Marie Laveau Funkin - Miniature Diorama

 Today I am sharing a Funkin that I made a few years ago.  It is a tribute to Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.  I did a lot of research and reading while making all of the details inside including symbols, items, rituals, snakes and wall art.  It is pretty special to me as I put a lot of time and thought into it.  I love to make so much detail that one sees something new every time they look into it.

P.S. There are lots of pictures :)

I love the "stained glass" windows.  I made them from clear plastic packaging and washable markers followed by mod podge.  If you look real good you can notice the gold stencil detail on the floorboards.   

There are three lights throughout.  One is a flickering candle on the left altar, the second is a strand with multiple lights woven into the Spanish moss hanging from the ceiling, and the other is a color changing salt rock lamp that I made.  Here I am showing the wires that I simply put floral tape on and painted.  

Here is one of the switches hidden under leaves.  The battery packs are also hidden under the flowers.

There are a lot of details including drawings, bones, skulls, crosses, necklaces, instruments, animals, reptiles, masks and a whole lot of fun.

The table and throne/chair are both removeable.  I just never glued them down.  The table legs are a replica of an elk foot lamp that we have here in our house.

The walls also have a metallic stencil that you can see when the lights hit it.

This hanging jar glows in the dark. 

I even made tiny voodoo dolls.  I think there are five of them scattered about.

This is the salt rock lamp.  The colors turn red, blue, green, orange and purple.

I love her throne.  I think she would like it too.  

Here are pictures with the lights on.

I hesitated to share this creation.  Pictures do not do this project justice at all.  It was so much fun to make and create.  I really hope you've enjoyed the tour of my Marie Laveau pumpkin!  

XO ~Laurie

Lilly's Room in a Fun-kin

 A good day to you all!  Some time ago I ordered a sweet little felted mouse from an artist in Russia.  She is a little girl mouse that I have named Lilly.  When I ordered her, I knew it would take some time before she arrived and had the idea to make her very own room. I had a mint green faux pumpkin that I had bought half price after Halloween the year before.  This was the perfect thing to use for her room.

BTW, Lilly's Room will be a two or three part blog posting.  So stay tuned.

Here I have already cut out the design for the opening.  You simply draw the shape you want and cut it out.  Then you can shape it up with your knife and a fingernail file to smooth the edges.  I also painted the inside pink.

Here is a picture of me levelling the floor.  I have another tutorial on how to add a floor to your faux pumpkin HERE.

I wanted her to have a window so I traced a soup can and cut it out.  In this picture I also have added gold polka dots to the walls. 

Skipping around a touch... for the flooring I cut strips from a cereal box and painted the brown side white.  Then I used mod-podge and the top layer of a floral napkin.  I went over the edges or each cut piece with a brown ink pad to define the edges a bit.  I learned this technique from Jennifer's Miniatures on Facebook.

Then you simply cut the pieces to fit your flooring area and glue down.  I always like to start in the middle of the room.

Flooring complete!

On to the lighting!  I made this little chandelier from wire then painted it white.  There is a bead in the center that the light cord will go through and the flowers in the middle are hot glued on to hide the bead.  The plastic flowers for the lights are super old.  I got them at a garage sale.

The chandelier design is not my design.  Cinderella Moments taught me that one.  You can find her tutorial HERE.  Also I purchase my LED lights from Evan Designs.

In this picture the fun-kin is upside down.  I am gluing the chandelier base to the ceiling.  I planned to run the wiring along the ceiling and down the wall to the left of the opening to I can easily turn the switch on and off and get o the battery.

I used strips of the white part of the left-over napkin from the flooring to secure the wiring.

After the glue dried I simply painted the covered wiring.  You truly don't even notice it unless you're looking for it.

This is where the wiring, switch and battery holder are.  Right inside the pumpkin.

In this last picture you can see the coin cell battery holder on the left.  

It's beginning to look like a sweet room for her!  Oh... I also used a piece of clear plastic packaging for the window and just cut a circle and panes from cardstock.

Have a great day my Dears!  Stay tuned for the next visit to Lilly's Room!

