These are the fascinating pictures of miniature table sculptures molded around bonsai trees that take up to a painstaking 18 months to create. Japanese illustrator Takanori Aiba, 58, has built the intriguing scale models of windmills, lighthouses and even the Michelin Man.He delicately uses craft paper, plaster, acrylic resin, paint and plastic to create the host of sprawling miniature communities that wrap around the tiny trees.Following his work as an illustrator for Japanese fashion magazine POPYE he has spent the last nine years producing the detailed mini worlds.The creations take at least three months to construct with his Ice Cream Package Tower taking an astonishing 18 months work. Since 2003, he has made eight models, with 10 more planned over the next few years.
MOUTH OPEN wide, this little stoat appears to be in mid-song as he belts out a tune for his onlookers .
WIDE EYED with a huge smile across her face, this little elephant is a picture of happiness .
An owl swoops through the air before making an unorthodox landing - right on top of an unsuspecting man's head .
A middle spotted woodpecker swoops into her nest and feeds her young in a forest in Trentino, Italy .
ESCAPING A LANDFILL FUTURE, these amazing science fiction inspired sculptures are made from everyday objects .
A project to create an underwater tribute to the stone Moai statues of Easter Island ended in disaster when 15 replica structures were destroyed after toppling from a boat and into the sea .
A group of whale sharks gather to feed underneath a fisherman’s boat off the coast of Papua, Indonesia .
A scorned woman sparked a punch-up in an airport after she caught her copper boyfriend returning from a romantic holiday with a female police officer .
Recovering from a rare form of breast cancer, Deborah Barnett, 43, of Stoke-on-Trent, thought she'd made it through the worst, but she was betrayed by former colleague Sandra Ramsay, of Mow Cop Road, Mow Cop, Stoke-on-Trent .
Pinning a purple flower into her bleach blonde hair, pretty Ava admired herself in the mirror .
AN ANGRY giraffe gave a bush-riding cyclist a scare when he stomped his £2K bike into the dirt .
From vivid greens to glowing pinks, the colours of the aurora borealis fill the night sky above a snow covered Lapland .