The fair in Rijswijk - part 1

Today I went the the fair in Rijswijk again. Third time in a row, and I'm still enjoying it immensely.
I could get a ride with Jolinda, so time went by very fast while we chatted about ... well, miniature things of course :)
We arrived at half past nine and while Jolinda went through the back entrance to join the Minidoor team, I got in through the front of course and had to wait till the fair opened at ten o'clock.

First stand I visited was the one of Georgia Marfels, who makes the most wonderful, magical miniatures. I especially love her Harry Potter Monster Book of Monsters and the Mandrakes.

It was lovely meeting Georgia in person!

 

I promised my friend Kim to look for some moulds of lizards, frogs and bats :)

Next I went to Marike's Magical Miniatures. It's alway wonderful to see all the magical displays and catch up with Marike xD

 I also bought Kim some dripping candles she'd asked for.

Next on my list; Nalladris. Because I wanted to buy a Nal-LED system for the Hogsmead cottage. Got a spring loaded terminal block, a power block, hearth blocks for the fire places and Nal-LED flames for every room. This will motivate me to get back to building for sure :D

I was surprised by the very tiny, lovely purple toad stoods they gave me "because you love Harry Potter" ;)

After I purchased the things on top of my list, I started wandering through the aisles, and as always saw many lovely things.
At MyThai Miniaturen I found these turquiose jug and cups for the cottage kitchen, and a very small paint brush.

 

And a few stands later at Tumdee Miniatures I found gorgeous vases and a fruit bowl in that same turquoise colour. Also bought a brown vase and some fruit (a)

Of course I visited Minidoor. Talked some, showed Thea my quilt and bought more fruit, a crochet needle and some very pretty fabric <3

By then I was getting a bit overwhelmed, so I decided to take a break at Marike's. 

And a break is exactly what I need right know, and get some sleep, so more photo's tomorrow :)

Part 2

 

Bedroom mini's

After the non-sewing quilt and beds for both Penny and Bianca, I wanted to make more bedding. I accidentally found some great fabric, and even this great tutorial from Judy Ferguson. I decided to make a quilt for a double bed.

In the latest P&M magazine was a tutorial about a crochet stitch I didn't know, but looked great imo :) And since I had gotten wonderful Anchor perle cotton threads not long ago, you can probably guess what I have been doing the last weeks ;)

Not only have I made this bedcover/throw, but also two small pieces I'd like to turn into cushions. The two striped pillows are something I did in between xD

And this morning I've made some matching pillow cases, before I took some photo's (a)
Since I don't have a double bed, I had to put both the single beds together.

This weekend I hope to find my Penny at the fair in Rijswijk, so she can test her bed ;) And also, I hope to show some progress on the cottage soon :)

SWAP-time

This month I participated for the first time in an organized SWAP, through the Facebook groep Magical Minds.
Although it was a secret exchange, I got to make something for Madelon who organized the swap, so that part wasn't a secret, but of course she didn't know what she'd get :)
We had all told the others what our preferences where; 1:12 or 1:1, what sort of magical things you love etc. Madelon had told she'd love to get something 1:12, Harry Potter/Gryffindor/Fantasic Beast ... Well, I could work with that :D

One of the things I've made was this tiny birthday cake Hagrid gave the 11-year old Harry. Though the origional one was rather pink than purple (a) I've used spaghetti letters for the text, and made the tiny box from card board.

I've also made a leather with's or wizard's hat, just plain because students don't usually have all kind of decorations on their hats :P
And I added the Marauders' Map, the Beetle the Bard book and three bottles with potion ingredients to the package.

I've found the tutorial for the witch's hat at Gina Bellous Dolls and the tutorial for the Harry Potter birthday cake is from the talented Maive Ferrando!

So, after sending the SWAP it was time to wait till Madelon would receive it, with fingers crossed that she would like it :')
And of course at the same time anticipating the arrival of my own!

Today it arrived. Just seeing the envelope, made me so happy! ;)

 

I first read the card with the lovely message, explaing she doesn't normally make miniatures, before I started unwrapping the gifts. Love the attention she put into it!

I love the rug! I think it's perfect for the cottage. Don't know in which room I'll put it, but I will decorate that room with these colours :)
The colours are great for the Weasley boho chic style I'm after and the way she changed from one colour to another - mid row - is spot on! I could never do that:')

I love the idea of Bianca and Penny having there own magical family clock <3 I can see it hanging on the kitchen wall above the kitchen table where Penny will be drawing or reading a Quidditch magazine, while her mom is making diner.

