Miniature Potion Jars - Glitter Edition

 Welcome back my mini friends!  My Apothecary needed more potion jars... and also more sparkle!  I love to have eye-catching items in my minis and glitter is the perfect supply to use.  I went to Etsy to link the seller that I used to buy my ultra-fine glitter from but she's no longer selling.  She had the best colors.  

These little jars are so fun to make.  They don't require a ton of ingredients but do require a little bit of patience as the opening to the bottles is so small it takes a day or two for the glue to dry inside the bottle.  You don't want to put the lid on without them being dry inside.  These actually took three days.  But that's ok because I've other things to do.    

I purchased the tiny glass jars from Amazon.  A couple of them I already had.  I wound up buying some that were rounded on the bottom and wouldn't stand up.  I glued a jewelry ring finding to the bottom and wha-la!  Easy fix.  

I used two drops of school glue and one drop of water in each jar.  I mixed it together with a toothpick, put my finger over the opening and gave them a good shake to coat the inside of the jar.  Sometimes you have to roll it around a bit to cover the entire inside.

Next, I carefully pour in very fine glitter.  Be prepared to get some sparkle everywhere! :)

I found some apothecary jar labels online.  It doesn't matter to me exactly what they say.  When they are in the display you can't read them anyway.

After that just use what you have to embellish the jars.  I painted the corks, glued sparkly string and used tiny rhinestones to give each bottle it's own flare.

These are the "shop made" specialty potions.  Slightly tacky but very powerful!

Have a wonderful day!  Thanks so stopping by!  

XOXO ~Laurie

Miniature Wisteria Vines

 Hi Mini Friends!  I will admit that I am not skilled in miniature plant making.  Never have been.  But I felt like I wanted a Wisteria vine on the outside of my Apothecary.  I found a floral pick in my stash that I think was bought around Christmas time.  I snipped off some of the bunches and painted them in shades of purple.  I also used a leaf punch for leaves.  I only have one leaf punch and realize that the leaves are far different in shape than real Wisteria but it works for me.  I appreciate imperfection!  I also added a couple of twigs I found outside and some moss.  I really like the way it turned out.

Thanks for visiting!  Have a great day!

XOXO ~Laurie

Miniature Stone Walkway

 Hi Mini Friends!  This Apothecary project has been so fun!  I decided that my storefront needed a sidewalk and steps up to the door.  I had already used the egg carton stone technique on the inside wall and decided to do something different for the walkway.  I used joint compound and carved the stones out of that.  Although while I was carving the stones I didn't take any pictures because it can get a little messy and I wound up with joint compound on my fingers.  But the process of carving the stones was so fun and truly mesmerizing.

I used a piece of chip board and traced the shape of the rounded window so I knew where my stones needed to be.  I cut out a few rounded pieces of cardboard and built my steps.  Then I covered everything with masking tape as the joint compound is a rather wet substance and I didn't want the chip board wet and soggy.

I also built a few borders which I'm not sure was necessary but I did it anyway.  I wound up taking them off and just using my finger to edge any access off.

I used a small tipped clay working tool (not pictured) and just went to carving.

This was the really fun part.

After all the carving, I had to let it all dry overnight.   The next morning, I lightly used a fingernail file to sand down any bits that didn't need to be there.  Also, I think my joint compound is getting old because when it dried it was more powdery than I remembered so I had to be careful.

I gave it a basecoat of paint in a medium gray color.  Then I went over each piece dry brushing white, black and light brown.

When the paint dried, I gave it a generous coating of Mod Podge to act as a sealer.  My paint chipped off pretty easy before the glue coating.  Then I broke out my tinted sawdust and gave some of the cracks some moss.

I love the look and the way it turned out.  I'm wondering if a nice "wrought iron" handrail is needed??

HEY, guess what!!!  This post makes 1,000 posts on my blog!  Congrats to me!  And while all of my 1,000 posts are not miniature related it still serves as my creative lifestyle since 2009.  From gardening, woods hunting, farm life, fur babies, my day care I had for five years, and all in between.  I have really enjoyed blogging and can look back anytime I want.

Thanks for being here!  Do you like my apothecary so far??

XOXO ~Laurie

Miniature Tin Ceiling Tiles

  Happy day my friends!  I haven't been able to decide what type of ceiling to put in my Apothecary.  Sometimes you just need to walk away and focus on something else for a bit and the answer will come to you.  I decided to try using heavy duty aluminum foil as tiles.  And lo and behold it worked!  The process was really fun and easy with very little waiting for glue to dry.  

First, I rounded up some jewelry findings (I don't know what else to call them).  I found one that I thought would be the perfect size (one inch across) and shape and hot glued it to a small piece of scrap chip board.   Then I cut pieces of heavy-duty aluminum foil into about two inch by two inch pieces.    

I placed a piece of foil on top of the jewelry piece and held it down kind of tight with one hand then pressed with my finger on top and also using some of my clay working tools to go around the piece to get as much detail as I could.   

Then I flipped each piece over and spread hot glue on the inverted side to fill the design.

I cut a piece of chip board to glue the pieces of foil to to make the ceiling.  I found this much easier than trying to glue each piece into the apothecary.  I wound up needing more tiles as I trimmed the foil and had to make more.  35 in total.

I glued each piece to the chip board with a dollop of hot glue.  After they were all in place, I used orange, brown and black acrylic paints to aged them up a bit.

I then cut and painted wooden skinny sticks to serve as the borders and glued them down using E6000 glue.

I gave the borders a coating of gloss ModPodge to finish them off then glued the whole thing into the box.  The whole shop is just a square box I have had for literally years.

And there you have it folks!  My "antique" tin (foil) ceiling!  Pretty easy and made for a fun afternoon!

Thank you for visiting!

XOXO ~Laurie