Giveaway Draw

First of all I have to share with you that I had a disastrous weekend miniatures wise. I spent all yesterday creating polymer clay fungi and toadstools etc so I could make some minis to show on today's blog. I put them in the oven last night and what came out - a melted, singed mess!!! I have no idea what happened although I suspect I may have had the tray a bit too close to the elements. I only managed to salvage a few of them and incorporate them into the miniatures I have been working on. I still have so much to learn about using polymer clay. Then this morning a tube of white paint exploded everywhere. After cleaning that up I thought I had better quit trying to make any more miniatures before I did some real damage and to just get on with choosing a name for Toad.

 

Well trust me that wasn't easy either. Thank you for contributing so many great names for Toad - some regal or mythical, some fun and others solid and befitting a woodland toad. I have listed all the names below so that if you are ever in the position where you need to name a toad you can come back to this spot on my blog for ideas!

Albert
Archimedes
Aristotle
Bellows
Cornelius
Darwin
Eder
Fred Puddles
Fredy
Gustavo
HH (short for Hippity Hop)
Irwin
Jiminy Hoppit
Johnny Longlegs
Jumpy
Pheleas Stomper
Phil
Puddles Hoppidy
Rodderick
Roger
Sir Theodore Toad
Socrates
Telly von Toad
Teodosio
Thadeus
Theodore
Tibbir
Tibbir the Toad
Tiberius T Toad (Tibs for Short)
Tibs Toad
Toadwood III
Toadwort
Tobias
Toby
Toby Toad
Todd
Toddy
Todsy
Touchwood
Trevor
Wembley
Wembley Wetfoot

There will be two prizes. The first will go to the person who provided the name I choose for toad. The second name will be as the result of a random draw of everyone who commented on my recent blog entries about Toad Stall.

 

Drum roll please... you may now address Mr Toad as:

Tiberius T. Toad (Tibs for short). The T standing for Titus, the name of his grandfather who escaped from a stork's beak.

And the winner is BiWuBar.

I loved this name the minute I read it. Not just for the name but also for the way it added to Toad's story. He is a proud toad - proud of his family's history, his grandfather and his own entrepreneurial abilities. I feel this name suits him.

 

 

Tiberius T. Toad (Tibs)

 

There were three other names definitely in the running but I kept going back to Tibs.

 

Now for the random draw:
 

Drawn by my daughter Jamie.

 

... and the winner is Miniaturista.

 

As for the prizes:

 

Option A: You can choose your favourite item(s) from Toad Stall (apart from Jane's hutch of course) - name your favourite item and also let me know if there are any other items on the stall you like;

 

OR  Option B: you can leave it up to me to surprise you if you can't decide;

 

OR Option C: if you are not into fantasy and toads I am happy to send you a red cart and some empty planters for you to fill as you please.

 

You might choose:

 

A red cart full of finds similar to this:

 

 

A chair planted out in fungi similar to this:

 

 

A planter of fungi & snails such as one of these:

 

 

Hollowed out pumpkins filled with fungi similar to these:

 

 

A toadstool stool similar to this:

 

 

Some little wall plaques similar to these:

 

A pennant banner similar to this:

 

 

A toadstool bread board and mushroom bread with fungi stalk topping similar to this:

 

 

A bouquet of fungi similar to these:

 

 

or Option C - a red cart and planters such as these:

 

 

BiWuBar and Miniaturista, please email me using the 'Email Me' on the side bar and let me know what you would like. I will complete your miniatures over the next week and hopefully get them in the post to you next weekend.

 

As we always say when drawing a giveaway I wish I could give everyone who took the time to provide a name and/or comment a gift. In any event I hope you are all having a great weekend.

 

Bye for now from Toad Stall and Tiberius T. Toad.

 

 

Special Parcel in the Mail

I have received a special parcel in the mail - my prize from Noelle of Nono Mini Nostalgie for the fourth best guess at guessing how many items were in her delightful mini flea market.

I have long admired Nono's beautiful work and am thrilled to have something she has made amongst my miniature collection.

If you haven't visited her blog I really advise you to do so for a dose of inspiration.

My prize was a box of wonderful vintage house numbers such as she has in her miniature flea market.

Thank you so much Nono. I am thinking about doing a car boot sale scene and these will be perfect. I just have to find the right car for the scene.

Giveaway Draw Is One Week Away

Hi there. Just a quick reminder that my giveaway is drawn next weekend with a closing date of 8.00am Sunday 3 May (New Zealand time).  I will post the results some time on Sunday.

 

I have decided there will be two prizes. Quite a few people have expressed a desire to be in the giveaway but have not suggested a name for Toad. The winner of the main prize will be the person who has suggested the name I choose to use for Toad - so please keep the names coming in. You can suggest more than one name.  There will also be a second prize drawn from the names of anyone who has made a comment whether they have given a name for Toad or not. So if you want to enter the giveaway but have not been able to think of a name for Toad please comment that you would like to be included in the giveaway. The only condition of the giveaway is to be a follower of my blog.

 

As for toad - he is still only a head!

The rest of his body will have to wait until I have made a few more things for his stall so the winners of the giveaway have something to choose from.

I have made a few additions to the stall items:

Little toadstool pennant string.

A couple of chairs ready for planting and planters.

A couple of little wall plaques.

