Crafts & Passions
About Creating!
Vanita assembles and creates miniature 12″-scale homes, room-boxes, handmade books, journals, unique keep-sake boxes, and various polymer clay designs. Retirement is good, and it is now time to bring, what became a personal hobby, back to the forefront of KSI.
DOLLHOUSES
I have been building and creating dollhouse miniatures for over 16 years. I’ve always been a closet–but passionate–interior designer. So, over the years, I have built over eleven 12-inch scale miniature homes and numerous room-boxes. It’s much less expensive than redesigning our actual home every year. Today, I currently have 7 miniature homes and room-boxes in my studio collection, including ones built from scratch, which are my own designs; as well as some created from kits.
This is a shout-out to RGT (Real Good Toys). You see their houses in Hobby Lobby. Go ahead! Buy one of the kits you see! They are so fun, and if you are the creative-type, it will be a real hoot!
HANDMADE BOOKS & JOURNALS
I also enjoy making and selling handmade books and journals, but mostly “books.” That’s because my books have something already in them. I like to take old books, whose copyright has expired and bound them. Like “Solitudes” –seen here! I also like to make handmade self-help books. Because the potential demand could be unmanageable, I don’t sell these online yet. However, I will start selling them on Etsy in the near future for ABP and KSI Crafts & Creations. Stay tuned! I’ll let you know!
Here are a couple of books, journals, and creations of my own:
CRAFTS & THINGS
Polymer Clay Creations – are one of my newer pursuits. I’m always looking at what I can repurpose. Jars are my favorites when it comes to polymer clay. I create things out of jars that would normally go into “file-13”–that’s aka for “the trash.” The flower jars on this page are an example of my polymer clay fun. I also make polymer clay mezuzahs. The next thing I’m working on are those little ginseng bottles. They make great pendants and keepsakes.
Creative Boxes – I also like to take nice boxes and repurpose them for storing small items–or just for a good design look. These stack of boxes were three separate Amazon.com deliveries–of something I ordered! Don’t remember! But I do keep good strong boxes. These are great to sell at the flea market. Hobby Lobby and Michael’s have great supplies of designer paper. If you want the shiny-look, all you need is a few coats of Mod-Podge.
PASSIONS!!! CASTLE-HOPPING!
Dave and I are planning to do some serious castle-hopping over the next few years. What on earth is castle-hopping? You will find the answer to that question in the Mansions Passions menu above, in Crafts & Creations. Several years ago, A & E television network ran a series called “America’s Castles.” I’ve been hooked ever since. I love interior design, and I love houses! So, the retirement bucket-list includes traveling the USA and visiting these incredible landmarks. Take a look at the “Mansions” tab in the menu for more information.
