Halloween Coffin Cards 🎃

I should apologise for the large amount of Halloween cards that are going to appear on my blog over the next few weeks, and I  know its a bit early for some people, and that some people don't celebrate Halloween at all, but I love Autumn and all the things that are associated with the time of year, the colours, aromas and of course Halloween 👻🎃

It gets to the end of August and my inner 'Autumnite' starts craving anything that tastes like apple & cinnamon and loves filling the house with the scent of berries, spices and homemade cinnamon swirl bread. I make cards and decorations for the house, I don't send so many cards though as not so many people celebrate Halloween, so if you do and you'd like a card let me know 😍

On the halloween theme, late the other night I had the notion to make some Coffin shaped cards, the shape appealed to my Halloween loving dark side, my warped sense of humour had decided that a hammer and nails on the front with the sentiment 'Nailed It!' would be amusing, not to everyone's taste but I think some of my Gothy friends would be amused by the card, although as I created I strangely enough never got round to making that one. After that thought, my mind started playing with other ideas of how I could decorate a coffin card for Halloween, alternate Valentine's cards etc.

But when I tried to sort out the dimensions for making my own coffin shaped card blank boy did I have an EPIC fail! I decided that I'd try and buy some pre-cut card blanks so did a google and discovered that nobody sold Coffin shaped card blanks, you can get treat boxes, but not card blanks, somebody is missing a trick there! So I soldiered on as best I could and I ended up with a passable coffin shape but it was rather wonky looking, I decided at that point and take the win and head off to bed.

The next morning, I decided to have another go, maths and geometric are not my strong suit, they are my kryptonite in fact, and I dread having to use them, the surrounding area can quickly becme festooned with colourful language when I try lol!

I think during my second attempt I cursed a little louder than usual and my brilliant man heard me and came in to the room as I was struggling again to make the shape a reality. He asked me what I was trying to do, so I explained and he went away and used his talents to create a 3D print a coffin shaped template, plus a template for cutting the mat for the coffin which also has a cut out area to enable me to do some inking or add some texture paste to the design. Saying I was a happy bunny is putting it mildly, with the template, what I'd struggled with for several hours, I achieved to make several card bases in minutes and that included cutting the card stock to size, scoring down the middle, laying on the template, drawing round it, and cutting it out!

The first card created used a panel from my Maybe Someday box, I'd created it back in May 2016 when I was making some cards for my brother, I didn't like the colours at the time but loved the panel so put it to one side knowing one day in the future it would be useful.

The cute bat stamp is from Sugarpea Designs and is called 'Fang-Tastic', I got it last year but until today I haven't used it. Truth be told, because I didn't have a matching die I was worried about using it. Turned out I didn't need to be as my fussy cutting is really improving 😄 I used Tonic Nuvo Marker Pens to colour the image and also Tonic Craft Perfect Ultra Smooth cardstock to stamp the image on. I stamped the image using Hero Arts 'Intense Black' which is brilliant for alcohol markers.

The moon is also part of the Fang-tastic stamp set and I stamped that with Silvery Shimmer Delicata ink and then added some clear embossing powder on top.

My next coffin card I used a technique that I've wanted to try for a while after seeing Jennifer McGuire do it, but I thought I'd fluff it up, I die cut the Lady Death skull die that I got off Ebay and added Versamark Ink, then a layer of Ranger 'Rose Gold' ink.

When it was dry I added more Versamark and embossing powder, and followed that 4 times until I ended up with a piece of cardstock that looked like enameled metal. To say I was chuffed with the result is another understatement, I've done a lot of surprising myself creatively this week 😀

The sentiment for this card comes from a Graphic 45 set 'Rare Oddities Set 2' that I got a few years ago, again heat embossed using the same embossing powder as the skull. The addition of some black & white bakers twine using a trick that I picked up from Kristina Werner I poked a hole with my pokey tool in the crease of the card and threaded the twine through the hole, wrapped it around a second time and tied the bow.

My final coffin card to share today is I think my favourite, my colouring is really starting to get better and I'm getting a little better at shading after watching Jenn Shurkus's video on using Copics. Granted I didn't use copics, they are way out of my price range at the moment, but are definitely on my wish list! 

