21st Annual Creatin’ Contest : The Elven Bowyer

Good day fine folks of the world!

Today was the deadline of the Miniatures.com  21st Annual Creatin Contest. I expect you to see a few entries about the Internet via blogs today.

I will post a couple of shots here on this front page and if you look on the top of my blog you will see a new link for more photos:

If you remember I did the Elven house with paper clay and kind of left it to collect dust and then I got all quiet about it. Well I decided to go full force and create another Elven Styled building for this build.

You know me I love fantasy so what could hold more imagination than a Elven Bowyer. A bowyer is a craftsman who makes bows and in this instance The Elven Bowyer has done it for centuries.

So you will see bits and pieces from swaps from fine friends about, everything is of course handmade, Bows, tools, furniture..bits bashed or renewed.

I give you the Elven Bowyer:

If you have any questions feel free to post them below. I will share info, tips or take a request of two on tutorials.

See more here on this link, build shots, set ups cleanups..Minifanaticus 21st-annual-creatin-contest

Thanks for looking! Hugs~J

Fair complete, contest house done, gifts at my door!! : Jane happy ;)

Good day folk of the globe!

Its been a busy, crazy few weeks here, this season is busy for a lot of us I see ;)

I attended the little fair and brought my goodies I showed you over the last few weeks sold a few boxes, journals, jewelry a few mini scenes even sold!! Overall it went well and I enjoyed the experience and found that there are folks in my community who love minis!!

I finished up my miniatures.com contest house and submitted it, its all about crossing the fingers at this point!!  I have made a tab at the top called 21st-annual-creatin-contest for the photos and will be adding them over the next couple of days.

I also received some wondrous gifts from fine mini friends and I would like to show you the kindness I received ;)

Here is a shot from Brigit and Melli showing the cards and gifts I received from these lovely ladies!

Here is the tiniest elf you will ever see, he is so detailed and perfect! It only shows you how fantastic Melli is at clay which I am sure most of you know already!

OMG Sooooo cute!

Here are some of the goodies I received from Brigit, I know some of you folks are getting packs from her, your a fantastic lady Brigit!

I love these wood cut pieces they are so detailed and would make wonderful signs and detail pieces for a fireplace mantle! The little toys and yummy gingerbread are perfect.

Here is a special piece she sent me for my Sorceress Tower, it is filled with starts and displays changing colors, just....so beautiful and full of magic! She creates wonderful magical minis in her shop as well.

Thank you so much Brigit and Melli for thinking of me and sending me such wonderful and thoughtful gifts for the season! I love them!!

BIG HUGS!!

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I thought I would show you a few of the scenes I created for the fair as well, those of you who have been with me in blog land over the last few years will recognise some of these old minis I did years ago.. Hold on to them..even if they were not your best at some point you certainly can reuse them!!

This little hobbit house desktop garden was oohed over a few times but did not sell. I might add it to my shop since I think its a great little scene.

I mean LITTLE its a 6 inch dish!!

Happy and healthy holidays to you all!! I hope the season brings you creativity and joy!

Hugs~J

Horn of Plenty : A quick, simple cornucopia tutorial

Hello folks!

I though I would show this quick example of a simple cornucopia that I am making for my daughters dollhouse, I have done a video on this years ago but since its close to Thanksgiving here in the states I though it might be useful for the blog as well ;)

You want to make yourself a tin foil shaped cone for the base of your basket. You also want to extend the cone rim out a tad so you can hold it when your wrapping string around it.

You then cut a small cone of paper, paper bag is what I used here

Place the paper over your tin foil cone.

Now you will smear a layer of tacky, wood, all purpose glue all over the paper cone, it will be messy but that is how the string will adhere.

For these first few wraps I have no glue but to show you different strings you can use. To start the wrapping you want to hold the string towards the end of the cone tip and loop from the small part up

Start from the point to the cone "mouth" You can simply tightly wrap the single string like I did.

Or use a braided string

 finer twine looped for different look.

Mine is messy with glue about because I am going to paint it.. but try to use clear glue or not mess up the surface of you want the sting color.

Let that piece dry a bit. As it is still a little damp you want to shape, flatten the base so it stands on its own.

Once it has dried you can simply slip the paper and sting cone off and add a decorative braided string edge to the face.

If you don't have leaf paper I would suggest looking through your local newspaper colored prints to find fall leaf colors like I did here: Soup, orange brown,yellow..all leaf colors

If you dont have a fancy leaf punch, just fold the snippit of paper so that you have a fan shape, then you can cut half a leaf out of that folded paper and you will have a stack of leaves..

I dent the leaves on a bit of foam board with a wooden tool to make them crimp a bit.

Then you can get fancy with your details, adding a bit of straw, your leaves, fruits and veggies.

Don't forget you can make other baskets, vases, bowls the same way and they can turn out pretty nice if you take time and switch up your braiding, or looping.

Happy crafting!!!

Hugs~J

Keeping up the blog: Things I am doing: Miniatures.com contest hint.

Good day good folk!

I thought I should show som more pictures of things n stuff and do a little update ;)

Working on projects for the craft fair:  I am going to try to just get things in peoples hands, I will accept any offers they make and while doing this keeping things cost effective is the way to go.

This is a little stone wall scene I created, for this craft fair, can you guess what 90% of it is made of?

  Hint: Rough line scraper was used

O ye bottom of the bin, thou does treat me so well...

