...And Since We've No Place To Go...

'Snow Wonder

Two weeks ago, I was riding my bike without the need for a winter coat,  and would you look at it now.  Granted, there are still people out there on bicycles, but I have to wonder about their life choices on a day such as this. The snow does put one in a bit more festive mood, however,  even if it does put a little more edge to people's teeth out in the malls, especially this second to last weekend before the Big Guy arrives. No, I am not talking about your Uncle Ed. I am talking about this guy...

Santa! I know him!!

So hopefully Christmas is just about sorted, gifts  and/or cards are bought/made, wrapped and mailed, trees trimmed, cookies baked, and the big feast planned at this time so you can kick back  with an Egg Nog Latte and enjoy the mad scrambling of those who are not as organized as you are .  I am at that point right now - more or less - and it is always a relief when you hit the "done all I can, nothing left to do" stage. So I treated myself to a project for me - a little Christmas kitchen. 

 I came across the pattern on Quarter Connection (a Yahoo Group, free to join, and you do have to join if you want their project  but certainly you can strike out and make your own, see below).  This example uses bashed Cheap Brown Furniture (CBF), printies and little accessories.  It is meant to fit into one of those little clear plastic photo cubes, but can be adapted to any container.  The basic structure is very easy to make - I used matboard, which was cut into 3 equal sized squares. 

Matboard squares

These squares are 3.25 inches x 3.25 inches (8.25  cm x 8.25 cm) - this is an "ish" measurement - you can make them any size you want, just as long as they are square and are going to fit into your container. The technique can be applied up the scale chain, although remember the bigger the scale, the heavier the building supplies will need to be. For quarter scale, though, matboard works like a charm. 

Wall paper and flooring

This is the wallpaper and flooring I used from the site, but you can create your own, or if you are fortunate you might be able to find a small enough printed scrapbooking paper that will work. Jim's Dollhouse Pages might have something for you, or one of the other printie sites as well.  

I cut out first the wallpaper and applied it to the matboard. Tip - you might have better success with a gluestick in this scale, as white glue tends to be a little too wet and will make the paper buckle a bit and can make the ink run. However,  that is not to say white glue is verboten - if you find yourself stuck for choice  you can use white glue, but you (yeah, I am pointing right at you, you know who you are)  just have to go sparingly and spread evenly so you don't "drown" your paper. No one wants to come to a "sticky end", as Member Rosemary is fond of saying.

Flooring in process

I wrapped the matboard with the floor printie much like a gift. It just makes for a neater edge if you wrap the paper around it. Again, go sparingly on the glue. 

Stage Built

At this point, I took my can of trusty fixative and sprayed the stage. It isn't "necessary" (and certainly if you have chemical sensitivities this is not the step for you) but the colours will be less likely to run and fade if they are fixed.  It also allowed me to "varnish" my wood floor, so it had more of a finished wood floor feel. 

Seeing What Fits

I didn't have the CBF in arm's reach today. I am sure I have pieces, but where they have made their way off to, I don't know. All I had were those two little chairs, which I am not going to use. What I did have, however, was a resin set I bought from a store in Edmonton a few years ago, that came from a miniature shop in Tennessee. I liked this set too much to just have it sitting in a house somewhere engulfed by other details,  it really needed to be a stand alone. I was going to just make wood cupboards, but something in me just screamed "cop out" so I went full frontal Christmas on the set. 

Prepping the Furniture

I gave the furniture a light coat of paint first. The resin is pretty forgiving. I went over the cupboards with green and red -  I am actually pretty pleased with it, although the pictures seem a bit dark. It gives that Christmas feel, but not the "in your face" red and green holly jolly that it could have been. I have seen kitchens with this colour combination, oddly enough. I gave the stove a copper fume hood, just because I like copper fume hoods, and it references "Sound Of Music", just a little (ala Raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles, and warm woolen mittens). Several of you are now singing the rest of the song, admit it.

Test fitting kitchen in to space

Quarter inch  - and smaller scales in general - can be a tricky,  in that if you get 3 smaller scale miniaturists in a room, there are going to be 3 different opinions on what the scale actually is - for example, I have itsy bitsy 1/4 scale chairs, and then massive hutches,  obviously not able to go in the same tableau and yet they were  marketed as 1/4 scale. A layman might think  - how can it be different, it is one-quarter the size of what it is supposed to be, why the arguing? At which point he would be banished from the room to think about what he has done. It is a mystery why we can't seem to decide on a standard (and again, it isn't just the 1/4 inch crowd, there are very specific camps of scale when you get into babyhouse territory). Full one inch scale has resolved some of the arguing over the years as techniques and people's quest for realism has become more sophisticated,  so maybe it is because the smaller scales are just are newer (relatively speaking) and with new lands you need those who pioneer and settle.  The rule of thumb in any scale, however, is keep "like with like",  and it will keep your eye from reading it wrong.

Anyway,  I thought this tableau had a better feel than some of the pieces I had in my treasure boxes. The cabinets of course haven't been attached yet in this photo. 

Kitchen in progress

This is the little box with the cabinets "mounted". I think that is a good place to stop today, no use doing too much and rushing the job, and anyway what contractor EVER gets the job done in one go? (awaits angry letters from good contractors now...)  It is shaping up pretty good though, even if I do say so myself. Think I need a nice hot chocolate, you are welcome to join me if you have the time.

Until next time, gentle angels...

Need a bigger tree, or a smaller doll's house...