Practical Magic Shop

 October is here! Time to decorate the house and craft my little fingers off! I managed to sew a bunch of tiny chenille pumpkins to send to Japan before completing a witchy miniature shop for Alpha Stamps (and I also finished a box of Count Chocula. Don't judge.)

After seeing the Nightfall Lantern Kit, I waffled over what I wanted to do with it. The Nightfall Paper is beautifully rich and is both Halloween-y and not Halloween-y, which makes it quite a treat! Eventually, I decided to pick up a Simple Scene Box for my new project to create something witchy:

The Simple Scene Box is a cute 7" L x 4.5" W x 8" Tall kit with short sides around the front and space in the back to hide wiring should you choose to electrify your scene. It seemed silly not to have a light. Good thing there's Tiny Halloween Lanterns! More later. 

The Practical Magic Shoppe is a quaint little place with spell books, potions, and brooms, plus a few odds and ends to spruce up the cottage. Who could resist a winking cat??

I didn't go overboard with all.the.things, leaving the project somewhat tidy and uncluttered, mostly because the Nightfall paper is too lovely to cover up. There is a Miniature Vintage Cash Register (left unpainted!), an etched Ouija Board 3 Inch Coffin, Pumpkin Lollipops, and a "take an eyeball leave an eyeball" dish at the end of the counter.

See the black cauldron in the back? It used to be silver, but it was painted black some time ago and I find myself pulling it out of older projects to use again and again. That thing is great! Even though you can't tell, it is filled with Black Landscaping Coal. Oh, I should've put the Metal Grain or Feed Scoop in there! Guess it isn't too late for that.

Two of my new favorite things are the Tiny Dragon Sconce and the Tiny Halloween Lanterns - Set of 3. The Tiny Dragon Sconce actually has an ornate back piece, but mine got chopped a tad to fit on the side of the Simple Scene Box. The lantern has orange vellum and a light inside (pics below).

The 4.5 Inch Tall Wrought Iron Fence exactly fit on the back of the scene box minus the two teensy bits that are on the bottom of the fence. Those were snipped off and it fit like a dream. The only other alteration I made was the rectangle of thin balsa glued to the Shop Counter.

There is a Narrow Spider Web Flourish Border tucked behind the items on the shelf. It's conveniently the same length as the shorter of the 1:12 Shelves - Set of 2. It would be cute glued to the front edge of the shelf, too.

The assembly of the things in the project are easy, and I'm going to share a few tidbits with you. First is the construction of the Simple Scene Box.

There's 8 pieces: 

Before gluing things to things, I measured the Base and the Back (inside the tabs!!) and cut paper to fit. I wanted to use the small print roses in the Nightfall 6x6 Paper Pad for the floor and had to piece it together. Do not glue it to the base just yet!

Next, glue the Front, Bottom Left, and Bottom Right pieces to the Base. Glue strips of paper on each of the sides and front. In the photo below, you can see there is a small section on the Bottom Right that is not papered. I chose to leave that area uncovered on both the Bottom Right and Bottom Left because the Side pieces go over this section. It isn't that big of an issue and the whole thing will work out fine if it's papered over, but that's what I did. 

Next, glue the Back in place, like below. Glue paper to the Side and Top pieces before gluing to the Back. Finally, glue in the two pieces of paper for the Back and Base. Now you can decorate!

Here's the rectangle of balsa that makes up the counter. It was cut just a hair larger than the top of the Shop Counter. 

And here's the working Tiny Lantern!

There's a strip of orange cellophane glued inside the lantern, and an itty bitty LED stuffed inside.

The back of the Simple Scene Box:

which is covered with a piece of foam board, like so:

Well, that brings me to the end of my Practical Magic Mini Scene! Time to move on to something a little different and maybe get a new pair of knitted stripy socks finished, too. Happy October!

FLY OVER HERE to see the supplies used!