1:48 Scale Melon House

This 1:48 scale Melon House is made by Grandt Line, and I thought it would be so neat to build.  I realize they say it is not a beginner project, but overall, it was not hard to build - except for one thing - THAT melon!  Carving out the melon was awful!  I tried everything and anything I had on hand.  The foam in these melons was so dense, even my carving tools could barely make a dent.  It took me a LONG time to get this thing carved out.  Then I had to figure out how to get the walls smooth and the floor level.  That foam was not going to get smooth on its own.  I coated the walls and floor with PaperClay, leveled the floor so I could add the round floor that came with the kit, and let it dry.  Then I used sandpaper to sand the walls smooth, added more PaperClay where needed, let it dry and so on.
Finally the inside was nice and smooth and ready to be decorated.  Since I had manhandled the melon so much, I was no longer happy with the appearance of the outside of the melon.  I mixed up some various colours of green and re-painted the outside, then sealed it with varnish.
I think the floor and where I placed the door was a little higher than what the instructions wanted so I ended up having to build some stairs so that customers could get up into the front doors of the shop (I used some scrap basswood pieces I had around).  The pathway with the kit, was not going to cut it. It was basically paper with instructions to emboss the stones to make them look 3d.  I made my own stones out of polymer clay, textured and painted them, then added small bits of green Flowersoft as moss.
The kit came with some round "things" to make into tiny melons, of which I did by using the same paint I had used on the melon house.  But there wasn't enough, so I made more using PaperClay.  There was also not nearly enough greenery or flowers to make a nice garden, so I added to it using my own and pretty FlowerSoft colours.
The tiny Kitty Doll is a kit from Pamela Junk Minis.  Look for more of her kits to show up in my blog in the future.
The only thing left to do is finish the interior.  The plan is to make this a "Melon Shoppe" with all things melon.  Cookies, cakes, books, art, melon by the slice, whatever I can fit in there.  I'd like to be able to also fit a small cafe table and two chairs, but with the counters to show off the wares, I am not sure they will also fit.  I made a tiny mushroom teapot to have in the shop as well.
Enjoy - although this started out as a hair-pulling experience, I am very pleased with the result.

Dollar Store Find

I am always scouting out the dollar stores for mini-items and this time I found something interesting at Dollarama.  The first picture is from the packaging, and the second is a dry fit as I figure out what to do with it.  The closest to scale I figure is 1:48 but that is by eye-balling it. The quality of the wood is surprisingly good, even better than some Greenleaf kits I have. If anyone else has seen these and has more info, please share!

Quarter Scale Christmas Gifts 2011

My special tradition for Christmas is to hand make most of my gifts.  This year I tackled one of the hardest projects yet.  Build quarter scale Christmas scale roomboxes for my mom and two sisters.  The picture of how I wanted everything was in my head, I just needed to put everything into play.  I learned a lot about doing this and next time I build a roombox, it should be a whole lot easier.
If I tried to sit down and explain everything I did here, this post would not happen, so instead, I am posting pictures with the following caveat: I made everything you see.  If you have questions about how anything was made, I will joyfully tell you in great detail :)
Thanks for looking and, as usual, comments are greatly appreciated!