Going back to the basics: Paint it black!

If you have been with me for a while, you already know that I am a goth.  Well, lately this aspect of my personality is coming back, slowly but surely.

Some months ago I stumble across, totally by chance, Aurelio Voltaire's YouTube channel. The first time I heard about Voltaire (many years ago, when I still lived in the US) it was regarding some books that he had written: What is goth, and Paint it Black.  I absolutely loved them!  They were written with charm, wit, and they were so much fun!  I actually learnt some things that would help my house had a gothic flair.  Some of them I still use to this day.

In any case, he has a series of videos about how to enhance your house to have a more gothic appearance in his channel.  He teaches with tutorials, gives references and ideas for you to make your own projects.  Well, since I do not live alone, I cannot actually transform the whole house, but there is a room that I could change slightly because I am its main user.   It was one of our bathrooms.  He has several videos showcasing how he transformed and decorated the bathroom in his apartment, and I made good use of them.  Since I am renting, there is limited things that I can do, but for very little money I gave the bathroom a more gothic flair.

I started by changing the pictures on the wall.  Up until now, there had been many themes.  It started with some marine drawings (a whale, a lighthouse, a boat, and a quote about the beach); then I switched to ballet pictures, both color, and black and white.  And then, 2 pairs of pictures of Monstera leaves - to give the room a spa feeling.  

But obviously, these would not do.  So I started by buying some more adecuate posters to showcase.  I got them all from Artis Mortis Gallery, which has a fantastic selection of downloadable decor:

 

Love them!

But upon installing them, I realized that the frames were not good.  Very, very simple, we needed more of a black accent against the wall, which is off-white.  So I purchased locally 4 frames, and this was the result:

Much, much better!

Then, I rescued a floral arrangement that I made long ago, and placed it in a small vase on the sink:

 

Then, some more decorations.  I followed one of Voltaire's videos to make some nice ApotheScary bottles. If you want to have some of the labels that appear in the video you can get them here (just scroll down and you will see them).  Also, I purchased a black soap pump and a 3D printed coffin incense burner.  Voltaire also sells coffin incense burners in his store.

The label in the bottle you can get here.  I changed the letters though

But you cannot have a gothic bathroom without some coffin shaped shelf.  So I went ahead and bought one that measures 50 cm high, so it's quite big!  I installed it on the wall just this morning:

For the decorations, I made a bunch of bottles following Voltaire's tutorial.  You can watch a video on how to make cool matchboxes here.  I am working on a coffin-shaped box right now.

 

And of course, we could not forget some very special duckies!  These have been with me for years:

Say hello to Joe, Lord Ruthven and Agatha

I am still waiting on some more decorations for home; I will update as soon as they arrive.  I still have to buy a couple of black towels, but that will be next week.  But I am so happy with the results so far!

My work featured in a book!

I had a surprise today when I found one of my old creations featured in a book!

The book in question is "How to be a vampire", by Amy Gray.  I was perusing the book and was so surprised when I found one of my wedding ring pillows (the ones I used to sell on my shop on Etsy) in page 79:

See the red pillow with ribbons and black leaves? That's mine!

I have absolutely no idea how this picture of my pillow got to be in this book.  I searched the book for pic references, and it only states that all pics (with some exceptions that do not include mine) come from Shutterstock.  So I guess that my picture got stolen at some point.  Which totally sucks.  But oh well...

Here I include the original picture I took of the wedding ring pillow when I put it up for sale, and the modifications that I made so it would look better on the listing:

Original, taken outside on a bright morning

Modified picture that I put as main on the listing

As you can see, they match exactly.  

Well, it is still as surprise that my work was interesting enough to be added to a vampire guide.  I feel honored!! ♥♥

Kassandra's big renovation part 1 - Bedroom

Since we have just moved our big house, Kassandra thought it was the perfect moment to have some major renovations in hers.

She asked that I finally put wallpaper in her walls.  I bought the dollhouse already mounted (at the time I did not want to deal with the building up), and it came with a rather dull, standard beige with white flowers wallpaper.  I had been waiting years to find the perfect wallpaper for her, and since she knows I finally found it, she insisted it was time I redecorate the whole building.

To tell the truth, I was very anxious to not make any major mistakes that could ruin the whole appearance, but I found that putting up wallpaper is rather simple and fun, although time consuming.

First of all, I made several visits to Ana to buy different wallpapers sets.  Hers are the best wallpapers I have ever seen.  So different and out of the ordinary.  Really, Halloween papers are fun, but for people with inclinations and tastes like Kassandra's, those simply would not do.  Ana's wallpapers are regal, scrumptious and luscious. 

First, clearing out the space.  With our recent move it was easy, as everything was securely packed.  You can see the awful wallpaper the house had all these years, and the stains caused by the Blue Tack holding the pictures.

For the bedroom, I chose the Red Velvet Panel wallpaper.  It is just perfect.  Fancy that Ana called it the Count Dracula!  First I decided the layout, and modified the images so they would fit my walls height.  Then I took scrap paper and made patterns of the walls.  I printed the images in matte photographic paper and cut them using the patterns as guides.

In this pic, you can see that I made I mistake.  I cut the wallpaper from the top instead of from the bottom, so I lost the pretty golden design.  I had to reprint and cut again.  And then, for the dreaded moment of attaching the paper to the wall.  I knew I had several options, but I finally opted for using double-sided tape.

I was so nervous when glueing it down!  But I think it looks pretty nice.  Then I did the two side walls the same way.

Peeling the double-sided tape before glueing the paper

And the room is completed!  Or so I thought...