And a little Slytherin scarf! I once made one, but not nearly as nice! Draco will be quite pleased :)
It also shows that she really looked at my blog, because I only mentioned the cottage for our swap preferences.

Though she didn't put her name on it, I'm known to act as an amateur Sherlock, so I've deducted yesterday Nine have made a SWAP for me, and the postal code confirmed it ;)

So, thank you so much, Nine! <3

Samen knutselen / Crafting together - April

After making (egg carton) bricks last week, yesterday it was time to start glueing them, at the monthly crafting afternoon.
I soon discovered that I'd made enough bricks to built a small village, but better safe than sorry and try to mix the exact shade of paint again :)

Before we started with the bricks we each needed to decide if and where we'd want a door and window, and what size they would be.
Jolinda, who has a larger roombox wants to make some outdoor steps and place the door a bit higher. Wil has a teabox similar to mine, and followed my decisions. Since the teabox is only 7 cm deep we'll try to put the door slantwise between back and side wall to have more room left. A bit like in this gorgeous roombox "Olie's Tweet Shop" by Becky Seward.

Due to lots of chatting, making coffee and maybe working a bit (too) precisely, I'll only had 4 or 5 rows by the time Jolinda and Wil left (a) While they're wall started to look like brick-layers had been working for hours ;)
Fortunately I didn't need to pack everything, so I continued in the evening untill my bricks hit the edge of the window (too). I already love how it looks.

Next month we'll be making doors together. Can't wait :)

Lavender, plant hangers and more cushions

There are a lot of things I've made in the last month but haven't found time to blog about.
One of these things is the lavender I made, to add to the cushion I showed you here, for prettier pictures :)

I painted thin wire with a mixure of cottage green and gray acrylic, and cut it into 3 a 4 cm pieces. Dipped the tip into some Tacky glue and right after in a mixture of two shades of Flower soft from Minidoor. After the glue had dried I carefully sprayed some hairspray over them.

For future plants I want to buy some lycopodium at Silly Sisters, but for now I found a very tiny plastic christmas tree which I painted with the same mixture as the wire and then cut the branches xD

I like my first lavender plant :) It looks cute in the flower pot I made previously, and it matches the colours of the cushion.

Of course I also wanted a matching plant hanger, a little purple one this time. And to show it properly I made a stand from Balsa :)

Next I made another cushion. This time without fringes, but with fabric on the back and filled with seed beads so it feels more natural. I love the colours and feel of this one!

An off white macramé planthanger with wooden beads, too fit with all kinds of flower pots and plants. And yes, I really need to start making (more) plants :P

Something else I tried, just for fun, was a glass bottle wrapped in macramé. Not too shabby for the first time, but lot of improvement :)

Also, I'm working on a bigger macramé item, though I'm still not sure what it will be. Depends on the final size, I guess ;) It could be a throw for a bed or a sofa, or even a rug.
At the moment it's 8,5 x 5 cm, and I think it will be 8,5 x 10 cm when it's finished aka when the threads become too short ;)

 

Making bricks for the garden project

Last month we started working on a roombox for all the garden items we made so far with our little crafting group. We intend to make a brick wall with a window and a door, a bench or potting table and a lot of small things of course. Though every time we see photo's or tutorials of garden diorama's we want to change our minds about the wall, or the door, or the floor, ... ;)

I will make the garden scene in this tea box I bought at the Action for only 3 euro. Just 21 x 21 x7 cm, so not much room for all the fabulous idea I'd gathered so far. And making choices isn't really my cup of tea ;)

So, last month first I carefully removed the wooden text on the glass, removed the lid, and then started with painting the box with Gesso, just like Jolinda and Wil did.
We then cut some card board, the same size as the back and sides of the box, so we could make the floor and walls more easily before glueing them in the box.

Since we'll continue this upcoming wednesday, I need to make tiny bricks this weekend. We'll each be glueing the bricks we made on the grey walls.
I might need even more than I think so I've already started yesterday with painting egg cartons. I'd mixed so many paints to get the right 'brick' colour, I ended up painting almost every egg carton I had saved ;) I hoped I still liked it in the morning(light), because I was all out of paint by the time I was finished.

Fortunately I did! So this morning I could start with the tiring job of cutting every piece of egg carton in little 0,5 x 1,5 cm bricks.

 The first batch is done. I like it so far, so I better continue and hope I have enough by sunday evening ;)