Thursday, June 30, 2011

Dollhouse Miniature Steampunk Under the Sea Pirate Kraken Alter

Under the crushing depths of the sea lies a place where the sweetest sinners go to lay out their plunder and treasures :) Here perhaps you might find cursed aztec gold or empty bottles of rum :) Maps of desserted isles with buried treasure, chests of treasure they haven't hidden yet, cases of spirits, love tokens and paintings of mermaids, keys to chests that may or may not contain beating hearts, anchors and chains, and even a gorgeous watery alter to pay homage to the terrible beasty the kraken :) Here even are clippings of sunken ships that now lay on the bottom of this treacherous place that one may visit if they have the curse upon them or are in the company of Davy Jones. A ghost ship bone yard down deep in the blue oblivion.


This is what I was trying to capture with this piece. I think it turned out very well although my pictures are fuzzy due to the lens fogging up from humidity here right now.  Take my word (which is honest and good :) that this is stunning in person! Pictures never capture it anyway. They never do these things justice.

Here's what I came up with:






I worked on this while I was waiting on some supplies to come in for the HP minis.  They did come in so I'm returning to work on them now.

Comments back:
Muito obrigado pelo elogio querida! Eles são sempre apreciados:) Big hugs-Tara, Miniatures dia 19




Sunday, June 26, 2011

Fairy Cottage Finished, boy was that a lot of work!

I just finished up my Spongebob Squarepants pineapple house transformation, hehe and I think it worked out well :)  It's pretty cute now but to hear my daughter tell it-it's ruined!  Haha she's not happy it's no longer the home of one of her favorite cartoon characters :)  She keeps saying every time that she looks at it "I can't believe you did that to Spongebob's house!"  Now remember I started with this:
This was the exact piece I was working with.  I knocked off the top greenery and the vent pipe.  Then I splotch painted the whole thing in brown, green, and lighter brown and added the start of my natural materials like so:

And then last night I went crazy trying to finish it up so I could move on to my Harry Potter minis.  I rolled out a clay base and used an upside down bowl to cut a perfect round circle in the clay.  I took my tea light and pressed it into the spot I wanted my light to come up through and then used my blade to cut out the spot for the tea light.  Then I added a molded clay leaf edge with a clay mold I have and baked the whole thing very well for strength.  This I painted green and then pushed my tea light up through it .  Battery powered tea lights look like this:


The reason for putting it up through the clay is so the battery can be changed from the bottom of the completed piece.  Actually the whole tea light unit can be changed out if it should happen to burn out by accessing it through the bottom of the base.  Quite a good idea I think.  As you can see the tea lights aren't expensive to buy at a local hobby or craft store.  Replacement batteries can be purchased at Walmart or any other store like that.  Here's what I did to it last night:

I added a red door I made out of some scrap wood I had laying around, added festooned curtains in a tiny floral print to the windows, and decorated it as much as possible without overdoing it.  I even added a little window box with flowers growing in it out of an acorn top half that I cut in half.  Hard to tell but you can see the little red flowers on the side of the house and they are in that acorn top window box.  I hand-built the mossy twig bench as well made from a piece of bark from a very ancient maple tree in my yard that has survived for a vast amount of years and is completely hollow from the base all the way up to the tallest branches and still manages to have a full set of leaves.  Amazing! It currently houses a wood duck family in it's hollowed out core :) When I was a little girl I used to pull myself up to look into the side hole of the tree and imagine what sort of imagined creatures lived far down in that dark hole. I felt it must be magic to be all hollow and dead-looking inside and yet still be alive with leaves. I guess not much has changed, I still think it's magic :) When bark falls off it from time to time I always pick it up to use in crafts because it's so mossy and beautiful!  Here it is:


And here's more pictures of my project:
last night's dark picture in the photocube

Now you know why I have to go outside to take pictures!  Here's my outside shots:



When it's dark in the room and you turn on the tea light the light flickers as if there's a fire place inside the house that's burning!  It's so cute when the lights are on :)  Ok then, there's all I have for now!  This is currently for sale now in my etsy shop.  I put it on late last night and it already has hearts :)  That makes me feel good :)

