Welcome to Diagon Alley from Harry Potter

 In the process of cleaning out my storage room, I gathered all the shadow boxes and frames that could be used for my miniatures. Right now it seems that people are making book nooks.  They are nice, but why not use what we have on hand?  This little frame will be a good size for a little scene. I chose a Harry Potter scene.

At Christmas time, you can buy this rubber type brick sheet at Michaels with the Lemax collection. (Christmas and Halloween miniature villages) The scale is not 1:12 but I think it will do fine. I glued it on with some professional grade construction glue. It is good, but takes a long time to cure. While mixing grout for my stone road, it seemed good to help distress the brick walls. I used wood filler (white), white glue and sand. I just smeared on the mixture to make it look aged. After it dried, a couple of layers of antique matte Mod Podge was used as a sealer.

The stone road was nail file sticks that had been used previously to sand items. They were cut and glued down. After being thoroughly dry, I applied the grout in the spaces between, wiping the excess grout off the nail file stones. Then the stones were painted with acrylic paint mixed with fine sand and white glue. A couple layers of Antique Mod Podge will seal it.

The arch itself was not as hard to make as I thought it would be. Foamboard is cut and is used for the interior of the wall, layered until the right width is achieved. Then the brick sheet is cut and glued. Clamps held it until the glue had set.

Adding a home made crate made with scrap wood pieces. Watered down acrylic paint is used to stain the crate. Usually, I use wood stain, but didn't feel like setting up a staining setup outside like I usually do.

Adding a barrel to the scene. It still needs a tap and maybe some nicks and scratches as it is a used barrel that has been set out in the alley.

Another rustic crate is added.

Empty wine bottles help set the scene.

All that is needed now is a print of Diagon Alley to put in the archway. I am also thinking of adding a sign that says

 "Welcome to Diagon Alley, Harry". 

There were so many good photos of  Diagon Alley, it occurred to me that I could put a removeable back on them, and switch the photos from time to time. Here is the first alley:

A closer look

The second alley:

A closer look

This project didn't take long, and was a lot of fun!

Dollhouse miniature lamp #4 for the common room

 This lamp sits on the long side table in the common room to the left of the window.

The column of a tall lamp will be cut down to the right height.

The lampshade took some time to find, and I'm still not happy with it. But it is the right size.

This wooden bead is sanded on the inside with a bead reamer so it will fit on the column.

These metal long beads will make the column a bit thicker.

I thought a wooden bead would work, but in the end, polymer clay is better for the font.

Dry fitting to see how it looks. The shade was simple to make, just use a hole punch through the top of the suction cup.

The font, a metal washer, and the font cap is put on the column

Here is a sideways view.

A washer is glued to the bottom, the lamp is glued to the font cap.

Now the lampshade and chimney are attached.

Dollhouse miniature lamp #6 for the common room

 This is the other lamp that is in the movie and it sits on the square table.

I didn't really need to make this, but I had the supplies and why not? At my local thrift shop last year, I scored some brass miniatures that was made in Holland. Just couldn't resist, even though not all of them are 1:12 scale. So the base of this lamp was already made!

The bead is a plastic teardrop and I spend a lot of time sanding it down. The brad  is just the right size and took soooooo long to find in my scrapbooking supplies.

After sanding down the bead, it still doesn't look right, and I switch to a regular glass bead.

E6000 is my friend and works well here.

After cutting a small piece of fish tubing, it will be glued to the top of  the bead.

Dollhouse miniature lamp #5 for the common room

 This lamp sits to the right of the iconic fireplace.

Here are the materials chosen for this lamp. Again, a purchased lamp is cannibalized and all my junk drawers have been searched. My jewelry supplies seem to be used more for miniatures than actually making jewelry. 

This piece from my junk drawer is hollow, and will fit on the bead nicely, basically hiding half of the bead.

E600o works well for metal attaching to plastic.

For added security and to keep the lamp in a somewhat straight column, this wire is attached through the beads.

An eyelet piece, and  a bead cap is glued onto the wire. 

Lastly, the glass bead is attached. I left the wire quite long inside the bead, and it looks like there could be a glowing light in there.

Someday I may revisit these lamps and make them lighted. That is a great challenge for another time.

Dollhouse miniature lamp 3 in the common room

 This lamp sits on the square table in the common room. There are actually 2 different lamps that the studio photos and the movie photos show. Here is the studio tour lamp.

I start with a regular lamp base and column.

A glass bead from my jewelry supplies is chosen. the hole, if widened, will fit nicely on the column of the lamp.

Using a bead reamer, things were going along nicely, and then my bead split. Oh well, glue it back together!

Just like the lamp #2, some polymer clay is used to make a font. Then I glue on a washer. The font cap is again a little clay.

Lastly, an eyelet piece and the bead is glued on.

Felted Christmas presents

 I usually make or buy Christmas presents for the management at the store I work for. My managers are great, and it's nice to make something for them because they do so much for me year round. last year I made them all coffee cosies with themes I knew they would like. This year's gifts were fast and easy to make. Here was my inspiration.

My one manager loves Halloween, and so do I, so I made 2 of these. Here are the materials needed: felting needles, felted wool sheet, roving wool, wire, bell, embroidery thread and needle, finger protectors, and paper template.

Everyone in my family thinks I'm a hoarder, but I prefer the term collector. I literally had everything I needed and didn't have to buy a thing. For my moon, I actually used the white hair from our cat. It doesn't felt as well as wool, but is bright white, and gives a fuzzy effect.

There is a piece of styrofoam underneath to protect my needles and work surface.

The ground under the pumpkin is a mixture of wool and part of a wool shoe insert. I really like that it had different shades of brown in it. It makes it look like soil.
I didn't want to frame it, and came up with a blanket stitch with a variegated embroidery floss to finish the outside edges.

Adding white floss to make stars. I really like this feature.

What is not featured is the wire tentril that is added to the hat. I simply wound the wire around a paint brush handle, so one end is wide, and the other is tight, forming a cone shape.

Here is Snowball, playing with the roving. Quite entertaining until she takes off with a piece.

So I gave one of my managers her Christmas gift early, so she can hang it up for Halloween. After  I give the others their Christmas gifts, I will add to this post, and show you the others.

Keep on crafting!

My second felting gift is for my manager that loves Tim Burton. I watched some movies, and settled on the scene that has this curly mountain.

My challenge will be the cemetery fence.

Wire is used to make the cemetery fence

The next 2 gifts are going to be gnomes, one a Scottish Gnome (hope they have Gnomes in Scotland)

I knew one of my managers would look under the gnome's beard, so I added some wool clothes underneath.

This manager also loves plaid, so this gnome also has a plaid hat.

Was panicking as I had given away all my pom poms, and frantically searched for a stray pom pom or two. Was successful and was lucky enough to find some!

The tip of the hat has a bell sewed on.

I poofed up the hat with some poly fil just to make this piece more 3 dimensional.

Roughing in his clothes from some old wool clothing.

Using thick yarn for the Gnome's beard

I think I sewed the yarn in place, but may have just felted it in with the felting needle.

Making a mustache.

Brushing out the yarn, you can see the comb I used. I trimmed the mustache.

Here is the finished piece I added embroidery floss to make the snowflakes, and a cute present which was a square of foamboard covered in fabric, with a little bow on top, which I sewed onto the piece.

Here are the final pieces Hope you enjoyed my journey!