An update on the soap shop

It's funny how I do the work in this shop in batches!

Today I took up the soap shop again.  I am having visitors this weekend, and I wanted them to have a look at the scene and see how it is coming up.

I have been painting the furnitre in white these past days.  Nothing to report on that, just painting and letting dry.

But today I wanted to finish the cabinet of the Black and White collection.  So, I gave an extra layer of paint, and let it dry.  Then I took the drawers and replaced the plastic golden knobs by brass handles in the shape of a clam shell:

Love the clam shell pullers!

And then everything could go back to their place:

Yay! Finished!

 Plenty of things here!  I made some and bought some.  The cabinet comes from Beautifully Handmade.  The round metallic boxes, the white candle in glass votive, the brown-striped boxes and the fabric sample catalogues come from Syreeta's Miniatures.  The square boxes at the top (they have real candles inside!), and the white beauty products come from Sophia Miniatures.  The square boxes with a bow and little heart soaps inside, the room diffuser and the three striped and Toile boxes at the bottom of the shelf I made myself.  I don't remember where I got the clam shell pullers.  The basket was a gift from my mom.

And then, since I will be having visitors, I cleaned up the greenhouse.  The walls are not glass, but acrylic, but they are not damaged, so the scene can be seen quite clearly.  Here are some pics of the work so far:

Love my commode!

The glass apothecary jars are both from Sophia and Beacctrice's Miniaturas.  The one with the green soaps I bought ready made from Sophia.  The rest, I filled up and put the labels and ribbons myself. The round hat boxes and the black towels are also Sophia's, and the pitcher and the pillow with the crown are from Pilar Alén.

The box with the decorative papers I made myself.  The aquarium with the jellyfish (they glow in the dark!) is from Ángeles León.  The pillows with the marine decorations are from Vilia Miniature.  You will see that this shop will have a very dominant marine/ocean theme... The nesting tables are a gift from my mom.

This counter still needs a lot of work done...

The counter I bought on a miniature show called Kas y Tas.  The towels and the black basket are from Sophia.  The brown basket and the folding table are gifts from my mom.  As you can see, my mom keeps giving me stuff she does no longer need.  Not that I am complaining...

I will be crafting more little details as soon as I finish painting the last shelf.  And that one needs a lot of painting... Oh my!

Belly dance magazines and free printable

As Kassandra was so busy with her ballet magazines the other day, I forgot to tell her I had at home some belly dancing magazines - I am a belly dancer as well - and I thought maybe she would like to have them, as I had already read them.  So, I put them in a bag and took them to her.

"I brought you something".

"Did you?  What is it?"

"It's a collection of belly dance magazines I had around.  Maybe your daugther can have some use for them.  They are a gift for her."

"Oh, are you not delightful? Thank you very much!  I am sure Jean will appreciate them.  I will give them to her on your behalf."

"You are welcome.  I hope she enjoys them."

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Fantasy apart, it was so much fun doing the ballet magazines that I wanted to have some of belly dance.  I did not know if I would be able to find any, but apparently there are (or used to be) some.  These were more difficult to find, so there are not so many.  Also, I had to be content with putting some DVD covers in the backs, as there were even less adverts of belly dance events or vendors, although I found a couple of them.  The bag is new as well.

If you belly dance I am sure you will recognize some of the people in the covers...

Except for the Dahlal ad on the left, the rest are quite famous dancers

As with the ballet magazines, I am happy to pass on the file to you, in case you want to make some for yourself.  Here are the belly dance magazines.  Feel free to use them and pass them around, but please do not sell them.  Have fun!  

Ballet magazines and free printable

Today Kassandra asked for a new magazine holder.  I wanted to know what it was going to be used for, to see if I could find a pattern that suited the theme.  Her magazine collection is quite eclectic.

"Ballet", she answered.

"Oh, I did not know you were interested in the arts".

"Oh yes, at home we have a passion for three things, mainly.  Music, specially opera, ballet and belly dance".

I didn't know which one surprised me the most.  Ballet? Belly dance? Opera sounded like the most plausible thing, since it had been around for centuries.  The other two were... unexpected.

"Those are interesting hobbies, specially the dancing", I could finally articulate.

