Mini AIMers

Are you lucky enough to have been to a Dollshouse Fair? If so, you will remember the excitement you felt when you walked into the fair and saw all the different stands filled with every kind of miniature you could think of. Where to start, what to look at first? The choice is amazing and your money is burning a hole in your pocket!

Then you spot a notice on one of the stands telling you that these miniatures are not suitable for children under fourteen. So you go to another stand……and another…..and each time the message is the same!  How can these lovely things possibly be unsuitable for you to buy? Is it just grown-ups being difficult?

Sadly, the answer is no, the standholders aren’t really trying to stop you from becoming involved in this wonderful hobby. In fact they would love to encourage the next generation to become Miniaturists, but red-tape and legal stuff get in the way.

If their things were toys, they could sell them to you, providing they had the CE mark on them (for sale in the European Community…..but you don’t want to know about all that boring stuff). However, things for sale at a Dollshouse Fair are real, scale miniatures for you to collect and treasure; they might have sharp edges, or be small enough to swallow and if children bought them and hurt themselves, the sellers might get fined or even sued for a LOT of money. So, they just can’t take the risk, which means YOU can’t buy anything…….unless your Mum, Dad, Grandma etc knows what you need and gets it for you! ……but I couldn’t possibly suggest that!!

Of course there are other miniature-type things you can buy, such as Superman, Barbie, Polly Pocket etc, but more about them another time.

But enough talking, let’s do something!

Have you tried making things from matchboxes? Depending on the size of the box, there are lots of things you can do. Here are some ideas:

Rapunzel's Tower

Cover both sections of a small matchbox with paper. You can use either plain paper and paint it to look like stone, or you could print out a sheet from your computer.   This is a good site for mini printable things: www.printmini.com/printables/

Cut a strip of thick card to go round the box to form the turrets.

This is what your pieces should look like now:

Fold a piece of thin card to fit the box part and cover with paper as before:

Put it to one side for now, as you will need it later.

Now try sliding the two parts of the matchbox together to form a tower, but don’t glue it in yet.

Cut out a door from card and paint or colour it with felt tips. Glue it in place.

Make yourself a window template from card so you can use it to draw round. When you are ready to cut out the window in the tower, ask an adult to do it for you with a craft knife, as this bit is tricky. You will need to leave a bit at the bottom of the window to form a sill (see picture below).

Now it’s time to make Rapunzel……but we are going to cheat and only make her head. You will need a wooden bead, a cocktail stick and something for hair. I used unravelled bunka (your Mum might have some if you ask her nicely), or you could use wool, doll’s hair, or even colour and cut out thin paper or tissue.

Cut the pointed end off the cocktail stick (or preferably, ask someone to do it for you) and glue on the bead.  Draw her eyes and mouth…there might not be room for a nose!  Glue on her hair, making sure it is long enough for the prince to reach and climb up to rescue her.

Cut off the rest of the cocktail stick (or ask for help), just leaving a small ‘neck.’ Look again at the photo of the window sill and you will see a notch in it. This is where you are going to glue Rapunzel’s neck, so her face can peep out of the window. You will need to put her through the window from the front, so her hair is hanging down on the outside.

When you are happy she is in the right place, slide the folded card you made earlier into the opening at the back of the tower to make the back wall. You can also glue the two parts of the tower together if you like, but it probably isn’t necessary (I haven’t glued mine and it hasn’t fallen down yet!).

The last thing is to glue the turret round the top of the tower.

Won’t the prince be surprised when he climbs up Rapunzel’s hair and only finds her head?!