Thanks to all of you who leave comments and I wish I could return the favor but my comments section is now working for some reason.  I'm not quite sure why other people can leave comments while others can't right now!  So frustrating!  As soon as that feature is fixed I will visit your blogs and leave comments in return.  For now all I can say is thank you for your support and kind words!  Please visit my partner in mini making's blog here at this address to see what she's cooking up that will soon be in the store:

http://19thdayminiaturessherrys.blogspot.com/

Thank you!  Big hugs from 19th Day Minis :)


 



  

Friday, June 24, 2011

Ok I know I just blogged yesterday but I have to show you something amusing :)

Last night was a busy night for me crafting since I couldn't work during the day.  I started the Harry Potter fireplace and let me tell you-I had no idea what I was getting myself into!  Does anyone know what the Gryffindor common room fireplace looks like?  Yikes.  When I went back to the first movie last night to take a look I was totally freaked out over what I had undertook.  Holy crap, that's a fireplace and a half! 
I'll see if I can add on a couple pics of the common room:


I'm not quite sure why I decided to make this piece but I am....and for added interest I'm going to make Sirius Black's face coming up out of the fire the way it did in Goblet of Fire when he spoke to Harry about if he put his own name into the goblet or not.  Sherry makes this really great miniature fire like no one's I've seen (she has a great technique I haven't seen anyone use before) so I'll have to ship the piece to her so she can help me with the actual fire part of it.  I've not seen a fire like she does it and it's wonderful without needing electric lights or whatnots to look good.  I cut out the back board of the fireplace and painted it solid black and that's as far as I got on that one so far.  I also started putting together the common room Christmas tree last night but the one in the movie is so horribly plain to me!  There's next to nothing on it :(  I really like staying true to the movies but this is ridiculous!  I CAN'T make a totally plain Christmas tree, what would be the point?  I did do the base as it was in the movie though, it was a potted tree with the pot wrapped in orange tissue paper.  I started making that and got my miniature tree potted in the same manner.  I also made the red and gold ornaments as per the gryffindor color scheme as shown in the movie.  BUT, that is the end of my loyalty to the movie tree.  It must have stuff all over it, things they would be getting for presents like rememberalls, snitchs, candy, poppers, and all manner of things mentioned in the movies.  I was thinking of making a snitch flying above by a thin wire, like it's circling the tree top.  Not quite sure yet what will be but it is started.  And I think I'll have to add on a rug of sorts under the tree to hold the presents.  

But enough about that until I get somewhere with it, which surely isn't now :)  What I wanted to show you was this funny little project I started out of a bad purchase my husband made.  My daughter has a very small fish tank my husband had bought her with this pretty little fighting fish in it which looks like this blue one:
My daughter wanted this spongebob aquarium decoration for it, which he bought her:
This is the little guy's house under the sea.  What it did when he put it in the water was turn the water cloudy.  He took it out and washed it off and tried again.  Cloudy, super cloudy!  He took it out and changed the water, crystal clear without a hint of clouds.  Ok, so out it sat-this ridiculous little thing in all it's hideous glory on my counter.  What was to be done with it?  What good was it now?  I thought of throwing it out but I knew he'd squawk.  The thought of another thing being tossed into our basement filled me with ire.  So instead I put down a towel on the counter and gave the thing a knock right on it's little vent pipe.  Off it clattered across my counter top, leaving nothing but a small dent where it used to be.  Then I did the same thing with the foliage on top.  Basically I broke pieces off of it, the ones that I knew wouldn't work for what I was planning on doing with it.  Then I took it upstairs and sanded and painted it and then began the building process.  I am far from done, but I think it'll be super fun when I'm done with it.  What did I do with it, you may be wondering?  Ok I'll show you :)  It's all about taking something laying around your place and thinking of a new way to use it.  Look at your object and think to yourself what else it could be.  What does the shape of it lend itself well to?   Here's the answer I came up with for my ugly little tank decoration although it's far from done right now because it's way too brown and blah:
   
I have so much more to do to it, and I have to make a base for it and decorate that.  But this will be a lighted fairy abode :)  Lighted how?  With this:

Battery powered tea lights :)  I will make a base that will have this little light coming up through the bottom so the batteries can be changed as needed.  The house will have a fairyish looking door on it with a small window in it so light can come through that plus all the windows.  There will be moss and mushrooms and flowers, etc.  I'll make it sweet :)  Like I said, this is the very beginning stages of it.  It looks pretty basic right now and very boring.  It won't be in the end.  What a fun project!  And it will be a cute little decoration when I'm all done. 
   