"Oh well, the belly dance is something relatively new.  My adoptive daughter introduced me to it.  I quite enjoy it, it is so fun.  And one of her adoptive daugthers is a ballerina.  I trained her myself.  Now she is the principal dancer of my company."

"I see".  I did not know she had a ballet company.  I wanted to ask more questions, but I was afraid of appearing impertinent, so I didn't.  Hopefully, she will share more in the future on her own accord.  She usually does.

So I went and designed a magazine holder for her ballet magazines.  When I brought it back to her, she seemed pleased.

"I hope it fits your expectations", I said.  "I wanted to convey a vintage, Parisian feeling."

"It is perfect!  The magazines will look great in it."

And then she proceeded to tidy up her collection:

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Fantasy apart, I had so much fun making the ballet magazines!  I wanted to have different titles, but I only could find good resolution images mainly from Pointe.  Still, I managed to make each of them different.  And I even put a different advert on each back from famous dance supplies companies! A labor of love!

So, I wanted to share with you all the file for the ballet magazines, hoping you like it, and maybe you can make your own issues to scatter around your mini home.  As always, please feel free to share it with a link back, but do not sell the file.  Enjoy!

An Egyptian necklace

Today I found Kassandra very busy, getting ready what seemed to be a gift box.

"A late Solstice present?", I asked.

"Exactly that", she said.  "It has come all the way from Netherlands, and it got stuck in the Postal Service office.  I am getting it all prettied up to give to a very special woman.  She is Egyptian, so I am sure she is going to appreciate the design.  It is the Egyptian goddess Isis.  The artist that made it is extraordinarily talented".

"I am sure your friend will love it. "

Coming back to a long forgotten project

The work at Kassandra's house is never finished.  But sometimes I get an itch to do something different, and yesterday I began the work again in the already-mentioned soap shop in the IKEA greenhouse.

As it is usual with me, I begin these projects by starting with the most minute details.  Yes, I purchased the room, and even some furniture to fill it with.  And then I started crafting polymer clays soaps, pretty boxes, tiny toiletry bottles... I was so excited with all the media I was going to be using that I did not want to deal with furniture painting.  Or even worse, setting up an stable floor that would not end up with all the furniture and the decorations falling down - that happened, by the way.  Many times.

So, in my last trip to Madrid I purchased a board of balsa wood to set up a good foundation for the shop.  I thought it would be tricky to cut it to measure, but with the help of a new, barely used cutter, a metal ruler and a cutting board was piece of cake:

See the tiny pieces that I had to cut

As you can see, the floor may be good for plants, but not for tiny forniture filled with stuff

Once cut to size, I had to trim the corners so the acrylic walls would sit in place.  Then I glued the boards:

And then my favorite part: wallpapering!  I knew I did not want to simply paint the floor.  I wanted some contrast, since the forniture will be white.  So I head over Small Stuff's PrintMini and I chose a lovely tiled floor (that for some reason only exists in the 1:6 scale).  I printed 4 pages directly from the website, and off to mount them on the floor!

See all the stuff packed in boxes?  It's been there since we moved last Summer...

This time I used regular copy paper instead of the nice matte photographic paper.  Mainly because it is not walls, but floor, and really, it is going to be so full of things that I did not think it worthy to invest 4 pages of nice paper.  I took the double sided tape and covered the back almost completely:

Then I glued it to the boards and trimmed the corners:

And yay! It's finished!!  And the walls sit perfectly well in place:

It only took me about an hour of work, and I was very happy when I finished. It almost looks like it really was the floor of a greenhouse, and now the greenhouse is getting turned into a shop!

This morning I started painting the furniture (I hate painting furmiture!).  I gave a couple of hands, then let it sit until I came back from the lab, and applied a couple more coats where they were needed.  Then I took a commode I purchased a couple of years back (it came from El Rastrillo de Viti) and started working on it.

I had seen this beautiful commode on Minicler's shop, and wanted something similar.  But I wanted to use Toile paper in blue.  I find it très chic!  I also replaced the drawers wood handles by brass handles, and here is it the finished version:

I love it!

The shop is getting started... And you can see my minions, LOL!

I am very happy with these two days of work.  I hope I can keep up with the painting in tiny steps and it will be over soon.  I am anxious to start crafting decorations again!