 

A chair in progress as well as Jane's gorgeous hutch that started it all.

 

A toadstool stool, planted small hollowed out pumpkin, large hollowed out pumpkin still to be planted.

I have started giving Toad's cart a bit of a battering. He uses the cart to collect bits and pieces from abandoned cabins on the edge of the woodland to make items for his stall.

A general view of the cardboard mock-up of Toad's stall. I have decide it does need a bit of frontage for landscaping so have added a foam core base.

Anyway, that is where things are with Toad's Stall. I need to spend the rest of the afternoon making some toadstools and fungi so I can make some more things. Toad is getting very excited (he would jump up and down if he had a body). He can't wait to open his stall and in the meantime he is looking forward to next weekend's giveaway draw.



See you next weekend.

The Hutch

It has arrived. I was expecting to have to wait at least a couple of weeks for the hutch to travel all the way from the USA to New Zealand but within a few days it has arrived. Exciting!

 

For those who haven't caught up with the news I won a Minifanaticus giveaway - see details of the giveaway here.

 

http://minifanaticus.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/minifanaticus-theme-hutch-giveaway.html

 

My response to Jane's giveaway question was:

 

"... I would love to see it (the hutch) as a wood colour rustic hutch to go in an abandoned house that has been taken over by creatures, whether they be fantasy or mice and birds, perhaps the odd broken cup and saucer plate, old jar of preserves, etc. Maybe some fall leaves that have come through a hole in the roof. ... I would have fun creating a little scene to place it in."

 

I was blown away when I found out I had won the hutch and when I saw photos of the completed hutch on Jane's blog. I was even more in awe of Jane's work when I opened the parcel this afternoon and saw it for real. It is fabulous and also came with some extras.

 

This is what I found in the parcel:

The contents of the parcel.

 

 

Isn't the hutch just fabulous - wonderful detail. There are mice, butterflies, snails, fungi, moss and plants, broken dishes just as I had imagined and wonderful autumn leaves. The mice are even flocked.

 

The extras included were:

 

Beads and jewellery findings.

Flower soft and green flocking.

Some greenery and flowers.

Some fun Halloween and Christmas embellishments.

Some gorgeous ribbons.

Some stickers and decals.

Components for creating leaves, flowers and butterflies similar to those on the hutch.

The card from Jane.

 



Jane would have to be one of the most encouraging, caring and sharing miniaturists I have come across. You really must have a look on her blog site. I have to say I love her fun slightly quirky creative ideas.

 

It was great to have a real good look at the hutch and see how Jane had made things. I was excited when I saw the cute little snails as I have recently been given the below bag of tiny shells by my friend Susan and I can't wait to have a go at making some little snails using some of the shells.

 

 

Of course now the challenge is on. I have to create a little scene to house the hutch in. Thanks Jane for a great dose of inspiration and motivation.



My Weekend

Woke up Saturday morning feeling a bit down with all the stresses we are facing at the moment. I've had to have a real think about my hobby with our current financial situation and have made the decision to sell a lot of my vintage miniatures. The good thing is I will now focus on making miniatures. Anyway, I picked up my laptop to check my emails, blogs etc and soon had a smile on my face. Look here to see why:

http://minifanaticus.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/minifanaticus-hutchessssssss-giveaway.html

Yes, I am one of the lucky winners of a giveaway from Jane of Minifanaticus. The hutch she has made far exceeds the vision I had in my mind's eye when I put the idea in her blog comments section of her giveaway post. I will put some pictures on my blog when it arrives. I spent quite a bit of time after reading of my win looking at images on Pinterest planning out a little scene to house the hutch in. That will be my next little project.

Talking of projects I did do a bit more to the Upcycling Project as you can see below but my heart just isn't in that project at the moment so it will go on hold until I'm ready to carry on with it. It didn't help that after I had done all the grass area a box fell on it and took half the grass off and flattened some plants!

Sorry, I didn't realise what a bad photo this was until I loaded it. I have added some large plants at the back to give the effect of it being a little environment within a full sized garden, a cork with beer bottle top for a table and two golf tees for seats, some game counters for stepping stones and the frame of a pocket watch which will become a fish pond. I will get back to this when I have learnt a bit more about making flowers. My daughter won't let me away with not finishing this project as she loves it.

 

Talking of making flowers I had a lovely afternoon last Sunday with the only other miniaturist that I know of in my town. Susan and I decided to meet and have a go at making flowers. The truth is we mostly talked and used our punches to punch out flower parts. We didn't actually produce any flowers on the day. So saying it was a fabulous afternoon and we set ourselves a challenge to produce some flowers before we next meet.

 

Therefore today I thought I had better try and make some flowers. After a lot of failed attempts I did produce two delphiniums and one tiny rose that I was reasonably happy with. I then decided I'd better create something to put them in. While our challenge was to make a flower arrangement I chose to create a trug to place my flowers in.

 

 

 

I also produced a little jug which I filled with some little flowers I made a few weeks ago. I'm not very happy with either the jug or the flowers but there is potential in both with a bit more work.

 

 

Anyway I'd better go as it is way passed when I should have gone to bed but I was determined to get a blog post done this weekend. Busy with family commitments and Dance Mum commitments next weekend. Hopefully might find a little time next Sunday afternoon to do some minis.

 

Hope everyone has had a great weekend. Happy creating.