Bit of an absence.

So I haven't posted in a week or two but it's all good, I have been a bit busy with work and doing some practice art for a few wizards when I have the time. I promise to get back to housing bits as soon as this event is over. I haven't had the time to enjoy the event because of work so today and tomorrow I'll spend farming the B.O.X.E.S. Also for those who don't know, Icy Witch and crew are doing a box-a-palooza event I'll post the link below.
In other housing news this week we got to celebrate W101 birthday with shiny new birthday themed items from the crown housing shop so if you haven't checked it out yet please check them out before they disappear on the 8th!
I hope to get some time to myself to finish up giving this blog a facelift as of right now I'm not very happy with the way it looks...anywho just going to keep this short and sweet :)

Here is the link to Icy Witch's event. Box-a-palooza

New Blogger frustrations

I'm still new to this whole blogger thing, and I'm trying to set up a decent space where I share my housing videos and tips and what not......my problem is I've been watching so many how to videos and I still have no clue how to edit one, how to get it down to the right size to upload onto my youtube. It is turning out to be a massive pain!
So today I'll be trying this one more time, if it doesn't work out I think I'll leave that idea on the shelf for a while. It is something I would like to share but I absolutely can't stress myself out over it! So for all you new to be bloggers out there I feel your pain, some of you might be more net savvy than I am and I hope you're faring better than I am. Until next time see you guys around the spiral.
~Sky

My School decorating challenge

When I first started to get into decorating I took on my Myth Castle and spent months trying to get it the way I wanted it. I agonized over how to decorate, tore it down and restarted multiple times because I didn't like one thing. I believe when I finally got it right....well on the inside at least.. I was overjoyed.
I think that was the spark to light my flame to challenge myself to see if I could decorate all of the school castles in their school theme. I have to say overall it is a pain, almost two years later and I still haven't finished all of them, but I am very close. A few days ago I finally finished the Fire Castle, which leaves only the Storm and Ice to be completed. I'm excited to be this close to finishing them and can't wait to show them off.
~Sky

To Be or Not to Be..Inspired

So there comes a point where you've done so many houses and spent so much creative energy, that your seemingly never ending supply of inspiration ...has just up and disappeared..much like your pet healing ability in battle! Le' sigh!
Yes it happens to the best of us, but how to we send a jolt to that ole creative button? Well for me I usually take a day, sometimes a week off and step back, especially if I'm in the middle of a house project and I feel my steam is laggy. I might spend my time away simply farming, leveling pets or just sometime away from the game itself.
Every now and again it is necessary to step back and replenish. Its important as players, no matter our age or playing preference, that we turn off Wizard 101 for a little bit, just to breathe and step outside. You might surprise yourself finding creative inspiration from the most random of places or even conversations.
~Sky

Tree Clutter

Okay guys so today I'm addressing one of my pet peeves of decorating, super tree cluttering or using trees to cover empty spaces. I can't tell how many castles I've toured and are top rated, but lack creativity. When I see a top rated house and I think whoo hoo this is going to be creative only to be disappointed because the outside is filled with trees, big mismatched trees with barely two openings to display those gauntlets. Now this is not to say I haven't seen some really awesome and very well decorated spaces but most often its the tree clutter that I run into.

I know that sometimes you may run out of ideas for your outdoor area, but throwing random trees together..or the big willow tree down doesn't look good, it makes your space look thrown together without effort. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with using trees in your outdoor areas, nothing at all,  but let's look at some ways we can incorporate trees to compliment our house theme.

Small trees, bushes & shrubs -can be put into other items to make them a little more fancy, for example one of my favorite thing to do with the bushes (flame bush etc) is to put them on top of a nicely colored drum or on top of the Darkmoor side table. I place them in such a way that it seems as though the item is a vase. This tip can be used with just about any of the small trees, shrubs and bushes and can be used both inside and outdoors.

Medium trees -same as the small trees, the medium trees can also be placed on items, however a little bit more tinkering is required as you will need to use items that will fit properly and hide the bottom of the tree. I recommend the larger width drums, vases and even pedestals.

Large trees -now with large trees such as the Willow, Craggy Apple and the winter trees, I believe less is better...unless you're creating a forest area of course. You can rotate the Craggy Apple tree to face each other to create a nice nook, swing, seating area or gazebo arch. The key to using bigger trees is to use them sparingly and use them together with other trees that are similar, that way you don't have tons of mismatched trees cluttered together.

So to wrap up today's blog try not to use trees as your space holders, and if you do there are creative ways to display them. Have fun decorating and see you around the spiral.
~Sky

Tools of a Glitchmancer

Hey guys so before I get into decorating tips, I would like to share with you the very first step to glitching housing items.
So for me there are three items I use almost every single time I decorate and will always be found in my backpack, depending on how much glitching I intend to do in my castle. For anyone who has seen any of my finished castles, you know I do not do glitch structures or floating rugs into the black abyss. It grinds my gears when I see houses on tours with floating rugs going off to nowhere. There is nothing creative about it at all!
When I glitch I usually glitch to blend items and create a new thing, like a school themed fireplace, or a fantasy undersea bed or something of the sort.

My tools of choice:
1 Tatami rug- with only one tatami rug I use the rug rotate method to place my items wherever I want them to go.

1 Wooden platform- my wooden platform is used only for me to hop on to place items at different heights or to use when I'm using the wall castle block to hang a wall item where there is no wall.

1 scaffolding- sometimes when you need to get  very high up to float or place something you might need an "anchor ladder" I use the scaffolding to either climb or lower and item to the desired placement.
~Sky

Moving from Wizard Central

Okay so I'm not leaving Central, I'm simply moving my guides over to my very own little corner of the interwebs. Just bear with me a little bit wizards, ignore the cobwebs and un-decorated corners. I've enjoyed posting on Wizard Central but often I feel just a tad bit constricted to the forum, in the sense that I don't want to create a super massive long post, and since my Photoshop went kaput on me I can no longer do those wonderfully artistic thread layouts. I happen to like my wonderfully artistic layouts and doing an entire decorating thread post without them is...very ...very sad!
~Sky