Fairy Doors and Fairy Garden accessories

Fairy Doors

from Magpies-Miniatures.net

Fairy Doors are a great encouragement for small children to adopt good behaviour, and to help them through challenging development stages in their lives- from toilet training, to new beginnings (new homes, new schools, family changes), as well as simply adding a touch of imagination and fun to your home!

Simply find a suitable place for your door - they are great on skirting boards, or perhaps on a shelf away from tiny fingers (but keep them indoors please!), and let the imaginative play begin. 

Perhaps provide a little basket for those baby teeth to be taken away in, to cut out the rifling under pillows in the dark. (and stepping on plastic bricks on the way out of the bedroom).

Dress the doors with knockers, and letterboxes to add a further touch of realism. If using on a shelf, why not incorporate a lovely Royal Mail red post box, which also acts as a beautiful bookend - in perfect scale with the Fairy Doors.

Encourage good behaviour with your fairy leaving notes, or small gifts beside the door in a morning for your child to find. If you're feeling really brave, incorporating glitter can add a further touch of magical sparkle.

The great thing about imagination and magic, is it's limitless. Let your ideas run free, release your inner child, and join in the fun of seeing your child engage in imaginative play.

We stock many accessories at Magpies-Miniatures which can bring even more magic to your little doors, from door knockers and letter boxes, to post boxes, baskets to place outside, even toadstools to create a miniature Fairy Garden. Just remember to keep them inside!

Shop the range here: Magpies-Miniatures

Wish List

For a good while now we have been bugging our host (Create) for a Wish List feature, but to no avail. However, a quick Google told me that Amazon have created a "Universal Wish List" which is not only usable on Amazon but on ANY online store.
I gave it a download, and a quick test run.

I'm currently using Firefox 23.0.1 and I have to say it works BRILLIANTLY on our webstore.
Will give a quick tutorial here as to how it was applied and used.

So all you need to do is follow this link (presuming you have an Amazon account, if not you need to sign up first) :
and follow the instructions!
When you restart your browser, you'll see an amazon "A" next to the address bar. Now, visit our web store.... and find an item you like (isn't too hard ;) )
I'm a geek for all things creepy, so I'm choosing the 3 black rats (really, they're adorable!)
So... find your product, and click the A!

 

This will bring a pop-up screen up, so you have the option to add to your wish list. Do the same for any other product your heart's craving for! Worth putting a  few things together to save on postage costs, right?

I'm choosing some more favourites now....

...

My list now looks like this:

 so now you can compile your list until it's ready to pop! Beauty with this is you can even post it to facebook to drop some very heavy hints, print it out and leave it in front of the kettle for your spouse to accidently "fall" upon, and when you're ready to purchase anything, just visit the product page by clicking on the item title, and pop things in your shopping basket. Beautifully done! 

You can set up lists for various websites, or even different rooms in your dolls house - a bathroom wish list, living room wish list... etc!

What a magical little feature.

Thank you Amazon!

-Niccy  

www.magpies-miniatures.net

Ebay Changes - Effective 4th September 2013

Ebay are making HUGE changes to the way sellers sell, and it makes a huge impact on Small Businesses like ourselves: so much so, that it looks like we're going to have to take most of our stock off there, and sell only through our website. 

Ebay are becoming more and more greedy, and with Royal Mail also taking their price hikes sky-high, it really is a battle for us, and many other small businesses out there.

Please shop directly through our website, where we still accept PayPal payments, so are just as secure as eBay - but there's no fees to pay, which means we can bring you the products cheaper. There's also 3000 more products on our website currently, than there are in our eBay store.... I will give a little more information below: 
This point is for us, a main point in why we are going to have to consider removing our products:

From 4 September, if your item sells, you’ll be charged a final value fee based on the total cost to the buyer, including postage, packaging and other related costs.

To manage any fee increase you may see, we recommend you include postage as part of your item price and offer items with free postage. You may be able to achieve lower postage costs by exploring alternatives to your current postage supplier.

(-Ebay, quoted from here: http://sellerupdate.ebay.co.uk/autumn2013/fee-changes )

- What this means, is that we have a 99p item on eBay, (for example a black top hat), we currently charge the customer £0.99 + £1.00 Post and Packing. 
eBay currently take 10% fee off of the item price, not the p&p. 

Now what they are saying, is that the final value fee (the percentage they take) will now ALSO include the p&p charges (I fail to see WHY they should benefit from this) - so they suggest adding the cost of postage to the item to the item cost, making the hat effectively now £1.99 with "Free Postage", and they will then take their final value fee from the £1.99, not the 99p, which is clealy more; therefore we will be forced to up the price, or lose our profit. So we'd have the choice of up our prices to customers, or lose our business entirely as our profits would be eaten little by little.

