Congratulations Kat on your lovely articles

Morning everyone, firstly thankyou all for your great advice on my paperclay issue!!
Went shopping this morning and bought Dolls House World Magazine and in it is an article on paperclay stone walls, which is great too, so another help when we decide to tackle the outside walls of the Potter House and rip off that cheap paper!!!

Also in the magazine is not one, but 2 articles by Kat Hazleton , so well done Kat! The first is how to make lovely Easter bonnets and the second on a Vampire Hunter hat and box which is really cool! Sorry havnt got a scanner to take pics of them but check them out in Mays issue out now, its a really good read this month and also some good freebies of parchment paper and 'Myth and legend' book pages great for all our book projects.
Right off to work to try and spray the Sweeney Windows before it rains, and then start testing the wallpapers .
Have a few hours before Im dragged off to the school disco tonight !! Have a great day all of you xxx

Can you Help with Paperclay Floor advice PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

Your all so brilliant, so here goes for begging for more tips and advice pretty please!
Ive been looking at the Sweeney Todd Movie Guide Book and the flooring on the Mrs Lovett Pie Shop floor looks like small tiles, you know like you get on the dollhouse paper, ( like a chequered black and white tiled paper you can buy ) . Well these tiles are medium size terracotta and black, so I figured from your advice that paperclay may be the best way to go with it.
Thing is Ive never used it. Can you recommend please
1. Which kind / make is best?
2. The best way to start as I have a large area approx 15 x 10 inches to tile
3. Do you roll it out just with a roller like rolling out Fimo?
4. Whats best to use to make the lines in the clay?
As the tiles are quite small, do I have to put graph paper under the flooring to get the lines straight?

See, need help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then I thought I could do the 2 colours in a dry brush paint teqnique to get the worn look.

Thankyou all in advance, i have done my research on the internet and found several usefull sites but i always find you get the best tips from those you know that have been there, done that!!!
LOL Kate xxx

Which should I choose?

Thanks to debbie http://debbiestinytreasures.blogspot.com/ i have been going through all the printable sites and remembered using this one before http://www.jennifersprintables.com/

I found one paper under the Victorian section which is really similar to the one used in the film except it has stripes behind it. The other is really loud and florally too, so not asure which to pick. What do you think? Wondering if the one at the top would be better as its less bright, or maybe I could tone the greener one down with something to make it less 'New'?

It is for the Victorian Parlour room, and will be For mrs Lovett who isnt the richest of women, so dont want it too posh looking.

Help me choose please???????

Check out this great modern Dollshouse

Hi Everyone, I just found this lovely dollshouse. Im not a lover particularly of modern houses but do like the Art Deco period so this took my eye. It is quite a 30's style exterior wise and it could be decorate as such inside although the website http://www.miaim.co.uk/, does show it with very modern furniture. They are a new company and are planning on more designs so one to keep an eye on i think.

Looks quite impressive, but I got a very firm 'NO!!! MORE ' from John when I showed him it :-(

Finished the stencilling only to realise that there is a part of the roof on the Sid Cooke shop that joins in with the exterior of the house so should really be bricked!! AHHHHH, think I will have to resort to painting it instead as I dont want to spend more money on more compound for such a small area.

John was quite impresssed this morning, he came in from yet another trip up from emptying the shed, to find the shop front ive been working on this morning.

Im keeping the green that you can see it in the older posting, but have put a black paint wash all over it, so now all the cream mouldings are a muddy colour and its caught nicely in the recesses to make it look old and tatty. Will then dry brush black onto the detailing further .

Have to wait for a dry day to spray all the plastic windows black.

Off to dry brush paint the doors etc

Oh, and does anyone know of a nice large flower print wallpaer ? I need a green based paper with large flowers for the Victorian Parlour room.

I have chosen a stripe which Im tea staining for the Barber shop attic room. The downstairs is

going to be 2 shades of dirty green, with panelling and wood strips, so the only room left to sort is the parlour. Finding it hard to find a large flower print. Any ideas welcome,

Have a great day

As soon as the shed is emptied and John has some time to help me We'll be back to the potter house to work on the potion room walls and bookshelves/ desks, but for now as Im on my own, going to try and get some of the Sweeney house done.

