It's the Little Things

It's no surprise that I figured out another project to begin before getting the one in progress to "completion." (Like they're ever really complete? Yeah, that's not the point of the house!) That being said, this past week, I: still gathered some new supplies for the garden spaces which I will "plant" soon; imagined a few, new garden areas, and made a couple of more pillows to don the porch chairs:

Hey, I'm getting pretty good at this!

I love these little lightening bugs! Ahhh ...

Oh, but that's not all!! While imagining new garden spaces, I decided to dive into the project of making foods for the family because they must be starving by now.

From flower gardens to grocery items. 'Makes sense, right ? (Um, no ... I just got distracted and excited!)

With the garden project still strewn all over my work space, I cleared enough room, via the scooting-it-over method, to get the family some grub!

I started out on the Jennifer's Printables site where I gathered a number of items. Here's how the process went down if you are so inclined although I wouldn't be surprised if there's an easier way to do this:

1. I copied the image I wanted as a picture (and, yes, it's free and encouraged to do so!)
2. The image was then dropped into a PowerPoint slide where I took a stab at sizing the item. This was a little tricky because the measurements provided for the image on PowerPoint include the tabs of the image. So, honestly, I did some good, close guessing.
3. After fitting a bunch of items on a page, I printed them on both card stock and regular paper (you'll see why).
4. This is the step where I resized and reprinted as needed. *sigh*
5. I usually got the desired size on the second try, and, then, it was time to cut the patterns! Learn from me: one of these images is correctly cut, and one is not. Can you figure it out?

Yeah, the one on the right wins! I originally "saw" the white boxes as white space to be removed. But, when that happens, there are no tabs to use for gluing sides together. Whoopsie.

6. While leaving the white spaces in place, cut on their lines to allow for folding but not removing.
7. The easiest way to fold these little suckers - use the card stock print - is to use a straight edge on the line, and fold over it.
8. Dry-run the folding to make sure everything fits as needed.
9. Glue as best as possible. 😊

On occasion, I did cut the little white tab away when the folding and gluing just made it clear that the tab was not needed or otherwise in the way. But, don't do that until you know.

One step I took but I've not seen on other sites is to use the Tim Holz micro glaze over the image. This keeps the ink from smearing if it gets wet. And, with the intention to use a coat of polyurethane on these, this step matters.

This was my first run of products. Ta-Da!!

This is where the printed image on regular paper came in. You can see the vegetable thins looks a little tattered and worn, and that, for me and my amateur status, seems to come from over-working the paper while folding and getting it together. But, I could fix it by cutting out just the parts of the pattern I needed from the regular paper (also micro glazed) and gluing it over the product. Poly the whole thing, and the product is ready!

But, wait, there's more!

So, my friend Cindy checked out my creations and noted that she thought they'd be even more awesome with a little weight in them rather than being light, empty boxes. While I heard her, I'm certain my mind in that moment pushed her idea away because not only had I already sealed what you see above, but I also wasn't loving the idea of another step in the process. However, I couldn't push away the fact that I thought it was a great idea. So, the next day, I took my friend vegetable thins and decided to slice open the top to see how easy it would be to get little pieces of wood in these boxes while also resealing it to still look good.

Wouldn't you know that it worked really well! I have a whole box of wood scraps that I bought at Hobby Lobby in their Woodpile collection, which I have used for books and picture frames, so those pieces made it easier as they can be cut with regular scissors. I so badly wanted to cuss at Cindy in my head while reworking these, but the idea really helps in both stability and durability. Who wants these smashed after taking time to make them? Not I ... So, Cindy and I remain friends while I went for it to create some more goodies!

I'm super-proud of the Domino sugar bag because it's a box printable that I made into a bag. This, along with the brown sugar and chip bags, are just created with regular computer paper to more resemble the real things. The Fritos bag actually holds these wood scraps ...

... so, if you shake the bag, you hear the chips. The other potato chip bags, as well as the sugar bags, are stuffed with paper napkin to create shape. I like the stuffed chip bags more than the Fritos, but they all work.

In the picture, you can also see the animal cracker box. I made two of those and love the little string handles!

In the picture's foreground is a cake box that I really had to fight to get to stand up. I tried twice to create this box, and it did not want to stand. I *think* I finally got it where it will, but if it becomes a problem, My Girl said to consider it from the bargain shelf of beat-up or otherwise old products. Should that become the case, I'm going to create a "clearance" sticker for it and call it good.

Another note from the picture is that, if you look at the baking soda box, it looks like it's coming open on one end. That was accidental as something went awry in the process. But, as I looked at it, it could only remind me of my own baking soda box where the cardboard spout always looks wonky, and I was endeared to its realism. 😌

A couple of my other favorite products are the candy bars! They, too, are only printed on regular paper so they are more "wrapper"-like. I took really small pieces, much like those used for the Fritos bag, for their centers. They are crazy-easy to make as I just smear the non-printed side with glue, stick the wood piece in the proper place, and roll the wrapper around it. I hold the ends tight to not only seal them but to also give the overall piece some shape, and, voila !! Oh, and, yes, they get a coat of poly which really makes them realistic!

Polly and Hal are enjoying their snacks amidst the beauty of their garden space:

She likes savory; he likes sweet.

And, up on the sunroof, the girls get to add to their tea party treats:

Veggie thins and animal crackers are on
their way!

I think I'll be sticking with the garden and the foods for a little while because I can then avoid the trim work I have waiting there's just so much to do! I also want to build a little shelf for some of the foods because it seems some of the products come from Sams in their family and bulk sizes 😅 More updates after a little more progress!