Allow me to formally introduce the final shop of the 1000 block of Whimsy Street, Miniburg, VA (drum roll please...........) "JellyBean's Ice Cream and Delights", an ice cream shop in an ice cream carton building. I actually officially started work on the shop towards the end of July (and started writing a post about it, that apparently didn't get published...), but didn't really get too far before putting it aside for my Christmas Crafting in July week, and then didn't really end up getting much in the way of miniatures done in August, but after getting my August door done I got back to work on this shop and it is coming along actually really quickly (and easily it's kind of making me worries, lol, I never have projects go this smoothly...). As a matter of fact I think there is a good chance that I could get it finished by the end of this weekend, but if not it will definitely be done by the end of the month.
*I will probably break this shop up into 3-4 posts though regardless of when I actually get it completed so that I can really give all the different aspects of it the attention they deserve and not have one insanely massively long post....
The Planning:
This shop is in a way named after my husband. His initials are JDB, which if you say them fast enough sounds like jelly bean (or at least does when I say it) so "JellyBean" is one of my nick names for him. So, of course, when I was brainstorming names for all the shops in my earliest planning stages it was one of the first stores I named. What better for the name for an ice cream shop on Whimsy street? It was cute, whimsical, and has personal meaning.
This shop has also changed quite a bit from the original plans for it. For one, I had thought I would use an actual ice cream carton for the building, but ended up going with a paper mache box decorated to look like an ice cream carton for 3 main reasons: 1. I wanted a completely generic exterior with no brand visible and a simple exterior that wouldn't distract from the interior, or the shop name and such on the outside. 2. I wasn't sure I could really get it clean enough to not have any remaining residue from the ice cream. 3. I wasn't sure I could find quite the right size.
I didn't really have a clear idea of my color scheme in my original plans, but I did have plans for some of the interior design elements (flooring, etc.), but as I was finishing up the bookstore and getting ready to get started on the ice cream shop, and getting to the point that I really needed to start making color decisions so I could get to work, I was going through some scrapbook papers and cardstock that needed to be sorted and put away and came across one that ended up not only giving my my color scheme (dark pink, light orange, mint, and navy blue as an accent color), but also ended up changing some other interior elements. (what I had originally planned would not have worked right with the new "look" at all)
The Structure/Building:
To make the paper mache box look like an ice cream carton I spray painted it with a gloss finish color (its actually the same spray paint I used for the displays for the door series), then added a striped scrapbook paper around the edge of the lid. A decoratively shape cardstock tag, with door and windows cut out, serves as both a design element of the ice cream carton and to frame the door and windows. Letter stickers spell out "ICE CREAM" on the front of the carton.
For the door I used the piece I had cut out to make the opening for the door. This way it fit both the opening and the curve of the wall perfectly. I haven't attached the door to the building yet, partly to protect the door and partly so I have at least a little access to the interior from the front of the building still. I am so in love with how the door turned out though! Which, I know sounds funny to say that about a door, but I love little details that really bring scene to life and tie in with a theme, and I was able to get two elements on this door that fit that bill. The first was the door handle, which is an ice cream scoop shape! I made the handle from a tiny tiny punched piece of cardstock glued to the tip of a toothpick (which I sanded a little flatter/thinner on one side of the tip), with two small seed beads as the posts/brackets/whatever they would be called?). And of course I spray painted the ice cream scoop part of the handle silver.
The other element was the ice cream shaped open sign. I cut the scoop of ice cream shape from a piece of pink cardstock and used craft paint and pencil to add the details and lettering. I wanted it to look like it was hanging from a suction cup on the door glass so I did something that doesn't happen a whole lot with miniatures (especially in this scale), and broke out my hot glue gun. I placed the tiniest dot on the top edge of the sign and pulled it out into a string and held it until it cooled to make the string part of the hanger. Because the "glass" of the door is actually a thin plastic I, of course, couldn't put hot glue directly on it, so I used sticker paper backing to put a little dollop of hot glue on top of the string of glue to make the suction cup. I then used my regular tacky glue to attached the whole thing to the door once the hot glue had cooled.
For the inside of the door I just used pieces of an adhesive metal sheet for a push plate and kick plate.
I knew that my scrapbook paper was not only going to be my color scheme inspiration but that I wanted to use it as a wallpaper on one side of the shop as a statement wall. The floor I made by scoring "grout" lines into cardstock cut to the shape of the building, and then coating it with a coat of gloss mod podge. The rest of the interior is just the same paint as the exterior.
And that is where I will leave off for now..... in my next post I will talk about the ice cream and other delights that will be in the shop, but for now I'm going to get off my computer and get to work on the last few things I still need to do/make for this shop so that I can possibly have it finished in the next couple days!
No comments:
Post a Comment