New Possibilities... Oh, And Books

I'd been thinking for a while about starting up an Etsy Shop and maybe making and selling miniatures.  Mostly the Holiday lanterns like the ones I made last Christmas.  And maybe a few other things, depending on my skill levels.

I spent a good part of the weekend making books for the Contest Book Shop.  I'm making progress.  Just feels really slow.  I need to start cutting out covers during the week and keeping them in bags until the weekends when I have time to glue and build books.

The second picture is full of books that will only fit in the very top shelves of the bookcases.  As you can see I'm using magazine spines, balsa wood and foam core board for my pages depending on the width of the spines.

I got a few more done after I took these pictures.  So two thirds of another box done.

Hobby Lobby had a sale, all candle holders, lanterns, table top décor at half price.  So I picked up a bunch of lanterns in various sizes.  This time I kept them all rectangle or square shapes because those hexagon lanterns really killed me with all their angles!

I decided on a scrapbook paper tile look for the floor and a matching paper for wall panels since the metal work on this particular lantern is in curves and I wanted to match them.  The stain is Rustoleum Traditional Cherry.  I liked how it looked against the floor.

I don't have the lights connected to their batteries yet but l wired up the tree with Christmas lights.  The hanging light is a drawer pull with LED chip lights inside it.  I need to add some feet to the bottom of the lantern to accommodate the battery pack for the lights.

The tree has beads for ornaments and a jewelry finding for the stand.  The book case is made of wood and I added some of the books I made that were more half scale.

 

So far this lantern has taken me about two and a half days.  I'm hopeful that I can do more of them.

How has everyone else been?