The joys of growing

This past week or so we have been working on our latest new toy, Quick Books! It is a task getting to learn all this at once but it is coming along even though it is slow going with so many things to learn at once! I am not at all a comupter geek so getting the thing to send an e-mail through the program took some toying with tonight but I finally got to send out the first invoice of the year through QB! Now we are almost in business. Its a good feeling when you can work through issues and learn something new like that.
Learning curbs are all over the place right now. We are learning more about venders and which ones work for us and which ones we will have to work on fitting in right for them to work for us later. Shipping...what a trip! It is an adventure every day trying to chose the things that make your business work for you. Shipping was one of those also. There are a lot of choices out there but I find the cheapest and easiest works for me.
While things are crazy here being a business owner just starting out in this economy and with all the task and learning is made more interesting buy working for someone else while I get started. This eats into time I need some days but it also pays the bills and gives me some money (later on) to add to the business. It can be hard at times working on their stuff all day and then coming home to find something I have to take care of right away with mine.
Meanwhile the Network is still growing and I am excited about having some time soon to work on a village again myself. I have not had any time for months now to work on one. The Christmas village is still half done and set up in the studio still. Got to take that down and start on a spring and summer one. Maybe this time I can finish it. I want to get some more tutorials on the Network so I hope this is the season for it.

Coming Soon to Building New Worlds

Over the past few weeks we have been planning out 2009 for our store and made a very change in direct for this year. In keeping with our commitment to bring the best products and service we can to the village community we are happy to announce that soon we will be offering Woodland Scenics products at our store and on our online site also! As those of you know who have come to the Network, we use Woodland Scenics products in our village displays with some wonderful results and now we are going to offer this products to you also. Best yet, if you pre-order with us from now until the end of February, you get a 10% discount on your order. If there is anything that we do not have on our list to order that you want simply e-mail us with your list and we will add it to our order. We will be adding things through out the year for the store and site so check back with us for updates on what we have in stock coming soon! Also take advantage of the discounts.
Along with our commitment to the villager out there we are also getting ready to offer something a little different for 2009. Coming soon we will be offering you a way to wear your village! More details on this will be coming up in another blog so check back with us soon on this interesting bit of information.
While we have been looking at new ways to give the community products and services that you want we have also been looking into video tutorials for making displays and things for your village. We have started accounts on You Tube and Justin TV that are running teasers right now but in the coming weeks we will be to the list. If you have an account on either of those site, look us up under Building New Worlds. We will be posting updates on here, the Network and on Tweeter when those come out also.
With the state of the economy we know many of you are wondering how to keep your collection and your hobby going this year. Over the coming months we will be talking more about this on the Network so, please check in there for some new ways to make things for your village and for ways to cut down the cost of building your displays while making them effective and amazing!
www.buildingnewworlds.ning.com

Struggling but still kicking

With the uncertain future of the retail part of BNW we are still working on projects for the up coming year for the Network and it's memebers. One of the projects we are looking at and have started of sorts is You Tube video not only talking about village collecting but also showing video on how to landscape villages and more. We are excited about this idea which came from some of our members.
Another thing we are thinking about doing along with this is a kind of broadcast about villaging. We have opened up an account on one of the more family friendly sites to do this in time if this looks like an option for us. Again something that we are exicted about and hope that this works out in our favor.
We are also looking at the idea of creating a booklet about landscaping and village collecting but this is a bigger project that might take some time. We will update this idea more as we look at doing it. There are a lot of things we dream about that takes a lot of time to do. That is one of them.
Overall even with the grim look for the retail for now we have high hopes still that 2009 will be a brighted year. Keep coming back to see what we are up to and what the scoop is on our progress. You never know what we are thinking up next!

We're stepped up a bit

Building New Worlds just got a new computer as part of our 2009 start off. I know it is early for starting off the new year but it was a great deal and the old system was very out dated and slow. What does this new system mean for us and you?
First off, having a new system with more speed and better programing means faster time with updating the web site, the network and all those other things we have beeb working on. It also means that as we go on and updated the office and get things settled in the way I want them we will be able to get more information out sooner than in the past. The computer is just the start of what is in store for BNW over the next few months. The old system will become a storage for information that we will be using for doing tutorials, keeping track of invetory and other store information and the like.
As I start to work on the organization of things and get projects back on track we will also be able to see a more clear picture of where we are headed over the next year. It is pretty exciting for us here at BNW so we hope you all will be as excited about the changes as we are!
Next blog I hope to have more on what I am working on and about some of the changes we have done by then.

Waterfall

Author: Britt

If you have any question or need more explanations please ask at the forum:

http://www.freepowerboards.com/neodreaming/index.php Village Learning Center.

I started with gluing layers of styrofoam together in the basic shape I wanted. Then I used a hobby knife to cut out the river bedding. It should not be a smooth surface, that will only make the next step more difficult. Do not cut deep unless that is the effect you want, I will fill it up. I left an empty space for electricity equipment under the base in the back in case I want to use lights together with it. A bend at the top of the riverbed makes the base easier to integrate in a landscape - the river can appear from behind rocks or trees.









I added a thin layer of air dry clay in the riverbed and made it smoother with a tool (a butter knife will work if you don't have a tool). Then I started to add the shape of the flowing water. It does not have to be very detailed or perfectly done - this is just the base for the water. Make sure the river bedding is filled at the edges. If the clay doesn't want to stick dampen the styro slightly or you may need to make the styro surface more rough.





Continue with the whole waterfall in the same way. If it is a large area you have to do the next step before the clay has dried too much.












The whole river bedding is filled and I started to add the currents in the water and the whirls- under the waterfalls and where the water is forced to change direction by rocks etc.











I painted the base around the waterfall in a basic landscape color, brown in this case. Make sure the paint is waterbased or it will melt the styrofoam. (I am using my kids poster paint from the toy shop...!) The paint will mostly be covered later but I don't want the white styro base to show.
I shaped loose rocks from the clay and added them into and around the river bedding. I didn't make them very smooth, they should be irregular and have some cracks.



When everything was dry I glued the loose rocks into place and painted them very dark (black) and the water was painted blue. Do not worry about the colors, the idea is to cover the styro and clay at this stage. After a while I checked it and added more paint (made thinner with water)where the styro or clay wasn't completely covered.







The rocks were brushed with medium grey, without covering the deeper parts and then I dry brushed the areas sticking out with very light grey to highlight them.

I did this to all the rocks and also made the blue water a bit darker with grey paint. It should be darker now than the final result.












My rocks have moss so I brushed the areas I wanted mossy with dark green, avoiding to add paint in the deeper areas. I also painted some darker areas in the water- those will be in the shadow of plants later.

I used a glossy varnish to make the rocks close to the water look shiny from moisture. I also used it to seal the paint in the river bedding before starting the next step.

A glossy transparent paint thickener paste was added into the river bedding to create the effect of water. Be very careful with how this is done as this pattern of flowing water will be showing when it is finished.

The paste dries up clear, as long as it is white it still has to dry. As you can see I added a thicker layer under the waterfalls to shape foam and whirls. I decided to add another layer to get the effect I wanted in this case. It is better to apply several thinner layers than one thick.

When the paste was completely dry the final step: Dry brushing the paste very lightly with white or very light grey paint.

I attached this base to the rest of my landscape using wooden sticks or tooth picks instead of gluing it - I want to be able to use it again in several displays.

Plants and scatter material was added for the finishing touch.

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