Papercraft-a-long Week 1: Halloween at Hogwarts

Wizard cereal and Honeydukes boxes 

Hi, Lily here, and welcome to the first week of our craft-a-long.  This week we're making all the little things that your Hogwarts student needs and can never find, starting with a set of candy boxes from Honeydukes.

Honeydukes Boxes:  print these on cardstock for the best effect.

...with real doll-sized chocolate frogs

The chocolate frog boxes are just the right size for a doll-sized chocolate frog.

Wizard magazines and catalogs

And we can't forget the reading material for the Hogwarts Express with two copies of the Quibbler and some catalogs for holiday shopping.  I suppose I shouldn't order anything from Borgin and Burkes, even if I do want the book they offer...  (Pretty sure anything titled 'Secrets of the Darkest Art' is banned at Hogwarts, or at the very least, locked in the restricted section of the library.)

I'm honestly not sure if Borgin and Burkes
or Weasleys's Wizarding Wheezes is worse...

The Quibbler is as accurate as always.

Quibblers and Catalogs

Instructions

Hogwarts brand composition notebooks

And finally, a set of notebook covers just for Hogwarts.  The covers are sized to fit an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper that's been cut into eighths.  Just stack everything together and staple down the spine.
Notebook Covers

We'd love to see pictures of what you've made.  Just drop us a line at jinjia.mixed.goods@gmail.com.  And come back next week for our next installment.

Meet Cauthrien Grace Trevelyan

Greetings.  I'm Cauthrien Grace Trevelyan, the newest member of this particular crew.  I'm named after a knight from Dragon Age Origins.  I've actually been here for almost a month, but this is the first time any of us have had time to set up something formal.  Usually Nora and I take over the reading room display, but this time we set up an open study.

...too many books

We do not have...

Since I'm supposed to a knight, I've been *ahem* asking the human politely but forcefully for a set of plate mail and a sword.  I think the crafting backlog will have cleared up by January such that I can have what I want before we all go off to the Marketplace at Birka.  I also enjoy chess, martial arts, and military history.  Eventually I will have a copy of Bellifortis and De Re Militaire and potentially a few swordfighting manuals.

Nora's in the corner right now with a plate of cookies and a stack of Nancy Drew books.  I already know she's going to borrow my books when they arrive.  Nora's like that, but she prefers politics and economics over military history.  I might try to get her a copy of 'The Prince' sometime.

A reading nook

Snacks and books

Next week we'll be starting our first ever papercraft-a-long, for anyone who wants a library like ours.  The craft-a-long will run for 10 weeks, from October 18th to December 20th, and will give you plenty of time to make books and toys for presents.  Lily starts it off with a set of fun wizarding goods, and then Nora and I will show off our books.

Please contact us at jinjia.mixed.goods AT gmail.com if you have any suggestions for future projects.  We have the first 5 weeks lined up, but are always willing to entertain new project ideas for the future.

The obligatory cat picture

Aggressively Seasonal Halloween: Round 2

After the last batch of doll clothes, I still had Halloween fabric left over, so these dresses happened.  Just in case there's a 1950s Halloween sock-hop.  These are from the 1950s Keeper Dolly Duds Simplicity pattern.  Despite the fact that Shepard looks ready to kill me for putting her in a dress, the green really goes well with her eyes.

Lily's potions (Free potion label printables)

I think the human now regrets giving me access to a fully stocked lab and a few textbooks.  (She was the one who handed me the Voynich Manuscript, Advanced Potions Making, and Magical Draughts and Potions.)  I only got a little carried away brewing.

From left to right we have:

Veritaserum, Draught of Living Death, Invisibility, Calming Draught, Polyjuice potion

And again from left to right:

Shrinking Solution, Felix Felicitis, Antidote, Pepper-up, Amortensia

One of the most important things about working in any lab is making sure your supplies and products are labeled appropriately.  (There are things that you do NOT want to mix together by accident, and they always look so similar too.)  So I've made up a few sheets of potion labels for everyone.  Just use a dab of glue or ModPodge to glue them to your own bottles.

Mini Potion Labels

Aggressively Seasonal Halloween: Round 1

I'm Nora.  Really, I'm not sure what the human was thinking this time.  Other than perhaps that it was fall, and thus close to Halloween.  Ah yes, and the fact that someone asked her to make this particular outfit.  To my eternal chagrin.   I happen to be the doll of choice for modeling since I have the coloring closest to what the client is looking for.

This outfit comprises of a long sleeve peasant blouse, and a reversible vest and skirt.  The first option is quite pleasant, if a bit plain.

The second and third options have just enough color to make a bit of splash, and the purple ribbon matches the bits of purple in the fabric.  I'd say I rather enjoy these, all things considered.

Dear client, please do not subject any of your dolls to this last option.  I beg of you.  No doll deserves this indignity.

Alas, I was not the only doll this morning subject to the aggressively seasonal streak the human is on.  However, Kana and Lily bear it with much better humor than I.  I do believe they actually enjoy the whole process.  To be fair, the human also spared them the worst of the potential color combinations.  Unlike me.

Kana and Lily are showing off a six piece aggressively Halloween mix-and-match wardrobe with a long sleeved peasant blouse, a short sleeve peasant blouse, a reversible vest, a reversible corset, and two reversible skirts to match.  There's a total of 32 possibilities for outfits, though the human has chosen her favorite 8 here.  Suffice to say, some combinations look better than others.

Alas, if I recall correctly, the human is only 30% of the way through the stack of Halloween outfits she cut out.  There will be more to come.  Unfortunately.

More Harry Potter books for dolls

This time we have 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard", "Quidditch Through the Ages", and "Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them".

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard" contains synopsis of 5 wizard fairy tales, including "The Tale of the Three Brothers" in full.  It also has "The fountain of fair fortune", "Babbity Rabbity and her cackling stump", "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot", and "The Warlock's Hairy Heart".

The book on quidditch has a summary of the rules and a history of the game, as well as list of most of the types of fouls, and the book on beasts has an actual fantasy bestiary.

Books for Maryellen (Free book and paper doll printables)

You didn't think I was going to leave the newest BeForever girl out when I was making books, did you?  Books from the 1950s are slightly harder to come by, but Maryellen will have a Betty Crocker cookbook for kids, and a Betsy McCall book and paper dolls to go with the book (thanks to Jeanna W. for her scans).  The cookbook comes with 32 pages of real recipes that might come in handy at the diner.

And here's a freebie for your Maryellen or other 1950s girl:

Betsy McCall Paper Doll Storybook

Betsy McCall Paper Dolls

Book Instructions