The Secret is Out of the Barn

Jane of Minifanaticus guessed correctly! The barn will be full of walkers. 

I've been a huge fan of The Walking Dead since the very first episode and when I saw this little kit for sale I knew that I had to have it and fill it with the living dead!

It's taken me a while to gather all the bits and pieces I wanted to use (about 2 years!) but I think it has been worth the wait, I love how it is turning out. :)

Playing with the lay out.

 Not quite finished (just wanted to see if my camera could handle something so small)

 The first 2 dozen Walkers done! I think I may need more though.

I made a windmill using 3 toothpicks, some scraps from the barn kit, a circle of card stock and an earring post.

 Glued it all together and painted it silver. If you blow on it gently it actually turns :)

The well is made from a strip of quilling paper wrapped around a small bottle cap and secured with pva glue. I then stuck it to some plastic "pond water" that I bought on ebay and placed it over a painted black circle to try and give the illusion of depth.

 Yes there will be a walker in the well too.

 Who's that leaning on the RV?

 It's Daryl Dixon of course.

I have painted the rest of the cast but haven't taken pictures yet. I'll try and post again tomorrow with those.

Thanks for looking. :)

Being Grounded

Now that the barn is built I'll be needing a block of land to put it on....

I cut a circle of 5mm foam core and covered it with wood powder air dry clay.

 And wrapped it around the edges to hold it in place. I was a little worried that it would warp as it dried but luckily it stayed pretty flat.

 A quick check to be sure the barn sits flush to the ground.....

 Close enough for my liking :)

 Then on to painting the grass. first a coat of heritage green.

 Then a dry brush of several different shades...

Followed by a thin coat of pva and 5 different shades of green flocking powder to give the grass some more dimension.

Now I'm off to paint the first of many 12mm figures. 

This could take a while.....

Thanks for visiting :)

Oh, before I go... There is a hint in this post as to where I'm going with this build.

Did you spot it?

A Barn Raising.

Started a new project, one that has been on my mind and in my stash for ages. 

The moment I saw this little kit I knew what I would do with it. 

When I say little I mean little, it's 1:144 

This is the example the manufacturers gave. 

 I bought the kit on ebay from an estate sale. Most of the pieces were loose but nothing was missing.

 First coat of paint.

 I drew wood grain on most of the structure with a fine tip marker before I wondered if it would show on camera? As you can see I wasted a few hours because it doesn't.

 So I went over it again with a dry brush in a few shades of grey and brown. Finished in a fraction of the time and I'm much happier with the result.

 Starting to put the pieces together. So tiny, squee!

 The original design has sliding doors but I wanted mine to open the traditional way so I debated whether or not to put the runners on above the doors? I did end up adding them later because the side looked rather plain without them.

 I love the aged effect I got with the paint, so glad I decided to paint over the wood grain.

 I also closed in the window after I'd taken the photos.

Structure completed with the doors bursting open. Can you guess where I'm going with this?

I'm off to get the base ready now.

Thanks for stopping by. :)

I've Been Published!

My first doll house is in a real magazine!

Ok, to many of you this is not new and obviously I've known about it for quite some time too but today I get to hold it in my hands for the first time.
Almost a year ago my entry into the Undersized Urbanite Competition won first prize in the newbie category and part of my prize was being published in Miniaturas magazine. Something went wrong somewhere and my original copy never made it here.
A quick email to Christina (host of the competition and author of the blog Little Victorian) and she started searching high and low for a copy for me.  Thanks to her tireless efforts I now have a magazine that will be shoved under the nose of everybody that visits me until I start hearing "I know, you already showed me"

Thank you Christina for all the work you put into hosting the competition and for tracking this down for me. I really do appreciate the effort you put into making sure I got my copy. Thank you

Daily Dish #27 Muffins

I tried putting this post up yesterday but the photos wouldn't load. I managed to get them on facebook and instagram without a problem but for some reason just couldn't get this to happen.

Some days I feel like I'm sitting at the computer more than at my craft table. So this is going to be the last daily daily dish. I'll still be making them and (for now at least) I'll still post them on facebook and instagram daily but I think I'd rather do a weekly blog entry showing all the dishes and anything else I've made during the week. 

These are the links to my other accounts Facebook and Instagram I'd be grateful for your support on either or both if you use them.

Thanks for coming over, see you next week,

Annejuli :)

Daily Dish #26 Peanut butter & Jelly

I thought I'd make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, simple right? Add tropical heat, a broken air conditioner, modern technology and a frustrated moron (me) in charge of things and the answer becomes no.

Turns out that high temperatures and humidity make polymer stick to ... well, everything! This in turn makes the moron (again me) frustrated. When frustrated this particular moron stuffs things up at an epic rate. I spent over an hour last night searching for a particular tool, decided that if I cleaned up some of the horrendous mess I would probably find it, nope. Decided to use a different tool, not as effective as I would like but at least the job will get done. Now where did I put my glasses? Fast forward another hour and I find said glasses by banging my head on the underside of the table (yep on top of my head the whole time) and complete the simple task of adding a lid to the jam jar. Then I knocked over a tool caddy and....... You guessed it out fell the missing tool. No wonder I couldn't find it, it was exactly where it was supposed to be! Enough, go to bed and finish in the morning.

For some reason everybody I've ever meet had to contact me in some way this morning. Then the wall shelf in my mini kitchen decided to detach itself from the wall and fling tiny glasses, containers and lids all over the craft room (tacky wax and tropical heat don't work well together) By the time I got the camera out I'd lost the morning light (hence the dark photos). 

I put the room away pulled the lap top out, inserted the sd card chose the 3 pictures and realised I forgot to take some with my phone for instagram! Grrr! Oh well I just got a mini sd card for the phone so I should be able to put one of these onto the phone, right? Nope, my lap top thinks my phone is a cd burner and won't play the game until I insert a disc! At this point it's no longer morning. Not wanting to pull out the kitchen and go through all of that again, I placed the tray on my keyboard and and took a quick picture. It's pretty good, light could be better but it's ok and it shows scale with no effort, think I may have found my "thing" that makes my photos unique. I'd show you but my laptop thinks my phone is a cd burner.

Any way it's gone 2pm and I've been working on this simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich since 6am yesterday, I haven't even decided what to cook for tomorrows post and facebook hasn't allowed me to load anything yet. So I'll stop moaning and get on with things.

Help yourself to a sandwich. Me? No, I won't have any I'm allergic to peanuts.

Thanks for coming over,

Annejuli :)

Daily Dish #25 Shish Kebabs

Chunks of chicken, capsicum,  pineapple and cherry tomatoes skewered and barbecued. Served with a fresh garden salad.

This would have looked so much better in a garden setting, maybe I'll make one for future bbq meals.

Thanks for stopping by :)