Box Theatre Kit: Country Notes

I got the itch to do another model a few weeks ago and pulled out a kit I bought off the internet. It comes with all the stuff you need (though I did add a few things from my craft stash). Here's the box with all the bags of parts. I love these kits as they're not only fully set up for you, they also teach you some cool tricks for making things like trees out of paper rope, thatch out of twine, pots & pans out of metal pieces.

 Here I've papered the insides of the tin and wired lights along the ceiling and put in the floor and battery cover.

 The house mostly constructed with some of the furniture ready to go in it.

 And the finished piece + the two bunny inhabitants (the only things not glued down).

Forest House DIY Mini Dollhouse Kit

This is a kit I bought and put together sometime last year. I've bought a few more of them and really enjoy the work. Depending on the kit they take a few days to do, with all of the furniture and whatnot being built by you. The instructions for this one were in Chinese, but there were photos explaining what to do.

This kit includes pieces to build a gift box, which I choose not to do. Here's a photo of what comes with the kit (including bits of wood, grass, cloth, plastic flowers, etc).

Some of the built pieces for scale.

The finished front & back.

It comes with 3 LEDs, which make it look cool in the dark.

Video: DIY miniature fairy garden kits

Yesterday I went on pinterest and stumbled across a picture of a miniature dollhouse room built inside a metal lamp. A friend of mine wants to make a dollhouse one day, so I sent her the link. As it didn't credit the maker, I tried a google search image on it and fell down the rabbit hole of do it yourself miniature dollhouse kits.

Now, I'm interested in very small scale miniatures (see my egg dioramas and my book sculpture). I didn't think there were kits designed for the scale I prefer. And while the videos below show kits that are a little bit larger, I can't wait to try one of them! I can only imagine the skills I'll learn, building the tiny furniture myself, making the plants using the provided materials, using beads to make all sorts of foods, flowers, lamps, etc.

So, why post this on my SF blog? Two reasons:
1. They're so darn cute, and sometimes having a related hobby is helpful (I want to make a witch's workshop, but other fantasy - and even SF - scenarios can be done too).

2. As much fun as trying to figure stuff out by yourself can be, it's always good to see how others do things. With these kits, I'll learn skills I won't otherwise learn. Seeing videos is great (now that I know they exist), but there's no substitute for actually doing something yourself. Writing is a solitary endeavour, but you can learn a lot by reading books by others. Books on craft, but also books you love and books you hate. What does the author do to pull you into the story? How do they handle dialogue? What does another author do that makes you want to throw the book across the room? How do you avoid doing those things? Analyzing other authors' works can help you improve your own.

Here are two videos on making a fairy garden kit. Welcome to the rabbit hole.