I absolutely loved it!  However, upon careful inspection, I noticed that the ceiling had the same terrible beige wallpaper - the rest of the ceilings are just unpainted wood - so I decided that the ceiling had to be wallpapered too.  For that, I wanted to resemble an antique paneled wood, and so I chose this wood panel wallpaper.  As with the other images, I adjusted the design to my measurements, and printed it.  The ceiling now looks imperial!

So gorgeous!

Now, I thought, it is finished!

But then I realized that I had not made the last wall, the one that opens up and closes the room.  Oh, the horror!

No matter, I printed two more sheets of the red panaled wallpaper, and got ready to finished it.  But unluckily for me, the sheets did not cover the whole wall!  They lacked about an inch, so I decided to add a decorative wooden trim at the bottom.  And lo and behold, now it was finished!

Kassandra is delighted with her new bedroom, and I am very happy she likes it!  She says she cannot wait for the rest of the house to be redone.  I understand her eagerness, but I need to buy some more double-sided tape first.  I spent a whole roll (5 meters) to do just the bedroom.

If you want to see all the renovations in the house, just click here.

1/144 scale furniture

My mom is very excited about her new micro mini dollhouse!  She has already ordered furniture to decorate it; and I have ordered too some kits for her - and one for me as well ;)

Pic taken by SDK Miniatures

I just love SDK Miniatures so much! Their kits are delightful and so easy to do.  I just saw their English Country Cottage Series.  I definitely need the Dove Cottage in my life!

It will be so much fun to do these kits!  I am only keeping the drawer chest to add to my dollhouse. The rest are for my mom.  Well, maybe I will keep a couple of mirrors too...

Tarot reading in Kassandra's shop

Today I found Kassandra very busy.  She was beautifying one of the corners in her shop.  She has a small sitting place behind a screen to do readings for her customers; mainly tea leaves, tarot cards and palm readings.  She said she had not changed the decorations for very long, and it was time to try something new.

Before:

And after:

She explained that her friend Ana had provided her with the supplies, and the change looks really good.  The tiny pictures on the wall, the big placemat on which the new deck of cards rests and the advertising sign on the screen.  There is also a small picture on the table of a lovely lady.  Kassandra said that she was an old friend that taught her some clairvoyance secrets.  

She also has new merchandise in her shop: tiny tarot decks in their boxes.  She hopes that her customers will like them.

The Tarot cards are the ones I used to sell in my shop

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Fantasy apart, the tiny tarot boxes I made myself with the help of an awesome template, creation of Craig P. Forbes.  You can custom made any box for any set of cards of any size that you may have.  However, I had to tweak my way around them, because the design works well for real life card size, but the 1:12 scale proved to be very tiny for the program and some flaps were omitted.  But I had loads of fun adjusting and mounting the boxes.  I even made a real life box for a deck of Steampunk cards that I bought from Vectoria Designs.  They fit perfectly!

Introducing Kassandra, my vampire tenant

The long wait is finally over.  May I intruduce Kassandra, my lovely tenant?

Here she is, in her dollhouse parlor

Isn't she the most beautiful creature ever?  She finally allowed me to share some pics of her, so please enjoy:

Working in the study

Attending her witches' shop

Taking care of her daughter Perséfone.  Notice Perséfone's tiny teeth.

You can see some professionally taken pictures of her here.

I am very happy to finally introduce her to all of you.  I hope you find her as delightful as I do.

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Fantasy apart, she is the magnificient creation of Terri's Dolls.  I contacted her with some ideas in mind, and she has brought her to life just as I dreamed her.  It has been a looooong wait until my country's Customs has let her go (more than a month!), and I have been very anxious not only to have her safely at home, but also to enjoy her.  She is an absolute treasure that will be cherished forever. 

1:144 scale dollhouse finished!

My vampire tenant was very happy today to show me she has finished her dollhouse.  The gothic chairs are made and put in their final place in front of the fireplace:

She even added a couple of rugs to the rooms.  They look more cozy now.  And the dollhouse is finally finished, except for the outside paint, that my tenant says she will do in due time.

She says doing this dollhouse was so much fun she is thinking in buying another bigger one, with more rooms to decorate.  She has her eye already in one...

Also, this beauty arrived this week from LDelaney:

A lovely open book with the drawing of a Kraken fighting a ship.  She says she has become very interested lately in issues regarding the ocean.

Roll call for Lovecraft lovers!

There is a new miniature up for sale in my shop.  This time a made to order very special item: a set of papers from Miskatonic University!

The set includes a diploma with your chosen name and subject, a letter of acceptance, a registration card and a library card.  The cards will also bear your chosen name.

More dollhouses need diplomas in their walls, specially of an important and well-considered (if somehow dangerous for the mind) university!

Get them here!

Dollhouse miniatures arriving!

I get so happy when I open my mail box and find little treasures buried amongst the letters!  Today a lot of minis arrived, and I am so excited about them.

First, hardware.  A bag of drawer pullers to decorate some boxes I made, and hinges to see if I can help my mom to fix a 1:144 scale dollhouse that she bought already made and whose door insists on falling off.

Then, a chest box with parfum bottles and jewelry.  It is somehow cute, but I want to try and make something really special with it that I wanted to have and could not buy, because the ones I saw were reaaaaaally expensive.  I hope I can manage it, but if I don't I know I won't have lost much money on it.  It cost less than $5.

And finally, something really special for my vampire tenant.  Gothic furniture for her 1:144 scale dollhouse!

She says she cannot wait to start assembling the kits.  They are very tiny, and they are going to be a challenge, but I am very looking forward to see how they turn out.  They come from SDK Miniatures.