The background again came from my Maybe Someday box and was created a while back using Gelatoes on black card stock and some silver gilding wax was added to highlight some of the detail. At the time I was experimenting and it didn't work as well as I expected it to, but I hing on to the piece nethertheless.

The images are from a My Favorite Things set called 'Witch Way Is the Candy?' there is a matching die set for this card but I don't have it, so I fussy cut the images out by hand and used a black Memento Marker to colour round the edge, it works like a charm every time. My shading is still a little off, but its definitely improving, I'm also limited to what colours I have, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to acquire more in the future. I do have some other cards and tips to share but this has already turned in to a mammoth post so I'll write another post over the next couple of days. Not many Halloween cards left to share now, well maybe there are lol, I have started working on some Xmas cards tonight and some gifts, more on these soon, for now I'm away to my bed to dream dreams of pumpkins, witches, and things that go bump in the night! 🎃

3 Sisters for Halloween

You know yesterday I posted about not being able to finish projects, well guess what? Despite having a pile of unfinished projects to finish, my brain had a bright idea to make a set of Halloween cards, that has morphed in to making more of them with different sentiments and colour ways and from there I fished out a santa & sleigh silouette die and I'm going to make a set of Xmas cards using xmas colours and sentiments.

I got the dies a while back and hadn't gotten around to using them (nothing new there lol), whilst I was sorting out some things I came across the unused dies and thought it would be good to make use of them with Halloween not being far away now YAY! I sat for a while wondering what to do with them, I new I wanted a bright background utilising distress inks, but I wasn't sure what to do beyond that. I have a couple of small drawers with embossing folders in, I started to look for suitable Halloween style embossing folders and guess what? Tim Holtz aside - which I didn't want to use for this project - I discovered that I had absolutely NO halloween folders, tons and tons of Xmas and floral affairs but no halloween!

Not to be put off I looked again and found several tree embossing folders, the one I chose is by Darice called 'Tree Trunks', it was still in its packaging and had never been used! I wanted to have a moon in the background, but wasn't sure how, I didn't have any circle stencils large enough, so I cut a circle free hand from a Post It note. I inked Mustard Seed Distress Ink on 3 pieces of card if different places, then I popped my Post It Mask on the yellow and inked around with Carved Pumpkin Distress Ink.  I added some Wilted Violet Distress Ink to the bottom layer and was pleased with how it looked, I gave each panel a spritz with water and blotted it off and whilst still damp I ran each piece through the Big Shot in the embossing folder.

The sentiments I used are from two sets the 'Happy Halloween' sentiment is from a Craftwork Cards set called 'Spooky' and the other two are from a My Favorite Things set called 'Witch Way Is the Candy?'. I stamped in Versamark and used WOW! 'Opaque Bright White Super Fine' embossing powder.

Of the 3 cards I like this one best, not sure why, although I put the wrong sentiment on it, this one was meant to go on the card with the witch holding the raven lol! I was going to put dimensionals behind the witches but it created too much shadow which made the focal points lose their clarity, so I glued the images to the card front after first giving the 'moons' a covering with Nuvo Aqua Flow Glitter Gloss pen to add some shimmer.

The best thing is I now have 3 cards for my box and all of them were started today and FINISHED today and I have ideas for making other cards using the same techniques. I have a couple of Flying Witch dies and a Halloween village style die, so I'm going to have a play with them tomorrow, I'm already working out in my head what colours to use. I may make a few birthday cards in this style as well, not everyone likes flowers and cute cats after all 🐱

Card Makers Block

Last night I sat with a desk full of "parts" that I'd made over the past few weeks, and after 2 hours in the craft room, all I managed to do was die cut some leaves for yet another idea I've had and shuffle this bit with that bit and decided that actually it didn't look like I wanted it to anyway.

I posted a photo on Facebook last night (see below) because I felt a little overwhelmed, I see people creating several projects a day, working on massive design team deadlines and crafting while they are really under the weather, I chastised myself because I couldn't make just one card and boy did I ever be a Debbie Downer on myself.