What is also important to note, is that currently if you require e.g 10 top hats, you would pay 99p for each of the hats, £1 original postage cost, and a further 10p per extra hat, which would mean the order would total £11.80 (10 hats at 99p, postage at £1.90)
With the ebay changes, this same order would cost you in excess of £19.90, as the "postage" fee is included with each individual item, not as an order as a whole. This figure is assuming we DON'T increase our prices to compensate for their greed. You would effectively be paying £10 delivery cost for items which cost £9.99... You could argue that it will still only cost us £1.90 to send the parcel, and can take our profit from the extra postal costs, but we're not here to rip people off-  we are human, and are customers too- we wouldn't feel loyal to a business if we knew they were pocketing more money than they should be. We're trying to consider you, our customers, as well as ourselves, as without you- we wouldn't be a business at all - just a couple of mad women sat amongst a pile of miniature products!!
The same order on our website would total  £11.00...  no brainer?
 
If you have any more info on how YOUR small business is going to cope with the changes, we'd really appreciate some input.

www.magpies-miniatures.net

 

Alternative Monopoly Pieces

Did you hear back in February, that Hasbro (the big guys behind the world famous Monopoly game) have now scrapped the 'iron', 'boot' and 'wheelbarrow' markers? And in replacement, have added a cat, helicopter, a diamond ring, a robot, and a guitar! (I mention due to the fact they are changing the game again, and are now scrapping the Jail corner!)

Now if you opened your game box in the past 6 months, you may have felt a little cheated in not having your favourite game token included... but we have a solution. How about our Doll House Miniature silver iron?? It's not the exact piece- in fact, it's better! 

We could get inventive here and make up a NEW collection of alternative Monopoly game pieces using miniatures. How about a microscope, bucket, whisk, or pair of high heeled shoes! There's some amazing miniatures to choose from, and they would truly make your gameplay more unique, and even personalised to the players in your family or friend circle.

Take a look on the website and see what you can find! : Magpies Miniatures

JiaYi Miniatures

We've just spent a LOT of time organising our JiaYi miniature collection, photographing all our stock to show the true beauty of the pieces - unfortunately something the "stock photos" didn't show, which made very little sense!!

What is Jiayi?
Well, all JiaYi Miniature pieces are handcrafted by a talented team of artisans, and are considered to be of heirloom quality. They are handfinished and painted in the most intricate of designs, often having an Asian influence to them. However, they come in a huge range of styles, including Victorian, Edwardian, Tudor and covering other periods too.
Our Jiayi range is a firm favourite amongst many of our customers, and ourselves too. It's hard to believe succh quality, and attention to detail can be achieved in something so small.
If you are a fan or Bespaq or Heidi Ott, then chances are you'll be a fan of JiaYi too.

We have Jiayi miniatures for a variery of rooms, from bedrooms, bathrooms and nurseries,, to music rooms, parlours, and an exquisite collection of lounge furniture. Opening the boxes is like opening a magnificent gift - the beauty and detail of these pieces is simply breath-taking.

Check out the entire jiayi collection on our website:Magpies-Miniatures and let us know what your favourite pieces are!!

Strange Doll House Miniatures

Strange Miniatures:

We're always on the lookout for new products to bring to you here at Magpies-Miniatures.net, which got us thinking-

Is there anything you'd like to see in miniature but haven't ever found?

Or perhaps you've been busy doing something in your home, and saw an item and thought "Hey, I wonder if you can get that in miniature?"
Have you actually seen something completely bizarre in miniature and didn't realise it was even possible to buy them??

We're intrigued what you guys think, and have had a few good suggestions on our Facebook Page already, including Cat Litter Tray, Swimming Pool, and Gym Equipment...

What would YOU like to see? Comment below!

- Niccy and Mandy - www.magpies-miniatures.net

How to Make Dolls House Miniature Pencils

Hello and welcome to the Magpies-Miniatures Blog. 

This second blog from us here at Magpies-Miniatures is a tutorial on how to create a simple Scale Miniature for you to use in your crafts and scenes. With schools coming to a close soon for the summer, and kids getting excited for a new term in September, I thought it fitting to start a small project which ties in with this time of year - Pencils!

