Display Case Tutorial Part 4

We're on the home stretch now! I assembled the lid and painted everything black. I like my minis to have a dark look to them so I usually start with black or dark brown as a base color.

Can you see where my glue choice fogged the "glass"? I always have that problem, I even tried a different glue this time. I'll have to do something to cover that later.

I also attached the hinges.

I can't believe it, it actually opens! J

I attached the bottom piece. Looking a little better now J.

Sorry, I didn't take pictures of all the painting steps. I was just trying things out and ended up with this.

Using craft acrylics, I laid some antique white over the black (but not into the indents and creases), and then dry brushed on a really light amount of nutmeg brown. Then I dry brushed on several coats of brown oxide (it's a darker brown) to the areas I did not want highlighted by the lighter undercoat. I kept the circle at the bottom solid brown oxide, as well as the small trim right before the decorative disk at the bottom. Also the decorative piece at the top of the pedestal piece (right before the top piece) is solid brown oxide, and the edges of the lid are too.

On to the next post. There are finishing touches to be done!

Display Case Tutorial Part 3

Ready for the top? J

I made myself a template on my computer for the lid piece. That is always the best way for me to get my measurements correct. It's just boxes and rectangles, I just imagined the top in a flattened view and this is what I got. I wrote in the measurements for you.

I then used the template to cut the shapes from wood. The wood is 1/16" thick, nice and thin. I ended up having to cut 1/8" off the bottom of the center piece, it had to do with the way I was putting it together. I didn't account for the 1/16" thickness of the top and bottom pieces in my template and it was making the side pieces seem too short.

Here it is all assembled.

I used my same template to cut the top piece out of the same kind of wood. Also cutting the hole for the "glass".

I then chose my hinges and cut some notches for them to fit snugly against the wood.

Here's my glass J. An old plastic something that I will cut down to size.

Here it is slightly larger than the hole but smaller than the wood piece.

Slippery plastic doesn't like glue, so I'm making a twin to my wood piece out of clay. This will sandwich the "glass" in.

I almost for got about the 1/16" thickness of the walls of the box, so I cut the clay piece smaller than the wood piece and baked it. This way the lid will lay flush to the box when it closes. I'm showing you the pieces layered here so you can see the size, but remember that the "glass" goes between the clay and wood when we are ready to assemble.

Okay, I'm going to go to a new post for the assembly and painting. See you there J!

Display Case Tutorial Part 2

Okay, next part... I made a ball of clay. Small, maybe 3/4" x 3/4".

Then I flattened it with my fingers. Not too much, it's still pretty chunky.

Then I took a needle and made more random indents all around it. These are deeper than the ones before. I had to rock the needle so it would move with the curve of the clay.

Then I flattened it a little more, just a tiny bit though.

Then I centered my previous piece on it.

And pushed it down, further flattening the disk thing and embedding the long piece into the disk.

Then I took my circle stencil thing and found a circle slightly larger than the disk.

And I rolled out some clay in my pasta machine and cut the circle out with my exacto knife.

I then put some TLS on the circle and placed my other piece on top, centered. I used TLS this time since I wouldn't be pushing down a lot to really get the two pieces to stick. If I pushed down to much it would distort the circle.

I added some clay to the top and shaped it with my hands. Then I used my needle and made two decorative lines on the new addition. I lightly wire-brushed the bottom disk thing to add some texture there.

Then I popped the whole thing in the oven.

Bottom piece is done for now. Moving on to another post....

Display Case Tutorial Part 1

Hi everyone! I've not been feeling well so I haven't been checking blogs... but I'm feeling better now so I'll come around and see all the things you guys are up to soon J.

Here is the tutorial I promised. It will be in sections over a few posts. Remember though, I am definitely no expert!!! I muddle along until it looks right and there is always something a little off J.

Okay, I started with a sketch. I'm a horrible sketch artist but you can kind of make out basically what I plan to do.
It's going to be a slanted design for the top piece, with "glass" in it so you can see all the treasures inside. It will need hinges, and I will need a lot of patience... I do not work well with hinges! I found a website or blog or book or something once that showed how to work with mini hinges, can't remember if it helped J. I'll have to try and find it again.
The bottom will be like a pedestal thing, minimally decorated.
I wanted the top to have a latch or lock mechanism in the front, but you will see later that I decided against that. No particular reason, I just didn't add it.

Some of the tools I used.

 A piece of a dowel that I cut down to 2.75 inches, this will be the structural support. My handy dandy clay shaper. I had to wrap it with clear tape a long time ago because the clay on my hands was eating away at it. That was when I first started with clay and was using modeling clay. And then I also used a stylus, covered in paint and old clay J, and some Scupley III - my preferred clay.

Step 1: I covered the dowel in clay.

Then I added more clay to the top and bottom sections and worked out a rough shape with my hands.

Then I took my stylus and made some indents around the top. Just random ones, deeper at the top and less towards the bottom.