I HATE STENCILLING!!!!!!

Thats official, Ive tried it all ways, thicker, thinner, more craft mount, etc and its so hit and miss, one go will produce a lovely brick effect, all perfect, then the next 2 mins later will seep through and be a brick coloured mess! Iit says it has a long working period before going off, but i found it went really bad after a few mins, and was gloopy and sticking to the stencil! All I can say is thank God its finished and that I had just enough, as I dont want to order more!! Now I have to hide all the bad bits with paint effects so hope it works.
Im really dissapointed as I was hoping to buy a stencil to do the slate roof and another for the stone floor, thinking it would be an easier method, but NO WAY !!! I hate paper so going to have to think of using other methods for slating my roof, and maybe try the paperclay on the floor. Or I may just paper in a tile pattern and stain in to look old and dirty. But not this ever again!!!
I thought maybe it was just me that couldnt do it, so I got John to have a go and was sitting praying it wouldnt go perfectly for him so id look an idiot, but he peeled his attempt back and it looked just as awful as mine, so yipee its not just me!

Stencilling

Thanks for everyone's kind words yesterday, have got over the nasty shock and now are waiting for the police to tell us the progress on taking out criminal proceedings on our neighbours. All the rest of our neighbours are wonderful, they say you always get one lot !! ( well we have 2 lots that live next door to each other but they are all related hence why so much trouble!!)

So anyway, trying to keep busy inbetween tearing down whats left of the shed and fencing, so yesterday started on the stencilling for the Sweeney house.

I dont know if anyone else has used the compounds and stencils from Bromley Products. Im not sure if i like them or not at the moment. I think it must be that there is a definate 'knack' to doing it, as Ive found despite following all the instructions, using spray mount to stick the stencil so it dosnt move etc, the compund still leaks under the stencil so you lose the 'lines' where the mortar should be.

Its come out ok in places, patchy in others. Im only pleased that as its supposed to be a bit of a rotten, dark, dingy Victorian building so it dosnt matter about it being perfect brickwork!

If it was a modern property Id be cross as it would look too scruffy, but as from the film pics, the building is almost black brickwork because of the London Smog effects, I am going to be going over all the reddish brickwork with a black paint sponged on anyway.

Has anyone else used this product. I guess the more you use it the better you become at it, but I have 3 more walls to do, and cant say its a job Im looking forward too, and I hate that as you lose motivation in the project!
Roll on decorating the inside and filling it up, thats my favourite bit!
If I get stresssed with the walls I may have a go tissue rendering the potion room walls instead, that seems alot easier!

Heres the pics of one wall painted, then the stencil applied with brick compound applied. The front Wall stencilled, then black painted roughly sponged on, still have lots to do on it.

Kreativ Blog Award

THANKYOU!! Marsha from http://sassyminidolls.blogspot.com/ for our Kreativ Blog award, it is very much appreciated.

We'd like to award this to all of the fantastic blogs we follow, and to thank everyone for all your captivating blogs, they are such a great read, and we look forward to turning on the computer each day just to catch up on everyone's projects, interests and lives.

Here are 7 things we love, ( other than of course, goes without saying , each other and our wonderful children and friends)

1. Lying in bed listening to the rain when its pouring down.

2. Playing in the snow, dosnt happen often enough

3. Staying in a hotel !! Love luxury

4.Grabbing A Kentucky on the way back from horrid food shopping, cheers us up!

5. Christmas Eve, love that anticipation and excitment in the air, you can smell it!!

6. Days out to Brighton, walking the Lanes and stopping at the Cookie Bar for a double chocolate and a latte!

7. That moment when the children knock on the door and are back from school eagerly running in for their biscuit and pink milkshakes!!......about to happen any time now!!

Everyone have fun thinking of your 7 loves!

My Beautiful Mother's Day Pressies!

