Birthday Giveaway!

March 25th is when we celebrate Mother's Day in Slovenia. It also happens to be my birthday! Wasn't I the perfect Mother's Day gift? Hahaha.

Anyway, in all my 20 something years it has never once snowed on my birthday.... until today! Today we had the worst kind of weather, with snow, wind, cold and everything that goes with that. Instead of walking around in short sleeves during the day I got to go out in my coat! Terrible. 

Ok, now that my rant over the weather is done, on to more pleasant things.

I've decided to treat all of you to another giveaway. So here is what the lucky winner will get.

This set of witchy accessories will go to the lucky winner. Three Fimo candles, a stack of scrolls, three unfolded parchments, quill and ink, three potion bottles, one dragonscale book and a carved wand. Everything is hand made by me.

The items arranged on a table. The table is not included in the giveaway. Please excuse the bad photo, I was planning on taking the photos outside today, but got stuck with a snowstorm, which noone could have predicted for this late in March!

There will be another draw along with this one, for a surprise gift!

And here are the rules:

1. You have to be a follower of this blog (all new followers will also be able to enter, so don't be shy!)

2. Leave a comment on this blog entry to let me know you wish to be included in the draw.

3. Post about the giveaway on your blog/tumblr/facebook/....

The giveaway will end on Saturday, April 13th at midnight CET (Central European Time) and I will announce the winners on Sunday, April 14th. The winners will be chosen by a random generator.

Good luck to everyone!

And in other news.... I haven't gotten any mini work done since my last post. But we did get a lot of work done in our real life kitchen! I think it's almost done. I didn't want to post pictures of it here since it's not mini related but if anyone wants to I can.

I also got the greatest birthday gift from my generous boyfriend today! He ordered me a copy of a book called The Art of Making Furniture in Miniature by Harry Smith!!!!! I'm just so excited and can't wait to get it delivered! Now I'll have two books about mini furniture and I can't wait to think of new furniture projects! Did I mention I have an amazing boyfriend! :D

Anyway, this is about it for today. Again, good luck in the giveaway to everyone! 

Until next time!

*Poof*

Illyria's Miniatures Shop Open!

Remember I told you a few weeks ago that I have a surprise.....

I've just opened my own Etsy shop, where you'll be able to purchase my creations. I've listed a few items and you can expect more in the coming weeks. I'm very excited and I hope that you will have a great time browsing the shop.

As you can see I've also added a link to the right so you'll be able to access my shop through this blog any time you want. Or if you want to bookmark it, just follow this link.

For this special occasion I've decided to offer free shipping until my birthday, which is Monday, the 25th of March - so you have the whole weekend extended weekend plus Monday for free shipping. Just use the coupon code: NOSHIPPING1 and you will get free shipping to anywhere in the world!

Well, this was exciting news! Now, I also wanted to show you the gift I got from my boyfriend. I was looking at mica powders online, since I can't buy any here, and he surprised me by buying them on eBay and they arrived on the 8th, which was international women's day :) It's such a treat to have a partner that understands and supports your need to create things.

Of course I had to try them on some dragon eggs from air dry clay. They're wonderful!

I think they work best on paper. I'm going to have to think of some uses for these.

I haven't been able to create anything new since I last posted. I've been studying for my exam, I can't wait till next week so it'll be over and I can get back to minis. Plus we just got our real life kitchen - finally - and we've had a lot of work with that too. 

I do have one great piece of mini news left. I treated myself to a miniature book, it's by John Davenport - Making Miniature Furniture. I'm sure many of you know it, but of course I had to order it from UK. Hopefully it's going to arrive by next Friday. This was a treat to myself for my birthday. 

Well, as I said I hope to get back to making minis by the end of next week. Have a happy Easter and I'll see you back here after the holidays! 

Oh, and Conny over at It's A Mini Life has a wonderful giveaway, you should take a look!

Until next time!

*Poof*

Antique coffer/trunk/chest

I finally finished the coffer/trunk I was working on. I love how it turned out, and my mother already decided it's going to be hers so I see I'll have to make a few more.

First of all, a definition of coffer from Wikipedia:
A chest (also called coffer or kist) is one of the oldest forms of furniture. It is typically a rectangular structure with four walls and a liftable lid, for storage. The interior space may be subdivided. The early uses of an Antique chest or coffer included storage of fine cloth, weapons, foods and valuable items.

I think I'm going to have fun with more of these someday soon!

The only trouble I had: hinges! I actually managed to make pretty decent hinges, and they opened perfectly. But when I glued them on the coffer they didn't want to stick to the wood. I actually glued them with superglue, which is supposed to hold everything.... yeah right! And now I'll have to think of some other material for making these. I cut up a thick alluminium tray for these and it was flexible enough so I could make the hinges easily, but still strong enough to hold it's form. If only they would stick to the wood!

