October 2026 - Fill Those Empty Shelves
Our challenge for October is to send in a picture of your filled shelves.
The challenge example comes from Melissa Simmons who writes:
For the potions shelves:
I made approximately 120 individual potions, filling the shelves with colorful, filled bottles, tiny labels, and magical ingredients. It was a lot of little details, but that’s what made this corner so much fun to create!
For the bookshelf:
This wizard’s bookshelf is part of my Hogwarts Headmaster’s Office room box. I filled its little compartments with spell books, rolled scrolls, curious artifacts, and a few creatures tucked among the shelves. The Sorting Hat watches over it all from the top!
Another challenge example comes from Preble McDaniel who writes:
This is my 2 dome Rabbit Habit shop that I have part of my collection of bunnies in.
From Catherine Hawkins:
First photo shows my Alchemy lab with shelves full of bottles and jars, bowls and glassware. Bottles and jars are made from beads, capsules, acorns, wood blocks, clay, plastic straws, desiccant canisters, and the inside of incandescent light bulbs. The jars on top and glassware on the shelf underneath are glass items from hobby shops or miniature shows. I filled all the bottles and jars and added labels. Notice the jar on the top labeled "Dihydrogen monoxide." That is, of course, H2O. The bowls are blister packs, metal miniatures, ceramic miniatures, bottle caps, acorns, and odds and ends.
The second photo is the Consummate Bibliophile --- books and cats. Books are all handmade from paper, cardboard, or wood blocks. Cats are painted resin. Other accessories were made from beads or plastic pieces with a few metal miniatures.
From Sharon Douthall:
Fill Those Empty Shelves The crystal ball is glowing. The chairs are pulled up. But her shelves are almost bare — and a witch with empty shelves is up to no good. She's brewing something. The question is, what will you bring her to fill them?
From Carol Walls:
The Cabinet of Lost and Found, lost items from my stash that found a home.
From Margaret Aunins:
This hutch and room are filled with the owner's collection of houses. Some very tiny, some the size of a "dollhouse for a dollhouse. Of course the puppy has to participate. All items were built and painted to be included in this hutch scene.
From Vicky Brandt:
Cook's Realm
From Kim Fitzsimmons:
Shelf on a Shelf-My Asian inspired minis don't coordinate with exciting projects, but are admired being displayed in this antique shelf.
From Barb Herman:
The shelf (secretary): Comes from Scientific America Realistic Miniatures Living Room kit (some may remember these) that I’ve had for years and never know what to do with. Now it is the perfect center piece in my haunted living room. The Shelves: I used printable books found on Etsy to fill the bookshelves and desktop, and papers pouring out of the drawers. Here are the vendors: TwelfthNightMinis, Zenasminiatures, Skeletorama, MiniVintageBookstore, LittleMaggieShop, and TinyDecorator. All the books open to expose print and images which makes the scene look like a spell is being conjured or a dragon being summoned.
From Dorean Cirilli:
This started as a cute shelving unit and a Book for Halloween. I bought the trunk. Then ai pulled out all my Spooky accessories I made over time. We'll! Filled the shelving unit, added another shelf, and the trunk. I was so pleased and I keep adding items as I find the. Enjoy!
From Naomi Switzer:
A book bookshelf on a bookshelf. And a peek into a witches' apothecary.
From Connie Beatty:
My doll store, The Lucky Duck, is all ready for the Harvest Festival!
From Suzie Aguilar:
I collected miniature bears for years. This shelf unit provided the perfect place to display them.
From Karen Leiby:
Forever Christmas 1904 kitchen shelves and dining room hutch
From Cindy Bottasso:
I create both large and small ceramics, so why not open a ceramic shop? This was the Wednesday night project at the 2025 NAME National Convention.
From Terry Unnold:
Finally filled the shelves in Miss Lydia's Tea Room, part of the Little and Smalls Department Store that I have been working on forever.
From Sara Cook:
This is a bookcase from a 1:24 mermaid fortune teller's shop. The note on the frog's jar says No Kiss - he'll say he's a prince but it's a lie. The book on speaking Whale is a rare first edition, it's the one with all the swear words. The love potions are mostly ineffective..
From Elizabeth Lubera:
For the October “Fill Your Shelves” challenge I am submitting a space from my favorite miniature creation, a Victorian home that I call the “Little House on Willow Tree Place.” My photo shows the pantry of the home’s kitchen, stocked with all of the items -- acquired by me over many decades of miniature collecting – necessary for life in the Victorian era. On the top shelf we see a bottle of cough syrup (perhaps laudanum combined with chloroform!) that has fallen over and spilled. On the next shelf down we see common food staples, including canned oysters (considered a delicacy) and corn. Behind them is a box of Bell’s Seasoning, commonly used for poultry and stuffing. To their right are mason jars (a mid 19th century invention) filled with green beans and peaches. The next shelf includes common baking items (many of which are still in use today!) including: Calumet baking powder, Morton’s salt, Arm & Hammer baking soda, Jack Frost sugar, and Mother’s oats (oatmeal). The bottom shelf features a basket of fresh eggs and a Blue Onion pattern tea seat (purchased in Germany) and the floor of the pantry shows from right to left a basket of fresh vegetables, a bag of flour, water jug, polish (for the cast iron cook stove at right), and a metal rug beater (used in the pre-vacuum era for carpets and rugs). Just outside of the pantry we see a Victorian wall telephone, marketed after 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell.
From Jene Bondi:
1st pic: Hand crochet toys and the little pigs are from this little piggy went to the market.
2nd pic: The bar scene has real glass and liquid, and lots of surprises.
From Dave Ferkinhoff:
A greenhouse project from the Cape Cod fun day. I made the shelves, pots and flowers to go with it.
From Laura Miller:
1st pic: Spooky bookshelf with occupants.
2nd pic: Christmas shelf.
Both 1/4 inch scale and made by me.
From Angela Hereford:
A Harry Potter themed cabinet
From Vicki Scidmore:
The shelves of The Wooden Dog Coffee and Collectibles are filled with tiny things collected by my grandmother (tiny vases and toby mugs), mother (tiny dogs and copper items, travel souviners) and me. I made it as a memory of our love of small things.
From Trish Froehlich:
I created an old fashioned cabinet with paint and screening to house my assortment of early 20th century kitchen items.
From Marie Weeks:
These are the stocked cardboard cupboards of my shipping container house stocked with paper dishes and quilled paper food.