Hi Everyone, sorry we havnt been around much the last few days, we went to see my Mum who has been ill, for Mother's Day and then after al ovely weekend got back home Sunday night only to be woken at just gone 11pm with our bedroom illuminated, to look out and see our entire back fence and shed ablaze! The idiot neighbours we have suffered with for 6 years ( they have night long loud parties , have been raided for drugs, have fights at all hours etc.....nice people, NOT!!!) had decided to have a bonfire at that time of night 2 feet away from our brushwood fence and so the whole lot went up in flames!

They say its an accident, but at that time of night, both us, the police and fire service , ( we had 6 firemen trouping through the house with ladders etc !)are saying it was a deliberate criminal act.We have to give the police a statement today again with the hope that something can be done about them and the harrasment they are causing!

SO, after a day of recovery, her's some pics for you this morning.

My wonderful husband bought me loads of goodies for Mother's Day, far too much, but Im not complaining!!

The eldest children bought me a Harry Potter Box set, which is a fantastic 12 DVD set, in a great antique look trunk. it has loads of extra features so we can browse though and get loads of ideas for the rooms, accessories etc to use in the Potter House, what a great idea!!

I also got my 3 brilliant books from Petite Properties which are going to be so useful as they tell you how to make furniture out of basic materials, great as im useless with wood so its ideal for me!!

The books are fab, loads of ideas already, going to use them to help make the potion tables, shelving, kitchen sink, and much more.

I need to make 2 brick bread ovens for the Lovett Pie shop Project at some point so Ill be off to Hobbycraft to buy clay and use Fionas tips on making them.

We have been really pondering what to use for the walls in the potion room which are at present a loud blue! I couldnt see how to give a stone efffect as the walls slope both sides so tricky to get too. But this book gives a wonderful rendering teqhnique using the simplest idea of glue and shredded tissue paper. We will then paint it a stone colour so it has a rough stony appearance.....well thats the plan!

The next picture shows the amazing minis John bought me from Eve at Evminiatures. Great books, one closes with a magic wand, the other has a cut out centre for a potion bottle. Then a great wizard glass which colour changes, and my favourite, a hanging orrery for Dumbledore's study!!

Cant wait to get them all in, they are exactly the sort of items we want to fill up the house.

So as you can see, with a teddy, CD, and Flowers too I was totally and utterly spoilt!! More than made up for a terrible night Sunday, and giving me lots to keep my mind off the horrid everyday reality of life by immersing ourselves in our passion which is miniatures!

Hope you like all the goodies

'Announcing Witchy Hollow's New Spring Collection

My Witch's Shop 'Witchy Hollow' has some new hats for it's Spring Collection.

These beautiful Hats by Kat Hazelton are absolutly gorgeous, have to be for the Good witches that come shopping!As always they get better and better, these are now my new favourites!

Come Spring the shop will get a Window make over, so these 3 new hats and broom will be in the window display and I have also bought 3 wonderful undecorated hats for the children to decorate in the Easter Holidays looming up soon!

Those will go inside on the display shelves.

Thankyou Kat for yet more amazing hats, and for my parcel of goodies that Kat so kindly always provides. She has made me a crate of eggs, and 2 pretty in Pink jars for my Good Witch shelves.

I will have fun today rearranging the shop :-)

More Bookcases for Inspiration for your Spooky Miniatures

Found these 2 images which I thought were great for inspiring spooky projects.

The white bookcase is a real life size, but could be made perfectly in miniature. The other one I love with all the aged rolls and stackes of paper, all easily made by tea/coffee staining. A real made wizard look with all the papers stuffed in haphazardly, Love it!!

Dead Spider Labels now on Etsy!

Just to let you know the bottle lables are now on Etsy,

see http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22515647

an amazing 20 lables for your witch/ wizard/ haunted house project at only $5 plus cheap shipping a set!!!!

Been baking Goblin Bodyparts!!!!!!!!!!!

Spent last night fiddling when the children went to bed, and here's the results baked this morning.

A jar of 'Hobgoblin Brains' and 'Goblin Toes' The stopper is a bit gruesome but I couldnt resist , thought it was fun!

New Books For Mother's Day!!

Godd Morning Everyone!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks To Nikki putting about Petite Properties on her blog last night I checked out the website and found these wonderful books on making miniatures. Although it is in 1 24th scale, ( believe it or not I have only 1 house in that scale!) Fiona emailed me to say how to apply the measurements etc to 1 12th scale which was really helpful.

