{Whimsy Street Shopping District} "The Librarian and The Bookworm Used Books"

Now that the toy store is finished (oh! BTW I finally came up with a name for it.... "The Toy Chest of Whimsy Street Toy Store"), I'm trying to really get going on the bookstore, and hopefully get it finished quickly (although I've got a busy November so fingers crossed). I had actually had a building started a while ago, but as I was working on the toy store and had what was originally going to be the building was sitting next to it at one point, I just started to think they looked to similarly shaped.  So.... I started over and ended up changing my design slightly and using two paper mache book shaped boxes, that I modified a bit to fit together to make one structure...... unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of them before I started messing with them, but they are the same as these books that I used for my Halloween decorations in my front hall (just ignore the mess on the stairs..... we are not good at keeping our stairs tidy lol), but smaller versions of them.

  After figuring out where the door and windows needed to be and cutting them out I added some strips of foam to the spines to give them a little more book detail.

  To give the covers more texture I mod podged on some tissue paper, letting it wrinkle some and not smoothing it out (although honestly after painting it I think it probably should have been a little less wrinkly than it is, but it'll be fine, if I really decide I want it a little less wrinkly, I can always sand it down/scrape it down a bit and repaint it).

As of tonight I've only got the two base coats of paint on one of the "books", tomorrow I might sponge a mix of the green and a tiny bit of black mixed/swirled to give it a little more leathery texture to it, but I'm not completely sure yet, I want to see it after being completely dry and in better lighting before I decide whether to actually do that step or not.

Why yes, yes I was watching Star Trek: The Next Generation while working on this one tonight lol.  Also, sorry for the bad picture, but the lighting in this room at night just isn't good for photography.

I'll also most likely paint the other "book" tomorrow too once the paint brush I want to use dries from washing the green paint out of it.

  Once I'm happy with the main color I'll be painting details with gold paint and the tops of the "pages" a white or off-white color.  Then I'll get the windows made and installed and the door painted and installed.  Then it's on to the inside.  I actually already put together the bar kit that I'm going to use as the front desk.

This is actually the side of it, I apparently haven't taken a picture of it from the front yet, but honestly it's been a long week and i just don't feel like taking another picture of it right now.... it's a curved bar/counter..... and there will be many many more pictures posted of it shortly I'm sure

And I've already taken the 3-d printed stairs I ordered out and semi test fitted them so that I knew where the second floor would be. They are going to look so good once I get them painted and they are installed in the shop!

  So, I think that's about it for now, hopefully I will have a finished structure to show soon, and then moving on to the inside!

{Whimsy Street Shopping District Toy Store} IT'S DONE, IT'S DONE!!!!

Finishing this particular project was really a long time coming.  Technically I started working on it back in December, and got going pretty good on the building itself, inside and out, and then it got put aside and then most of this year I didn't get hardly anything done.  Then sometime in September I started working on it again hardcore, and got a lot done in a pretty short amount of time, but then I got delayed again while waiting for T-Rex floating charms to arrive from China, but now it is finally completely done! (well actually there's one more thing I might do..... if I ever come up with an actual name for it I'll make a sign for the shop to hang on the outside.  I've also considered trying to make some little balloons for outside, but if I end up making a sign I don't know if I would want the sign and balloons - I think it might be too much with what's already there).  So rather than go on and on about it, I'm just going to post the photos and talk about each area as I go.  Most of the stuff in there I have already posted about in earlier posts, so some of it might be repeating if you read those posts, but I'll try to at least be to the point and concise (bahahahah, hey, I said try lol)

Front view of the finished shop.  As I said, I still haven't come across the perfect name for the store, but honestly, since it says "Toys" real big across the top, I don't think it'll be the end of the world if I don't have an actual name and sign for it.  The lettering for the word "toys" are some glittery red stickers I already had that I backed with white paper and glued to the trunk.  The Trim around the windows and doors is Balsa wood that I soaked and then formed around the curve of the building until it dried and then glued on.  The door I purchased and painted, and the steps are floral foam, cut and painted to look like concrete steps.  The "giant" toy soldier was a little figurine I bought, I think around Christmas last year.  Oh and I suppose I almost forgot the most important part..... the building itself is a little chest I purchased at Hobby Lobby.

The castle and dragon in the window display were purchased as is.  I made the platform they are sitting on and painted the "road" up to the castle and he's kind of hard to see in this picture, but there's a little toy knight between the castle and dragon that I made from the top of a fancy toothpick.  The "Play" banner I made from masking tape and ribbon and the clouds are tiny pom poms that I pulled apart and "fluffed" a bit.

The dollhouse in the window display on the other side of the store I handmade from basswood.  The carousel horse was originally a mini Christmas ornament and I made and attached a base to it and painted it. The doll sitting on the horse I made from the top of a fancy toothpick and tissue paper and paint for the dress and little pieces of curled thread for the hair.  I also made the "giant" tissue paper flowers. The "imagine" bunting is little pieces of glitter tape with the letters painted on them.

I made sure when I was decorating the inside that I worked it out so that it could still be opened even after it was finished.  It made/makes it much easier to place stuff in the shop (or repair stuff if the need ever arises), and also made it easier to take closer pictures of certain parts of the shop

view of the inside of the shop. The green parts of the walls are painted and the cloud "wallpaper" is scrapbook paper.  The kites hanging from the ceiling are made from tissue paper and thread.  (The trim of course is painted stripwood)

I made the display tree that the dress-up wings and shields are hanging on from a toothpick and little pieces of wire.  The wings themselves are punched from velum and decorated with paint and glitter, and their "straps" are embroidery floss.  The knight's shields are cut from cardstock and they are hanging from packaging made from masking tape.  The little train table was a kit I purchased and assembled/painted

The dress-up capes are cut from satin and hanging on hangers I made from wire.  The dress-up tutus are made from tissue paper and hung from more hangers I made from wire.  They are all hanging from a fixture I made from basswood and wire.  The letters on the wall are floating locket charms I bought at Hobby Lobby.

I made the center display tables from little wood circles and strips of scrapbook paper.

The elephant and giraffe in the centers of the tables I made from purchased kits.  The blocks on the table that's on the left in this picture are little pieces of square dowels I painted, the little toy car I made from the square dowel also, carved and painted.  The crayon box it a printed front glued to a little piece of wood painted to match, and the drum is a scrapbook paper covered dowel with sewing pins cut to size for the drum sticks.  On the table on the right, the turtle toy is a bead, the little doll leaning against it on the left is made from the tip of a toothpick and the baby rattle next to it is made from a sewing pin and a seed bead.  The play ball is the head of a pearl head pin.

On the other side of the tables, on the table on the left, there's another toy car carved from square dowel, A Russian doll floating charm I painted, baby toys made from the heads of decorative jewelry head pins and painted, and a Robot I made from pieces of square dowel, some wire and silver paint.  The stuffed bunny on the other table I made from clay, and there's some more wooden blocks and baby toys made from the heads of fancy jewelry head pins

The shelving unit on the wall I made myself from basswood, and most of the boxes on it are printed covers glued to little scraps of wood.  The checkout counter I assembled from a kit and decorated (I'll talk about the decorations in a more close up picture)

The pictures hung all over the counter are colored and printed out to look like kids colored them with crayons.  The register I made to look like a "square" style register, the tablet part is wood and the stand part is made from the tab from the back of a dollar store frame that I had pulled out of the frame because I was using the frame for something else, not as a frame.  Also on the counter is a display of crayons and colored pencils.  They are printed box fronts glued to small pieces of wood painted to match and the display unit I made from cardstock.  On display on the shelf is a Lite Bright box, a coloring book, more crayons and colored pencils, and a little unicorn toy (which started life as a bead). The boxed dollhouse kits throughout the store where made from a purchased kit.

You can't see it real well in this picture, but the bottom shelf in the back of the counter had folded plastic and paper "bags"

You can see the shelving unit and boxed toys and games better in this picture, and the bin full of playground balls is made from a tiny wood disk and scrapbook paper and the balls themselves are the head of pearl head sewing pins.

The platforms that the window displays are sitting on are wood covered with scrapbook paper

The bookcase I assembled from a purchased kit. The horses, dinosaurs, and mermaid dolls on the shelve are floating locket charms I painted, the toy knights are made from the top of fancy toothpicks, the dolls are also made from the top of the same toothpicks with tissue paper for this dresses.  The whale was a bead, the teddy bears I made from tiny pom poms.  The starfish/flowers/whatever you want them to be on the top shelf of the far side are stickers, the octopus toy I made from a tiny pom pom and scrapbooking baker's thread, and the baby toys are the heads of fancy jewelry head pins, cut off and painted.  The castle on top was an unfinished metal piece I bought and painted.  The train set box I printed out and glued to a piece of wood and the rack it's sitting in I made from wire.  The train play mats under it are printed and I made the container they are in from basswood.

The coloring book are printed and the shelving units they are sitting in are pieces of plastic u-beam that I had leftover from another project

And now that the toy store is finally completely finished it's time to move on to the bookstore in earnest.  I've already gotten started on it some but hadn't gotten too into it while I still had stuff outstanding on the toy store, but now that the bookstore is all I have to work on at this point, I'm hoping I can get it done pretty quickly.  Fingers crossed. haha.

{Whimsy Street Shopping Distric Toy Store} One more detail while I......... wait?

Yesterday as I was looking at the outside of the toy store, after going ahead and gluing everything in place in the store (except for the bookcase that I can't finish dressing/stocking without the T-Rex charms), I realized that I needed a couple steps to get up to the front door, so I set to work figuring out the easiest/best way to make them.  My hold up was that there's a rounded trim around the bottom of the the outside and I needed whatever I made the steps out of to at least somewhat mold around it.  I had thought about making steps out of clay, but I wanted the steps to look like concrete and don't have any gray clay, which would mean I would have either had to mix some black and white (which is what I usually do) but then I'd have to square it off after, or I'd have to make them white and then paint them....  And honestly I wasn't sure how well I would do pressing the curve into the back of them without pressing my finger into the front (I'm not always the greatest with clay bahahaha).  As I was thinking about what else I could use I realized I had a little piece of floral foam floating around that was too small to actually use for florals so I decided to give it a try.

