For May, we are asking you to light up our pages with your electrified pictures. Please share a miniature that you lit. For full instructions, look here.
Please be patient with the Create team (we are all volunteers) as it may take a few days for your pictures to be posted. You WILL receive a gift but it might take a few weeks.
Here are the beautiful submissions:
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From Sara Cook:
This is Overboard, a 1:24 thrift store for mermaids. Most of the merchandise fell off boats and floated down from the surface.
An Arduino microcontroller drives the exterior lighting. The letters light up in sequence, green and blue bulbs fade in and out in the beaded coral reef, and the programmable strip lights underneath the base change color to simulate water. The building is covered in rhinestones inside and out, because mermaid building standards differ from ours.
I'm especially pleased with my aluminum Christmas tree and its color wheel. The wheel has a color-changing LED embedded in it, but I didn't think it was effective, so I embedded two more color-changing LEDs inside the tree. Now it looks like my real-life tree!
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From Diane Fisher:
Memories of an African Safari.
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From Gordon Rutherford:
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From Kathy Opdycke:
This display is my ‘Dinner by Candlelight’ diorama…
We should all dine like this each evening.,
These are all LED lights, including the flickering fireplace.
The linen napkins on the table were monogrammed locally by an embroidery shop.
I wired each lighting fixture with an LED light, each in varying sizes and illumination.
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From Angela Neely:
I decided to add some light to this Robin Betterley 2024 Calendar Club room box. The light picked up tiny brushstrokes I had added to the paintings and made the room seem so inviting.
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From Suzie Aguilar:
It took over 20 years to get brave enough to attempt wiring this house but I finally did it.
Mr and Mrs Claus, along with the elves, are enjoying their lighted house!
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From Jennifer Lockhart:
I don't know why it took me so long to try lighting my projects. Now that I can do it, I want to add lights to almost everything.
In the little 1:48 Secret Garden project (a book room by Petworth minis), the lighting is beautiful shining from behind the wrought iron garden gate. Open it up and you can see the little fox, crow, rabbits and Mary's forgotten hat in the little garden.
The quarter scale Beach house room box is interesting because the room itself is not lit up, but the scene outside IS! I wanted that bright beachy light to shine in so I used a mega LED and it worked great. It's like looking at a miniature vacation home - and always feels very restful to me.
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From Julie Stuckmeyer:
I really liked how the lighting I put in my Neverwas made it come to life. Sometimes lighting can transform a good project into a great project. I felt like this was one of those.
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From Sharon Johnson:
144th kit, wiring and switch is in the drawers.
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From Ellen Scofield:
The first photo is a trio of Petite Properties “Cobble Stone Snicket” and the second photo is and Irish pub made from a Petworth Miniatures kit.
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From Margaret Gordus:
Dining room 1/12” scale. Made the chair cushions & place mats to match the wallpaper. I won the chandelier at one of NAMEs house parties & made the wall lights.
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From Victoria Scidmore:
I like to use battery lights when needed. The first picture is a Petworth "Arts and Crafts Furniture" kit, the light came with it. The second picture is Debbie Young's Craftsman house from Camp Make-a-mini. I added a light between the rafters. I like the way they look in these scenes.
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From Ruth Goodger:
My most complicated was this Debbie young Christmas house. Most simple was a single light in this QC bar scene with an Irish bartender from Susie . I prefer a simple one or two!
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From Elizabeth Lubera:
For the May 2025 challenge, I am posting two miniatures relating to the theme of electricity. Both photos show spaces from my favorite miniature home creation, one that I call “the Little House on Willow Tree Place.”
The first photo shows one corner of the home’s living room, featuring a wing chair and a marble-topped table, upon which rest a pair of glasses, a Sherlock Holmes book (one that can actually be read), and an electrified lamp. The exquisite lamp, composed of miniature-scale, hand-blown glass, was created by the renowned miniature artisan, Francis Dyer Whittemore. Whittemore was known as an innovator in both miniature and full-scale hand-blown glass creations, and I showcase many Whittemore glass vessels in other rooms of the house. I should also mention that I created the marble-topped table during a class at the IGMA Guild School in Castine, ME back in the early 1990s.
The second photo shows the attic space of the house, where we can see – as one might find in the attic of any real home! – the lamp’s original packing crate, stamped “Whittemore Glass 50 Years of Excellence.” The crate is topped by a peddler doll that I purchased from one of my favorite miniature stores: The Singing Tree in London, England.
I love adding electricity – particularly in fireplaces -- to all of my miniature homes to give them authenticity.
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From Peggy Zorn:
My favorite lighting project is the Picket Pond by the Betterleys. It was inspired by my young years in Iowa playing with the fireflies in my grandmother's yard. To add to the ambience I set up speakers and play a sound track of crickets, frogs and other evening sounds. Of course the lights flash!
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From Jackie Browder:
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From Carlye Wilde:
Thank you for letting me share the lighting in my dollhouse The Nelson Manor.
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From Kristie Norman:
I sent picture from one of my 1/4" scale houses, I built from scratch. I light all of my houses!!! I feel like it makes them look more like home.
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From Pat Creagh:
Lighting for Sweet Rose. Mostly beads, but the bedroom ceiling light is a kit from nalladris.com. The tangle of connecting wires is hidden behind the half wall.
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From Bonnie Helterhoff:
Here is my Neverwas- one of just a few things I have added lights to…..
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From Linda Orleff:
Here are pictures of my 'Girls' Beach House Getaway' in 1:48 scale for the May Challenge. I lit it with 19 12v leds (the power connection is hidden in the shark shed on the side.)
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From Jennifer Hershberger:
I love to take things I thrift or find and make houses out of them, mostly as trees. I imbed fairy lights to light them up! This is one of my Tree Lanterns.
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From Kathy Koons:
In 2016, I was one of the teachers for Miniature World of Central Florida's Fun Day "Hall for All Seasons", which was designed by the now-retired Ron Mummert of Ron's Miniatures Shop. Ron planned for the lamp and chandelier, but I added the lit Christmas tree, because I decided to stick to just one season.
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From Marie Weeks:
I am submitting a picture of the lighting scheme of a former county church chapel revamped into a one bedroom cozy cottage. I used 3 small puck lights which are covered with paper shades with woodland themes that I printed up to illuminate the rooms.
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From Pam Junk:
I call this one The Mouse Compound. It's housed in a real scale greenhouse style terrarium and is lit with a string of fairy lights run on batteries. I've attached two pix, one with the lights off and one with the lights on.
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From Michelle Harris:
This assortment of lighting is both 1/12 scale and 1/24 scale. The blue living room is 1/24, while I enjoyed this build I found this scale harder to find and more difficult to work with.