I also decided a little fairy cubby hole would be cute for a bookshelf or desk 

Sleeping in her bed of mixed scraps, hey! It works ;)

I played around with a idea of little glitter houses in ornaments, this one is just a mock up but I like the idea and will prbably make a couple since its a Christmas Fair.

My woodland path box is finished, I still have to seal everything but I think it turned out nice for both a keepsake box and a example for a miniature scene. See the little deer hoof prints?

Here is another mechanical/steampunkery type box from metalic clays and bits

I started to throw together a few of the 1/4 scale buildings I got from my greenleaf set of goodies. I think this might be a nice old cottage... if I finish it..

I also decided to take another afterschool class for the local elementary, this season we are doing Faux Gingerbread houses, I will post more about this in a fucture post but here is the example of starter and a idea of the finished project..dont mind how crappy mine looks but I only had 1 hour to make a example for the kids..thiers will look much better!

I also said I would show you a bit of my on going Miniatures.com build..I will be realeasing some sneak peeks over the next couple of weeks but here is a piece I crafted that tells quite a bit about what the build will be..without telling exactly what it will be :)

Hugs to all and happy crafty days ahead!

~J

Happy Halloween!

From my family to yours, have a safe, happy and slightly haunted Halloween!

Or should I have said Scrappy Halloween?..yes scraps and specs from the bottom of the bin ;P

Hugs~J

Prepping for the fair..again!! : Pictures and maybe inspiration for you!

Hello fine folks of the frosty lands!

Well and the warm ones... if its warm near you..just happens to be frosting early mornings here now, leaves have fallen, sticks are showing and we are in transition and heading towards the winter solstice!

I thought I would show a couple shots of some of the clay work I am jumping about..yes..nothing is finished but I work well while going with what inspires me.

Now none of these things are particularly original, people have been covering boxes and doing polymer clay jewelry for many years but for me its about bringing miniatures and polymer clay work into the light for some people who might not have seen these types of crafts or maybe to spark some of that creativity.

Remember people, when making your world a better place, start at home in your community! I complained for so many years about people not having my interests here where I lived, without thinking that maybe Janes got to get her ass on the dance floor first... and see who will come do the chicken dance!...er well you know what I mean ;)

Ok enough blabbing I got to get back to the work table!!

These boxes I got from Michaels for about a dollar each I am doing mixed media clay work adding some of the fairy garden leftovers as accent pieces and dabbing bits of scrap clay about.

I am doing a variety of styles on these cute, elaborate, theme and nature inspired.

I am working on this piece now I was thinking a path in a Forrest I have to make a bunch of little leaves to go about maybe some toadstools..

I did a few pieces of food jewelry, I will be doing some standard charms and things like this for people to browse through.

There is more... but for now that is good I think, I would really urge you folks who have stack of clay to create some of these types boxes for gifts, maybe a cupcake necklace for the little ones..just to play a bit! It is a nice change of skill and helps you to create even when your miniature thoughts stall.

Here is a gift I sent off for a friend, but this would make a wonderful Thanksgiving necklace I thought!

And this little guy I created was to help me keep crafting when I was so sick of crafting boxes..but after him I was inspired to keep working ;)

I hope all of your lives are well and inspired!

Hugs~J

1:12th scale printable: Swapping with Ms. E

Good afternoon good folk of the good earth!

I hope you are all being crafty and planning little bitty things for the season! I am working on my many projects and items for the fair.

One of the things I wanted to do this year was have a handy little printout to show the different scales available for building with. I am also going to be bringing a 1:12th 1:24th and 1:48th piece of furniture as a little display piece for people to have a gander at.

Now I will first have a disclaimer..this is just random shots I found on the web no links to whom and it is simply to get a general idea of 1:12th scale. I did not measure everything on the page down to the cm so this guide is just a quick example for people to get eye scale down before they get into the exact science of 1:1 scale.

I am sure there are many wonderful books about that will give you better examples and measurements but this guide I think ...is pretty accurate

So print from my link here: 1:12th scale examples

On the top it will say print, and a box will pop up from the left that will let you set "margins" to "none" Also remove the header and footer option by unclicking.

After you print the sheet check the ruler to yours and make sure it printed to correct scale. Let me know if your folks have any issues with it..if its off.. so on.. and I will fix it..

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I wanted to share a picture of the item me and the fabulous Ms. E of http://studioeminiatures.blogspot.com swapped. I think we decided it was simply a artistic exchange of ideas..not a swap, right Elizabeth?

Of course you all know what a simply stunning miniature artist and builder she is but also a fine lady and blog friend to many of us! Here is a picture of the jaw dropping beauty she sent me.

The details are stunning! Pasta, oil, jar of cherries the tin of cooking supplies parchment! Of course this is all set on a gorgeous shelf that she painted with the most amazing detail. You can see the dish rag and strainer measuring spoons..just WOW..Jaw dropping..immaculate work! 

A lot of these amazing items can be found as tutorials on her blog, as I am sure most of you know ;)

I have gotten so many lovely kitchen items from friends and my big goal since I started miniatures was to make a kitchen scene... I think its certainly time to make this happen!

I sent ms E a little basket of mushrooms, she did say she liked mushrooms ;)

Thank you again Elizabeth for honoring me with this wonderful exchange of artistic ideas!! 

Hugs~J