I then used my clay shaper to soften the indents and smooth everything up. Then I cut some clay off the top (remember from the sketch, there will be more decoration here). And I used a needle to make a line along the bottom edge for some design.

I used this wire brush thing to give the whole piece vertical lines for texture. It will sort of simulate wood grain and it will give the paint something to do J.

Then I scraped it off my work surface with my blade and popped it in the oven.

Okay, I'm moving on to a new post now for the rest.

Sharing time!

This is extremely long overdue! I have lots of things to share from many great artists, and I also have a few of my own things to show.

First my collection of Jamie Moore originals J. You might remember me showing the small one up front recently, he was part of a swap Jamie and I did. Then I just had to buy the two boxes you see in the back, after discussing it with my husband... we both agreed we HAD TO HAVE THEM AAALLL! We're a little crazy about Halloween like that! Jamie has an amazing checkerboard on auction at Ebay right now, ending really really soon.

Thanks Jamie! I love them!

Here's something I have had for quite some time now and just realized that I never shared (don't worry, I have already slapped my hand J). This amazing white leather set comes from a contest I won on Kat the Hat Lady's blog. I cannot tell you how ecstatic I am that I now own 3 of her hats! And aren't those shoes just precious!

Love them! Thank you Kat!!!!

And yes indeed! My fingers were quick on the draw and I snagged one of Nikki's skeleton bottles :). My first Nikki Rowe mini, it's so well crafted! She was even kind enough to include some extra tidbits that I can't wait to work with! When my kids saw them we all exclaimed together how we didn't know that acorn caps would look so different overseas. They are acorn caps right J?

Thanks so much Nikki, it's everything I hoped!

It's been long ago that I should have shared this one too. I got this great little book from Kaleidoskopic Romance. Kassandra is a doll to work with and she makes great looking dark-themed items, my fave! Sorry I got him a little dusty, but this book has a beautiful velvet cover and that great steampunk-ish thing on the front.

Thanks Kassandra! Love your Etsy shop!

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Now we are on to some of my creations. I found a wonderful person on deviantART. Demet is from Turkey and makes really lovely watercolor flowers. Demet also has started making mini flowers (which are equally as lovely!), and dabbles in some other arts. I liked Demet's watercolors so much that I asked if I could make them into a mini book... and here it is.

Can't tell from the picture but this white flower is pearlescent.

There are many more pages with brilliant flowers, please visit Demet's watercolor flower gallery to see them all. This book is currently on it's way to Turkey, hope Demet likes it! If you would like to purchase a book like this, please let me know. Lorraine@DflyCreations.net

Moving on... I made some more pumpkins with faces for an order. I love these guys! I like to think that they are a little different than all the other pumpkins out there right now J.

These little guys are on their way to Italy along with some tombstones and wands. I hear they will be decorating a witch house, hope I get to see it when it's done!

Since we are on the subject of pumpkins, I made my pumpkin wand design into a pumpkin staff for Grimdeva of Cauldron Craft Miniatures & Oddities. It grew from 1 1/4 inches to 3 inches. Looks good to me, what do you think?

Yes, those are my giant sausage fingers! J My daughter wasn't around to let me use her slender hands.

Well that's it for now, off to see about making this follow-along thing and test some paint.

Giveaway winner...

I almost forgot to post these! So sorry!

The giveaway winner, winner of the display case stand thing....

I did it old fashioned style, wrote all the names down and put them in a bowl.

Shook it up and had my daughter close her eyes and fish one out.

And the winner is....

Morgan!

I will be starting the build really, really soon. I want to do a show and tell, kind of like a tutorial but more of a follow along style since I am definitely no expert and I would love help in the tough spots :), but we shall see if I can hold to that, I am also unreliable in follow through with my crazy plans! Once I get going on a mini it's hard to stop and take pictures.

Congrats Morgan!

Pumpkin Wands

In honor of Halloween, I have designed a pumpkin wand with a matching pumpkin stand. I'm so pleased to say that this wand and stand are 100% original design from me. Usually I look at pictures and gather ideas and inspiration, but not on this one.

The wand sits in the stand perfectly. The stand is tiny and has a pumpkin patch kind of feel to it. Lots of curly vines, tiny pumpkins, and a pumpkin leaf.

I made a lot of these wands since I like them so much, so I will be selling them in different ways. One with the stand, 4 with boxes as you see in the picture below, and 4 just wands. Hopefully the price range will fit many people :).

The wand box features a brown bottom with orange ribbon interior. The top is orange with brown shading and a hand drawn pumpkin. I wanted the drawing to look like one of those old line art style drawings, I think I got close :).

The wand itself is made to look like the shaft is carved wood with some shading to get it nice and spooky looking. Then the hilt is greens and oranges with the pumpkin topper.

These will all be in my Etsy shop very soon. And I have so many more wand ideas now, this style opens up so much!