I was thinking I might try putting a layer of gesso on. I think that sticks to everything :) And then they might hold better with superglue.
If anyone has any other suggestions for hinges (besides buying them) then please put me out of my misery :)

Well, here's the finished thing (with broken hinges for now).

The coffer measures 10,7cm x 5,5cm and is 5,2cm high.

My homemade hinges. They actually didn't look all that bad and I was so proud of myself, and then disaster struck! Grrrrr!

These are possibly four little legs. I'm still not sure if I want them but I will dry fit them and see how it looks. Or perhaps these will be used on the next coffer, perhaps a little lower than this one. If I do add the legs they'll add another centimiter to the whole height.

And I also played around with some new fabric - faux fur! I went shopping today and found this fantastic faux fur. I'm not entirely sure it works on the books but I'm sure I'll be able to use it for something or other. It was just so pretty it had to come home with me!

And another addition. mini drawers. I found this great drawer unit for 2€ and of course I had to have it. It's going to be great for storing my mini supplies, or even minis. The drawers aren't all that small really, so I'm guessing I can stuff quite a few things in here.

Well, this is it for today. I'm not sure I'll be able to fix the hinges tomorrow. We'll see if I'll have some time for minis. 

Until next time!

*Poof*

Steampunk fantasy book + coffer WIP

This week has been a bit hectic so far. I have one more exam left, French, and so I started to study a bit. I also had to take Tiger to the vet since he wasn't eating anything and was vomiting again :( He's getting better, thank god! So today I got to spend some time on minis.
I wanted to do a book like this for some time. I really like how this cover looks, as it's not your average, everyday book.

First I painted the sides of the book gold. Then I stained the gauze and glued it on the spine. I cut the covers from thick paperboard and painted it antique gold. After everything was dry I glued the gauze on the covers and added a few gears.

The back of the book. I think it's an interesting design and different from so many other books out there. I'm planning a few more books like this, maybe some with leather. I'll have to go hunting for more fabric soon :)

I also continured working on the coffer. I decided to do the smaller one first. I cut and glued all the remaining veneer. Here is the second coat of stain (still has to dry, I was impatient and it was getting late). I'll add another one or perhaps two and a coat of clear varnish. I still have to make the top and stain the top and bottom. And then I'll have to think about hinges.... I'm really hoping I can make my own as I'd have to order them from eBay, which would be expensive and a long wait.

It's coming along nicely :)

Well, this is it for today. 

I do have two other surprises for all of you. Let's just say it'll be worth keeping an eye on my blog ;)

Until next time!

*Poof*

Davenport desk part 4 - Finished!

Whew! Well, it's done. The Davenport desk that is.

First of all, Jane over at MiniFanaticus is having an Easter giveaway, so go check it out, you could win some great prizes!

Today I put another coat of stain on the drawer fronts, made the handles and glued them to the drawers.
The handles are made from pins which have the perfect little ball on top. I painted them gold and then put a coat of varnish on. After snipping the top off I got tiny handles. I did drill a hole in each drawer and left a bit of pin attached so everything would be more secure.

I've decided that I don't need the four little legs on the bottom, since I like the table like this. Maybe for the next one, but I'll have to buy some beads since I don't have anything appropriate at home.

The finished project:

I'll probably have to make some accessories, some paper, quills, inkwells,... At least I already have the books although I didn't check to see if any would fit in the drawers..... Probably not....

Well, the drawers aren't all they could be but other than that I'm very pleased with how this turned out. I already have half of the pieces for another one of these cut and I've already assembled some of them. I'm hoping that the drawers on the next one will be better. I'm very happy I tried this project, I learned a lot and thought of some improvements too.

And another project I started working on.... A large trunk or coffer. I actually made 2, but I still have to put the veneer so they won't be as plain.

This is the inspiration. It's a 17th century blanket chest/coffer. I decided against the legs and mine won't have the carvings like this one, but other than that I'm hoping for something similar. Can you imagine all sorts of things a witch could store in here :)

I'll glue the bottom on after I'm finished with the veneer. That's going to be a bit time consuming, since it has to go on all four sides plus the top. And I'll have to figure something out for hinges. The larger trunk is 10cm x 4cm and 5,4cm high. The smaller one is 5cm tall. These are really big but I got the measurements from an antique site. I'll have to try making some a bit smaller.

And starting the veneer. I cut 0.7cm strips of veneer and on top of this one will go 0.5cm strips. It's going to be a lot of work but I'm looking forward to it since it's quite fun making this. 

Well, that's it for today (these posts seem to get longer and longer :P). I'm not going to get any mini work done this weekend since Spring is finally starting to come around and it's going to be very sunny which means outdoor activities. But I do hope to continue these two projects next week.

Until next time!

*Poof*