It was really easy to cut and shape (well except I cut the top of the first one a little crooked, but it was really quick to make another one that was more even).

My only real concern is that floral foam is so soft and I wasn't sure if it would be sturdy enough to hold up to being on the outside of the building.  I obviously was going to have to paint it anyway though, so I thought that might make the outside of it a little harder.  After two coats of gray paint it looked great, really ended up looking like concrete, with the texture of the foam and it was a bit harder on the outside,

so I decided to try coating it with matte Mod Podge and that seems to have given it a little more toughness at least on the surface so I think I'm going to go ahead and use them because they look so good and just try to be extra careful with the front of the shop. hahaha.

Yesterday I also gave up waiting for the T-Rex charms to actually make it here and went ahead and ordered a couple from a seller on Etsy.  Which I was originally going to wait until today to order more, but they only had two left and I actually wanted at least 3 so I didn't want to risk someone else buying one or both of them.  Of course, anyone want to take a guess what came in the mail today???? BAHAHAHAHAHAHA.....

Oh well, it was only a few extra dollars that I didn't actually need to spend so not a huge loss.  So, as of right now, I'm waiting for the paint on the charms to dry so I can glue them in place on their shelf, and waiting for the last coat of Mod Podge to dry on the steps (I didn't have any Matte so I had to wait until I could run to the store this morning to finish the steps) and then take a few pictures of the bookcase before I glue it in place in the shop and then glue it and the front steps in place and one other thing on the front of the shop and then the shop will be done and I can take pictures and post them! So, maybe tonight, or if not hopefully sometime tomorrow I should have photos taken and posted!

{Whimsy Street Shopping District Toy Store} A Few More Details While I Wait

Well, I suppose there's one good thing about this delay in being able to finish the toy store...... I'm getting some detail stuff done that I might not have bothered with otherwise.  Of course the other day I added some coloring pages to the outside of the checkout counter, and today I finished dressing the counter, and ended up going ahead with a few projects that I kind of thought I might not actually do for it. Originally I had a full size cash register for the shop and I had printed out some crayon and colored pencil box fronts, and wanted to have both of them on the shop counter, but I realized that with both of them on there they took up almost the entire counter, so I was kind of thinking maybe I just wouldn't do the crayons and colored pencils, but then the register still seemed kind of big so I thought hmmm..... maybe I can make a Square POS style register for it; but then I wasn't even totally sure I was going to bother doing that.  Today, though, since I still don't know when or if I'm getting the T-Rex charms (if I haven't gotten any updates on it by Tuesday I'm just going to order more), I was going to work on finishing off the check-out counter so I decided to go ahead and give the smaller, modern register idea a try.

the stand for the register is made from the tab from the back of a Dollar Tree frame that I pulled out of the back of the frame because I was using the frame for a different project.  It's probably a little wider than it should be, but there wasn't really any way to cut the width down (at least not without it being crazy difficult)

the tablet part is also a little too thick, but it was the thinnest wood I had at the time (well, or so I thought, actually found some that was a little thinner after it was completely finished and by then I wasn't going to remake it)

Even with some of the proportions a little off  I still think it worked out pretty well, and I was going to just leave it at that for the counter, but of course I just couldn't let the crayons and colored pencils idea go now that there was {probably} room for them so I made the little boxes of crayons and colored pencils (just glue a printed box front to some wood scraps and cut it to size and painted the sides and back), but then I couldn't really just have them sitting loose on the counter so I had to figure out how to make a little display for them.

the display for the crayons and colored pencils is made from cardstock.  I actually started by gluing the crayons to a piece for the base, then used a little scrap of wood to elevate the colored pencils and glued them down and then just kind of eyeballed the sides and cut them out and glued them onto the base and then glued on a front and back and then cut the base to the correct size

I also ended up painting it because some of the seams (especially where the sides met the base) where a little too prominent and the paint helped cover that a bit

For the shelf that is open to the front I had been kind of waiting 'til I got the last of the charms, because I thought I might want to use one in there, but I just really at this point want as much done without them as possible, and I had enough other stuff to use in there that I went ahead and finished that display without them.

the unicorn was a little bead from a bracelet, the light brite box was something I had had as an option for the open wall shelving, but ended up not using, so I stuck it in here, and then I had an extra coloring book that didn't end up getting put on the wall with the others and of course extra crayons and colored pencils

And, again, because I have some extra time to mess around with little details I put some plastic "bags" and paper "bags" in the bottom shelf that's open to the back to the counter.

the plastic "bags" are folded pieces cut from and actual plastic bag and the paper ones are just little pieces of folded pape

  So now All I have left to do is get those last few dinos in place once I get them and then glue everything in place.  I might actually glue almost everything in before then even though because I made sure that I made it so that the trunk can always open so I think I should be able to get the bookcase in though there if I have other stuff in the way from the back opening......