Great gifts from the Dangerous Mezzo and some floor update

As you may remember I was one of the lucky three persons who won Nina's give-away. Yesterday the postman delivered a fat envelope to me and inside I found not only one book but two! Look how beautiful they are!
Wow! What a great great surprise! And they both are just perfect for the Potion Master's office! The large open book is of plants and herbs. The smaller one was made by Nina specially for me - or Severus I should say ;) - as it is bound in black snakeskin with green and silver gems! The colours of Slytherin! Both books have gold and silver gilt-edged pages! Superb surprise! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Nina!!!!!!

And here is a little floor update. First "stones" placed and glued down to the base.

Ah..... all of them - that I prepared so far - glued down now and still half of the office's floor to cover! Grrr... back to that thick cardboard cutting....

And I see a few new Followers! A very very warm WELCOME to all of you! Hope you will all have fun here!

Flooring part 1

I love the tiles by Richard Stacey that Julie and Michelle are using in their mini projects. Still I made the decission to look for the floor tiles in my country - even knowing that it is impossible to buy many things that could be used for making miniatures here ;)First I was thinking of the resin mosaic tiles I found in one of Polish crafts e-shops. I even ordered a few packages with the different-sized plain tiles. I was unpatiently waiting for them but when they finally arrived I couldn't use them :( They are just too thick (about 5 mm) and that means I wouldn't be able to open the door! Well I might use them outside the office. So I had to decide to use something else and I bought the thick cardboard (2-3mm). Picked up the black one with the kind of "ditched" surface. It is really hard to cut but it lies perfect under the door ;) So I cut the cardboard into different size parts and painted them a bit with fair acrylic paints so that they would resemble the marble a bit. Then I added one coat of the clear nail polish on every tile. Here they are ready to put on the floor and match them up with each other:

Poor books....:(

Was supposed to write down about flooring today - well I'll do that later ;) I just HAD TO share it with you. Poor books! ;) Look at that!



If you want more to enjoy, here is the link :)

The opposite wall update

That means the door's wall. Still not finished yet but I can show you what I've done to the door by now :) I actually used the idea that Nina was writting about on her great blog a few times. That is I bought myself a sienna acrylic paint and my life became easier ;) Well, if not my life then making minis older and more used became ;) So here you can see the inner side of the door and how it looks like right now. I haven't changed anything on the inside part of the wall but again I made the outside part of it darker - hey, it's a dungeon after all;) As you see the other side of the door needs to be finish yet. It still needs nice castle-like hingers and a handle. And I am not sure about that door frame, shouldn't it be grey/stone-like instead of brown/wood-like?

The window update.

Sooo I was looking at this wall for some time and the longer I was looking at it, the more doubts I had. It is just too bright for the North wall. Took my acrylic paints, sat in front of this wall and did that to it ;) No more white cement on this wall, I am affraid ;) Well, that's better, darker, greener, more castle-like;)Ok, it is also more shiny - this time my black acrylic paint acts strange. Well, it definately has no smell at all - which is good of course;) - but it gives a kind of polished look on the surfaces and the camera's lamp showes it more intense. I kind of like it to be true;)
Some of you might have noticed that the outside part of the window didn't have the inner frames around the glass. Now it has:) I simply painted them straight on the "glass" with grey and green colours:)
Then I looked at the other side of the window and thought that the window is placed near the place where the Snape's desk and chair will be, so it should look more dirty as he probably goes there around a lot;)
And this is how the outside wall was looking when I was writing this post :)
Well...hmmm...just maybe...it is...not over...yet...;)

A bit of bleaching...

...of cement of course;) I tried to whiten parts of outside walls with white acrylic paint to make them look more real. Well, I certainly will leave the back outside wall and the two short front walls as they are now. But I will probably repaint the window's and door's walls again ;)

Look what I've won! And some Latin:)

I had such a lucky Sunday yesterday :)For the first time I have won in Give-away and not only once but twice yesterday! First I've won this beautiful black set from Ira and then one of superb books that Nina makes. I am so happy about these minis! Can't wait to see them alive ;) Do go and see Ira's and Nina's blogs - the Ladies have so many talents and they do almost everything themselves! Thank you, Ira! Thank you, Nina!

