Miniatures for Thanksgiving or Fall Displays

These shaped hats are made by carefully pressing wool felt over a cork. Once you learn the technique you can use it to make a wide range of hat styles. The traditional pilgrim hat shown takes only a two inch square of felt in 1:12 scale. If you prefer, there is a link to a printable pdf file on the first page of the instructions, with a range of printable hat templates from 1:6 to 1:48 scale.

Make Capotain / Pilgrim / Puritan / Leprechaun Hats

Make this miniature Mayflower using half walnut shells and printable paper or fabric sails. The ships can be used for place cards if you make a larger sized sail with the available parts, and print a name on the mainsail. They also make great decorations, or can be used in a miniature mobile. This project is part of a series of small boats made from walnut shells. Need help cracking the shells? Look here for help and a few more ornament suggestions.

How to Crack Walnut Shells in Half

Great for Thanksgiving and Halloween Miniatures

Lovely in all kinds of miniature displays, these tiny spider mums can be custom tailored to your particular color scheme. These are an 'intermediate' project as they require careful cutting and coloring of your paper, but a dedicated beginner can make them with care.

Dahlias come in an almost infinite range of colors, and these single varieties can be custom colored to make bouquets, plants, or a specific color to blend into a mixed floral bouquet. This is another 'intermediate' project due to the layers of color applied to the petals. The petals can be made in a range of scales using simple daisy or tear drop shaped punches. The project is easy for a beginner if you use plain colored paper for your first attempts.