I’m working on a project at present that involves making a box look as if it was a century old.  I came across this site http://www.xrestore.com/ and his tutorial on aging wood some time ago and was just waiting for the right project to come along.  (I actually ended up buy his book.  Although it [...]

That sound you heard?  It was me, screaming with joy over my new Spy Fly.  Through some eBay mojo and the identification skills of a friend (who needs to finish a questionairre — nudge, nudge) I happened to pick up one of the static or test Spy Flys from the Golden Compass film.  I had [...]

Long-time Madame Malkins lurker and YouTuber RogueS0ck has posted a couple of videos profiling some of the Potter replicas Noble Collection has released.
Once he gets warmed up he gives a nice review of the Horcrux ring and locket from the latest film.   The pieces are beautiful, but for accuracy’s sake, I prefer the locket on [...]

Propnomicon has some intersting thoughts on the process of aging paper.  He notices a more brownish-green tinge when aging with walnut ink and a more yellow tone when aging with tea.
I don’t get the green tinge when dying with my inks –  I switched to making my own ink a couple of years ago and [...]

I saw Coraline this past weekend. It should come as no surprise that I loved it. Driving home from the theater, I pondered over the previews for the CG movies (Ice Age, Monsters vs. Aliens) and how they seemed fun, but elicited little to no excitement from me (I will confess that the [...]

A while back, a bunch of lucky individuals who blog like the dickens about Neil Gaiman received mysterious boxes filled with all kinds of goodies related to the movie Coraline.
I’m no stranger to the concept of mystery boxes having received and made (and currently making) some of my own. However, I’m in awe of [...]

I’ve been meaning to do this piece for awhile, the logo and Lon Chaney’s photo have been sitting in my “to do” folder for months. While it’s not the most exciting of props, it is from a fun movie AND it’s free for download here. I’ve also added a bit of a contest [...]

This weekend, I learned about the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary. Apparently, other than knowing it was from a plant, medieval Europeans had no idea what cotton looked like. Knowing that the end product was a lot like wool, they assumed that cotton must come from a plant that grew sheep.
Intrigued by the concept of a [...]

The only thing this has in common with my last post is that it is green and Harry Potter related. I was ecstatic to finally be able to finish my Hogwarts invitation letter. As always, lots of juicy photos were taken for your enjoyment. (And speaking of photos, my pictures of the [...]

I’m almost done with (what I think) is one of the coolest pieces I’ve ever made. What is it? Well, as it’s part of a craft swap that is not done, I can’t say. Yet.