I loved the shabby chic look and the kitchen book looked really helpful for the kitchen, would love to try the sink.

Anyway, I asked John if he had bought me anything yet for Mother's day, and he said he had damn it! So I put on my best sulky face ( Im good at those !!) and he said ' Go On then , order them'. So I have another pressie, he he!!

Here is the link to the website i thought the houses were amazing and extremly reasonable. http://www.petite-properties.com/

They are at Miniatura i think so if you are lucky enough to go , check them out. Bet you come back with the books Nikki!!

Cant wait to get them and will let you all know what they are like and will get to work on some projects.

John is pleased as it means not so much woodwork for him too :-)

Oh and Fiona ( Bea) said to say come and say hi to her at her stand , she'd love to meet you. What a lovely Lady!

Have a great day

On the Wish List, The Potion Cabinet

Well I just checked with Angie if is was ok to post a pic of her amazing potion cupboard, this is real life size, not mini, I would SO like one this size in my workshop!!!But we thought we could use it as inspiration for a potion cupboard in the Potion room. Love the cauldron too so will try out Nikki's tutorial for making a large one like this.

Going to fill it with jars and bottles and skulls and things just like in the pic.

Any tips on what we could use for the mossy stuff? It needs to be a pale straw type colour, want to use it like Angie has to put behind the jars and on the cupboard itself.

We thought we could use the great tutorial On Tallulah Belle's blog for making shelves, using strips of wood.

Still stuck on the colour of the room. This cupboard is a greyish colour and I think it looks cool so may go along those lines.

What do you think?

.....And Now A little Bottle Of ' Blood Of The Undead' !

Couldn't Resist, should be cleaning the house and preparing dinner but had to make another!!

Yipee The Dead Spider Labels Have arrived!!!!

The Postman arrived today with The Labels From Angie from 'DeadSpider' !! All the Way from Canada! THANKYOU ANGIE THEY ARE GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!

At first panic set in as the envelope was in a Royal Mail plastic bag with an apology sticker for the items having being tampered with, so I thought we'd lost the contents! But despite the envelope having been carefully opened both top and bottom , with what looks like a letter opener, the contents were all in tact! I Suppose the intruder thought it would be money not mini labels in there !!

So straight to work as although I want to keep some by to make some really good contents for them, I wanted to show off at least a few!. I mean I cant wait to make ' Goblin Toes', Fledgling Fingers' and ' Deadly Quiet Instant Darkness'!!!!!!!!!!

The labels come on a sheet, Angie had so kindly sent me 20 different labels!

I experimented by cutting out 3 just immediatly around the black lines, the other 2 I left a border of the stained paper around the edge and then used my insence stick to gently singe around this to give it an aged appearance. Just to see which effect I liked best.

So here's 5 diifferent items, and as you can see, they fit beautifully on all different size jars from the tiniest to bigger sizes. And you dont just have to stick to jars, I found some wood turnings, bowls etc and have made my 'Dead Spiders' label fit on this nicely ( contents still to be made!!) I used a Pritt stick but the stronger one they do to stick them, and then a stronger UHU glue to stick on the 'rafia' style thread to the top to make the jars look like mini versions of The full size jars that Angie makes.

So hope you'll all agree they look pretty FAB!! We are really pleased with them and will be making a special potion cupboard for them, will show you what we have for inspiration for this later.

All our other fabulous jars that Nikki made for John will be on the tall potion shelves, the fireplace and on the desks being used for potion making. So loads of them still to show off to you.

THANKYOU Angie for all your help and making them for us, we think they are wonderful and like you said in your letter, you could even make a few in a slightly bigger size also as there are such an array of jar sizes for minis out there.

We hope Angie gets lots of sales of these, so many that she has to think up more ingredients to add to the range :-) hopefully they will be on her Etsy site soon, here's the link again for you.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5226484

Our Haunted Light Up Minis

Had to share this pic of our light up miniatures in the haunted house. Nikki is making a wonderful looking glass on a tree stump and I sent her a comment to say how great it would look if it lit up.

