Winning!

I never win anything. Seriously.
I know a lot of people say that, but I bet you've won something at least once.
Even my boyfriend has won 100,000 coins on Bejeweled Blitz spins. Me, never. The most I've gotten is 25,000.

But that has all changed. Now, I can say that I have won something once. And what a great win it was.

I won Mini Dork's Glam Collection giveaway!!! Jelly? You should be. Because they're gorgeous and look great in my house.

 

                          LOOOOOOVE!!!!!!!

                                                                            A close up.
                                      

Please excuse the unfinished dresser. I've recently been distracted from finishing it by HP minis. I have two loves in miniature, apparently. The room looks pretty bare. I haven't even finished the windows. But I wanted to display my prizes NOW!!

Thank you thank you, Mini Dork for making this beautiful items, and the giveaway God for choosing me to recieve them.

I like having large pictures. I don't like blogs where the pics are all teeny weeny and you have to poke them to see it bigger and it opens up a whole new black screen thing. Not all things are good in miniature. I like my photos HUGE! So I can see all the details.


Potted tree: Michael's Craft Store
White wire bed: Dollhouse store (because it was on sale, half off!)
Bedding: Made by me
Unfinished dresser: Made by me
Mirror: Michael's Craft Store
Books: Made by me
Glam Collection: Made by Mini Dork



Cupboard Under the Stairs or Hut-on-the-Rock?

In the first Harry Potter book, Harry's original letter is addressed to him at his Cupboard under the stairs, 4 Privet Drive, Surrey address. However, he does not actually GET this letter. Uncle Vernon burns it I believe. The letter he actually ends up recieving is addressed to him when they are hiding away at the Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea.

So, which one would Harry have? He'd most likely have saved the Hut-on-the-Rock letter as his acceptance to Hogwarts letter, right?

But this letter is not the famous one. It's not the REAL "first" letter. It's not the one with address shown in the movie, and not as well known.

WHICH ADDRESS TO PUT ON THE LETTER and put in Harry's Trunk?!!!
I'm torn.

 The letters can be taken in and out of the envelope, which I left unsealed. I'm thinking I should reprint them on older looking aged paper.

And I made this cool dragon skin covered book.

It's supposed to be "From Egg to Inferno: A Dragon-Keeper's Guide" but I really couldn't figure out how to fit the title on the front of the book without it looking stupid.

So I put it on the title page. When you open the book, you can see it.

There is information on each dragon species and a full 2 page picture to go along with it.



Attempting Sculpting

I have been experimenting with sculpting.
As I get more into making minis, my repertoire of materials is slowly expanding. I like to try my hand at new things.

So, for my first attempt at sculpting I decided to try making a cauldron out of Sculpey.
It came out better than expected actually.

My hands are always sooo warm, I don't know why, and usually sweaty to boot. I know. Ew.
So the clay gets very very malleable... almost too much... to the consistency of putty. So I have to make sure to sculpt while being cold. It doesn't make for much comfort, but at least the clay isn't reducing to slime in my hands.



                                                                    Fresh from the oven

                        And then I discovered GLAZE. It made it look 10x better, in my opinion.

I put a tiny scroll of spare parchement in it :D

And then I put a nail clipper next to it for size... not the best idea, but it was what I had laying next to me and I was too lazy to get up to go find a quarter or something.

I also sculpted a quil pen to go with the parchment. It is seriously small.

And one of those old fashioned candle holder things with a candle in it (okay I don't know the word for it).

My photography skills need a lot of work. The backgrounds are just appalling, like in this next picture:

I sort of tried for a background here, but couldn't fit everything in and then needed two hands (one to hold up that back piece of paper from falling over, and one to take the picture) and got frustrated with the lighting (I pulled over our only floor lamp and held it up with my knee to shine directly on this) and finally gave up after this picture, which was the best. Yes, I use only my phone camera. If I start selling, I guess I'll need to learn to take some better photographs.

Overthinking It

So after much grief, I have come to the conclusion that basically making and selling anything that isn't your absolute OWN original idea is violating copyrighting laws, with the FEW exceptions of:

1. The person whose idea it was first says you can make it and sell it

2. You bought it from the owner of the copyright (now this I am still very fuzzy on. For example, I know you can buy a Hello Kitty cake topper, stick it on a cake, and sell the cake as a Hello Kitty themed cake). Other things, I am not so sure how that works.

3. The person who made it or thought of it, whatever, died a long time ago. I believe it's anything made before 1923 becomes "public domain" and you can use it. For example: Charles Dickens, Alice in Wonderland, etc...


BUT, who is really going to go after a small potatos seller like me. Is it worth hiring a lawyer for $400 bucks and hour to prosecute someone who is making a couple hundred dollars on minis of your items? Sheesh.

And there are a lot of loopholes that I've already thought of.
Selling a "Wizard Chest" is different than selling "Harry Potter's Hogwarts Chest" even if the two look almost exactly the same.

Offering a "free" chocolate frog to those who buy a unicorn horn...

Well the list goes on. I have a sneaky mind.

BUT I still struggle with morality. I try to be a decent human being, honest, and giving credit to those who deserve it. I don't want to be a thief, copycat, or criminal.