I logged on this morning to discover that a fair few of my crafty friends suffer from low mojo, even those on design teams, over my morning coffee I read what they had posted and replied and came away feeling a lot better, thank you to everyone that responded 😘

This photo shows some of the potential projects I was struggling with last night, I like the individual components, but can I get them to meld together in to a completed card, can I heck! I just couldn't move forward with anything, so I left my desk, moaned on facebook and then went to bed lol!

And low, I got up this morning, and after sipping my morning coffee whilst browsing Facebook I went back to my desk and an idea of how to complete one of the projects hit me and I have now finally finished the 'Wicked Ancestor' card above! It had me stumped for a while, you can see parts of it in the photo. I made the embossed background after playing with a couple of shades of distress stain and my new media mat, I added some shimmer and stopped.  Whilst I was playing with the stains I dyed the seam binding with some Carved Pumpkin Distress Stain, I was so chuffed with result, even though I've seen Tim and several others do the exact same thing on YouTube, its always magic to me to try something that I've seen a 'professional' do and get as good as them results even if its something simple like dyeing a piece of ribbon lol!

I've been trying to complete this project for 2 weeks now, but nothing would work, looking at some of the other projects this morning I think I've figured out why I'm having a problem with Tim Holtz and some other American dies and stamps! Their designs are based on American card sizes mostly A2 (4.25" x 5.5"), I like to work with mostly 6" x 6" and UK A6 (4-1/8" x 5-7/8") card bases and the embossing panels don't look right on either of those sizes, unless you put them to one side and then you have a void that has to be filled somehow, or in the case of the A6 chop the card down to make it smaller. So despite trying, I can't get it right unless I make my own card blank USA A2 size.

This morning it occured to me that I could make my design into an easel card and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. For the ancestor image (it isn't one of mine, oh how I wish it was lol!) I found the image on the internet, printed it out in black and white and then added a wash of Carved Pumpkin distress stain over the top, I made a frame using dies from the Sizzix Tim Holtz Baroque die set and glued the image to the back of the frame.

I used a sheet of paper from the 8" x 8" Halloween Kraft Paper Pad by Tim Holtz as a background for the panel and the raised piece and sentiment section. I scored a piece of black card to make an easel card and I had previously embossed the distress stain coloured panel with the Sizzix 3D Botanical embossing folder.

The little pumpkin charm was an ebay purchase, I've bought some cat charms, snowflakes and other pumpkins. I gave the pumpkin charm a couple of dabs of Valencia Alcohol Ink to change the colour from silver to this orangey copper colour which I think goes well with the coppery orange metallic cardstock that I cut the Wicked sentiment from the TH Sizzix 'Vintage Spirits' die set. I'm really pleased how well this card came together, despite my inability to make any progress recently on lots of the projects I started. I'm hoping that this will be the start of my getting a little bit more productive and that my xmas and halloween cards will materialise very soon, I'm so grateful for my friends and the support they gave, you know who you are xxx

1:12 Scale Lavender Improvement

I played around some more and I'm liking the results much better than my first attempt at creating lavender. I can see that flower soft has potential to make some pretty little flowers, but its not very good for making 1:12th scale lavender, at least not the way I'd done it.

I'd seen a tutorial online and the lady had used craft sand in the tutorial, she had bought it pre-coloured but I couldn't find any that was 'chunky' enough. I stumbled across a bottle of decorative sand in The Range for about £1.30, it looked like a milk bottle, but its full of sand and the grains looked perfect. So I brought it home and using alcohol inks: - Amethyst, Purple Twilight, Eggplant and a touch of Indigo I dyed it to a shade of lavender that I was happy with, then I made a small batch a little darker and mixed the two together to give some variation.

I created two kinds of lavender 'English Lavender' and 'French Lavender' aka Butterfly Lavender, the process for the French Lavender is simple, I die cut some small petals in lilac tissue paper and glued them to the end of some of my florist wire, then added glue to the top of the wire stem and sprinkled the purple craft sand on it, shook off the excess and left it to dry. The process for English Lavender was the same, without the 'butterfly' top part and I add some random blobs of glue on the stems to simulate smaller flower buds.

