The Harry Potter Exhibition, Utrecht - part 1

Geen blog over miniaturen, maar wel een met een heleboel inspiratie voor m'n mini wereld.
Met nog drie weken te gaan voor de Harry Potter Expo Nederland weer zou verlaten, ben ik er namelijk toch nog - met Yannick - naar toe geweest!
Twee keer drie uur treinen was pittig (ik was compleet uitgeteld gisteravond ^^), maar echt de moeite waard. In ieder geval voor die hard fans :)
Om negen uur vertrokken we om zeker op tijd voor de gereserveerde aanvangstijd (12.30 uur) aanwezig te zijn.

  

Ik was eigenlijk niet van plan om nou heel veel foto's te gaan maken. Binnen flitsen mocht niet, m'n foto's zijn de laatste tijd sowieso niet meer van een super kwaliteit, plus on line kun je ze zoveel mooier vinden (a).
Maar zodra we naar binnen konden, werd ik opnieuw betoverd door die magische wereld en werd ik vooral heel enthousiast en geïnspireerd door alle details die je in de film makkelijk ontgaan en waar ook minder aandacht voor is. Eigenlijk vooral dus props die ik in mini scenes zou kunnen en willen gebruiken ;)
Vandaar dat sommige foto's misschien vooral gefocust zijn op bepaalde details en niet op een heel voorwerp of scene.

GRYFFINDOR

 

 

  

CLASSES

 Potions

    

Herbology

 

 

   

 Defense against the Dark Arts

 

Divination

  

QUIDDITCH

    

 

Samen knutselen / Crafting together - Juli (a)

It has been a while since my last blog, and I haven't been very crafty either these last two month.
Of course the summer month are often less productive, with holidays and gardening *whistles and avoids looking outside at the neglected garden*
But besides, I've been quite busy with helping my son organize things. He's going to live and study in Breda.

Fortunately, no matter how busy life gets, there's always the montly crafting afternoon with Jolinda and Wil ;) We saw each other three weeks ago and continued with our doors. Instead of staining the doors when they were finished, we decided to do that when the windows are finished too.

  

We'll all have a different window. Mine is done the way I've done the outerframes for the cottage. I'm not sure if there will be a curtain. Maybe I can try to make a leaded glass window? :)
I like how my door has turned out. I do like to crochet a small curtain for that window.

Jolinda finished her door as well. She's working on a window in a matching style and it already look very pretty. You can see more of her roombox and her other projects on her own blog: http://jolinda2000.blogspot.nl

 

 And finally Wil's window ... she went for the fast and easy approach so her window became a picture frame (a) But I'm sure it will look very good when she has put a nice picture in it.

 

When the windows will all be finished we plan to spend an afternoon doing macramé, maybe smal curtains or a cushion for the garden bench.

Samen knutselen / Crafting together - Juni

Three days ago Jolinda, Wil and I met for our monthly crafting afternoon xD 

Since my 1:1 life had demanded most of my time and energy the previous weeks, I'd looked forwards to do some crafting again. 

We continued with our doors. Wil and I started with making the two small panels, and after that started with the frame. Jolinda wasn't entirely happy with her frame, and worked and that for awhile before she started on the door.

Despite lots of talking (mainly by me, according to Jolinda and Wil :P) we'd all made progress after two hours. Hopefully we can finish the door the next time and stain it.

 

 From right to left the roombox of Wil, Jolinda and mine.

  

It will be a bit crowded, but hopefully there 

will be room for a little window and 

a climbing (wall) plant :)

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

Mannequin challenge

Because I wanted to show off the new shawls, and I still haven't a fully/nice clothed doll, I decided to make a mannequin.
A Youtube tutorial from AkameruKawaii helped me getting started.

Instead of using fabric I covered it with bits and pieces of the Daily Prophet ;)

I looked in my boxes with wooded pieces and put some together for the stand.

After the glue had dried, I stained it, using the walnut wood dye I got from Jolinda for the first time. I loved the result! There will certainly be some walnut stained furniture in the cottage, I think! :)

And here it is!
To make some nice photo's I put together all kind of things in an empty roombox. Even the cottage wall with the almost finished door (a)

Of course I needed to take some with the shawls as well ;)

And because I had so much fun playing, I took some more photo's of other items, like some cushions and planthangers.