Far more elaborate and fairyish in the end.  But I thought it was a great thing to show you so that maybe you could look around and see if you had anything of your own that you no longer like that could be revamped :)  Just use your imagination!

My tree got taken down today that was struck by lightning :(  Bummer.  Good tree service though, if you're anywhere near my area of Illinois!  The yard is so cleaned up it looks like they were never there except for the tree being gone.  J & J Tree Service, in the phone book.  Here's one of the guys up in a bucket truck cutting on my tree:


Now I'm down to 34 trees in my yard, sheesh.        

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Fairies like Cottage Style too, and what's next for Tara at 19th Day Miniatures

I put together this cutie patootie little cottage cabinet last night because I had some boss cottage style fabrics I was dying to use on something.  I think the whole effect was charming, but hey that's just me :)  Sherry had made these really cute little plant pots with hand sculpted everything in them for me when I was first starting and I was waiting on the right thing to add them in.  Oh and my Mom makes those wild little fairy bottles and wreaths so in they went too.  And I filled a darling little nut bowl with assorted fruits Sherry also made for me to use in whatever.  I washed a worn cottage blue and green finish on the cabinet and added cute little pink rose drawer pulls.  One of Sherry's cute little bunches of cherries provided the perfect color accent for the top of the cabinet for a pop of color.  It's just the sweetest thing :)  Here it is:




I must be in a sort of a fairy type mood right now because I also made this necklace with polymer clay, a glass bottle, wire, charms and swarovski beads:



And then for fun I made this absinthe charm necklace.  Absinthe isn't something I would try but I have a terrible curiosity about it.  It comes up so often in movies that it makes me feel curious.  And the whole "green fairy" thing also amuses me.  I had a little green bottle sitting here and it made me think of doing a necklace out of it.  Making the little sugar cube bowl was fun and put my miniature making skills to good use.  I even made a little filigree spoon with a sugar cube on it :)  And I love that particular absinthe picture I used in the pendant.


on the top is a cute goth little ring I made to match, I'll add a closer picture:

A little dark for my taste but I like making things for all types of people :)  And I enjoy stretching the limits of my own imagination too.

All of these are available in my stores:
and

And what's coming up next for me?  I want to make some really good harry potter minis in honor of the last film being put out soon.  A fireplace perhaps, and a regular HP christmas tree with things like golden snitches, nimbus 2000, invisibility capes, ron's mom's sweater with an R on it, etc.  And I know Sherry's cooking up an idea for a Honeydukes Sweet Shop christmas tree as well because hey, during the movies it was snowing in Hogsmeade Village-which means it was Christmas time!  A candy-themed tree?  Oooooohhhhh boy!  How cute will that be?

Thank you Ascension, I wish I could leave comments on your blog but right now my comments section is not working for me :(  But thank you for your kind words all the time!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Updated at bottom-Sheesh, when it rains it pours I guess!

I haven't had time for much so far this summer, things have been crazy!  Summer vacation is usually wild around here every year, but this year so far has taken the cake :(  The kids are home from school of course, and I have been overran by kids here since school break started.  I have five here right now and one more coming over in an hour.  This coupled with family things and friends stopping in as well as the worst weather we've seen in awhile that seems to hang on and around all the time.  We just had a lightning storm a few days ago that has wrecked havoc with nearly everything.  We awoke to a lightning strike that sent us flying up out of bed in terror.  Just outside our bedroom window it struck one of our trees and apparently messed up the power around here somehow.  We could feel a charge in the air and we lost power to our garage and outbuildings as well as losing a TV, a few lights, our washing machine isn't working now and our tree has to be cut down.  It blew the bark right off the tree and we found bark clear on the other side of our two story house!  It flew that far away.  Here's a pic of our cracked open tree-still standing but broken clear through the center:
Yikes, we were only yards away inside our upstairs bedroom.  Glad it can't get to people inside!  Although my head felt funny for awhile after it struck as though maybe the electricity in the air affected it.  All I can hope it that it knocked some sense into me, lol!  Anywho. so that's been my summer.  Mini making has been lax due to lack of time and so much company.  Sherry was back for a lovely visit though and we worked diligently the week she was here on our new store trying to get some new stuff made for it.  We're still learning some new things so these are the beginning stages of what's to come from us as we learn jewelry-making, hair accessories and bath products.  I have high hopes for it eventually being a really great store before we're all done.  We are still learning but I think we're doing pretty good in our initial stages of it.  A sampling of some things we've been working on for it:
 
Ladies Soaps:



Glass apothecary bottles filled with Fairydust Himalayan Pink Spa Bath Salts



Even things for men:


And our current favorite, an Alice in Wonderland "Drink Me" bottle soap!