I left both lots of the flowers to dry overnight and this evening I put some air drying clay into the base of my pots. Having earlier painted the 3D printed pot that Si made for me with some Tonic Nuvo Acrylic Paint that's been in my paint box for a while, I love how it looks, although I seem to have got some finger marks on from either the clay or the 'soil' I made, but that can be covered up.

I mixed some Olive Green Nuvo paint and some White and dry brushed the leaves on the butterfly lavender and all the stems with it and left it to dry.  I had ordered some craft sand off ebay, but when it arrived this morning it was so fine, no way would it be useful for making lavender.

I didn't want to waste it so I used alcohol ink again, this time: - Rust, Mushroom, Ginger and Pitch Black, to create a sort of soil for the top of the pots. Once I'd placed all the green matter in the pots I filled the gaps with PVA and then sprinkled my sand soil on top shaking off the excess. I would have liked it to look more earthy brown but what I have will do for now and I have made absolutely loads of it, so it will last a while.

I think if I get some Ground Expresso alcohol ink or another darker brown shade I can darken the soil colour, that's the beauty of using alcohol ink, you can add more. Make sure when you're using it though to ensure your room is well ventilated and leave the coloured sand to dry after colouring, this will allow the alcohol to evaporate. I'm going to make a small black of black chunky sand as an aside, I think it would brilliant sprinkled in to the centre of die cut and stamped poppies and flowers that have black centres.

FYI the craft sand has a shimmery effect that's not full on sparkle or glitter but the grains do catch the light, I did struggle with the greenery, I didn't get it to sit right in the pots but with time it will get easier, I'm not a flower arranger lol! then next flower to attempt will be calendula, I felt that the ones made at the weekend had petals that were too chunky, so I've bought some orange tissue paper and I'm going to try and see if that makes them look more delicate, I kind of like this gardening in minature lark, of and yes I did add a couple of drops of lavender oil to the air drying clay and they little lavender plants smell like lavender lol! 😉

Ingredient Jars of Joy 1:12 Scale Style

Hello again from planet I'm quickly becoming obsessed with 1:12 scale miniatures lol! I'm just sharing what I've made today and yes I'm feeling pleased with my little self, although my ever self critical eye can see lots of room for improvement, still I'm thrilled with what I've achieved so far this week. Just one week ago I had the idea to create a 1:12 scale Apothecary Shop and I knew I wanted to add a "Wise Woman" room complete with crystal ball, tarot cards, cauldron, herb and spell books and a vast array of bottles and jars of potions and ingredients.

When I started looking for bottles and jars of ingredients I found them but the majority of them would make stocking the room cost much more than I could afford, the jars are impressive but at £13.50 for 6 made up bottles or almost £40 for 20 it could get very silly. I started to think maybe I should abandon the idea due to the cost, but then I started to think of ways I could make my own, initially I doubted my abilities, but then thought better of it and decided to just go for it.

So here are the first batch of 'ingredients' for the wise woman's room that will form part of the apothecary shop & garden. I've had so much fun concocting this little lot tonight and I used just what I found in my room. Some of the jars will change colour as the resin stuff dries out, so I'll take another photo when they change to their true colour and add the photo here. I already had a pack of mini bottles of varying sizes I bought from the works a few years ago and they've been sat in my stash doing nothing.

Then when I went out to The Range today to pick up some tissue paper and craft sand, I found some miniature gems both figuratively and literally. These jars of mini gems cost £1.99 for 8, which is brilliant value when you think that 4 empty jars will set you back £3.19 at the Dolls House Emporium. I wasn't sure what I was going to fill them with this afternoon, but I bought them anyway. Picked up a table and some picture frames as well for £1 each, both of which can be experimented with.

I've seen a Pharmacist Table by Reutters on the DHE website, its lovely but at £71.99 for a table not much different to the one in my photo above and some accessories it seems rather excessive and I'm pretty sure I could make one myself for a lot less. I've seen the same table for sale at another online dolls house place for £99.99 which considering what is in and on it unbelieveable. It can be a rather costly business like anything I suppose, which is why I'm going to try and make as much of the contents for my dolls house myself.

