omg! The mushrooms came out so amazing, I loved all the color and my eyes were darting around trying to absorb all the amazing details. It was so magical and whimsical. I was amazed at how many things we did in a similar way, like having a dollhouse was a must! This was such a fun collab for me, thank you! . I loved the story with the open box "special delivery" I think that may be one of my favorite things about a lot of your projects, a really clear story told through minis!

"Use the nice stuff" is an important philosophy to learn sometimes. I bought myself a stupidly expensive face moisturizer to use on my wedding day while I was stress shopping, and I forced myself to use it as my only face moisturizer until it was gone. I've had so many nice or fancy or expensive products expire over the years because it never felt like a special enough occasion to use them. If I bought it for my wedding day, I couldn't just use it on a random Tuesday morning... Except that no day is going to match the magnitude of my wedding day as far as being special, and I spent too much money to only use it once. That's how I learned to just... Drink the nice tea. Use the nice bath bomb. Bake with the fancy vanilla. Use the special pieces in your craft collection. Wear the heirloom jewelry to work. Make a pot roast on a Monday. We don't get to enjoy the little luxuries in life when we're always saving them for an unknown potential future need that's "big enough."

1865 is the year that ALICE IN WONDERLAND was first printed. Turned out looking great, Ara! Love the 'shrooms!

The abandoned coffee shop is one of my all time builds you've ever done! I'm so excited to see another abandoned build, and it looks so amazing, so much interesting detail everywhere, my fav is the doll house in the window with the little mushrooms growing out of the windows. Love this Ara

Love it. I can see future kids just so sad that they can't play with these toys! It'll be okay, just brush them off, mom! No! Keep your mask on and let's keep walking!

Oh WOW! It's is fabulous - I love it. Thanks for the good look round at the end.

That storefront looks exactly like the antique store that used to be owned by Alex Archbold in Edmonton, Canada. His KZfaq channel is Curiosity Inc. He sold the building, but still buys and sells antiques with a look towards vintage toys. He even had similar shelving in his store. I love all the pieces you used in the store here. Youre so incredibly creative and talented. Its such a pleasure to watch your videos! And thanks for introducing usto another creator!!

I loved yours and Whitney's collaboration! Y'all make quite the dynamic duo! Great content, Ladies! 🙂

I honestly feel like distressing and aging stuff is more fun than neat pristine builds. Its so fun to do washes and moss. I think aged projects end up looking more realistic that way.

Omygosh! I was so happy to see Whitney there! Such a fun project for both of you!!

Love the tiny mushrooms coming out of the windows of the tiny dollhouse, right next to the big mushroom coming out of the shop window, except that the shop is also a dollhouse.

You and Whitney look like sisters stood next to each other. I absolutely loved this video and I love how your toy shop came out it's so cool

I love how you used green (fav color!) and the ageing with the white paint is really effective on darker furniture. It looks like water stains. AND MOSSSSS YESSSS! So cool you two got to meet up! much love!

You and Whitney look like you could be sisters! Love the abandoned toy shop! I want to go rescue all of the toys.

Sometimes, more is more, and this is one of those times! I love it Ara! Thank you so much as always! Lisa

Wowzer!!!!! This was a super fun tute to watch. You are so uber talented.

Wow! What a great transformation! Fabulous - as always! As a retired children’s librarian, for me, 1865 means the publication of Alice in Wonderland. I love how the aging really created the whole character of the box/scene! The green color for the furniture is terrific too! I so relate to the thoughts of “should I really use this now since it’s so special? Maybe I should save this a later project!” And you’re so right - we need to use our stash! Hard for me to do sometimes! So great to see you and Whitney together! Two of my favorite miniaturists! The end result - including the back story - is really unique and wonderful! Thanks much! Kathleen

Wow, it was so realistic looking! I could look at all the tiny details for hours continually discovering something new. Excellent job.

Can I offer an easy tip for lettering? I used to work in VM and was forever installing lettering on walls. This makes the job go super fast… 1. You need a thin strip of paper. 2. Lay out the order of your letters. 3. Lay the strip under the letters ( so the paper touches the letters) 4. Make a small mark at the beginning and end of each letter. ( ,B,,O,,O,,K,) 5. Cut off any extra paper. 6. Match the first mark ( ,B ) to the last mark ( K, ) fold the paper…this gives you the center of the word. 7. This is now your lettering guide. 8. Where ever you want to place the letters, find the centers of that space. 9. Tape the guid just a “hair width” below where the lettering will be placed 10. Using the marks on the paper, pop the letters in place….the paper acts as a straight edge 💁‍♂️. This trick has always helped me, especially when I had to do an entire store within a day 😵‍💫. Hope this is helpful to someone out there! Cheers 🧚‍♂️

I feel like this could be an episode of Doctor Who

Oh! man! I love it. So fun and whimsical while being mysterious as well! What a great use of just a ton of little things. I'm loving that green color scheme too. It really made the yellow mushrooms pop.

Love the muschroom coming out the window ❤❤

I absolutely love this toy shop

How cool that you could use your great-grandmother's miniature shelf (must run in the family)! 🥰 Merging the past and present... and possibly future? 😄 Mushrooms love the damp, so perhaps the inhabitants of the land should try fire to control the spores- although these are definitely not normal mushrooms! Great job, as always!

This toy shop breaks my heart! So many toys are contaminated!

Yeah! I was missing the abandoned stuff! I think the bear with the mushroom sticking out of his head is my favorite!

It is absolutely amazing! I love it. It is as busy as it needs to be. The mushrooms are great - in a bad way of course - so colorful, so devious and creepy. You are an inspiration. So creative. Thanks for sharing. Your videos are the best.

Whitney's nod to the 80th anniversary of D Day and the horror of Lone in WW 2 and your nod to Alice in Wonderland. So great, love them both.

You and Whitney in the same video is such a treat.

Such a Cool project and Collaboration!! All the toys and the tiny train on the big mushroom, Casper our friendly Ghost 🤗 Good story!! All looks amazing!! Thanks and Greetings 👋

I love how you tell a Story with only one scene. It's all just brillant 😚👌

Nothing has ever made me want2 jump in front of a shrink ray just so i can explore it in first person like this one! Lol this is such a beautiful project, n whitney's items add such a wonderful variety of whimsy inside the shop 💕

Your toyshop is so nice Ara. So many colors, but still...it is your style. And I'am always amazed how many details you put in your work. It should be normal for me to know that, I follow you so many years. But you still surprise me.

This is amazing! There is so much detail included. I love all of the toys and games and the mushrooms really look like they have taken over. I hope they stay in this one project and do not spread all over your craft room! 🤣

I love love love busy dollhouses. Incredible work. I love all the little details that bring this to life.

Love this! Especially the posters and mushrooms. What a great idea. ❤❤❤

Fantastic! I feel you could sit for hours just looking there is so much in there. Great collab the special delivery was an amazing idea.

Such an Adorable Room box! So Great to See this Collab!!! I really Love when you mentioned about saving miniatures for projects!

What a fun collaboration 😍 Both shops are amazing. And I love the stories they tell. The broken glass looks so real, I kept thinking you were going to cut yourself.😂 It was super fun to see Whitney in the Bentley House Studio. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽🥰❤️❤️

Hey you. I love this. Abandoned places prompt us to imagine what things must have been like. You want a story from it. (I am so enjoying your remodeled, very organized space. It's my thing).

That is Amazing, I love the mushrooms, great idea to add the pieces of glass too, It really looks brill, Well done Ara 👍♥️

I like the natural shine on the mushrooms

Feels so good getting a classic Ara abandoned build. ❤❤❤

I love this project ! You have such great ideas ! Thank you for distracting me from my greef for a while !

That was awesome,amazing,thank you for sharing your talent with us,love the idea of the mushrooms.

This looks amazing! I'm obsessed with all the details. The price tags are such a great touch. I love the watered down white paint on the black. It looks old and dry. It's packed with so many things to see! I'm the same way. I have this scarcity mindset where I don't want to use my minis. I'll push through as well and USE my stuff instead of just hoarding it.

