Hey guys! Even though I'm not "officially" working on a book nook at the moment, I'm fiddling around with some supplies I have laying around. And who knows, if I like them enough maybe I'll put together a little something. Anyway, I wanted to share a secret with you...I love trash.
You guys, I'm not kidding. I don't go to the dump, because I'm one of those people that always sees stuff and says, "How could anyone throw this away?" I think I banned myself from going to the dump after I said that about a mattress once. A USED MATTRESS. Gross.
Anyway, I fell down the YouTube scratch building rabbit hole a while ago and I've always wanted to try it. Sure, I use some cardboard or plastic pieces from the recycling in my normal builds on occasion. But I wanted to try making things completely out of things I already had. Thankfully, I already had a big box of stuff in my basement:
(I had to label it because my first box actually got taken to the recycling center. Crazy, right?)
So anywho, I picked out some choice pieces. I've wanted to do an alleyway book nook for a while now, so I figured making some buildings would be a good starting place. I picked out the best building-y looking trash I could find:
Wow, is that a tiny Prosecco bottle in there?
Girl.
Okay, we aren't going to talk about my beverage choices right now...
Specifically in this shoebox wasteland were some trays that frozen crab cakes came in. I thought they'd look really cool as a sort of cyberpunk building. I started throwing stuff together and...
Wow! A...thing. The crab tray is the piece at the front with the painter's tape on it. My idea was to tape certain parts so when I put lighting in it would shine through. The disproportionally large telephone pole beside it is made out of a wrapping paper role and some wall anchors. I'm calling it a "power tower" to make it sound cool and more cyber-y. I attached it all together with cardboard to make it easier to work with, put a base coat of paint on it, and added lights. I had about a million of the little remote control lights leftover from the mermaid build, so I threw a couple in the back. Overall, it didn't look too shabby:
I've still got a few more details to add, but it's coming together. Next, I wanted to make a small building, like a hole-in-the-wall kind of place. Maybe even a seedy-looking joint. So I made this:
It's giving me a little bit of Tatooine vibes for some reason? I love the texture and shape of it. The main piece is a portion of shipping material. I cut the ends off the wall anchors to make the detailing up top, and added the bottom of an anchor as a "power pole". Lines will connect those nubs to the big power tower later. I wanted it to be a questionable establishment, but it just looks so darn cute to me.
The third building is a big ribbon spool and a hand soap bottle glued together. I wanted to make a light up sign for this one, so I cut a piece of plexiglass and slid it in a slit I made in the side. Hopefully, this will light it up from the light I'm putting on the inside to shine through the door at the bottom.
Not bad! I want to make one more building, but so far this is what I've got. I had a lot more fun than I thought I would trying to get certain pieces to fit together. I did have some ideas that didn't work out, and honestly I've got to be better about documenting those moments as well. For example, I tried to use cut up pieces of a plastic electrical box to make a door or window frame, and it just didn't work:
Keep following along, and maybe I'll make a book nook out of it? Or maybe I'll just throw it all away when I'm done tinkering? For now, this trash goblin has to get back to her city streets.
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