Shadow box

Well, it wasn't exactly on my original schedule (like I really had one) but it's time to work on this.

You may recall that Sunni had some giveaways at our All Day Workshop and I picked up a shadow box on spec.

I mostly took it apart tonight and have started working on it. First I removed the back and placed it on the matboard I had chosen for the inside, cut it and them together with wood glue..

Matboard looks almost white here but it's more grey with a slightly blue tinge.

Then I removed the frame from the front and the hardware from the back.

The back hardware had to come off as it only allowed it to be hung vertically and think  it will end up being hung horizontally.

Took the glass from the front frame and started painting the frame blue.

The back and the glass had been siliconed in place so I ended up running a chisel where the silicon had been in an effort to clean up the joints.

Tomorrow I'll do more painting, put the new back in place and add matboard to the inside walls.

R.I.P.

The father of my friend and fellow miniaturist, Margaret Clark, passed away this past Saturday.

He was a driver for Edmonton Transit for many, many years. He and his wife, Mary Anne, were married for 55 years.

He is survived by Mary Anne, daughter Margaret, three sons, Richard, Adam and Ian; two grandchildren, Trevor and Sarah; and his sister, Dorothy.

Another piece finished!!

I bought this Christmas scene bag from the estate of Shirley Phillips to give away this Christmas. It needs some repairs so that was today's project. The foamcore box that contains the scene is glued in place so that made it a bit more difficult to fix things.

It's a nice little piece but it's open in the front so I want to close it in. First, I took my hair dryer to it and blew off all the dust off it.

Then I cut a piece of matboard to fit in the front of the bag and pencilled along the bag so I could cut out the portion along the front.

Then I removed the matboard from the bag and cut out the centre.

Cut a piece of clear plastic about 1/4" wider each way than hole in the matboard ,

and glued it in place.

The matboard/plastic is in place behind the front of the bag. Because the corners of the bag are torn, I glued them down then cut a frame from some strip wood I had in my stash.

Then glued the frame in place and stacked my books on it until the glue dried.

As the final touch, I cut a piece of marble matboard to fit in the top of the bag and cover up all the ragged edges of the foamcore box.

And here is the tidied top of the box!

Looking good - and FINISHED!!

Hope this finally posts....having trouble with publishing tonight.

Kitchen vignette - finished!

Way back on February 6 (this year, at least LOL), I decided to do a vignette as a giveaway at our Christmas potluck dinner. Worked on it for awhile then got stalled when it came to installing the flooring.

And there it sat.....and sat....and sat.

I had tried. unsuccessfully, using aluminum foil to make a template for the flooring before. So this time I decided to mold it against the bottom of the container and trim it to that size.

Once that was done, I took that template and pressed it into the floor of the container. Because there wasn't much extra foil involved now, it was much easier to handle and gave me the new template for the flooring.

Another mistake I made back then was to try to use a scrap of the hexagonal photo paper and piece it.

Once I decided to print out a new sheet of flooring on photo paper (using the free online graph paper), it was a snap! I took my template and taped it to the photo paper around the curved ends. I could/maybe should have taped the entire template on but this worked. I took my utility knife and straight edge and cut the straight lines then cut the curved ends with scissors.

Yea! It fit perfectly! Checked it first then used double-faced carpet tape to hold it in place. Problem solved. (Took long enough.)

I cut a piece about 1 1/4" x 2" from a green Dollarama cutting mat, glued it in place with the rolling pin glued to that and glued a Christmas tree cookie cutter above that.

Glued the table, baking rack and paper towel holder in place and it's done!

Here it is closed up. Problem is, as you can see, it's almost impossible to get a picture without my reflection.

 But I'm pleased with it.

Foamcore roombox 3 - finished!

Didn't get any work done yesterday as we had our Condo Block Party then I went over to DS Shirley's to spend time with her, DS Marie and BIL Robert who were down from Peace River.
While I was there, I also reglued some of the instruments in Grahame's music room after a couple children decided to play with it.

First thing to do today was clear all the dried glue from inside the top of this glue bottle. Got that done then poured some Weldbond in. (I needed the finer tip on this bottle to glue together the roombox.

I ran a line of glue in the L-shaped edge along the sides of the floor of the roombox.

This 90 degree corner clamp is great for holding the walls in place while the glue dries. (Got these at Princess Auto ages ago.)

First (right hand) wall is up.

Both sides up and clamped in place.

Now the back is glued in place.

This is the ceiling piece with the back and two sides cut back and glue in place.

Then put the ceiling in place, clamped the front corners and books placed across the back corners to hold the ceiling tight until the glue dried.

