I want to start out by reminding everyone that this book nook was originally me tinkering around with trash pieces, trying to scratch build stuff at random. Or maybe I'm just reminding myself of that. I don't know if it was because of the last-minute decision to make the pieces into a cohesive nook, if it was because summer craziness prevented me from working on it, or maybe my love of trash just lost its luster - but my heart just wasn't in this one. I did finish it, but it was slow going and I thought about making it into actual trash more than once.
Let's start at the beginning, okay? So I had enough trash buildings that I was fairly confident I could make an alleyway book nook. This was exciting for me because it would be my first "alley" book nook. Alleyway book nooks are one of the most popular ones to create, mostly because they are an easy illusion. Popular themes include Diagonally from Harry Potter, Parisian cafe-lined streets, or a simple road with different residences. Here are a couple examples:
City alleyways are pretty popular as well. Since my buildings were uncommon shapes and sizes, and I had my big power pole, I decided doing a space-influenced cyberpunk alley would be my best bet. So I started assembling:
I put it on a piece of foam for the base, mostly because the goal of this book nook was to use things I already had or trash, and not buy anything new for it. This also allowed me to draw out the "street" to get the placing right and make sure all the sight lines were correct. I ended up encasing it in foam and mirrored cardboard I had laying around, to make it seem like there were shadows of buildings in the background.
Remember I said I was using leftover pod lights for the buildings? They were all going to be different colors, and it was going to look very cool. I even cut out holes so I could access to lights to replace the batteries in them:
Turns out, those batteries run out really fast. As in, I didn't even finish the nook before they were used up. I couldn't justify near-constant changing out of seven button batteries (they are expensive!) so I ditched that idea and decided to use blacklight instead. I had some blacklight paint I could add to the inside to add to the effect. Now, that was the one thing I did need to buy, because I didn't already have a string of led blacklights. Best laid plans and all that. Anywho...
As you can see here, I used a mixture of sand and paint to give the ground a grungy look. This was clearly a galactic city not on Earth, so I didn't want anything that looked like a common road. I added graffiti to the buildings to give it a more rough-and-tumble look, too. The symbol with the red mark through it doesn't actually mean anything, but suggests there is some sort of rebellion going on.
As for the yellow and orange building, I've dubbed it the "cantina" of this world, and boy did I have a hard time finding a roof for it. The top isn't level and has a squiggly shape, so I couldn't put anything rectangular on there. I finally put some shipping filler material on there in hopes it would look like a spacey thatched roof-type thing. Did I get it right? Or am I just making up stuff to make myself feel better?
After that it was just a matter of finishing details and creating the outer box for it. I had some fabric that had planets all over it, so I figured it'd be fun to use it for the sky in the top of the box. I also knew it would do really well against blacklight because of the colors.
For the front I decided to make it out of foam again, similar to the Mermaid Grotto front. Instead of using a hot foam cutter I just used a knife so it would look edgier, like you were looking through a hole in the side of a wall.
I also used the same sand and paint mixture for the outside to keep with the theme of grungy alleyway:
And let's not forget our little trash goblin!
Even though I seem to have a pretty negative attitude about this one, I think it is just because I was frustrated it took so long to finish. Summer is not the time for me to be making book nooks, because as a farm gal I am constantly outside tending to the garden and animals in the summer. Not to mention this particular summer I had a lot of travel going on as well. So I think moving forward it would be best for me to take a break in the summer and only work on nooks when it isn't farming season...
Overall, I am happy with how it turned out. There are things I'll do differently next time, but for my first ever attempt at scratch building it certainly isn't bad. It will still be displayed on my bookshelf alongside all my other nooks with pride.
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