The fireplace has a spooky skeleton behind in when lit he glows red in the dark behind the mirror.

The table is my favourite. The glass orb in the centre looks beautiful lit up at night. You can either light by the traditional small grain of wheat bulb which will plug into your lighting system, or go for a battery pack hidden inside your item, you could do this with the tree stump maybe? Or even little LED Lights, Im not too good with electrics but they give amazing effects.

Hope you like it

Practical Magic Pics

Ive just added this link for some great pics from the Practical Magic Film. I cant wait to have a go at the Spell book in more depth than I did it before with my table

http://www.amasveritas.com/film/index.html

The house they chose is beautiful, in fact, Greenleaf make a dollhouse kit very similar I think its called the Garfield. But I have to resist we have no more room!!

Check out the website, here's some pics I thought Debbie would enjoy with her ideas on creating Laboratory style tables.

And of course a pic of the wonderful house

On Top Of the Houses!

Not getting any inspiration today as to what to start next. The walls of the potion room are annoying us, not sure what to do with them, and John has measured for the Dumbledore study bookcases, drawn a plan, ( wants to incorporate some kind of fireplace in the centre of floor to ceiling bookcases!) and then scrapped it half a dozen times. Must be a Monday thing!

So instead for the mo here's a couple of pics of the miniatures we have on top of the houses.

On top of the Harry Potter house is this fantastic Time Machine which I won on ebay some years ago , made by the guy who made the haunted house, it is really stunning. Didnt know what to do with it really but now its the perfect place, as any Wizard not too hot at Apparating or using Time Turners can always use this to get where they want to be!

The other pic is of the haunted hearse i made myself for the top of the haunted house. The back of the house which faces our bed has a flat roof which looked so bare so now i have put several things up there, and this is one. The skeleton driver is sitting behind the 3 headed dog, and pulls a hearse decorated with skull candles, and carrying a small skull adorned coffin with the hint of the passenger sticking his arm out!! The dog has the poor deceased's head in his teeth, he must have got to the coffin before they set off for the graveyard and found himself a snack for the journey!! Not a great pic sorry, need a new camera!!

Happy Monday Morning Everyone!

Its Monday, children back to school, miss our babies when they go out of the door, but at least...some quiet to be able to catch up on all the great blogs, see whats new on ebay ( shouldnt be looking really, no cash but there may be something we just have to have for the houses!!) and play with clay.

So first stop of the day after blogging was to check out some new listings on ebay and i found this fabulous witchy planter by my dear freind Liz Mc Fern. ( Mary Beth Originals) Top Pic

Liz made afew things for me by request about 2 years ago for the haunted house and my diner and we are now the best of friends. She has really got into making spooky things and they are amazing creations and lists them every Friday on ebay along with her other wonderful foods and plants.

Here is her version of the foxglove plant.

Underneath is a pic of the foxgloves I made myself last year with some other witchy plants and things ones .Only made from fimo so I dont have the incredible patience of Jayne from Tallulah Belle, but for a more basic alternative they look great in a witchy garden.

Now off to ponder what to do with the walls of the potion room. At the moment they are quite a deep blue, so need to see how we can create a stone effect easily and cheaply as the room slopes so is a tricky one to get to.

Have a great Monday everyone

LOL Kate and John xx

Minis inspired by Some of Our Favourite Films

A while ago I made a Hocus Pocus Spell book. Inspired by that brilliant Disney film, ( dont you just love Bette midler ! ) I made all of the spell pages and then a leather bound book cover with roving eye and the stitched skin effect. The clasp was a skeletons hand .

This year Im going to go one step further and make the book cover in fimo so it will be easier to make the skin effect, the eye and snake detailing, and will endeavour to make the bookstand as well.

Then next on the list will be the spell book from 'Practical Magic' ooooh i love that film too!

Here's thre practical Magic table I made last year.

A Wonderful Family Hobby

I Love the way miniatures is such a wonderful hobby for all our family.

I am lucky in that John has always showed an interest, and found it quite fascinating . When we went to pick up My haunted house he took one look at it and said ' Nope your not having it, I am!!' he loved it so much. In fact Gerry was selling another Tudor house at the time with a beautiful bow window shop front and if we had had the money he would have actually bought that for himself! He really appreciates the artistes and the amount of work that goes into miniatures which is great.

