Tuesday 22nd June, 2010

Town Square #1: Feathers & Fur Pet Shop

The kit  is called 'Pa's Pet Shop' but I've re-named mine 'Feathers &; Fur Pet Shop'.  There's not a lot of room in these tiny buildings but I will try to have a representative of each of the three kinds sold: cats, dogs and birds to start with.  Maybe a guinea pig if I can find one later on but I doubt there'll be room.

The kit contains nice sturdy timber pieces for the carcass, plastic windows and door, wall and floor paper and good quality paper shingles.  There is a small timber base for it to sit on if desired,  some landscaping material for grass, vines and flowers and  pieces for several accessories and a sales counter so although it's not inexpensive I feel it is worth it.

The front wall is papered first, but the side walls are left so that paint doesn't get on them later on.  Good tip Debbie!  Here is the carcass going together:  Lego bricks are sooooo handy for getting those walls at right angles!  These ones are over 30 years old now, having belonged first to my oldest daughter, added to for our second daughter then added to again for Nathan.  And now I've claimed a container full for minis - I always did like playing with Lego vbg.

The siding over the walls went on really easily.  Karen included extra hints with this first kit in the Club, and one of them was that while PVA glue all over the siding would definitely buckle it, if the glue was put around the outside of the edge and the borders of the walls, it would hold well and not buckle.  That's the way I chose to do it and I found it very successful.  It wasn't difficult to match up the line of the siding, by making sure I started from the bottom.  It was more difficult to cut out the windows and door but by taking it gently and doing multiple strokes with the craft knife I got through.

Masking tape is another essential in the toolbox for me, and it held the shorter roof on nicely while the glue dried..  The attic section has two triangles; one reinforces the front wall and the second one can be placed where you want it.  I chose to place it about 1cm back from the rear of the shop.  When the glue had dried it fitted really well into the roof section - all the parts are beautifully cut and everything fits so well together.  The second, longer roof then fitted on neatly.

Here's a photo of the little shop once all the pieces of the carcass were put together, along with a ruler to show the size - it really is tiny!

 Once all was dry it was fun to paint it all with a couple of coats of craft paint, in a nice blue with white trim. Since I tend not to leave things 'pristine' I then went over it with a wash of black paint in water and 'aged' the walls a bit, dabbing over it later with a tissue to make it random and making sure it was slightly heavier where it would be in a real house.

Then the rest of the wallpapering could be done, and the flooring paper put in.   I decided to do the floor of the attic part with some of the flooring paper too.

The roof shingles took longer than I expected to put on but were fun to do.  I had deliberately tried to vary the colour of the shingles a little bit when I was painting them, and to get a bit of a streaky effect for woodgrain.  I also took Debbie's advice and cut some of the shingles a bit shorter and some at different angles to give a bit of a snaggle-tooth appearance.  I didn't do every alternate one like she says, but randomly along the strips.  Then when I was glueing them onto the roof I selected strips that gave varied positions for the snaggle shingles.  I really like the variations in colour and shape that I ended up with.

For the base I marked the position of the shop, and of the doorway.   Then I removed it  drew a 'path' from where the step would be to the front of the base (which isn't very far!) and put glue all over the rest of the base, covered it with the 'grass'.  When it was dry I did the sides as well.  Then I put glue on the path and sprinkled some aquarium sand onto it for crushed gravel, pressing it in firmly with a flat paddlepop stick.  It took me a while to decide whether to use the base at all but in the end I have decided that I will do so, to give a solid footing so speak for the flower boxes and the shrubbery alongside the building.  I will be able to move the buildings independently around whatever square or street I end up using as well, and the grass will blend in nicely with the grass on the square centre.  All the buildings will have the gravel paths to tie them together.

I really enjoyed making the dog bed.  I chopped up a piece of newspaper for the shredded paper and glued it all over the base to make a nice bed for the puppies or kittens that will go in there, and put a silver bowl in there as well for their water. 

In the instructions, Debbie warns that the windows are very delicate.  Believe me - they are!  Just removing them in order to paint them resulted in three of the four having one of the dividing bars break  even though I was very, very gentle.  Fortunately I could pop a tiny dot of glue on them but next time I will cut them off with a craft knife rather than bending them off. 

My efforts to do the blue trim on the door were a dismal failure. I spray painted the door, then tried with a finely pointed toothpick to 'float' the blue into the grooves as instructed.  Disastrous!  So as instructed I allowed it all to dry thoroughly and scraped the overflow off - and it looked even worse.  I bowed to the inevitable and just painted it all white!  But I was pleased with the paw prints, which I did with two sizes of styles dipped into brown paint.

The rack for leashes was fiddly but worked okay and I didn't even lose one of the pegs - I was sure I would lol!  The shelves over the windows will look great once I have something to put on them too.  The counter was fun to do and I thought I'd put a timber top on it rather than doing it all white.  It took about five tries to do the gold keys on the cash register - still not satisfactory but I'll leave them at that and when it was glued on I realised I hadn't put the white square for the price in place!

I did the shop sign to match the new name, and did a sign for the side of the shop as well.  I was in two minds about the name to put on the kennel at the top of the shop sign.  One doggie friend Charlie lives in Western Australia and is as cute and gorgeous as can be, and another doggie friend Zoe lives in Queensland and we send messages to each other via her mummy Jan.  In the end it was eenie-meeny-miney-mo and it came out Zoe, so I put her name on the kennel.  I hope she is pleased but she hasn't said yet. 

Flowering vines in the flower boxes at the front, shrubs at the sides and the exterior is completed. 

Inside I stuck the dog bed level with the window so that passers by could see the critters in it ('how much is that doggy in the window?').  This also gives much-needed storage space underneath so I can put some shelves there or store large items.

So there it is.  I have lots of printies to make up (NOT my favourite thing to do), have ordered some critters to populate the shop, and the first of the Town Square Collection is ready for business!