Which one of the custom minis I just made for a client was the same theme, hehe:


And this was a custom order for another client I just finished today:


She needed a bertie botts cabinet with nothing in it because she had her own bottles for it :)  Cute!  I can't wait to see her Honeydukes :)

By the way, I have tried and tried to leave comments on the blogs of my followers and it won't let me no matter what I do!  I keeps making me resign in and I never get anywhere :(  I'm not trying to neglect you guys, it just won't let me go tell you all how awesome you are on your blogs :(  Also, now that I've announced the giveaway, we'll apparently never get to 100 followers!  Sheesh.

My comments to your comments will now have to be added on to the bottom of my posts because I cannot even leave myself a message in the comments part!  So here are my replies:

I had my client's picture of it so I was able to use that instead.  I highly doubt if I could have done it without so I admire your ability!  My painting skills aren't THAT good.  It was all I could do to get the stripes painted on straight!





Saturday, June 4, 2011

When we reach 100 followers, we'll have a customer giveaway :)

Don't forget to go to my store if you have previously made a purchase in my etsy.com store and leave me a message letting me know you are entering our 100 follower celebration giveaway! We are fast approaching 100 followers and this means we will be having a drawing for some sweet shop items. And also, we are asking for customer photos of a project or scene that you have made featuring at least one item that either Sherry or I have made. It's quite alright if your project is a work in progress and not complete! That is understandable :) We just want to feature customer photos on our giveaway celebration blog post. You can choose to remain nameless as well, or not, but we just want pictures of your projects! Again, contact me here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/tarayvonne

and I wil give you my private email adress for you to send in your photos and tell us at that time if you would like to be nameless or if you'd like your username or nickname (not real name) on the blog under your photos. Welcome to my new followers! We're very glad to have you here :)

We want to feature you on our blogs! All it takes is one single purchase from 19th day minis to do both of these things! Free stuff and a blog feature that gets viewed all over the world? How cool is that?! Please contact me to join!

I'm so sorry to all of you out there who cannot join the giveaway! This one in particular is for customers who have supported our art and helped in our sales. There will be others, (like our last giveaway at 50 followers) that will be for everyone who follows this blog. I won't forget you dears! But I wanted to do something special for those who collect Sherry and I's work. They have made it possible for us to continue doing what we love and we want to give back to those people this time around. Hopefully you all can understand and bear with us until the next at 150 followers when it will be anybody's drawing!

I'll give you a sneak peak at what I've been making, although the pictures are terrible because they've been shot just after a rain outside on a few of them.  The shelves will be filled with candy when I'm done.  The side table is basically done, it just needs a couple little things adjusted for me to be happy with it. 

Another thing, this giveaway will be even more fun because 1st place winner gets first choice of the 3 items made, they get to pick which item they want.  Second place winner gets to pick of the last two items, and the third place winner gets the last item available, sorry but hey it's still free!  Here's what I'm making:


The larger of the two shelves, far from done.

Yucky pictures from our horrible weather, but I'm sure you can tell what I mean.

Here's the second shelf, smaller:

Pretty in pink :)

Candy swirl brackets.

And here's the little side table with lollipop display:


The base needs a little work yet.  It will end up a little different but you get the idea.

If you have made a purchase from our store, please contact me here to join the giveaway:
leave me a message letting me know you're signing up!

 



Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Voodoo Fortune Teller's Table completed, listed for sale

I couldn't fit everything I wanted on there, but I think it's full enough and more would clutter it to the point of not being attractive so here's what I did:





As you can see, there are tarot cards, runes, hoodoo bag, a root used for spell casting, a broken egg, feathers, magic orbs, fortune teller's ball, rosary, pillar candles, small staue of the virgin Mary, Pretty detail-painted candleabra with hand-sculpted taper candles with dripping wax, a copper bowl of green, sparkling potion, a wooden wand for spell casting, a tropical calla flower arrangement in a very pretty cutout metal holder, a moon goddess sculpture, a stack of books having to do with voodoo and fortune telling, etc.  Now available here in my store: