Building Blocks

Hello!

The kids started school today, so summer is officially over for us. The last month I’ve been working on small projects for my tent.

• The footstool had its leather replaced with canvas.
• I started to build 2 butterfly chair. One is 98% done, the other is about 40% done.
• All the walls have canvas on them. The roof is another story.
• Built a stereo microscope, so my tiny scientist can look at even tinier things.
• I made some trunks. Every traveler needs luggage.

Aren’t the trunks cute? They are made with items I had laying around the house.

 

I started by raiding my kids bedroom wooden building blocks. The square ones are about 1″ square. The other 2 are about 2.5″ long, 1″ wide, and the height is between 1/2″ and 1″.

 

The blocks got a quick coat of paint and I covered the 2 squares with fabric. I wanted those two to have a fabric/canvas texture.

Strips of black paper were used to create the edge bands, the trim around where the trunk opens, the hinges, the locks, and the corner protecters. Details were pressed into the pater with a ball stylus. The square trunks were accented with gold rub-n-buff for a brass look. The 2 rectangular trunks were accented with silver crayon to help accent the details.

The trunks were aged with paint to help give them some dimension and make them look like they have traveled the world.

Some of the trunk stickers are little hidden easter eggs of places I’ve traveled. I found images on google of stickers I liked and resized them in photoshop. After printing them out, I covered them with clear packing tape. The packing tape was lightly sanded to create a slightly matte finish. The stickers were cut out and glued onto the trunks.

After seeing the pictures, the gold feels a little too gold. I might have to tone that down a bit. I’ll leave decisions like that until the end. While I might not like it now, the pop of gold in the final product might actually work well. If not, it will be easy to tone down with a little black paint.

These took way longer than I had anticipated. I probably say that about every miniature project that I do. Eventually I will get it.

Now that summer is over, I can get back into a regular groove between work and play. Yay!