anyways. I painted the edges black as I thought it would look better than pink, and if for some reason the edges pop up in a picture it won't be as obvious as pink. If you have some way of sealing the paint, like a varnish, now would be the time. I ran out unfortunately. Some sprays eat at foam so you want to be careful. Let the entire thing dry for a day, then you're free to reconnect it to a picture. Step 5: Photography If you managed to interpret my writing, then at the end of step 4 you should have something that looks like this: I plopped down Nagash to take the booth for a test drive. The background does create a bit of a shadow when lighted from above, so make sure your light source is coming from in front and above. Even though Nagash is such a large model, the photo booth is able to accommodate him easily. The simple texture of the base keeps the focus on the miniature, and the backdrop colors give a warm hue to the model as well, which is something you can play around with using various backgrounds. It certainly looks better than the photos of Nagash I had taken previously. I also prefer this over the boring backgrounds of white from a normal light box. As you can tell, the original photo looks much more cluttered due to the background (if you're curious about the painting of Nagash, go here). The photo booth can also handle small miniatures. You simply move them closer to the camera and drop the camera a little lower than before. One thing to look out for is glare, as you can see to the right of the picture below. This just requires awareness on your part when taking the picture, as you can either move the camera or crop it out when preparing the photo for sharing. And with that, the first major project of 2021 is complete! From here on out, expect photos of minis on the Space Dinosaur Minis to utilize this background, which I think should improve the overall quality of the blog immensely. Why not give something like this a try? If you need any help don't hesitate to ask. -The Space Dinosaur

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I was born in Athens, Greece in 1974. I have a degree in graphic design and I love art. I started as a scale modeler 20 years ago and for the last 8 years, I have been working as a diorama and miniature artist. My dream is one day to see this artwork in museums introducing the art of miniatures all over the world. Maybe in this way, the world will seem more beautiful…

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Miniatureit Tamar Cohen

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I was born in Athens, Greece in 1974. I have a degree in graphic design and I love art. I started as a scale modeler 20 years ago and for the last 8 years, I have been working as a diorama and miniature artist. My dream is one day to see this artwork in museums introducing the art of miniatures all over the world. Maybe in this way, the world will seem more beautiful…