Making a magical miniature bookshelf

Last week we went to a Laneway Learning class called "Make your own enchanted bookshelf with Megan".  It was so much fun.  Two hours were not enough so we finished our bookshelves at home.  So today I share what we did, with many thanks to the delightful Megan for kick-starting our project.  This project gave us some new skills and ideas

This is the starter box on the left that we were given when we arrived at the class.  Beside it is an example of a bookshelf that Megan had made earlier.  We all knew that none of of would complete a bookshelf like this by the end of the class.

What we did achieve by the end of the class was a pile of books and box with shelves to take home.  Megan had made a lot of books for us to decorate but she also gave us some time to make more books.  

The books were made by painting cardboard, cutting it and folding it and then gluing it in place with a hot glue gun.  (I tried one with PVA glue and it was not pretty!)

We had some scraps of painted cardboard and gold paint to decorate the books.  The painted cardboard could be cut into thin strips and glued onto the books as binding.  While initially I did this binding across the full book, I got to realise we only had to do part of the book.  The gold paint was used to paint tiny details with a very fine paintbrush.  

As soon as we got home, Sylvia was keen to put together her bookshelf so a couple of days later we headed out to Spotlight for PVA glue and balsa wood.  Everything else we needed was around our house.  We took Megan's advice and bought WeldBond PVA which works really well.

She took very little time to glue the shelves in the box and then fill the shelves with her cardboard books, tiny paper scrolls, a few small jars and a tiny pot plant holder.  

The Balsa wood was for the frame.  We bought a balsa dowell rod and a wooden lino tool set to carve it.  This was totally new to us but we also had a retractable craft knife and a cutting mat that we had bought for collaging.  I was surprised how easy it was to cut balsa wood with the craft knife and to carve thin lines with the lino tools to make the dowel look like branches.  It was easier to carve lines along the grain than against it.

To paint the shelves and the frames, we dug into the old acrylic paints we had used when Sylvia was younger.  I was so glad we didn't throw them out as they did the job!

We mixed paints to find the colours that we needed.  You can see on the newspaper above how Sylvia mixed different colours and painted a splodge on the paper after each addition of colour to see if it was the brown that she wanted.

Sylvia filled her bookshelf and glued on the balsa wood frames before painting.  This meant that she left the insides of the shelves white and found it harder to get into all the crevices of the frames.  It looks amazing. 

We already had these miniature jars because Sylvia loves tiny things.  She filled these with dried herbs, crystal chips, and paper scrolls.  Sprinkles would work too.  She then got out her jewellery pliers to make coloured bottles out of random beads with a smaller bead attached to the top with wire.  She also wrote tiny labels on paper that could be glued onto the bottles.  She even had a tiny jar that she painted the lid gold.  And she painted some gold onto the top of tiny scrolls.

 

I was much slower in getting my bookself together and learnt from watching Sylvia do hers.  I was going to try and give my painting the lines of wood grain but it was not something I am familiar with and in the end would not have been seen very clearly.  I had to trim my shelves to fit the box. 

I halved my balsa wood dowel by using a ruler and pencil to make a line along the dowel to make cuts along with my craft knife and then turned it over and did the same thing on the other side.  I used the craft knife to cut some curves on the insides of the frame which looked rustic.  The photo above is when I placed my carved sticks to put together as a wooden frame.  I had to use a little bluetak to get it to sit together.  It was clear that I needed to cut it to fit but painted it before doing this.

With my bookshelf and frame painted, it was time to assemble the bookshelves with my trusty bottle of glue.  As Sylvia and Megan had done, I had a few piles of books and some that did not sit straight.  Scrolls were used in the spaces and I had bottles and a pot plant in a few gaps.  I also found a giraffe that I used ot have on a key chain that I added to the shelves.

I arranged everything in the shelves and then took it out in order, shelf by shelf so I was clear what I was gluing in place.  I was surprised when discussing this with Sylvia that she had not arranged her shelves before gluing.  In doing craft projects with her, I have noticed that I like to plan but she just wings it and manages to get it looking great much quicker than me.  It is interesting how we have our own styles.

 

Once the shelves were filled I was ready to frame them.  I had been concerned that the frames would be quite dark so I decided to use a fine paintbrush to brush lightly over the painted sticks to make the carving stand out more.  Arranging the frame sticks to be cut to fit was fiddly.  In the above picture you can see that I tried to fill some of the gaps in the corners with the PVA glue but it did not make a difference once it dried.  I had to hold down some sticks which were not even to sit on the edges of the box.  While it was drying it seemed fragile and liable to move and fall off.  Once dried it seemed fine even where there were gaps along the edges.  (I have included a ruler in the above photos so you can see how big it is - about 15cm or 6 inches high.)

Finally our shelves were finished.  Sylvia is keen to do more but I feel like once is enough for me.  I do not have the time and space in my life for more.  Mine is currently on a bookshelf in the lounge room but I plan for it to go into the dolls house at some point.  It feels like a great achievement to get this done and I am so glad we went to the class to start us on this path.

 

 

More craft projects on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

• A backyard mural: forest, fairies and fireworks 
• Fairy nook for backyard garden: part 1: upcycling a toy oven and overview 
• Halloween toilet paper roll and hot glue gun candles
• How to make a minion pinata   
• How we made a paper fireplace out of a cardboard box
• Craft ideas for kids - a list of activities on my blog