The children all have their own houses, Emily my eldest at 16 has a few, here is a pic of the bridal room box I made her 2 Christmas's ago. Notice I left the dress rail empty. Thats because she is studying Fashion Design and her dream when she leaves University is to design bridal gowns so what better way to start than to make them in mini first :-)

The other house is Lola's pride and joy. ( she is 6) Yet another ebay find, under £50 for this 3 storey, 6 room American dollshouse. Most children Lola's age have chunky wooden furniture but shes had 'adult' minis from when she was 4, as she knows how to look after them.

This Christmas I have 2 houses to decorate for my stepdaughters. One a fairy house, the other a Tim Burton style 'Nightmare before Christmas' House, which will be fun. Heres a few things I made last year , and she has been begging me ever since to make a whole themed house in this style!

Even the boys have made hats for the ladieswear house, and sweets for the candy shop!

They love to decorate Kat the Hat's plain hats .

WOW 2 Awards in One Day, thanks so much! Jodi from http://creagerstudios.blogspot.com/2009/03/sisterhod-award.html

awarded us the Sisterhood award, woohoo, John likes to be one of the sisters!! Thanks Jodi, it means alot coming from such a magnificent artiste!

With this award I have to nomiante 10 people for the award :-

Firstly to Debbie, now Im pretty sure i can award this to you Deb, as i know youve had it before but thats allowed isnt it? Debbie has been incredible in sorting out my blog, helping us out with minis for our house, and deserves this sisterhood award so much .So the first award goes to Debbie at http://debbiestinytreasures.blogspot.com/

To Kat, http://katthehatlady.blogspot.com/ who is a dear friend, always helpful ,always sending me magnificent links ,finds, ideas and bits and bobs from her craft boxes for projects as well as sending the children lots of dr who pics and info! What a sister figure she is!!

To Nikki, for all her help and kindness Nikki has shown to John in his beginnings into miniatures ,she has been fantastic with all her links she sends, tips and tutorials, and now we have set up the blog, she continuse to do so with us both.Where would we be without her! http://nikkinikkinikki72.blogspot.com/

TO Vikki at http://njdminiatures.blogspot.com/ as she is a great new friend who is always so kind and far too generous!!! Vikki is always so helpful and we Love her work and her chatty emails!!

And the rest are just to amazing ladies whos miniatures we admire so much and are such great inspirations and 'Sisters' to the miniature world

Stephanie /http://petitplatbysk.blogspot.com/

Marsha at http://sassyminidolls.blogspot.com

Christel at http://christeljensen.blogspot.com/

Jayne at http://tallulahbelleoriginals.blogspot.com/

This fabulous blog which I cant wait for more from ! http://my12grimmauldplace.blogspot.com/

and last but not least another lovely blog, and i admire this lady so much as she can find the time and enthusiasm to create such lovely minis when she has such important life issue to cope with. http://ohminiofmine.blogspot.com/

A deserved award for everyone, long may our sistehood continue!!

FAB BLOG AWARD

Ok here goes, thankyou so much to Debbie from http://debbiestinytreasures.blogspot.com/for this award. WOW we woke up this morning ( far too early, woken by our youngest '6 oclock Lacey' I hasten to add!!) to find 2 awards so feel very privaledged thankyou. This is a great award as we wernt sure if we would get the hang of blogging but we are enjoying it immensly and the friends we are making so thankyou, it means a lot. The only thing I am unsure of is can I award it back to the person that nominated us as Debbie your blog is soo brill! I guess not so ill try and choose ones not chosen already by Debbie .....ooo confused! here goes! And sorry if Im doing it wrong.

To these fantastic bloggers and great people

Kat http://katthehatlady.blogspot.com/

Nikki at http://nikkinikkinikki72.blogspot.com/

Jodi at http://creagerstudios.blogspot.com/

Silke at http://silkesminiatures.blogspot.com/

and last but by no means least

Kim at http://kimsminiatures.blogspot.com/

Love all your blogs!

