Free printable! Opera magazines

I have been busy, so some time has passed since last time I visited Kassadra.  Today I found her storing some magazines in her new library.

"Hello, my dear", she said.  "Long time no see!"

"Indeed.  You have been busy..."

"Of course!  As soon as I finish organizing these, I will give you a tour of the house for you to see all the new stuff" (more info on that tomorrow!).

"More magazines?"

"Well, naturally!  My daughter Jean is very fond of opera, so I got some specialized isssues for her.  I am just putting them in the library, because I really have no more space in the living room".

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Fantasy apart, both my husband and I enjoy opera, so these magazines are a wink at him.  I used real opera magazine covers, and put an ad related to music in the back.  I am happy to share them with you, in case you need some magazines lying around.  HERE you go!  Have fun with them.  As always, please feel free to make gifts out of them, and share the printie with anyone (links back are nice too!), just please do not sell the file or you creations.  Thank you! ♥

Need more magazines?  Here you have some ballet magazines and belly dance magazines!

New project in the making...

It was a sudden idea that entered my head when I was browsing printables for dollhouses on Etsy.

Long ago I projected a market stall - only I wasn't very sure what to do with it.  I wanted it to be an organic products shop, but somehow the project was put in the back burner, and I never got around to even start it.  I reasoned it was because I was actually not convinced of my idea, so I let the matter go.  But some days ago, after buying some seed packets to put in my conservatory, I saw something in the listing that caught my attention immediately, and I decided it was going to be my next small project: a newsstand, or magazine kiosk.

So, yesterday I ordered a small (and very cheap!) market stall, and so I started planning in my head my new project.  While it arrived, I collected every sort of magazine that I could think of (thank you, Google Images!) and started composing mini-magazines on Photoshop to put on the kiosk; it was not the first time I was doing this, so I already had a template to make the whole process faster.

Today I got the package.  I was surprised when I got it to see it was going to be bigger than I expected:

I opened it eagerly, and found something peculiar.  As you can see, it says "Wood glue included".  Silly me, I thought it was going to be a small white glue bottle, and this is what I found:

Obviously, the glue was absolutely dry, and I tossed it out.  Not that I was going to use it, but who could have thought that including glue like that was a good idea?  In any case, it did not look difficult at all:

So, armed with paper clamps and my Tacky Glue bottle, I started the construction.  It was only a matter of gluing the supporting arms to the canopy, and then the whole thing to the sides of the counter:

It barely took 20 minutes!  Now I have started printing magazine convers and blank inside pages.  They all have backs; an ad related to the thing the magazine is about:

7 done,  about 40 to go!

If you want to craft some magazines for your mini-scene, here are a couple of free printables for you to play with:

Ballet magazines

Belly dance magazines

More pictures of the progress soon!

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!

Penny Dreadful Magazines!

I don't know how I did not think about this before!  What better way to capture the gothic literature from Victorian times than penny dreadfuls!

When I searched "Penny Dreadful" the first thing that popped up were links for the famous HBO series.  I wonder how many people actually know that penny dreadfuls were British weekly publications that costed a penny, and that were supposed to be about gory and bloody events.  Probably the most known penny dreadful is "Sweeney Todd, or The String of Pearls".  My first penny dreadful was, obviously, "Varney the Vampire".  Did you know that Varney had more than 500 episodes the first time it was published?  Talk about telenovelas!

As predicted, my lovely tenant asked for some copies for herself.  She is very fond of Varney.  She insists the poor soul is just misunderstood.

In any case, they are available now for sale in my shop, so go take a look and buy some.  If you have a Victorian home they are definitely a must!

Magazine project finished... and more

My vampire tenant had a lot of stuff to show me today.

She said she finally finished organizing her magazines (I would have never thought that she liked reading magazines, but she is full of surprises).  She was very happy with the holders I made for her, and she made very good use of them:

She has quite a collection of magazines, from very different subjects.

Dark Realms is a magazine that is no longer made.  It featured gothic artwork, which she says she very much enjoyed.  Besides them, cinema and TV magazines featuring vampires and werewolves programming.  My tenant says Eric from True Blood, and Damon from The Vampire Diaries are yummy (!).  

 

Besides, a collection of magazines that belongs to her goddaughter Claudia - my tenant says she loves mermaids.  Besides, a collection of National Geographic isssues, featuring animals for Claudia and an issue about the sinking of the Titanic - my tenant says she was on the ship's maiden voyage and that she survived miraculously.  And finally, some issues of Gothic Beauty - she very much enjoys the pictures of the pretty clothing.

The Darkness Magazine is a non-existent publication that I made up some time ago with my picture on the cover.  If you want to make your own magazine you can do so here.

As a fun addition, the National Geographic magazines have an ad on the back:

They are all now neatly organized in her room and her parlor:

Also, she went shopping and bought a gift for her beloved:

The lovely pocket watch was made by Tj Miniatures.  I made the box and the bag with the label.  Now it is waiting besides the chatelaine for Selma.

I am working now on some magazines for my Etsy shop.  I am sure when I finish them my tenant will want some issues for herself.  More on that very soon!

Free printable! Dollhouse magazine holders

I have embarked on a new project that requires to organize a lot of magazines.  

My vampire tenant says her stuff needs some order, and asked for some magazine holders.  I suggested she buy some of the pretty designs that are available, but she said that many of them did not match her taste.  She does not like "girly" things such as flower prints or polka dots, and wanted some Steampunk or Victorian holders.

Once again, I had to design them myself, and once again, she was very happy with what I provided.

She also said it was a pity that people were going to miss on the pretty and unusual design, and said that I should share them with my readers.  So, to satisfy my lovely tenant, here are the magazine holders for you to enjoy.

One is blank so you can add you own design if you wish.  Have fun organizing your dollhouse magazines!

Crafting for my mom

Remember a couple of days ago when I mentioned I was going to make a shopping basket for my mom? It's finished:


The wire basket came from Kountry, if you like it. The rest was handmade by me. See the dog magazine from 2 entries below? The baguette, the grapes and the oranges are polymer clay; the grocery bags are handmade from brown wrapping paper. The milk bottle was purchased unfinished; I painted it white and sealed it with a glossy coat. My mom loves it, and that's the best reward!

Miniature custom magazines

As I was saying yesterday, sometimes you see a miniature and you have to do something with it. I recently bought 5 miniature wire baskets from Kountry. They were oh so lovely, I had to have them! So I put 3 of them as shopping baskets in my dollhouse's shop. Simply delicious!

But I had 2 to spare, so I offered one of them to my mom, for her own dollhouse. Yes, I am guilty. I made an addict of my mom too! She said she would like it to be filled with groceries, and I am working on that. As a suggestion, I offered to make her a newspaper or a magazine, and she was OK with the idea. When I mentioned that I could make a dog magazine, she was quite happy - she loves dogs! I was going to search for an actual dog magazine cover, and out of the blue, I thought she would like very much a magazine with a picture of Dana, her bitch.

And said and done, I made this cover for her:

The title says: A dog's life.

And suddenly it occurred to me to make one for myself. I am a reader of Gothic Beauty magazine, and the first thing I thought was to make a similar one. And I get to be on the cover! This is the result:

I love how it turned out! I thought on including headlines, but they won't be visible in miniature size anyway.

Why have Time in your living room, when you can be the main model for your own magazine? One more time, the miniature world bows to your desires!