Using other scales accessories

My husband is a collector of other scale miniatures - mainly Warhammer, but also other brands.  Perusing for some stuff that he wanted to buy I found a lovely collection of wood crates and boxes:

Since I am working now on a shop, I wanted to have some boxes with freshly arrived stuff, and I loved the way these crates were designed.  Even though they are supposed to be for a Far West game, I think they look pretty standard for other purposes.  And for more fun, they were a kit.  They look awesome:

You can see they are obviously from a different scale, but they were so much fun to make, and so easy! The kit brings two of each, so if you need to fill a barn, an storage room or a wagon they will be great.

I will be using some to decorate the shop by putting stuff over them.  Some I will leave open to put stuff in, as if Kassandra was unpacking the merchandise.

What have you been up to?

Miniature show in Madrid!

I just found out!  We have a miniature showcase in Madrid, scheduled for May 24 & 25.  You have all the details available here.

My mother and I are going to attend.  I hope to see (and acquire!) many beautiful things.

Can't wait!!

Another visit to the pool

So today I went again for a swim at the town pool.  

It was almost empty, I spent all the time alone in my lane, just swimming up and down.  No kids today.  

But I had two staff members coming to check out my mermaid tail.  One of them asked if she could take pictures, and we chatted a bit about how I began to swim like this.  They had never seen, or even heard of, mermaid tails and I referred them to YouTube for videos.

A good thing is, I was not very tired when I finished my session; I mean, my core and leg muscles were a bit sore, but my lungs and diafragm were not tired after all the breath holding, which I found very rewarding.  Last week I was able to swim all the pool lenght in one breath, which was also exhilarating.  Must try that again tomorrow.  Almost 8 years without swimming can put a strain in your lung capacity.  Mine used to be great, but not anymore.  I am trying to improve on that...

And, remember I put pearls on my toes?  They were fine after one hour of swimming with the monofin on, which was great.  I will be doing the mermaid scale manicure again this week, sans the pearls.  Hubby does not really like them.

Nail design of the week

I'm afraid this week I revisited the mermaid nail tutorial created by elleandish.  It is so lovely I just can't get enough of it!

This time I followed all the instructions provided, and my nails look like this:

It looks so much better with a softer two-color combination!  I say two-color because, despite the fact that I wanted to use three, one of the blues was barely visible, so I just omitted it.  These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat 

Fashion Studio by Margaret Astor nail polishes #242 (Aqua Leaf) and #070 (Blue Taffeta)

Mash plate #39

Konad plastic scraper

Konad small stamper

Makeup sponge

Lina Bocardi 45'' Flash Nail Polish #12 for stamping

Quick Dry Top Gloss by Margaret Astor
Naio coconut cuticle oil for the cuticles when everything is finished and dry

It cannot really be seen in the pic but the design smeared again.  I need to get me a Seche Vite top coat, which I hear is fabulous for this kind of stuff.  

This design really gets people's attention.  I will probably end up using it for most of the Summer.  My inner mermaid is so happy with it!

I also painted my toe nails with Come along with me nail polish by H&.  I don't know why, I am liking very much blue colors this season.

A treasure to bookmark

My dollhouse has been a little abandoned in the last days, for lack of new projects to begin with. Today I was just browsing through my bookmarked miniature pages and found a picture of somebody else's witch dollhouse. Out of curiosity I checked it out, and the crafter recommended Jim's Dollhouse Pages, so I clicked and was in awe.

What a wonderful collection of notes and printables to use in your own projects! I downloaded some - my personal favorite were the Money currencies and the Office supplies. I can have some of those in my dollhouse shop! And seeing some of his designs helped me to come up with new ideas to sell in my shop. Isn't it wonderful when somebody inspires you so?

He even has a mailing list, so you can be notified when new designs are added. Fantastic page, so happy that I found it!

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!

Celebrating the first post with a tutorial...

... And it could not be in any other way, it is about miniatures!

My dollhouse began as many others, as a boring Victorian style dollhouse. But after moving to the United States and began my crafting, I decided that the overrated Victorian parlors were not good enough for me. So I decided to transform my common dollhouse into something more uncommon, but very popular these days...

Think about Diagon Alley, and how the houses there could be... A charming exterior, no doubt, but the inside is what gives me the freedom to explore! I am fortunate enough to own a dollhouse with a shop, and no kitchen! "Good", I thought to myself. "Vampires don't need kitchens, anyway..." So you can say that the owner of my house is a charming vampire lady with a magic shop - more fitted to Knockturn Alley than Diagon Alley, if you follow me...

Anyway, this lady is a great admirer of J. R. R. Tolkien - some say that she knew him very closely - and she has just added a Middle Earth map to her bedroom.

The idea of the map came after I purchased some lovely mini-books featuring The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings series and The Silmarillion. Want your own set of books? Try Miniature Bookshelf!

I did a little search and found a beautiful map from a fellow blogger (scroll down to see it):

http://myhobbit-hole.blogspot.com/

A Hobbit Hole is a really neat idea for a dollhouse! Maybe some day...

Here is how you can have your own miniature Middle Earth map:

1- Download the image. Remember, this image has a copyright. You can only do this for personal use, not for selling it in any way!

2- Open your favorite photo-editor program (Adobe Photoshop is great for miniatures!)

3- Change the size of the map to your desired size. Change the pixel size to 300 pixels/inch.

4- Print it in high quality paper.

5- Frame it, hang it directly on the wall of your dollhouse or display it over a table.

The map in the bedroom wall