I would like to warmly WELCOME all of my 102 Followers - you Guys are definately more talented than me and I am following your blogs with great, great pleasure! Thank you and have fun here :)

Lately I spent quite lot of time looking for the right sentences or sayings which I could paint on the golden band in Severus' office. First I was thinking of something that could be said by Slytherin students and I found lots of funny/mean stuff on the net like these below:
- Oh, look: just 284758745 more days till I start caring what you think.
- I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day.
- True happiness can only be found in one thing - killing.
- Never go to bed angry. Stay up and plot your revenge.
- Is something wrong? Well, of course there is... You're still alive.
- I may be a cruel and heartless bitch but I'm damn good at it.
- I'm not afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens.

I also remebered this sentence said by Quirrell inHP series:
"There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it."

But I wasn't 100% convinced they would be good in the office. So I looked for some Latin sentences and finally picked these:
1.Contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis - Against the power of death there are no herbs in the garden
2.Audi, vide, sile - Listen, look, remain silence
3.Fas est et ab hoste doceri - It is worth to learn even from the enemy
4.Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem non secus in bonis - Remeber to keep calm mind either in unhappiness or in good luck
5.Fide, sed cui, vide - Trust but look whom you trust
6.Cognosce te ipsum - Know yourself
This is very free and mine translation so I can only hope it is proprely translated into English ;)I think the sentences describe Severus and his life a bit ;)

Award from Ira!

Thank you Ira very very much!Now, I am to pass this award to 10 blogs - some of you already have it - and as usual I would be most happy to give this award to all the blogs I follow and to all my Followers:)but if I have to pass it only to 10 here I go:
Michelle
Debbie
Marit
Tallulah Belle
Roelie
Tom Pouce
Julie
Kat for this inspiring goth-page:)
Catherine
The Whittakers Miniatures

As you may know we have the national mourning time here in Poland, so I probably won't be posting till the end of this weekend.

By the way a very warm WELCOME to all my new Followers! It is so nice to have you all here! Hope you will all have fun here!

The golden band

For some time I couldn't decide if I want it on the office's walls or not. Finally I made the decission, since this project is a mix of the book-movie inspiration (and my own too;)) then I'll paint it. So I did.
Now I am wondering what to write on this band and how to do it? I was thinking of putting the text "Severus Snape - the best there was, the best there is, the best there ever will be" or " Potion Professor's Fanclub";) (Just kidding of course;)Any ideas are welcome:)

Softies for Shelby

Some of you may know this blog Oh Mini of Mine written by very talented Lori. Her daughter Shelby is very ill and today I got a message from her friend Carey who wants to cheer Shelby up, Carey has written "Her daughter is sick. I have set up a temporary blog and we are making a soft pillow,doll or blanket, etc. If you would like to join us, click on the Softies for Shelby link on my blog for more information" So please click Softies for Shelby link and join if you can! Thank you!

Thank you, Ira for el Premio!

Thank you very very much, Ira! Gosh, I probably have never got so many awards in my life in such a short time!
And el Premio goes to ;)
Suzanne
Alienora
Debbie
Bogna
Elmira de Foch

Day 4, 5, 6... sponging

Ok, I have to admit, as I still don't have the digital camera, there is no photo from the day no 4 there. The film in my camera has just ended when most needed - as usual I would say ;) But on this day I was still putting dark grey acrylic paint on the inside walls and light grey on the outside, so that you couldn't see the colour of the bricks anymore.
As I don't want to have just one colour on the walls, for the next couple of days I was "sponging" the walls ;) I watered acrylic paint down, dipped a moist sponge in this paint and then put it on the walls with round moves. I used several colours of paints: dark and light grey, dark and light green, black, white, yellow, blue and brown. I broke two nails doing that but the effect I think is worth it ;)I have to say I was a bit affraid of putting so much damp on the walls but nothing wrong happened to them and they still stand straight :) So here are the photos of how the office looks after putting all these coats of paints on it. As you can see I was trying to make it aged and used ;) The look from the above And some close-ups. Two sides of the door I need the handle and "gothic" hingers on the other side of the door yet. Now the window This is my favourite wall - probably beacuse this one is least straight;) And I want it to be the north wall so I will add more green on it in the near future:) Two corners ;) And the other side of the fireplace That's it for today. Hope You like it!:)