Plant hanger giveaway! [ENDED]

I've made new plant hangers I have yet to share with you. Since it's still a populair item in my Etsy shop, I keep making them, though I make sure that every one is different in design and/or colour ;)
This time I tried a design with two colours and made two versions of it.

  

  

Since I'd love to know which plant hangers you all like I've decided to a little giveaway. Also, I'd been so busy last month with old and new projects that I totally miss the one year celebration of opening my Etsy shop :') 

So, I'll draw a name from the proverbal hat in about ... lets say a week ... from those of you who'll leave me a comment on this blog or on my FB about the planthangers I've made so far.

Not just calling a number you like, but why you like some more than others ;)

Beads or no beads? Do you prefer natural colours or colourful hangers? Designs with one or more colours or maybe certain knots that are used? :)

Give me some useful feedback and I'll make you an 1/12th plant hanger according to your preferences.

Finished my third shawl

I had put some crochet project in my suitcase last week, and while I didn't spent much time on them, I was able to finish my third and latest miniature shawl. I began in February though it felt like I'd started last year :)
After I got home, I decided to add fringes on this shawl. It took me two days, it has 400 fringes and I think it was worth the effort ;)

Productive weeks, more or less.

"Now I'm going to stain the door and then glue the hinges and nails to the door. Keeping my fingers crossed in the mean time," I said a month ago. Well, that didn't help :')

I've tried and tried and tried but every time I got it wrong and I got so frustrated that I almost threw in the towel. But of course I didn't :')
In the end I decided to remove a part of the jamb, made a new one, and made a new (wider) door and a (sturdier) treshold.

No visible hinges anymore, but (needle) pins to open and close the doors :') Not as realistic as I would've liked, but ah well ... ;)
I've already done all four jambs yesterday, stained them too, and started on the other doors.

Besides my struggles with the doors. I was very productive these weeks :)
I sold my last macrame planthanger, made 4 new ones and already sold two of those as well.

I also sold the first shawl I crochetted, so I thought I'd start making a new one. For this one I will be using Venne Nm70/2 Terra Cotta (7-3010) and crochethook 0.60. 

There are also a few things I've made that I can't show you yet, since I made them as a birthday present for a good friend. And of course she's not supposed to see them before the parcel arrives by the end of the week ;)  Hope to show you then.

Last but not least; I've sorted out my craft supplies and tidied my craft room (again :P). I should probably call it my storeroom, since I'm always crafting in my living room ;)

Lot of unfinished, or nearly finished projects besides the cottage.

Christmas has come early!

This blog isn't about any miniatures I made, but about a parcel I got yesterday.
I'd expected it for a while and was looking forwards to finally see all the wonderful handmade miniatures I'd find inside :)

Everything inside was made by my dear friend and very talented miniaturist Kim from Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo.

I can't begin to tell you how happy I was, when I got to open each little item ;)
Photo's don't do them justice but I want to show you anyway ^^

First of all, those gorgeous Kneazles. I can't even begin to express how much I adore them. So cute, I would cuddle them all day if I wasn't afraid I'd loose them somewhere :') For those of you who don't know what a Kneazle is, it's a cat-like magical animal from the Harry Potter universe.
I think Bianca and Penny will have to make a trip to the Magical Petshop because these cuties will definately be living in the Hogsmeade cottage, whenever that will be finished (a)

The bookstand is made for little Penny. She'll love it!! It's even more wonderful than I expected, so glad I can finally see that amazing 'tree-work' for real 🙂
Some little twig branches are sticking out of the side of the bookstand, they are handy to hang a little potion bottle or some herbs.

For now let's pretend this is the front door of the cottage. Parcels delivered by owls, the Kneazles waiting for Bianca and Penny to return :)

The blackbird is so very tiny and yet realistic, I can't believe it. I needed to put on my magnifying glasses to even see it.

That cheeky Mandrake made me smile, so happy with that.

And then, last but not least, the apple baking board. I've loved it from the moment I saw it in the Etsy shop shop and it will look great in the cottage kitchen.

I am as happy as a clam at high water:)
As soon as the holiday season is over, I want to start working on the cottage for real. I feel very inspired ^^

So, I hope you've enjoyed looking at these photo's. If you want to see more of Kim's miniatures, you should definitely visit her Etsy shop.

Plants, pots and hangers, oh my ;)

I've made two new macramé plant hangers the previous days, and I decided to make matching flower pots ánd fill those with plants.
Making plants or flowers isn't something I've done a lot. To be honest, it's something I like to do once in a while, but not more then one at a time. So, there probably won't ever be a flower shop in my future ;)

Anyway, let me show you the new plant hangers first. I just choose some nice colour from my box with embroidery threads first and made something up as I went ;)

I'd bought some flower pots at 't Tafereeltje, back in April, so I painted two of them with acrylic paint. Since I didn't take a separate photo from the flower pots, you can already see the leaves I made next :)

First I made an Aloe Vera (a succulent). It's based on this tutorial, but I used green Fimo.

I painted them after baking (left) and them I made them a bit darker with distress ink (left).

I chose the turquoise pot and hanger for the Aloe Vera and like how that combination looks. My Fimo plant making skills could use some improvement though (a)

 

For the other plant I'd found free printable leaves on line, from Nalladris. I used two for each leave, glueing them together with 2 cm of very thin wire between the paper. 
To shape them I used the same double-ended ball styluses you use for polymer clay. And I finished with a coat of clear nail polish :)

 

So, the result is two new listings for my Etsy shop, and two plants in pots for the cottage (or props in future photo's ^^).

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it ... :D

Today I have some exciting news to share :)
I told you yesterday when I showed the mannequin that I needed it to show some shawls, but that was just part of it. Though it was fun laying with miniature and make nice photo's, it actually had a purpose.

I've been working towards setting up an Etsy shop for some time now (and have done a lot of procrastinating ^^) and yesterday I was finally ready;

Very nerve wracking, but it also made me a bit proud (a)
I decided to wait a day before I would share it, so imagine my surprise when I found two orders already when I woke up today. 

I hope you'll visit my shop and let me know what you think of it <3

Here's the link: 

https://www.etsy.com/nl/shop/AvanasMiniWorld