To fill my little jars I let my imagination run riot, pieces of lavender leaves became 'Rats Tails', left over Lycopodium was chopped in to another jar and became 'Centipede Legs', red alcohol ink became 'Dragons Blood', lavender buds became 'Cockroach Parts', and a little white craft sand became 'Powdered Unicorn Horn'. I've created 'Fish Scales', 'Eye of Newt', 'Toe of Frog', 'Slug Slime' and a few other gruesome sounding ingredients, 11 jars of joy. I didn't have any resin for the jars so I've improvised and used Tonic Nuvo Drops, time will tell if it dries out and becomes clear, for future ingredient bottles I may invest in some resin, but I just wanted to play today.

My head is full of ideas for other ingredient jars to make and I've got a couple of mini bell jars, moss, tiny toadstools and skulls winging their way to me, as well as about 60 mini bottles to play with. So by the time I've finished the apothecary shop will be well stocked as will the wise woman's room, that realisation makes me incredibly happy, this time last week I was about to throw the towel in thinking my idea wouldn't get off the ground because it would be too expensive. It makes me wonder just what else I can create, years ago I made a 1:12th scale wingback chair, a sofa and I even made a padded quilt and pillow, they weren't prefect but I'm certain I could make the same kind of things, only better because this time round I have more skills, tools and supplies. Here's to the next miniature adventure :)

First Try at 1:12 Scale Herbs

Hello fellow bloggers and blog visitors, tonight I'm sharing my very first attempts at making 1:12 scale herbs ready for the herb garden that will eventually be part of the Dolls House Apothecary Shop that I've begun making.

So far I've dabbled with lavender, calendula and thyme, I'm not 100% happy with any of them, the thyme is so naff that I'm not even going to share a photo of it on my blog. It was a last minute effort with some bits of Lycopodium left on the desk after the lavender making ended for the day all I did was dab on some glue to the trimmed greenery and then added a shake of flower soft and the results are rather lame.

The lavender flowers are too "fluffy" I used flower soft and its not the right colour, but I couldn't find a darker purple, I'm also not sure that the texture is right. Lavender isn't as fully, you get occasional bits when the buds open out towards the end of the flowering cycle, but the buds are more closed and more solid in texture and form than fluffy.

So I'm going to try craft sand dyed with alcohol ink next, that way I can get the colour that I'm happy with because I can create it myself.

I do like the little butterfly twists I added to the lavender, those will stay for the next attempt because I can then make French or Butterfly Lavender and some English Lavender minus the butterfly tops. The tops are just some small petals cut from tissue paper and stuck to the end, but they are effective, I didn't add any shading to the stems or the 'leaves' yet, I need to play with mediums to get the effect I like the most.

Of the three herbs I made tonight I'm chuffed to pieces with the way that the calendulas have turned out, although they aren't perfect and still need some perfecting. I die cut lots of tiny petals and used a tiny embossing tool to shape each layer before layering them together with glue.
There are no leaves on them yet and I forgot to add the shading and edging with some 'Spiced Marmalade' distress ink on one, in my excitement to get a few flowers finished. You can tell the difference between the two, the one with the white edges to the petals on the left is the one I forgot to edge and I do think it looks better to add some shading and highlights.

As I said above, none of the flowers are properly fixed in to their pots yet, no point in wasting pots because I won't be using the ones I created tonight because I'm not happy with them, I also don't have any dolls house plant 'potting compost', I need to pick up something soil like to use. As soon as I am happy with the results I'll share another photo with my progress and the finished articles.

Something else to share, when you're making miniatures for your dolls house, having a hubby with a 3D printer is a real bonus and tonight I was so grateful that Si supports my hobbies like I do his. The white pot is from a set of 4 different sized pots that Si 3D printed for me tonight, and he's going to make me more and also make some different shaped pots. They need a little sanding and I'm going to paint them terracotta and try to weather them, but they are brilliant and I'll be making up displays for some room boxes I want to make.