Here the furniture is in place.

Added an "Anne of Green Gables" doll to the scene. Think I have a teddy bear somewhere to put on the bed. May add a few other accessories later but for now I'm declaring it finished!

Foamcore roombox 2

With all the pieces cut, it was time to dry fit everything. The back piece fit vertically but was about 1/16" too long horizontally. Once I trimmed it, everything fit fine.

I used a couple T-pins to hold things in place during the dry fit.

Next step was to cut the carpet.

Then I put a strip of double-sided carpet tape across the front of the floor and very carefully put the carpet in place.

Made sure the carpet was smoothly in place then added carpet tape to the sides of the floor and very carefully and slowly set the carpet in place. Here the finally piece of carpet tape is in place across the back of the floor and the carpet finally laid.

I decided to put a window in the left hand wall so cut a hole 4 x 4 two inches above the floor then cut a piece of heavier plastic 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 and glued it in place on the outside of the wall. When that glue had dried, I did the same on the inside of the wall.

Then I mitre cut 8 pieces of coffee stir sticks with a measurement of 4" on the short side. Painted the first four pieces black and glued them to the outside of the wall.

The four remaining pieces were painted white then glued onto the inside wall.

(Afterthought) Had this beautiful piece of pleated lace in my stash so glued it to the inside wall as a curtain.

Here is the outer wall before the curtain was glued in place.

The room with the curtain in place.

I'm pleased with it so far. The only thing left to do is glue all the pieces together.

Hope to be able to get that done and show it to you tomorrow.

However, tomorrow is a busy day. DS Marie and BIL Robert are coming out tomorrow and should arrive by 2 p.m.. Have to get over to Mom's to spend some time with her then head back home where we are having our annual Condo block party.

I will be displaying M.E.E.'s Canada 150 display tomorrow at the block party. Will be interesting to see the reaction as the St. Albert Gazette had a wonderful two page write-up on it today and many people will have read it.

Foamcore roombox

This will make a fairly sturdy roombox that is 14 1/2" x 9 1/2" x 9 1/2". The measurements can be adjusted to almost any size but this one can be made from 1 1/3 sheets of foamcore with 1/4 sheet left over from the first sheet.

Supplies:
1 1/3 sheets 3/16" foamcore (20" x 30")
Cork backed 15" ruler
Carpenter's square (optional but helpful if you have one)
Utility Knife (optional)
X-Acto knife
fresh blades
Glue (I use Weldbond)

carpet
wallpaper
drapes??

From the first whole sheet of foamcore, cut three pieces 14 1/2" x 9 1/2". Although the foamcore is shown as 20" x 30", I bought mine at Dollarama and it's not quite that so I adjusted the measurements so I was working in easier measurements.

I made these cuts with my Mastercraft utility knife and my carpenter's square which gave me pretty straight edges. The trick to cutting foamcore is to make three passes: (1) cut through the first layer of cardboard, (2) cut through the foam, and (3) cut through the lower layer of cardboard.

This gives you the three large pieces (the floor, back and ceiling) with a full 1/4 sheet left.

This tearing of the foam indicates that you need a new blade!

Then from the second piece of foamcore, cut two 9 1/2" squares across the 20" width.

terrible picture  - doesn't reflect the angles well

This is where it gets tricky!. On two of the 14 1/2" x 9 1/2" pieces, measure in 3/16" on both short sides and one long side. Then you cut through the top cardboard layer and the foam layer, making sure not to cut through the bottom layer. I used the utility knife on this piece and had to discard it because I ended up cutting through all three layers.

So I switched to the X-Acto knife and I had more control over that.

Now I have the 3/16" cut. Next step is to take the X-Acto knife and very carefully cut through the back of the foam along the back paper then pull that strip of the first layer of paper and the foam away from the backing.

And this it what it will look like. Err on the side of the foam if you must. Any extra foam that is left in the groove can be rubbed out with the back of your X-Acto blade.

Do the same on one side of the each of the 9 1/2" squares.

Here's the total set-up. The top piece (ceiling) is 14 1/2" x 9 1/2" with the 3/16" clearance on the sides and bottom. The middle piece is 14 1/2 x 9 1/2" which will form the back of the room.

The bottom row has the side pieces (9 1/2" x 9 1/2) with the 3/16" clearance on the back and in the middle is the 14 1/2" x 9 1/2" piece with the 3/16 clearance on the sides and back.

Have to think about a couple forward thinking things here:

If I want a window in the back wall, this is the time to do it.

Floor: Now is the time to carpet. Have to check to see what will work with the furniture.

Wallpaper: ???