Vintage

On the same wall as the changing table is a bookcase. Chris and Tracy are building a library for Kennedy. So I have worked at creating the same in miniature. First, is the bookcase. Because it is impossible to measure the actual bookcase, and I can't ask Chris to measure for me as this room box is supposed to be a surprise, I have had to guess at the size of the bookcase. Using the border as a reference point, I guessed at the height of the bookcase from where it sits on the wall. Using basswood, I fashioned a bookcase with three shelves as close to the one in the pictures of the real nursery. Now it's time to create some books much like you would find in Kennedy's room. Because I have no way of knowing the actual books she has or will have, I used the books I had on hand here.

The books in the image on the right are board books that I have for my granddaughter. I photographed the front, back, and spine of each book. Next, I reduced the photos down to as close to scale as I could. Each miniature book requires 3 images which I placed together into one image. I cropped any white area of the image and adjusted the brightness/contrast to come as close as the original books as possible. I printed the images on either clear labels or white labels. The miniature books that are printed on the white labels seems to look better and more like the original books than those printed on clear labels. I cut pieces of bass wood and/or balsa wood for the books' form to glue the book jacket to. Even though the labels are self sticking, I still used tacky glue to adhere the book jacket to the wooden form.

The Bookends
The bookends are not on Chris and Tracey's "wish list." I thought they would be a cute addition to the mini-nursery. So set out to recreate them in miniature. The bookends won't be 100% because I do not have exact measurements. To make the bookends, I cut the ends off pop cycle sticks to form the back of the bookend and cut a square for the base. After drilling a hole in the center of each square, I made the whimsical character part. At first I had planned to use a dowel and beads. However, these proved to be too big so I opted for straight pins with a bead at each end. I made decals on labels, two for each bookend, facing in different directions so that when I glued them to each side of the pin they would match. I glued them to thin white craft foam. After painting the pin and beads the color of the corresponding part on the real bookends, I placed a bead on a straight pin and pushed the pin through the white craft foam. Next I placed another bead at the bottom. I pushed the pin through the square and glued in place. After the pin had dried, I clipped the pin flush with the bottom of the bookend.

I decided to add a miniature version of a 5/7 of Chris and Tracy. Tracy's picture was easy to obtain as it is on her website. Chris was a bit harder. After weeks of asking I decided to take drastic measures and have Ray snap a picture. It happened that Ray Lavoie had a picture of Chris taken a few years ago. Sorry Chris, What you see is what I got! I used the picture frame from the Whirligig collection and using Photoshop, placed the images of Chris and Tracy in the center. I printed the pictures on white mailing labels. Cut them out and placed on thin pieces of wood.

I placed the pictures on the bookshelf. At first on the top but decided to move them down to a lower shelf. There are still spaced that can be filled.