Just amazing, as always, and I love how busy it is 😍🤩❣️!!! "The Day of the Spores" instead of "Triffids" 😂😅😆

I absolutely love this.❤❤❤ I can't believe that you placed a microscopic price tag on every item! 😅😂 Good heavens.

Absolutely fabulous. Cheers Robyn ❤😊

This is just delightful! The story writes itself as one looks through everything. It's one of those projects that you realize you see something new every time you look at it. Whitney's appearance was so fun LOL I love all the little things you exchanged. Stormy is definitely a vicious attack dog if you're terrified of a waggy-tailed fluffy lickey pup LOL So cute!

Your grandma collected thimbles too?!:) My Grandma was an amazing hand quilter and had filled 2 large thimble shelves (similar to the size you have storing tiny items on your wall) Our family would always find special ones for her from thier travels. She saw I fell in love with a little baby bear (complete with pacifier & pink diaper:)) in her collection & said it was to be mine after she passed away. She was true to her word and my baby bear has been safely kept 20+ years:)

This is beautiful! I would have difficulty aging your beautiful furniture and some of the toys! However your Mushroom Invaded Toy Store is Superb!

I so enjoyed watching you put this all together! I was happy to see Whitney there, too! It looks PERFECT! Love all of the colors especially the mushrooms! 😉❤❤❤

YAY! I just spotted something that looked like "Rock'em Sock'em Robots" from when I was a kid, and of coure Operation game! Way too adorable!

omg Ara this whole thing is amazing, the setup, the story, the look of it all! LOVE it

Ara, you have out-done yourself this time…amazing talent 😊

Amazing … what a treat to watch you create!

I love how your Toy Spore turned out! 😍🍄🧸 What a fun idea and so many fun details! So cool you could both meet up in person for the toy swap!! I would love to do a mini colab sometime but I live on the other side of the world 😂 Thank you for another wonderful and inspiring video! 😊

How fun! I would have such a blast collaborating with both you and Whitney! I so look forward to your videos ~ your creativity abounds :). so glad to have both of you together on a project!!!!

I love this project! I especially loved the bears with the mushrooms on top of their heads!🥰💖

Very creative and cute. lol It really is too. My favorite piece is the dollhouse in the broken window that have mushrooms growing out of it as well. Have a great day

This is so cool! I am so excited to see this collaboration with Whitney. I follow her channel as well and enjoy all her content as well as yours. Although there’s mushrooms present, I didn’t see any critters so I’d probably still come to the toy shop to shop because I love toys.😂 that was so cool that Whitney got to visit you in your studio. a special treat for both of you❤ Thanks for sharing !

So enjoyed Ara. There's a 2008 film called The Ruins which plays on this killer plants thing, which your abandoned store made me think of. It's a fun bit of B-grade horror, especially if you enjoy B-grade movies about killer plants.

The first movie i can remember watching as a small child was a black and white movie called Attack of the Mushroom People. It was terrifying as a 4-6 year old. I watched it again as an adult and it was not good and not scary at all. This project made me think of that. Your mushrooms are a lot more realistic than the ones in the movie.❤

I always get a little freaked out with the whole aging process, but 23:20 is the moment you had me. There's always a moment in your videos when I'm like, "There it is! She's locked down the look!" Loved the final result.

Absolutely gorgeous mama❤❤❤

It looks magnificent! Beautiful attention to detail, Ara! 🍄

Fantastic work as usual. I can smell the mould through my phone screen 😆 Wonderful to see you back after your family break, Ara. I hope you feel refreshed and had a lovely time with your family. 💕X Ps. Would pigeons have got in through the broken window, tried to nest but the killer toadstools/mushrooms got them all. 😲

ah that was so much fun to watch :) I keep seeing in my mind a ghostbuster=mushroom buster figure standing in front of the store with a huge anti spore gun LOL

Loved it and loved that you had an in person visitor ❤

This might be one of my favorite ones yet!

LOVE MOSS AND SHROOMS 😍❣️ IT LOOKS SO GOOD ARA!! SHROOM DOOM FOR REAL!! 😅🎉🎉🎉

I lovvve that it feels/looks snug! The mushrooms really make my skin feel itchy haha they turned out great.