There is also a LOT of free art, (no royalties) out there. You can Google it.

Anyways, just because "everyone's doing it on Etsy" doesn't mean you SHOULD.
I shall think more on this matter of ethics and decide what I'm going to do.


For now, I am pretty sure I can make and sell Alice in Wonderland books!
So I made one!

There are original quotes in order of chapter from Lewis Carroll's version of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" as well as pictures to go along with them. This is my first one. It came out pretty well.

I have no idea how to price things though. I don't want to rip people off just for the sake of profit. I'm not going to price it at a price that I, myself, wouldn't pay for it. And I'm not trying to make a big profit anyways. Just cover my expenses in materials and if I'm lucky a little extra for my hard work and time. Since I wanted to make one for myself, obviously I had left over paper from the big sheets I bought and what to do with it?! Make more mini books and sell them and then I even out for what I spent on the materials to make one.

My dad told me somethig important though. He said that once you price something, that's the price. It's hard to change it without people getting upset. So I have to think hard on it. My dad said the Alice book should be $20.00 and looking on Etsy, lots of people have books of the same type as mine for that price and even higher. However, I think I'm going to price it much lower. Plus I'm new to this whole world. But I need to sell so I don't go broke buying materials for my own personal hobby!

 *Must do more research* 

HELP!! I'm confused!!

My boyfriend has been suggesting that I start selling stuff on Etsy, and I made these awesome mini books... and chocolate frogs... etc... and other things...

But is it legal for me to sell them since they're not orginally my images and ideas? The chocolate frogs are of course, from the movie and images I've found on Google, or images of Harry Potter stuff I wasn't the one who initially created them so they aren't mine. I've USED them to create things... and I've seen many people making replicas of things and selling them but I have no idea what is legal and what isn't and as I want to be a good, honest, law-abiding person, and not go to jail, I would appreciate any information.

I looked this issue up online but was even more confused by what I read!

HELP!!

Can I not sell any of these items because they're not my original idea?

I KNEW I Forgot Something

Of course! All Chocolate Frogs come with collectable famous witch or wizard cards. DUH!

There was only enough room on the backs to put their name. I thought it would be funny to have a Gandalf card since my boyfriend always (irritatingly) calls Dumbledore "Gandalf."

Albus Dumbledore's card perched atop my grimy finger. I couldn't fit his WHOLE name! (Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore)

I'm thinking of opening an Etsy after I build up some stock. My only problem is that I have no idea how much I'd charge for items. For example, Chocolate Frogs... first of all... who would buy them? Not many people I don't think. How much do the materials cost me? Not much. Labor? Well I ENJOY making them... My boyfriend said I should sell them like baseball cards. A certain number for a certain price but you don't get to choose which collectable cards you get. Books too. For example, sell my mini books a certain number of them for a certain price but you don't get to choose WHICH books you get.

The trunk it coming along. I wish I had taken "before" photos. It started out as mere foamboard.



The inside (so far). There is a photo of Ginny hugging Harry, and Hermione and Ron laughing, and a Gryffindor sticker on the top

In the bottom are some things possibly going inside. I haven't decided yet, as I've (shamefully but admittedly) grown very fond of some of the items and (selfishly) don't want to give them up. I may just start making some doubles. Haha

Like the Felix Felicis for example. I made a little golden stand that holds it up as well. You can kind of see it in the picture above inside the trunk.

I'm pretty proud of this book, as it's the first one I've made that you can actually READ!

It's chock full of cool Quidditch facts and pictures!

There are 20 pages in all. These are just a few examples.

I want to make an Alice and Wonderland book next that you can read... ok I really want to make an Alice in Wonderland POP UP mini book but whoa whoa... I'm getting ahead of myself.



An HP Obsession

So I've been taking a break from modern minis because I've been absolutely obsessed with making HP ones.

I am the biggest Harry Potter fan that I know (in person) and just LOVE replicating these magical items.
Right now I am doing a project for one of my childhood friend's father-in-law. He is the one that generously handcrafted me and my son's Harry Potter wands. He didn't charge us a cent for them and just mailed them to us out of the goodness of his heart because he knew how much we both loved Harry Potter and how much we'd appreciate them.

Let me tell you, WE LOVE THEM. Many duels have been had between the two of us. (We don't use unforgiveable curses).

Anyways, I've wanted to make him something to say thank you for a long time, but had no inspiration.

So, I have decided to make him an HP mini. I am making Harry Potter's chest, chock full of items Harry would have and bring to Hogwarts. Everything is going to be made by hand. I have already made the chest out of foam board and covered it in leather looking paper. Now I am working on the items to go inside.

Such as:

Chocolate Frogs!

The first one took me longer than I'm willing to admit. But I have gotten much more efficient! I can crank these babies out like nothing. WOOT!

I take all pictures with my iPhone. I really should invest in a better camera. These look SO much more awesome in person. These blurry pics make me frustrated. I just can't keep my hand from shaking.

And my potions!

I really love the Draught of Living Death

Unicorn Horns

Dragon Blood

 Veritaserum, Moonstones, Runespoor Eggs, and Acromantula Venom

The trunk I made to put everything in. It's not done!!!! This is just the basic trunk.