Organizing...

Just a quick post, I know it it has been a few weeks, but I have been busy working on a full size project.  Recently at work they have gotten new office furniture (which has been great by the way) for almost everyone in our office.  They were donating all of the old furniture to local charities (which again, is great), but in the piles & piles of old furniture that were stored out in our warehouse, I spotted this shelf that would be well suited for storing & organizing miniatures.  I asked If I could buy it, but they gave it to me instead!  I was so excited, it is just perfect....



Ok, so this is the shelf.  It is very dusty & the back panel was coming off, so I had to re-nail it, but other than that, it is in good shape.  It is actually an old literature rack so I thought it would be a simple thing to get trays to fit into the slots & that would hold everything I needed it to.  Boy was I wrong!  I did finally find a company that had trays that would actually fit each cubby, but they were 16.95 each & I need 22 of them!  So I decided that I would make them myself out of foam core.  Each cubby is 12" wide x 12" deep x 4" tall.  As you can see in the photo, I have a few of my boxes done ( all the white ones) I was just trying them out to make sure they fit.  I still need to figure out some sort of knobs for the front, but first I need to finish making all the boxes.  Currently I have 10 left to finish.  Hopefully by this weekend I can finish them up.  The really nice thing about making them myself, is that I can add dividers into whichever box I need them in & they should be easy enough to change around.

Well, that is all for now, I need to back to gluing my drawers together....

Take Care!

Aging Paper

Well, I finally got my first attempt at aging paper sealed & cut finished.  I have actually been done since Sat, but my kids have been sick & work has been crazy busy, so this is the first chance I have gotten to get it posted.  This project was actually a lot of fun!  I really enjoyed "painting" my paper with tea and experimenting with adding coffee & salt... I am really happy with the way they turned out. (You can click them to make them larger)

These are all my little parchments...I have no idea what on earth I will do with all of them, but they sure are cute!

On this one and the next one you can really see the ages spots well... I am most happy with those! 

I think before I actually use them in my scene, I will dirty up the edges a bit or burn them a little to get a more authentic feel to them.  Next time I want to do some little stacks of blank parchment and some scrolls, I think that would a be a lot of fun, and I need some anyway! 
Well, I don't have much spare time, so I will post again soon!

Take Care!

Magazines Everywhere!!

Recently, I found out that one on the ladies in my miniature club has a subscription to American Miniaturist.  Now when I stopped doing minis 14 years ago,  There was a magazine that I loved called Nutshell News.  At the time, it was the only one I would get because it was such a good magazine.  When I started back up a few years ago, I was sad to find out that they no longer do that magazine, but the new one "American Miniaturist" was close to the type of magazine it was, so I found one & bought it.  I liked it well enough, but never really found it in my budget to subscribe for a year...so when I found out a club member had hers for the last several years, I had asked her if I could borrow some of them just to look through for any interesting projects.  Well, she shows up at the next meeting and brings me this.....

I was so excited, but quickly told her it may be a few months before I could get through all of them... I really only expected her to bring me 5 or 6 of them, which would have been great!  Then she proceeds to tell me that she really never looks at them & she does not want them back... she is giving them ALL to me!  I was speechless to say the least.  I tried several times to have her keep them but she really did not want them anymore, and I really cant get a subscription right now so I gladly took them, and sang "Merry Christmas to me"  all the way home.  I spent the next night sorting and organizing them, and finding a new home for them in my cramped space, and come to find out She had given me 6 years worth of issues and I am only missing 9 of them for a complete set!  It was so amazing, it still makes me smile to think of her wonderful gift!

Take care!

Presents in the mail....

I had a little package come in the mail for me on Saturday, and I finally got a chance to photograph it... I HAD to get one of Kats Pirate hats, well, because I just LOVE the Captain Jack Sparrow character....So while in her ETSY store I saw a teal looking witches hat that I think I am going to keep for my long term "The Burrow" project.  I am just really collecting things for it right now & have figured out the ground floor.  Kat, being the wonderful person that she is, put a little something extra in my box which I am so excited to have, & they will go perfectly with my hutch that I am currently working on!!
Anyway, Here are my newest hats....

Yes!  She sent me a little pair of witch shoes!! Aren't they adorable!

Here is a closer picture of the 2 hats, you can see the stitching better on the Jack hat & the details on the teal patchwork hat....

and here is a better photo of the shoes!  I just love them to pieces!

It seems as time goes on, that I become more & more addicted to her lovely little hats!!  I still have to figure out what on earth I am going to do with the pirate hat....  now I have to do a pirate scene....:)  Now I get to learn how to make little fimo pieces of eight!!  LOL  At least I have plenty of empty bottles for the rum.  Wow, I must be getting tired...

Take care!