Just what the doctor ordered! I love how this toy shop turned out, Ara. Also, I geeked out to see you & Whitney together!! 😅

I don’t have the words to express how much I love it 😅💕 and what a wonderful surprise when Whitney popped up 😆 I wish more of us could meet in person 🤗🙏

At first I thought the "giant" mushrooms were making the miniature look like a miniature or like a child's toy that had been abandon...but with the addition of the notices it brings it back to a real place that has been miniatured.

I want to thumbs up this video 1000 times! Awesome work!

Such a cool concept for an abandoned toy shop! And sooo many mushrooms! Did you end up counting all the mushrooms used? The more I think about it, it seems kinda dark and heavy. Like, what happened to the owner of the shop, after he opened the box? Who sent the box, and why? Did the sender know what would happen? And so on. But that's the magic of dioramas like this one. It gets you thinking and your imagination going. Great job!

Love it!! Love your abandoned miniature projects.

That's brilliant! So detailed and I love the weathering. 👏🏻👏🏻

Omg!!! Loving the results!!!! Really cool collaboration!!! ❤😊❤

ok, that was very cool to watch! Beautiful!!! I watched Whitney's first and both so different but both so beautiful! I enjoyed this collab and Whitney gained a new subscriber, already one of yours lol! GREAT JOB LADIES!!

Absolutely captivating! And I loved the story you implied.

15:39 that was such a cute reveal! loving the video :)

This is fantastic! I love how creative you are. Adding the mushrooms to that made it way more interesting than just a toy store. t's so cool to look at a thing and ask questions about what happened. Using spackle on the foil is a technique I'm definitely going to use. And I loved seeing how many different old toys were mini. Thank you, this was an awesome video.

Looks great, what a wonderful fun project. 😊

Stash busting projects are called that for a reason. To get rid of the old stash, and collect more.

As usual, your attention to detail takes this from wow to WOW! It was amazing to me how the green paint with yellow decorations changed the disparate pieces of furniture into a unified set. Your story makes the whole thing come together. I even went back to watch your final detail shots again. Is there a story behind your single shoe? Curiosity may not have done in the Cheshire Cat, but it certainly naga at my mind.

This turned out so good! Always impressed with the stuff you create

🎉I'm a big fan of whitney love her 🎉😊

A delight!

Brilliant,work,the art is in the details! This is my first video of yours that I have watched. Now,this was a competition,a friendly competition,for sure. This was a very interesting challenge! Both of you are dedicated to the art of detail. There is ,for me a winner by a hair. Before I say,I have been a fan of Whitney for quite some time,but lest you think that I am prone to favoritism,Whitney’s last challenge with Queen City Minis,the cyberpunk challenge,I think Whitney just barely fell short. This challenge was a brilliant one,an abandoned toy store,what a great idea! I think that the details for each of the stories that you wanted to tell were beautifully rendered. BUT Whitney’s just seemed to pay attention to details that were historically accurate,versus being able to create a diorama that fits into a totally fictional scenario. In this case,although brilliantly conceived and executed on your part,well,it came across more like little shop of horrors. Basically,the win,in my opinion,by Whitney on this one wasn’t based on talent,as you are both on par,but based on detail that commanded detail,versus pure story value. I think that you are both incredible,talent supreme😌

I love this toy shop! So amazing, well done! I would love to own an abandoned scene made by you! ❤❤

Nailed it !!!! I made a Krampus workshop using your techniques, so fun.

I have that exact same "thing." "I shouldn't use this because I might need it for a future project." Then I realize. THIS IS THE FUTURE PROJECT. It's so odd. I think it's a fear that when you need something, it won't be there. Glad you are over-coming this odd thing. I love the store box. This will be fun.

I love this so so so much! The only thing I would’ve done different is, I would’ve put one of the letters or numbers on the sign sideways like it was half falling off! Lol. Fabulous though! One of my favorite things that you’ve done! Love the 🍄 !

OMG I love this so much❤If I ever came across this shop, I would pray for permission from the protector ghost of the shop and then took one item back home with me. My love for toys is to big to leave them not being played.

It came out looking amazing! 😍

THIS is my favorite!!

Awesome, you both did a great job.