Free printable! Witches shopping bags

Kassandra showed me today the new bags she got for her Magic Shoppe.  They are truly in sync with her personality:

She is so happy that she is willing to share the bags with you, to carry your magical shopping with style.  HERE you go!  As always, feel free to print as many as you want, gift them to your friends and share the file with anyone (links back are nice too!).  Just please do not sell the file or your creations.  Thank you and enjoy!

A weekend of books

It is such a joy and satisfaction when one can look at the accomplishments over the weekend and be happy about them!

I have spent the free hours making more books for my libraries, and here they are:

All of them come from the Magic Collection Set #7 from Ever After Miniatures, and they all have the inside pages as well.  Except for the Vampyr and Darkest Magick, which are my own creation:

I made them using images found on Google

I still have seven books to make to complete the set.  But it has been a productive weekend!

New Spell Books up for sale in my shop

A new collection of books are now up for sale in my shop:

They can be acquired as a collection, or one by one.  The first three feature graphics mady by Chocolate Rabbit.  They feature skulls, bats, scrolls and other motives.  The last one features graphics made by Vectoria Designs.  It looks like a very old tome with decorated corners.  

All of them have antiqued blank papers, hand cut one by one.

They will look perfect in any medieval setting, library or study of a witch or wizard.

Make them yours today!

200 posts - Let's celebrate with miniatures!!

I'm back again, after a lot of time of hiatus!

And here we are, in the post #200, who would have thought?  And we will talk, as in the first post, of miniatures.

Last week my mother and I went to the Tom Bishop's Miniature Show - held in the same place as the one in May.  We were told the hotel that hosted it will be having renovations next May, so there will be no show on Spring next year (booo!).

But anyway, we had a great time, and I spent a lot (more than I should have for sure!) but came home very excited about everything.  We got to meet the wonderful people behind Cinen - my mother is a frequent customer of them.  Also we got to see Anabela again, as well as Syreeta and Candi Martín.

Here are some pics of my purchases:

Pumpkin and mushroom plate by 64tnt Miniatures and white bear dressed with red coat by Miniaturas pqf.

Medieval sword and hand lens by LXL Cruces and blue tassel by Anabela Menocal (I attached the key to it).

Two baskets by Targioni and candle holder by Gemma Such.

And more crystal objects by Beatricce Miniaturas.

Oh, what a joy to put everything in its place!  But more pictures tomorrow, because I did a lot of renovations and I want to show you everything that I have new.

Stay tuned!

Dollhouse miniature desk for witch or wizard available in my shop

I love, love, love this desk!  It has been sitting in my own dollhouse for 12 years, but it's time for it to go to a new caring home.

To bid him good bye I have dressed it thoroughly with paper goodies and writing materials, and it will look awesome in any setting; I designed it for a witch or wizard home and it has some unicorn drawings on the table, but you can stuff those in a drawer and you will have a beautiful piece suitable for any house.

This is a wood desk with 5 working drawers and includes everything you see.  Even the drawers have some stuff in them:

Obviously, since I made this with one of my own pieces, this design is one of a kind, and once it is gone, there will be no more like it.  It is waiting just for you in my shop.

A new section added to my shop!

Hello all, and Happy New Year!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday time.

And so, the new year brings new stuff for the shop!  I just added a new section entitled "Printables".  The titles says it all: it will have minis in digital format that you can purchase and instantly download in your computer for hours of fun!

At the moment, I have two printables: a collection of Victorian mourning boxes (remember them?), and a collection of witchy art for witches and wizards' homes. 

Stay tuned, as days come by there will be more coming!

New minis up for sale

Hello miniature enthusiasts!

My lab course had me unable to do anything creative-wise, but the lack of time and the lack of inspiration has passed, and I have been crafting like crazy these past weeks.  So I am very happy to say that I have new minis up for sale, with more to follow:

Apothercary cabinet

For those of you interested in medicine, here is a new apothecary cabinet, fully equipped for your pharmacy, doctor's office or mad scientist lab.

Witch or wizard table

 For those of you interested in magic, here is an enchanting table, with plenty of artifacts that will make the day of your magic-oriented mini people.  This table is one of a kind, and there will be no more like it.

Ironing board

For those of you with less extravagant tastes, here is a lovely ironing board for that forgotten corner of your dollhouse.

Also, I have available a vintage chandelier, an hourglass that actually works and the absinthe soap box is back again.  I am waiting for supplies to produce more absinthe fountains, but they will be up soon enough.

Come take a look!

A new witchy cabinet up for sale

Long time without listing one of these!

This cabinet is already up for sale in my shop. All you see is included, not attached so you can arrange it as you wish. If you would like a cabinet made up to your specifications, please don't be shy and drop me a line.

New book design

This is a new book design for all fans of witches and wizards out there. It has the same size of all my books, but this one has parchment pages - real parchment, not dyed paper. The cover mimics the look of a dragon skin, and a claw or fang holds the book closed. And it can be opened, of course!
This design had been running around in my head for some time, and yesterday I was able to bring it to reality :)
Hope you like it! It is already available in my shop.

New designs for the shop

It's been quite sometime since I had time to create something entirely new... Actually, the idea for these came after the "holy trinity" set, and it's specially made for fans of gardening and witches or wizards settings. It is a compilation of drawings of real plants:

This set includes wolfsbane, vervain, belladona, hellebore and digitalis.

And this one has fly agaric, sage, bergamot, wild Angelica and dragon's blood.

They will be up for sale in my shop in a couple of days. Also, be prepared for some new miniatures made by my mom. She will have her own special corner in my shop, so stay tuned for her designs. The first mini up for sale will be a set of suitcase and two bags, made from real leather!