Fun-kin Floor Tutorial

Howdy all!  Many have asked lately how I go about installing the floor in my Fun-kin (carve-able craft pumpkins) dioramas.  Since I am in the process of beginning a new one I thought I'd share how I build up and install the sub-floor in my projects.  I totally understand how this can be mentally time consuming because I've been there and even though this process has several steps it has worked for me in my last three pumpkins.  The first ones worked as well but we won't go into how the floor is being held up lol.  This method is the easiest for me but still involves a measure of patience.  But if you are a mini-maker like me you've already got the patience part down pat!  Here goes.

I have a piece of Styrofoam that came in a parcel at one time.  It is one inch thick already so I just cut three squares about an inch each.  This is not exact measurements because Styrofoam somewhat falls apart anyway.

I also use cardboard at double strength, meaning double ply... I guess.  It's just thicker and stronger.  I cut a circle about the size of a saucer for this pumpkin because it smaller.  Anywhere between six or seven inches works for the larger pumpkins.

Place the foam pieces around the bottom inside.  You will see that they are at different heights because the bottom of the pumpkin has different heights.  Then place your piece of cardboard on top of these along with your level straight across.  Turn your level in a couple of different positions to see where the floor is higher.  Then take out that piece of Styrofoam and gently slice off a sliver and level again.  Do this until you've got the bubble in the center of your level.

Carefully remove the Styrofoam one piece at a time and place glue on the bottom.  Glue it back down on the spot you picked it up from.  I use Elmers Wood Glue (for everything) for this.  You can use a glue gun BUT with the thickness that hot glue can add you might not be level when you get done.  After you glue each piece, glue your cardboard circle (I put glue on the cardboard itself not on the tops of the foam) to the tops of the Styrofoam and place something heavy on top like a soup can or something and leave it for at least an hour to adhere well.  Now you've got your subfloor.... yay!!!

Back to your cardboard to trace around your pumpkin as best you can. I hold my pencil straight up and go around the outside.  Don't measure at the base because your circle will be too small. Cut the circle out carefully.

When you cut your circle out be sure to make a B and F for "back" of the pumpkin and "front" of the pumpkin on your cardboard.  Next, draw a straight line from the front to the back of your circle and carefully cut the circle in half.

Obviously this circle is too big but that's how it is supposed to be because you're going to trim it down as needed.  Place one side in the pumpkin and trim where necessary to get it to easily lay on top of your subfloor.  This could require a little bit or a lot of trimming and it doesn't have to fit exactly to the walls. Just as close as you can.

You can use a pencil to mark areas that need to be trimmed.  Take out the cardboard and trim with scissors and try it again.

Once you've got the one piece pretty good put the other half in and trim until it fits inside.  It will be laying partly on top of your piece that you've already trimmed.

Draw a little mark of where the bottom half meets the new half.

Hold it tight and take both pieces out.  Flip them over and draw a line of where you need to cut this half so they both fit.  See the next pictures. 

Cut down your line... just cut a little better than I did LOL!  I used scissors to flatten out that oceanic curve I had going! 

Place them both in your pumpkin.  The new piece is going to need trimming a touch to fit right.

Get out that handy level and see how you did.  I had to work on mine trimming on the outside of my pieces for them to lay flat and level.  It can get a touch frustrating at times. But it will eventually level up because you already leveled your subfloor.

Make two little notches with your pencil on the back wall so when you take out a piece at a time to glue down you will put it right back in the same spot.

Glue down one piece at a time and place something heavy on top to hold in place while the other piece is still there.  Once that piece has had time to adhere, take out your other piece, place glue on the underside and place back in the pumpkin.

And that's it!  You're ready for whatever flooring you wish!  The cardboard doesn't have to be perfect because it won't be seen once your floor is down and your flooring will likely be trimmed a small piece at a time to fit against the wall more evenly.  Even so, your pumpkin will be filled with goodies so the edges of your floor won't be seen as much as you think at this point. 

And that's how I install and build up my floor in my Fun-kin projects!  Have fun!!