Not all the herbs I'm making will go in to pots because I want to create a garden scene, but some things will be in pots. I have ideas for creating some Chamomile and Poppies next and maybe some Hollyhocks and before anyone says that hollyhocks don't belong in a herb garden... the flowers were used medicinally for their emollient and demulcent properties, which made them useful for treating chest complaints, they have a similar action to Marshmallow, which is another herb I could add now I think about it.

I've seen kits for making Mullein, Sweet Violets, Madonna Lily and Foxgloves some of which I'll buy, although I want to make as many of the herbs as I can myself, but more practice and a magnifying lamp is called for, but I think I that I'll be able to do it with patience and time. I also seen some wonderful pots of basil and chives that are made from fimo and something called cold porcelian, neither of which I have any experience of. I do have some fimo though so maybe I could try playing with some of that soon.

Finally for this post a quick update, I doscovered that there is a small dolls house shop not far away from me, they don't have a huge range, but I visited today and picked up 2 dorma windows for the attic rooms and some skirting boards. Still waiting for the copper tape and lights to emerge from the loft before I can make a start but progress is being made 😀

Dreams of Having My Own Victorian Apothecary

This week I've excitedly begun a new chapter in my crafting endeavours, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but for a long time now I've wanted to own a period dolls house, not just any period though, I love the Victorian era, in that era herbs and remedies made from them - which is another of my passions - were widely available to help cure what ailed you, from either the local apothecary shop or from the local medical botanist.

Years ago Simon bought me a fully made up 1/12th Arkwright's Shop which is fashioned in the Victorian style, its a standing joke that he didn't want me to work with the dolls house because when we got it home, he promptly declared that it was put together all wrong and would have to be taken apart and put back together. That was in 2008 and until the other day, that 1/12th scale shop was still flat packed in the loft, on many occassions I've asked for it to be brought out and excuses were made, no space to house it was the usual and the shop stayed in the loft.

We visited the Museum of Childhood at Sudbury at the weekend and once again my nose was metaphorically stuck to the glass of the display case they have housing a large doll house in there. As I moved away from the display I repeated my request for my shop to be brought out of the loft, and sighed, expecting my request to once again fall on deaf ears. But when we got home, Si disappeared into the loft and he emerged a little later with the flat pack shop AND the Springwood Cottage flat pack he bought me for my 40th (I'm 54 now!!!). We have a sideboard that is perfect to display the shop on (I got that for my 50th lol) and space to create it.

To do the job properly it will take a while, first I have to install electrics then decorate the exterior and interior before I can begin furnishing the inside of the apothecary. If you followed the link to the shop details on the Dollshouse Emporium website you'll see that the shop is split into two areas on the ground floor, there are two rooms above and two in the attic.

In my head the main shop area will be the apothecary that Mr Slack, one of the Victorian medical botanists that I'm writing about who lived in Derby as an aside and he will be the minature proprietor of my little miniature apothecary shop. The side room will be a surprise that pays homage to my love of gothic mysteries, Harry Potter, witchy and wizardy and those shows that give us potions and spells to change the world and not always for the better 😉.

I want to add a herb garden to my apothecary shop, back in the Victorian era most apothecaries grew their own herbs in the gardens of their shop premises to make their remedies. Or if they lived in the inner city and their shop didn't have a garden, they went out into the local woods, meadows and hedgerows to gather herbs and plants to make remedies with locally sourced ingredients. This era of herbal medicine is very close to my heart, I'm researching and writing about two practitioners of herbal medicine from the Victorian era and have written several articles on the era with my herbal hat on. The photo below was taken when I visited the Black Country Museum a couple of years ago now.

They have a 'Chemist & Druggist' shop there that is a recreation of a 1920's chemist shop, although many of the items date back to the 19th century, as the business was a father to son affair, handed down with knowledge shared. I was amazed at how few people actually paid attention to the garden laid out at the back of the shop, I spent ages looking at the herbs and enjoying the way the beds were laid out for respiratory medicine, digestive problems etc. It would have been nice if more information was made available to the general public that connected the chemist shop to the garden and maybe a little booklet of recipes, but hey ho! Apparently the chemist whose name was Mr Doo used to make many of the remedies he sold himself, and had a considerable reputation locally for his home made medicines and pills.

