a dia de los muertos (day of the dead) cat mermaid shrine??

Well, why the heck not? I love cats, day of the dead shrines and mermaids are really apropos right now. Last but not least, Alpha Stamps is doing mermaids this month and I really wanted to participate (not be left out, lol). So, I created a collage sheet with mermaid parts to fit the awesome Articulated Mermaid Paper Doll so you can make this...

Isn't she cute?? I love her, she has so much attitude! Anyway, you could just make a mermaid (or two) with the new collage sheet and be done with the whole thing... or you could make a whole day of the dead shrine to house her in!

 I made a shrine because I really do love day of the dead shrines and never need an excuse to make one.

 The shrine is composed of an Arched Shrine Shadowbox, a Balcony Balustrade - 12 Inch, and a brand new Stairstep Shrine Base. Plus a whole bunch of brightly painted doodads...

I used the Tiny Scalloped Shingles or Scales Stencil - 5x5 Size to add some texture to the top of the shrine base...

Of course I used Nuvo Embellishment Mousse - Aquamarine to push through the stencil because this stuff is the most amazing thing on the planet! Not only is it awesome to paint with and dimensional enough to hold its shape through a stencil, it is iridescent and comes in some luscious colors too!!! It's now available in nine colors at Alpha Stamps. (To see the colors I used click on my supply list for this project.)

 I attached my little mermaid to the interior of the shrine by gluing her to a couple of Small Wooden Spools then gluing the spools to the shrine wall. Makes her look like she's swimming around inside the shrine :)

 Someone has left her a yummy offering of chocolate mice and some lovely marigolds (which are really Tiny Paper Roses - Orange because I have yet to find miniature marigolds). The chocolate mice were made by a lovely miniaturist in England. I purchased them a few years ago on eBay.

Thanks for stopping by and reading all the way to the end. I hope you enjoy making your own day of the dead mermaid kitty and shrine :)

packing for a trip to Transylvania...

I've been really intrigued by miniature luggage lately, as Alpha Stamps has several new laser cut luggage options. After making up several of the pieces (okay... one of each), I realized I had a lovely matching set of luggage and had to make a room box to showcase it...

I'm a Goth at heart so my luggage and room box is certainly creepy enough to house a miniature girly vampire packing up her gear for a trip to Transylvania (hence, the title of this post). Boy do I love black, white and red together! It's so striking and works well with skulls and taxidermy too.

I had to paint all of my hardware black to match the paper I used but it was well worth the effort. Speaking of painting... I painted all of my furniture, too, and it was really easy to do.

 First I carefully stripped off all of the upholstery so I could reuse it.

Next I removed the glue residue with Goof Off.

Then I used the same technique I used on the furniture in Rose Ella's reading room to complete the task. I love how it turned out and I wish I had time to make over some of my life size furniture, lol.

 The base of my room box is two Corner Room Boxes that I glued together...

 I filled the gap in with a bit of Apoxie Sculpt Clay.

Once you cover the whole thing with paper, you can't even tell it's been cobbled together. Note: The paper I used is several years old and no longer available :(

 When I build a miniature scene in a room box, I like to add the pieces I plan to use slowly and move them around until I find just the right balance...

 I usually glue everything down, but, this time I decided to use Museum Wax to fix the pieces in place so I could redecorate later if I want to :)

 The Steamer Trunk looked really naked on top so I added a playful kitty...

 and some books and letters...

 Pretty soon the whole thing was nicely full and cozy.

By the way, I created a collage sheet with drawers for the new Steamer Trunk but I ended up using them inside out because they clashed with my black and white damask exterior paper, lol.

I hope you enjoyed my post today and are inspired to make your own room box or a set of little luggage or both! Here's a link to my supply list. Now go create something awesome!