Friday, February 18, 2011

Interlude Project - Serenity's Nursery

A friend of ours had a baby last month and it's taken me this long to find the right gift bag to build a miniature in for her.  I started this yesterday with the intention of finishing it for the blog post, but said friend brought the baby over to play in the afternoon.  A surprise visit even.  Needless to say I was sidetracked.

For anyone unfamiliar with making a room inside a gift bag, there is a fantastic tutorial over on my friend, Fay's, website.  Please go there for the details if you're interested in trying one for yourself.  I learned this from her.  If you'd live to peek at her miniature work, follow this link over.  You know you want to!

The following picture-heavy post contains no measurements.  If you want to try this, please visit Fay's tutorial. (link above)  In fact having these pictures and her tutorial open together might be helpful if, like me, you relate to pictures better than text.

First I cut a hole in the bag.  (I found the bag at a Hallmark store.  They had blue ones too.  I think I'm going to go back and grab a few more of each for my stash.)

 
 Then I measured everything and cut a piece of foam core to fit.
 
 Note the foam core is all one piece with "hinges" cut to allow the sides to fold.
 
 Then I started papering the walls.  I used scrapbook paper that I sprayed ahead of time with a matte fixative spray and left to dry.  This helps protect the paper.  I used spray adhesive to glue the paper down.  A water-based glue like Yes", Alaine's, or Elmer's would warp the foam core.  The middle section was papered first, with some overlap on the sides.
 
 Then I papered the sides.
 
 The floor is just a piece of Styrofoam that I cut to fit inside the walls.  It's also covered with scrapbook paper that I sprayed beforehand.  However I just used tacky glue to glue in place.  Incidentally the two patterns of scrapbook paper were from the same "baby girl" themed collection, so they were already coordinated for me.
 Here is the walls and floor in place.  I used T-pins to hold them together while the glue (regular tacky glue again) dries.
 I painted the baseboard ahead of time (along with the intended furniture) and put it in place next.
 I still have some work to do today, but here is a shot of some of the things going inside the room.
 

 I'm off to finish this up and then get back to the Porch.  My order from miniature.com won't be here until Monday but I can at least finish the stonework and maybe ponder a new roof.

See you later!

4 comments:

Lataina said...

How cute!!! Love the wallpaper. =)

marlies said...

A lovely idea, becomes a beautiful gift!
* marlies

Kathi said...

Great idea! Thanks for the link too. Loads of possibilities with this!

Wendie-kins said...

Great "how to" tutorial :o) I shall keep my eyes open now for some interesting gift bags!! have added 'make a giftbag room' to my 'to-do' list now !!! :o) thanx Kins x