Open! And Some Progress on the Bookshop

I'll start off by saying that I wanted to have more done in the way of stock but I got sick on Friday and really didn't get a whole lot accomplished this weekend.

I did get some of the sconces glued to the bookshelves of the shop.

And I found some other printies, so I'm using yet another method of making books

They look a little battered so the first attempts will probably get put somewhere they aren't easily seen.  I'll get better at assembly as I go.

Then I spent the rest of the day getting some better pictures taken of the lanterns and setting up the Etsy Shop.

Here are a few pictures:

 

I figured out how to put a link up on the sidebar if anyone wants to visit my shop.  And...that was pretty much it for my weekend.  Still not feeling one hundred percent but I'll live.  Over the counter cold meds are my friends.

Hope everyone else is feeling much better than I am and that you had a great weekend.

The Surprise & Halloween

I'm writing this Sunday but I'll be posting it on Monday since that's Tina's birthday and the surprise is a gift for her birthday.

Tina's into owls like I am.  And I had a hexagon lantern which I thought was really pretty.  So I got the owl I'd splurged on a while back and made her a lantern.

You've seen the tree and stump...

The owl is from HandmadebyNovember on Etsy.  I need to get myself another one, I love this one so much.  I made the tree using the same method as my apple tree for the WQRC but I used only wire, no wood dowel to thicken the trunk.

My accomplishment for the weekend is a hollow pumpkin with a Halloween/Witchy/Magic scene inside it.

I got the pumpkin at Walmart and it came with a light to plug in for the inside, which is pretty cool.  It was also nice because I could be certain it was hollow.  I was trying to do this last weekend and found out I'd bought solid Styrofoam pumpkins.  Not going to work.

So I cut off the back of the pumpkin, not as easy as you'd think.

The first step was figuring out where I wanted my floor to set and what I wanted it made out of.  I decided to go with some of my grass.

First couple coats of paint and testing out the height of my Jack-o-lantern table.

First layer of paint on the outside.  I started with gesso to prime the plastic and then switched up to modge podge later.

I made a, floating potion cauldron, a magic tea set and several 'potion'/preserve jars.

Once those were sitting I went back to working on the pumpkin and making it look a bit more natural.

I made a stove out of pvc pipe and a straw with cardboard for the grate, top and door.  I used the left over pumice gel I had to give the paint some texture.  It looks enough like cast iron that I'm happy with it.

Then I made a few more 'magic' items.  A spoon floating over a jar of magic honey, dishes all topsy turvey, that sort of thing.

I used woodsies to make shelves for the walls and placed them all over my walls.  I need to take some better pictures.  I was in a hurry and didn't really light everything very well.

As you can see, there's some glue drying going on still.

But that was my weekend.  I got to play with the instant water and dyes and a bunch of other fun stuff so I'm pretty happy.

Hope you all had a great weekend!


Update: My friend loved her lantern and is excited to put it in her house, she's got the perfect place for it she says.

Building Up My Stock

I had a couple of ideas for Lanterns based on the surprise I made for my friend.  And this weekend I managed to get three of them done.

I started with another hexagon lantern and made a slightly different tree to go inside it.

I also had a lantern that was only about two inches square and maybe three and a half high so I made a little tree to go in it.

My other set of moonlights I added to the 'ceiling/roof' of the hexagon lantern along with some vines.

Binder clips holding all the vines in.  I tried to get some of the lights inside the tree as well.

While the glue dried I worked on the little lantern and some trees for my third project.

I wanted a lantern with only a Christmas tree inside with snow so I made three slender threes to put in the corners and built up the 'ground'.  I draped the tree branches with pulled cotton and got them glued into place.  I painted my base white and glued cotton to it as well, then got my Christmas tree lit and decorated before gluing everything in place.

I really like how it turned out.

I wanted something a little different for the hexagon lantern so I started making a magical tea set.  The process start to finish takes about a weekend, really the same amount of time as making trees with candy tuft for the leaves.  So it's doable.

While the glue dried I finished the little lantern.

Added some more leaves to give the tree a fuller look so the glue is still drying a bit.

My first fairy, she's hovering pretty well.

Of course I forgot to take a picture of her before I glued the base into the lantern.  I might see if it's possible to pull the glass out and take a picture without the reflecting light issues.

And by the time that was done I'd gotten my 'table' glued into the hexagon lantern.

The glue dried pretty solid so I got my fast grab tacky glue and added the magical tea set.  Last minute I added a plate of cakes.

I'll take a look through my animals and see what I have that might suit the lantern.  Not sure if it really needs anything more but I'll look and see. I don't want to touch it until the glue is completely dried under the tea set.  I also wonder about adding a vine to the 'door' of the lantern but I don't want the view obstructed too much.

How are all of you doing?