Refurbishing the shop

I always knew that my magic shop was not finished yet; even though it wasn't possible to stock up on more items, I was far from satisfied with it. So, inspired by the lovely Wise Ways Emporium (Deb's magic shop), I looked for new furniture for mine. I was very lucky, and found a double shelf that had just the exact measurements. So, here is a sneak peak...

Before:

After:

Even though it looks almost filled, I can assure that there is still plenty of room to add goodies. The black "wicker" shelf will be up for sale in my shop in a couple of days, filled up with witchy artifacts, so stay tuned...

Polymer Clay Dollhouse Books

I have came across many tutorials to make dollhouse books; one of them taught how to make them out of polymer clay, like this one here. I didn't think that polymer clay books looked real enough to display them in my dollhouse, so I learn from one of Sue Heaser's books how to make them out of paper.

But oh surprise! Browsing through Etsy I found that BlueKittyMiniatures had listed a Book of Shadows, with a lovely pentacle on the cover. Carol is famous for her delicious cakes:

Although she sometimes surprises us with cookie jars:

And knitting bags too:

And she currently has available some others magical and whimsical books as well.

I know that Carol doesn't repeat her designs many times, so I snatched it. It just looked so lovely in the picture that I didn't mind that it was a "dummy" book, a book that doesn't open because it is made out of clay. In fact, I wanted it to display it over the lovely book stand that minibuilder had made for me.

So, this morning it arrived all the way from the UK, and it is simply fantastic! I am amazed at the details in the binding and the way the pages are worked. Here is a pic of it, over Ray's book stand:

I guess it's all in the bookmaking technique, because this is one of the most realistic books I have seen! I will have to practice my own skills...

Recycling old objects

When I redesigned my dollhouse to fit the vampire theme, I took out a lot of objects that didn't have a place on it. Many of them are now in my mom's dollhouse. But I have been able to recycle some others.

One of them used to be a quite ugly wood jewelry box, its inside covered in baby blue velvet, with a pearl necklace on display. Although it is not very clear in this picture, this is how it was before:

Here is a catalog picture of the box:

My mom helped me to remove everything from the inside, and I re-made it into a Tarot card box. I covered the inside with red velvet paper, and decorated the lid with a golden sun charm. Now it rests in my dollhouse's shop window:

Crafting with my mom part 3

While my mom was making all the clothes, I was busy with a new project for my dollhouse. She brought me a pretty cabinet that she didn't need anymore, and I wanted to recycle it for my vampire's study. It was a cabinet from a collection called "Rustic Mediterranean House". This is how it was before - I took out the glass covers from the doors before taking the pic:

As you can see, it is quite lovely, but not suitable for my dollhouse theme. So I turned it into this:

I liked the pattern of the lines, so I kept them, but I painted the cabinet black and the lines in a beautiful burgundy/wine red - mom helped to choose it. The drawer does open, and I covered its inside with a paper that looks like suede, in the same burgundy as the lines. This is how it looks like in the study, with all the accessories already in place (I am waiting for a brass mortar and pestle to add to the lower shelf):

My mother was more anxious than me to see it finished. She wanted to see it in its place before leaving for Spain. She got her wished fulfilled!

Labels for your jars

It's amazing how a tiny detail such a simply label can improve the appearance of an object.

When I begun to create the magic studio for my vampire dollhouse occupant, I used the famous trick to stain white regular paper with an used tea bag to give a label the feeling of antique parchment. This was the result:

And so this was the appearance of all my glass jars.

But then came Dead Spider. I had followed her work for a long time, since before last Halloween, and I was delighted when she became part of the Etsy's Dark Side Street Team, from which I am a member too. Her labels were fang-tastic! Unfortunately for me, I had no use for them, since I don't have a curiosities cabinet. But then one day she posted in her shop a sheet of miniature labels! I couldn't resist, and wrote to her, asking if it was possible to customize the labels with titles of my choice. She was very accomodating with my request, made them for me and send them.

I was so happy when I opened the mail box today and found an envelope with her name! The labels were delicious, and I couldn't resist to apply a couple of them to my jars to share them here:

Much better now, right?
It's a happy coincidence that we both like to use the same font for the labels!

And to think I still have 18 labels more to play with... I'm going to have so much fun this weekend!

Vampires and witches need pets too

Although the regular pets in a dollhouse usually are cats and dogs, (and other cute animals such as rabbits, guinea pigs or mice) sometimes they simply don't fit in the designed scheme. Don't get me wrong; my dollhouse vampire occupant has a black cat in her bedroom, but she needed other type of companion as well.

Since the Harry Potter series became popular, I have begun to see more unusual pets for dollhouses, such as frogs, snakes, snow owls (like the one Harry has) and ravens. I myself wanted to buy a raven, since my vampire friend is very fond of Mr. Poe and his work, but the raven in question seemed more like an altered pigeon, due to the placement of the eyes on his head and the small beak. So I decided against it. What, oh what, could she use as pet? But of course! Which animal speaks more clearly of vampires than the bat?

Well then, the first step was to buy a cage for the little one to nest. I searched high and low for empty cages - the majority of them had already a little bird inside, and no possibility to open it to exchange the occupant.

I made a search on Etsy, because it has become trendy to use this type of birdcages to make necklaces, and I found it, empty and with opening door. Too cute! So I ordered one.

Then I sewed a tiny fabric bat upside down to the swing, and this is the result:


Isn't it adorable? Now he rests comfortably in the study of my vampire friend.