I'm looking forward to making a trip to Blist Hill in the not too distant future to see the pharmacy that featured in the BBC series Victorian Pharmacy, if you haven't seen the series, below is the first of the 4 parts, you can find the rest on You Tube. I have the DVD and the book, and a few other books on Victorian herbal medicines, patented medicines of the era and strange cures based upon very scary ingredients, I may even add some articles on that subject to this blog as I share my apothecary makes and progress if people would be interested? Let me know in the comments in that sort of thing would interest you?



I've been watching Youtube tutorials on making medicine bottles and herb jars, lotions and potions too, and I've ordered a pack of 50 mini glass bottles to begin making the medicines and herbs that Mr Slack is going to stock in his shop. Although I fear that 50 will be nowhere near enough, I've ordered some different shapes of bottles and already have a few others on my radar and I've drawn up a list of items that can be used from other sources, e.g. the Tim Holtz Idea-ology domes will make perfect "specimen" jars as will the Ideo-Ology skulls.

As I delve more in to the world of miniatures, I'm seeing projects that others have made where I realise that I have tiny flower dies that I can use to help me to make 1/12th scale flowers, and small fern and leaf shape dies that can be used to make potted plants. Si has offered to 3D print some pots and things that I can decorate and I've realised that the array of paints, distress inks, alcohol markers and things like gilding wax and embossing powders that I have can all be used to make miniatures, which makes my heart sing 😍

Something else on my list of things to make are 1/12th scale books, there are a few printables out there for making herb books, but I want more, any good apothecary should have a well stocked library full of herbal information, as well as medicines, and as another of my passions in life is collecting herb books, making miniature ones for my apothecary shop is a must! I have a large collection of herb books including a 17th century copy of Culpeper's Herbal, so its only right that for my little apothecary I'm going to make some 1/12th scale herbals and receipt books for the resident medical botanist to use to treat and supply remedies to his customers and patients. Yes I could just put paper covered wood blocks in as pseudo books, but I want my books to open and be readable, its all in the details right?

I love how I'll be able to marry all my hobbies in one, I've started creating some plants for inside the living areas of the shop and I'm researching how to make miniature herbs like dandelions and lavender.  I'm also working on stitching a 1/12th scale rug, although my eyes aren't what they used to be so it could take me a lot longer than I think. I'll be sharing my miniature endeavours as and when I have progress or something that I've created that I think will be of interest to others. At the moment I'm waiting for things to arrive like moss, bottles and an assortment of other tiny components to make my creative dreams a reality.

I've already got some 1/12th scale furniture from the era, it surfaced from the loft yesterday (Si is still trying to find all my accessories, wallpapers etc), sadly when I unboxed the items they hadn't been stored very well, and some of the delicate bits had been broken, as can be seen in the main photo above. So I set to with wood glue and painters tape and I've repaired the broken bed and table, cleaned up the other pieces of dust and debris and even managed to trim down some brass panel pins to make new door handles for the wardrobe, which had apparently lost the ones it originally had but I have no idea how?

All fixed now though by my own fair hand 😁, when the glue has fully cured I'll remove the painters tape and will use some wax crayons to hide a few scratches that have appeared on the surface of some of the pieces. I have to say that there was a minor set back to my repairs, I fixed the bed last night, left it to dry but couldn't resist looking at my work late last night before I went to bed. My tired clumsy fingers fumbled and I dropped the bed on the glass mat and the bottom broke off again lol! Luckily it was an easy fix and I am keeping my fingers off for a while until its dry and I'm not too tired to remove the tape, carefully lol!

In other crafty news, my Tim Holtz glass media mat has finally arrived, I pre-ordered it back in April and I've been impatiently waiting ever since lol! I've also acquired a tin to store my alcohol inks in, but I need another one because guess what? That's right I have more alcohol inks than the tin holds lol! That's all for now, I have to go and sort out a way to store the miniature stuff until I can use it and try to find the copper tape for the electric installation, I may be some time lol!