{Whimsey Street Shopping District} Updates!!

I promise that I really really have been working on my projects this spring and summer - I've just been really bad about posting my progress (um..... ooops.... sorry!)  Although I do have to say that I'm not quite as far as I wanted to be by now, but that's okay. Lol. I've been mostly focusing on the florist/garden shop - "Willow: Florist and Garden Shop" and the art Gallery - "Gallery B", but I have gotten a few things for the other shops and I did start working on the building for the toy store the other day. (BTW still trying to come up with just the right name for the toy store).  So since I've been so remiss lately with posting progress as I go, I'm just going to post one big post to bring everything up to date at this point instead of individual posts about each step. So prepare yourself for lots of pictures! ;)

Willow: Florist and Garden Shop

I'll start with the florist/garden shop since it's the shop I've gotten the farthest on.....

first layout test of the floor for Willow: Florist and Garden Shop.  I really love this floor..... the "terracotta" tiles are cut from a piece of paper that was embossed to look like a waffle and was meant to be used to decorate a "gingerbread" house. It ended up working perfectly for this flooring though, with just enough texture to them to make fabulous tiles.  The wood strips in between the sections are just thin strips of balsa wood that I stained with watered down craft paint.

checking out the finished floor with the different options for wallpaper (for some reason the picture with the other side of the store with the lighter version of the wallpaper, which is what I actually ended up going with, wouldn't load on here, but there were supposed to be pictures of both options lol)

urn with decorative "ornamental cabbage" for outside the shop.  The plants in it are decorative sand on wire, dried tiny wildflowers (weeds) I picked from my front yard before my husband mowed for the first time this spring, dried baby's breath, and colored crepe paper.

and another side of it.....

and another side of it....

and the last side of it

sitting in place outside the store

testing out the "slate" tiles for the outside entry area of the shop.  I cut the tiles from slate colored scrapbook paper and distressed/textured them with fine grit sandpaper

before being glued down, a final test with the urn in place to see how it looks

a little further back view

this one is just to have my finger in it for scale

the body of the structure taped off so that I could spray paint the store front before I glued the "slate" down

painted store front and tiles glued down

I decided the tiles needed some grout between them so I just painted it with a very fine paintbrush and craft paint

further back view

and now with the doors glued in place.

and another angle...... getting tired of looking at the front of this shop yet? lol

making my own wainscoting for the shop side of the platforms of the shop windows. I used balsa wood and a pointed sanding stick to etch the grooves

starting to mock up the display on the garden shop side window

view from inside the store

starting to add finishing touches to the display

again, the view from inside

the very first flower I made for the shop

and a bunch more

these are the tiny no hole beads I made these grapes from, didn't have quite the right color so after gluing them to the wire stem I painted them

the start of the arrangement wit the grapes

this was the first arrangement I started for the shop but.....

this was the first I actually finished

and with my finger for scale.

back to the window display..... I painted the bench

and added a watering can sitting on it

the beginnings of my hand made flower gathering basket I decided that I had to have sitting under the bench in the window.  I used brown sewing thread and wove and oval and then cut it off the cross stitch fabric and coated it in glue holding it in a curved shape until it dried

mostly dried basket before cutting the excess thread off the bottom or adding the handle

the handle is 2 pieces of narrow gauge wire twisted together, painted to match the thread and glued to the sides of the basket

little wreath I made for the front door of the shop

holding it in place to see how it will look

more added to the window display..... ferns in one of the hanging pots

checking how it all looks in the window

the doors with the wreath glued in place with a copper hanger (copper tape from the stained glass section of  Hobby Lobby folded and cut to shape), and with the store name and logo painted on the other door

a broader view of the shop

added a couple more things to the window display.... itty bitty gardening gloves sitting on the bench and flowers in the basket under the bench

slightly different view...

and one more addition to almost finish off this window display..... gardening shears on the bench.

the window display in place. I just have one more thing I want to add to it, I still need to make a gardening book to sit on the bench along with the watering can, gloves, and shears

making hydrangeas.... tiny foam filler balls and tiny paper circles from the smallest hole punch I could find shaped, colored, shaped and glued in place

I love how they turned out

a peony that I made on my own without a kit, just with paper punches and crepe paper

more peonies

copying this life sized arrangement that I had made for a party a few years ago in miniature. 

I found little 3D swan Charms at ACMoore and they were just the right size for this so I cut the loop off the top and painted it to match the full size planter.  Making the flowers and getting them arranged to match the life size was a little challenging, I really had to put some thought and creativity into some of them, but I think it turned out well. it will most likely be on display in the window on the florist side of the shop

view of the mini in the foreground with the life size in the background

and another side if it.....

and another.....

and another.....

and finally top view.

playing around with some furniture in the interior

just so you can see the whole structure better. I will be putting a top on the watering can and a handle as the very last step, but i want to be able to reach into the top of the shop if I need to until after everything is glued in place

playing around with some more furniture and accessories inside

getting back to work on the grape arrangement.  It's "for" a vineyard wedding that my little florist is doing

finished arrangement

and sitting in the shop with the wine boxes lid, as it will be in the final set up

from another angle....

and one final angle.....

There are actually a few more things I have for the shop, but I don't have pictures of them right now so I'll save them for another post.  I think at this point I'd say that the store is about 75% complete.  I still need to do the window display for the florist side of the store as well as make some more flowers and maybe a couple more flower arrangements, and some more accessories for the store side of the shop and then it just have to glue everything down and finish off the top of the watering can.

Gallery B

Although I'm really probably at least 50% done with this one I don't have a whole lot of pictures.... the structure is pretty much ready to be put together, but I haven't taken any pictures yet, so I'll save that for it's own post, but once that is done it's basically just making all the art for it and installing all the art and finishing off the desk area near the front. So right now I don't have a whole lot of pictures for you for this shop, but I do have a few new art pieces to show off since my last post....

modern dancer sculpture getting ready to go in the oven to bake. the end result will be a "bronze" statue, but its starting out as brown clay and wire

baked and wires trimmed and glued in place on its wooden base

from another angle

and to give you a better idea of the size..... it's about 2 feet tall in scale.  Also when I took these pics the glue holding the leg in place wasn't dry yet so it's still white, but of course it fried clear and then I will be painting the base and then adding some dimension and detail to the sculpture with probably eyeshadows

some modern art pieces. These actually turned out even better than I was hoping for I used a technique I saw on Pinterest meant to make full size art where you dip a string or yarn in paint sandwich it between folded paper and pull it out from between them. In this case I used sewing thread and tiny pieces of bristol paper and they tuned out so well! I want narrow modern frames around them so still trying to figure out the best way to do that

this is the desk that will be near the front of the gallery that will serve as a place for the transactions of actually purchasing the art (haven't decided how I want to finish it yet)

and the little laptop I made to go on it

Well, I think that's about all I have for now. And also if you've stuck with me this far into this post you really deserve some sort of reward..... but since I can't really manage that I'll just give you a big thumbs up 👍 and a thank you!  And next time it wont be so long until the next post ;) !