Model Making Level : Easy (Beginner)

 How to Make Dolls House Pencils:

 You will need:

•  Cocktail Sticks / Toothpicks
• A Craft Knife
• Paint (Black and whatever colour you want your pencil body to be- I chose Yellow)
• A Silver Paint Pen
• Tiny amount of Pink polymer clay
• an oven
• a steady hand

1. Collect all your materials and have them close to hand for ease.
2. Take a cocktail stick, and start to whittle away using your craft blade. make sure your fingers are away from the blade, and push it out away from you. Take this step slowly, rotating the cocktail stick slightly after each sweep with the knife, to gain an even finish.
3. When your stick is to the desired thickness, cut the end you have just shaped, using your blade, or a pair of scissors. A typical pencil is approx 175mm, so I made my pencils around 15mm long. Of course, if you're making several - feel free to vary the sizes as pencils vary in length due to use!
4. holding the pointed end, paint the rest using your base colour (yellow here), let this dry, 
5. Taking your silver paint pen, colour a band of silver at the opposite end of the pencil. This imitates the metal clip which the rubber (eraser) sits on.
6. Dab the pointed end in a small amount of black paint to imitate the lead. Again set to one side to dry.
7. Take a tiny piece of pink polymer clay and soften it.
8. Break this piece down further into minute balls. These are to become the rubber at the end of your pencil, so use your pencils as a guide for size.
9. Push the eraser on to the end of your pencil, and roll it gently across a flat surface to let the rubber take a rounded shape.
10. when you have made all the pencils you wish, pop them in the oven on the lowest setting for a couple of minutes, to set the clay.  

-and hopefully now you will have a wonderful collection of pencils!
Of course, you can adapt this further. Why not omit the erasers and create pencils in varying colours for the kids! Enjoy!

- www.magpies-miniatures.net

Magpies-Miniatures Introduction

Hello and welcome to the Magpies-Miniatures Blog. 

We have blogged in the past, but have this month started to release a newsletter (Which can be found here), and decided a nice new, fresh blog would sit nicely hand in hand with the Newsletters!

So here we are! For those of you who are unfamiliar with who we are, here's a quick introduction.

Who are Magpies-Miniatures?

Magpies-Miniatures is a family run business, from Near Ulverston, in Cumbria, UK.

There are three faces here behind the scenes - Mandy is the business owner, founder, and holds great knowledge in all things miniature. She has been behind the scenes from the very beginning, and with the help of her husband, Jon - is the one responsible for this site you're now visiting. Jon has been the quietest member of the team, but his talents in computer programming, databases and the fact he's extremely artistic and fantastic at any craft he sets his mind to- he's incredible valuable in our eyes, and those of our business too. The newest member of the team is myself, Niccy. I am the daughter of Mandy and Jon, and hold college qualifications in Art and Design, which is where my passion lies. I have taken on the role of keeping the website updated and looking fresh, with improved stock photography, and dealing with social media. All of us have something different to give to the business, which is why we work so well together as a team, in keeping our business running smoothly, and bringing you the service you'd expect as a customer, which has so many of you returning.

Magpies-Miniatures began as a venture on a popular online auction site, and as business and demand grew, so did the levels of stock we housed, and so our own website was the only way forward for us. Now the site is up and running, and has been since 2008, our passion, knowledge and focus has grown into the company you see today. We strive for 100% customer satisfaction, and to keep you coming back to complete your projects. If there's anything you're uncertain about, please feel free to ask. Combined we have a vast knowledge in several areas, and are in touch with many wonderful and knowledgeable people, so if we don't know the answer- we can seek it out for you!

What makes Magpies-Miniatures different from other Doll House Miniatures sites?

The fact we are a small company means you'll only ever be dealing with one of three people, and the fact we're all related means we all get to know you as individual customers! We love striking up friendships and conversing with those who hold interests in the same field we do- Miniatures! You get a very professional, but personal approach to your hobby from us as a business.

We stock miniatures from a range of suppliers, and are always on the look out for something different, that competitors don't offer. I have myself, taken up crafting miniatures from polymer clay, and so we are now able to provide things which other people cannot- because I don't make them for anyone except us!! 

We are proud stockists of the wonderful McQueenie Miniature kits. These are the guys who are responsible for the fabulous 12th scale Gypsy Caravans which are so popular amongst our customer base. I won't go into too much detail here, because they are due to be in the spotlight of our 2nd Newsletter, which will be published on the 25th of June. Sign up here to be included on our subscription list, and watch your inbox on that date for more info and photographs of the kit :)

So for now, I will leave the blog here, and will return back in a weeks time to keep you updated on other news and events going on here at Magpies-Miniatures.

thanks for reading, and bye for now!!

- Niccy
www.magpies-miniatures.net