July 2026 - Our Furry Friends
Our challenge for July is to send in a picture of your real pet with your miniatures or your use of animals in a scene.
To participate, please submit no more than two photos. If you have additional images, feel free to combine them into a collage. A maximum of two projects may be featured across your photos or collages.
Send your photos along with a brief description by clicking button below to submit an email to Preble McDaniel at smallpackages@comcast.net, and we will post them below on this page. Be sure to include your mailing address.
At the end of the monthly challenge, you’ll receive a small thank-you gift for participating.
The challenge example comes from Andi Vinciquerra who writes:
Stevie and Ziggy have never met a miniature they didn't think was made especially for them. As kittens, they claimed the dollhouse attic as their personal penthouse, and years later Ziggy can still be found investigating tiny worlds, convinced there must be secrets hidden inside. Like most bad cats, they've toppled more than a few carefully arranged treasures, but they've also brought endless wonder and laughter to my work.
Before the girls came along, my beloved Cheech was my faithful shop assistant. She supervised countless projects, inspected every box that entered the studio, and made sure no creative endeavor went unaccompanied. I like to think Stevie and Ziggy are carrying on her traditions... though with considerably more chaos.
Our pets fill our homes with whimsy and wonder, reminding us to stay curious and delight in the smallest details. After all, what is a magical miniature world without a furry companion nearby, ready to add a little fur and a lot of chaos?
From Tammy Witthaus:
After we lost one of our dogs, I decided to create a Rainbow Bridge scene and put all of our animals that had passed over and have kept up with it. I have found that I can look at it and it makes me smile rather than being sad.
The scene is in a glass baseball case, and it has pictures of some of them when they were alive on the outside. The bridge also lights up on their side of the bridge with an LED but difficult to take a picture with it.
2nd picture is with the glass off of it but still kind of difficult to see the cats who are over by the flowers/plants in the right back corner.
Cassie (lab), Sam (beagle), Cleo (cat), Princess (cat), Abby (lab), Hannah (lab), and Ellie Mae (black lab)
From Vicky Brandt:
Coco and Jojo are supposed to be helping Santa with his list, but instead, are feeding hungry reindeer!
From Vicki Scidmore:
I no longer have furry friends around the house but I wish I had a feathered friend like Hedwig to deliver messages for me!
From Faun Guarino:
We adopted Roxy, a Maine Coon, 3 months before this picture was taken (2023). I was whitewashing the walls of my Tudor house (purchased in 1986 in Covent Garden in London) when Roxy decided to personally inspect my work up close! Luckily, the paint remained inside. (Unfortunately, the shot of her climbing the interior stairs is the one that got away!)
From Peggy McLoughlin:
My niece and I have birthdays on 6/26 and 6/27 and, as we both have artistic hobbies, we exchange gifts by mail. When I attended my first NAME convention back in 2016 in Seattle (which is where she lives), I was able to use the great room box I acquired for the “Tucker in Seattle” piece I later sent to her.
Last week Hannah received “Tucker in his Studio” which features her oversized furry friend which I had to order last minute because my granddaughter fell in love with the original (OG) I planned on including.
I didn’t glue him in. She was thrilled with her gift , however, and says she will glue the older, chunkier Tucker into the scene because he is the right scale after all🤣
From Marilyn Ferkinhoff:
This is my crazy cat lady room box. It all started with the crazy cat lady figure I bought during covid. I love cats so it was easy to find everything to fill it from my collection.
From Suzie Aguilar:
I call my sister the Crazy Cat Lady because she has so many cats. I made this vignette of her living room and craft room as a gift for her. (She doesn’t really allow the cats in her craft room but it made the scene more fun.)
From Suzanne Larson-Tamburo :
This was a quarter scale kit we had done called “Choices”. I had made it up as Halloween and was setting it up to take pictures when our cat, Blacky, decided to pose next to it.
From Catherine Hawkins :
48 cats (approximately) and one tolerant dog. Some cats are by artists Jackie Transue, Karl Blindheim, Amanda Skinner, Jan Yinger, Sue Veeder, and Andee Marshall.
Some cats are resin imports. Some are metal miniatures I painted --- one is the black Egyptian cat on pedestal, another is the cat with yarn ball.
I made all the cat furniture from cardboard, matboard, toilet paper tubes, basswood, brown paper, twigs, and felt. The litter box is two jelly containers glued together.
All of the books, magazines, and wall posters were printed from my inkjet printer, as was the cat wallpaper, a piece of gift wrap which I scanned, pieced together, and printed.
"Habitat for Felinity" was featured in the 2012 February issue of Miniature Collector magazine in their article about cats in miniature.
From Kristen Enzinger :
I designed and built this stable years ago. Replicas of my real horses are in it, the chestnut by Denise Pritchett and the Appaloosa by me. Wee friends club of Annapolis also built and furnished one. We sold raffle tickets for it, and made $1200 which went to Md. therapeutic riding. The winner of the raffle was Elizabeth Mahoney, one of the founding members of NAME! She only bought one ticket!
From Pamela Junk :
Starting out as a kitten, Cookie, our Calico cat, was always trying to help me work on my daughter's dollhouse.
From Cheryl Polito:
Here is all my animals on the farm. This was my camp make a mini from a few years ago.
From Sharon Beall:
My little rescue, Willow Pearl, may not have been furry on the outside, but her underside was so soft and fluffy and she loved to have her tummy rubbed. She liked to help me “decorate”. (Usually, if I thought something should be standing straight up, Willow thought it should be laying down!)
Thank you for indulging me. I miss this girl so much!
