Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Halloween Apothecary - Part Two

If you haven't read it already, you can find Part One of my Halloween Apothecary project in this post.



Today I'll go into more depth of how I made a few special features and accessories.

I didn't want every section to be all shelves; so in the center unit, I inserted four matchbook boxes to create a set of drawers. I had to pad the sides with a bit of foam core board to make it a snug fit.


I painted each drawer black, glued them together and lined them with Halloween patterned paper. I used Tim Holtz' ring fasteners to serve as handles.


Each drawer is filled with spare potion labels... and if you look closely (click to biggify), something is crawling it's way out of the bottom one.

After viewing many Harry Potter reference photos, I wanted to add leaded glass somewhere to my project. Hogwart's is full of the diamond-patterned windows so I decided to create a door for one section decorated in that style. I tried many different methods; chipboard frames, plastic slide cases, I searched through my Cricut patterns.... nothing seemed to work well. Then I decided to just try a transparency sheet. I drew the pattern, re-sized, printed and cut it to cover a single square opening. After reinforcing the edges with black painted chipboard on the back, I added a gem brad for a door handle and two small hinges and attached the other side of the hinges to the wood frame.


Inside this section (and one other section in the middle unit) I have quite a few "test tube" style bottles that were on sale in the jewelery section at Michaels. All I did was remove the wire hook on the tops; they already were filled with glitter and sported those neat labels.


Every well-appointed apothecary requires some reference material. So, on the upper right one cubby one will find three aged scrolls and a quill pen in an inkwell. The quill is a real feather; the scrolls were made with plain paper stamped, inked and rolled with dyed string.


Then I made a book all Potter fans will recognize; this teenie "Advanced Potion Making" textbook was created using pages and book cover images I found on the net, shrinking them down dramatically to fit on the shelf.


After colouring with blue Copics, I wrapped the cover image around some thin cardboard (actually an old toothpaste box with the layer of graphics torn off!).


I inked and sanded the edges and bent the corners to portray the appropriate amount of wear (Ron and Harry fought over who WOULDN'T be stuck with this old book, it was so worn out).


I then glued the each of the uniquely-printed pages together and made sure that last page had "This book is the property of the Half Blood Prince" just like the movie prop (albeit in a much smaller scale!).


I also made a bookmark with Halloween paper, chipboard and string tassel. At about 2 inches tall, this is by far the smallest text I've ever made!

Well, I guess that is enough for today. I'll continue more about the project in Part Three.


22 comments:

  1. So gorgeous and inspiring - I love it xx Michelle

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  2. I enjoyed reading the petite details you attend to. I'm not a Harry Potter fan but can still appreciate the spooky theme here.

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    1. Oh good... yes, if you aren't familiar with Harry Potter some of my references may sound strange. But I do love that series - I read each of the books as soon as they were published and have all the movies - I even watched them all in a row one weekend while working on this project! The perfect inspiration ;)

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  3. Really truly an insanely detailed project. You should be very proud of this masterpiece!

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    1. Thank you Laurie! I am happy it turned out - and I can add to it anytime too.

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  4. A-freaking-MAZING!!!!!!!!! This project looks like it was so much fun to make that I'm willing to bet you were sad to see it come to an end.

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    1. It was fun JoJo - I know you can appreciate all the Harry Potter references; being a fellow Pottermore patron like moi ;)

      Actually, I doubt it will ever end. I just got a couple more interesting bottles in the mail; time to add them to the set...

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  5. How are you ever going to put this away....I cannot believe the amount of work you put into this...and I am not even a Halloween person, but it is amazing. AMAZING!

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    1. Ha! Well, that's the best part; since I made it with teenie tiny bottles, I am going to keep it on my shelf in my craft room. I already have a shelf with various vintage holiday items I have found over the years, so this sits below that. I just had to re-arrange a few things that were there before ;). Thank you so much Ceekay, you are too sweet!

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  6. WOW! This is truly breathtaking and amazing. I am entranced by your attention to each and every detail. Happy Haunting Halloween...

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    1. Oh thank you! Once I was able to figure out a few things, it was fun to see how detailed I could get at that scale... Happy Early Halloween to you too!

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  7. I absolutely love all the details! Can't wait to see more... ♥

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    1. Thank you Carmen! Tomorrow will be Part 3 - hopefully you all don't get too bored with this many posts and photos... but the only other way to show it all is with a video, and I am so not prepared to do one of those yet!

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  8. Maureen, your attention to detail is amazing, thank you for sharing your creative ideas! HAPPY FALL!! Mary

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    1. Thank you Mary! Happy Fall to you too! I am so happy it is finally cooling off here; it's my absolutely favorite time of the year!

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  9. I am so in awe I am speechless!
    The idea of the drawers and the added detail of something escaping.
    I am a book addict so your potion book is to die for!

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    1. Oh you are too kind, thank you! Heh, glad you could spot the spider... hard to see since he's black too.

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  10. I am amazed at the amount of work you put in to getting every little detail just right!

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    1. Thank you Kathy! You know, I even have two BUTTONS in there... on either end of the hourglass! I was thinking of you, the Button Queen when I glued them on. ;)

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Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know you were by. I appreciate and read with delight each and every comment!

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