Now 5 addiciton, easy, We have so many!

1. EACH OTHER!, I know I know , its sickly sweet, but John and I are the best of friends as well as husband and wife, we make a great team, hardly ever argue, have the same tastes, likes and dislikes and are each others soul mates and true loves. It took us a long time to find each other but now we'll never let the other go!

2. OUR BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN, our 3 little tikes Lola, Reilly and Lacey, and our other 4, Rhiannon, Rebecca, Emily and Jake. We are lucky to have the most wonderful, funny, happy content children that we love with all our hearts and wish we could have around us all the time, we even hate them going to school!

3. OUR MINIATURES, Im sure youve guessed we are only ever so slightly obssessed! With over 12 houses/ shops on the go, and the childrens houses too, you could call it a slight addiciton!!

4. Has to Be CHOCOLATE!!! it cheers us up when down, warms us up when cold, fills us up when empty, and is just the sweetest addiction at all times of the day! And the present fav has got to be Fruit and Nut Toblerone if you havnt tried it, dont know what your missing :-)

5. HARRY POTTER More me than John but he is a fan. Im totally obsessed, want to live in a world like that, and am stil waiting for my Letter to fly to me for my start at Hogwarts!!!!!

Phew think thats it. Ill be back later with my sisterhood award nominees, that took alot out of my poor laptop , especially when the battery died halfway thorugh and i thought id lost the lot id written!!

THANKS AGAIN!! John and Kate xxxxxxxx

Faces are Fun!!

I am lucky enough to have quite a few marvellous pieces of art, (as thats what they are!) by Collen Curren ( from Wetpaint) in my haunted house, most of which have amazing sculpted faces. I have never even dared to try and make anything with a face but loking at Nikki's recent postings she said they were fun and surprisngly simple to do so today i thought Id give it a try!Woke up with no voice, Laryngitis has hit, ( sure I heard John saying woohoo!!) so just wanted to stay in and fiddle about with clay.Found it tricky to find a tool small enough to blend the clay in the tiny places around the nose and mouth where you cant get fingers in. But I agree it is fun! Whatever face i felt I was trying to do just didnt happen so I agree that you just have to go with it and it seems to turn out as it wants to be!
Firstly is my grumpy washing bowl, didnt have any little glass balls which i would have like to use to try out part of Nikkki's tutorial on bubbles, so used green food colouring and resin with a syringe full of washing up bubbles while it set.Next to him sits a copper pan, he turned out with a huge nose!! Couldnt find any copper paint so I found a great old nail varnish in copper metallic which did the job beautifully.Just a bit of fun to put into the haunted kitchen , but can see why it gets addictive!

We didnt have the right sandpaper to sand the fireplace down today, so going to get a sanding block and paper tomorrow so we can do it at the weekend, cant wait to get it into place.

The chandelier and wall lights are in Dumbledores office, so now we can start planning out the rest of the room layout. Going to do 3 rooms to start. Im working on Dumbledores room ( but Johns doing the bookcases) and John's job is the potion room. Both of us will do the kitchen together and the other 2 rooms will be done afterwards. Lots to do :-)

And Next on the Wish List!!!

Check out these 2 Dolls made by Julie from Bella Belle Dolls, the next best thing to Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter dont you think! I love the way she has their deep set eyes and dark shadowy wickedness off to a tea! The outfits are beautifully made too and so similar to the film characters. Can just see them in my shop, with a Victorian gent sitting in the barbers chair, a nice gory slit to the throat!! ( sorry if you have a weak disposition but this house is going to be very gorey, lots of body parts and blood, a trap door under the barbers chair leading to the room where Mrs Lovett collects her pie indredients!!)

This will be a brilliant project too, very different to the HP house.

VICKY, AND OF COURSE YOU ARE THE BEST TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are so lucky to know so many wonderful miniaturists, all who have different specialitys, and all wonderful at their art forms.

So as we didnt have the blog set up until recently heres another HUGE thankyou to Vicky Guile for her amazing Miniatures that she made me for my Sweeney Todd / Mrs Lovett Pie Shop Project.

