North Pole Tea Room

I meant to post this last night and do it as a "Flashback Friday" (you know, flashing all the way back to Christmas time lol).  But by the time I got home it was late and I forgot to do it, but I thought that since I've referenced/mentioned this project several times I should post pictures of it.... It was my first 1:48 scale project (well except for a couple little "rooms" I did up in a display case/frame with some vintage 1:48 scale furniture my husband got me, but I didn't do much with them because the main purpose was to showcase the vintage miniatures)

As well as pictures of the finished project I've got a bunch of different steps in the process as I worked on it so I'll caption each one about what was going on...

at the very start.... the structure started out as a paper mache teapot and I had already cut the back off in this picture

after cutting out the door and window and framing in the door opening and adding the window.  I made the window from 3 regular flat windows that I modified and remade into this bay/bow window

filled in the gap around the window and painted the whole thing gloss white

inside I had to raise the floor a bit both to make it a more appropriate ceiling height to scale and also to give me a bigger floor space

adding the roofs over the door and window

the roofing material is craft paper brown cardstock that I cut and painted by hand to look like gingerbread tiles

the door finished off... trim and door handle

the beginnings of the wreath and it's little wreath hanger that I really loved how it turned out

the fireplace made and decorated.  Those itty bitty glitter houses and paper trees were SUCH a pain to make lol.... hopefully I never decide I just have to have them for a project again....

working on making a bottle brush tree look a little more realistic with preserved lycopodium (princess pine)

the interior coming along, with the tree, trim, the cushion for the bench in the window, fireplace and flooring paper in place.  The flooring was actually a piece of wood grain scrapbook paper with a "varnish" of glue over it to give it it's shine

the start of the counter.  Mini cash register and gingerbread cake pieces on a cake plate. The "cover" for the cake plate is actually a blister from packaging.... I did also glue a little clear bead to the top as a handle, but hadn't done it yet in this picture.

the regeister

testing out a couple of pieces of the un-painted furniture.  You can see the floor better too

after painting one of the tables and draping it's table cloth.  The table cloth is a thin piece of cotton that I draped by cutting a larger piece and wrapping it over the table and tying it with a rubber band under the legs. I then soaked it with fabric stiffener and blowdried it to heat set it.  Once I had done that a couple times I cut the table cloth to length

testing out the furniture layout/placement before I painted all the peices

one of the pieces I broke while painting them..... there were also I think 4 chairs I managed to break.  These were the inspiration/reason behind doing the 1:48 scale attic room box I'm going to be doing

the menu board.  Printed to look like a chalkboard menu board with the days offerings on it.  Two of the teas for the day are "Kenmore Blend" and "Gingerbread Blend" these are actually teas that we sell at the gift shop for the historic site I work at that were blended just for us

testing out the menu board on the wall.  Also the Wallpaper on this wall is scrapbook paper. and the raised paneling on the bottom part of the rest of the walls is a strip cut from embossed scrapbook paper

added a bow to the wreath on the door.  The bow was made using an appetizer fork to form the bow around

the open sign added to the door

and from inside it says "come again".  The chain was the finest jewelry chain I could find cut to size.... it also was so difficult to work with lol.... I really almost gave up, but fortunately I'm stubborn

the furniture all back in place after getting painted and ready to start accessorizing the table tops

from a different view

a tiny tiered serving plate I made.  The plates are paper cut with a hole punch and painted and the metal part is an eye pin from the jewelry department cut to length

the first table I got set... with the tiered serving plates on it

the second table.... the picture is a bit washed out, but there are sandwiches that I made from clay on the plates and a cookie on a little plate (the cookie is also made of clay).

the wreath on the door finally finished with a tiny snowflake and tea pot

tea pot silhouettes as art work next to the door

and with the door in place

the long table with all of it's food and tea pots and cups in place

and in place in the room.  The tree is fully decorated in this one too.

tiny "bags" of Kenmore Tea for sale at the counter

took a while to figure out what other merchandise I wanted to display, but I finally decided on cookbooks ("Mrs's Claus's Tea Time Treats Cookbook") and some plates and a tea set

everything in place

and the counter in place in the room

the steps were the last thing to get done.  I made them myself from individual 1:48 scale bricks and actually ended up using the "frosting" that I had gotten to make cupcakes for the tea room with as the mortar.... it worked pretty well 

hanging sign

the outside with its landscaping

"finished" pictures.... looking in through the window

"finished" pictures..... the front of the tea room teapot

"finished" pictures..... inside the tea room (it's a little dark in there, but the other pictures have shown the details pretty well, this one just gives you the overall look