Last year I bought this house, an absolute bargain on ebay , it is a Sid Cooke house with front and side opening. I emailed the people to ask if they deliver and they kindly sent it courier but unfortunatly the house basically fell to bits in transit, as it had only been tacked into place.

Still it worked out better for me as now I can take all the panels off to brick it and decorate inside and out.

I couldnt wait to get going on the house last year and when Kat sent me a link to Vickys blog and I saw her Mrs Lovett Pie counter I just had to contact her.

She very very kindly made me a similar counter at my budget and heres the pics, isnt it just breathtaking!

As usual I have the counter and goodies and no house finished to put them in....yet.

The house has sat for a while as with family health issues I havnt had the time or motivation to make a good start until recently, but now I am really looking forward to making it all happen! As i have John to help out with the HP house we can work together to make these new projects happen.

I am going to keep the bottom of the house a deep green but dirty it up and then use brick stencils and compound for the outside, and again dirty up.

I have also bought some fantastic minis for a dresser for the pie shop from Vicky which will sit in the HP kitchen unitl the other house gets put together again.

SO MUCH TO DO SO LITTLE TIME!!!

So here is the counter, so beautifully made, with all its goodies, and some pics of the pie shop as it should be and the Barbers as it will be hopefully.....minus Johnny Depp unfortunatly!!!

Kate xx

If you havnt seen the film I highly recommend it, but it is a musical!! Click on my link to see some great clips from it! And ...well if you dont like Musicals, at least it has eye candy Johnny Depp in it!!!

THANKYOU NIKKI, YOUR THE BEST!!

Kate and I would just like to say a HUGE thankyou to Nikki for her wonderful fireplace that she made for us. I contacted Nikki about making a fireplace after talking to her about what I wanted in my project and she very kindly drew up a design and got straight to work on it. This is the result and as soon as I get time tomoorw Im going to sand it down to the correct height, (its going from floor to ceiling hence the height) and will take a photo of it in situ.

I think you'll all agree Nikki has put an incredible amount of hard work into this and it looks amazing, we love it. In fact we are already arguing as to whether it should go in the HP house or my original room.! Thanks Nikki your the best!

John

Exciting New Labels!

How exciting, I contacted a lovely lady a few weeks ago about her fabulous labels that she sells on etsy. Just fell in love with them, They are just wonderful witchy themed aged looking labels but I really wanted them in mini size for making up jars in the haunted house.

So I contacted Angie and she agreed to give it a go and she has just contacted me to say they are ready to go and she is sending me a trial set to see what i think and give her any thoughts on them. If she likes them and they work well on the jars she should be selling them on etsy!

Cant wait , check out her etsy store anyway as her full size jars are heavenly if you have any old jars lying about, or you can even buy them ready fillled!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5226484

Kate xx

Where all the work gets done!

Last year John decided me trying to cram all my mini making onto the little kitchen table wasnt working and as he had decided he didnt use his shed that much, he donated it to me! Now its our little workshop, its where the houses sit when they are being worked on ( although the HP house is in the dining room, its too cold out there to work at the moment!)

I even have a little chaise bought at the car boot where the children come and bother me and give their imput from! Crazy really when all this is just for a hobby but I had far too much stuff and it needed a home so its quite cool! I do occasionally sell things as a means to an end in that I have to spend on materials for the projects and often things from talented miniaturists catch our eye and we just have to buy them .So to sell some minis gives a bit of pocket money for that to be able to happen. At the moment though we dont have the time and too much is going on in our lives for me to be able to do this, so have to scrape the pennies together in whatever way we can for those must have buys ( eg Kats hats, Nikkis goodies!!)

Mostly as we have so many projects on the go we just needed some space away from little fingers in the house and somewhere some of the houses can go. I have a beach house in here, the Sweeney house is in pieces in here being decorated externally, and the diner. I also have 2 market garden kits bought cheaply on ebay which Im thinking of turning into hagrids hut, if John can put them on some sort of stilts/base. How great would that look with the pumpkin patch next to the HP house with conservatory full of crazy plants and the Whomping willow on the other side...............need a bigger house!!!!

And see, my view is worse than yours Nikki, I have to look out on Chopper bikes!!