La Petite Patisserie!

Can you believe November is four days away?! How did that happen? Maybe it's because I have been busy with October crafting; costumes, pumpkins, decorations, toys, and  swap stuff. Or maybe because I also received Alpha Stamps Provence French Country Kit along with a chipboard storefront to build! So fantastic! The Storefront Room Box is 10" x 10" x 4" with an added 2" at the top (great place for your shop signage) and an extra 2 1/2" apron in front (display stacks of crates, a little cart with veggies, or an elf peeking into Santa's workshop!). The additional top area gave me plenty of room to add an awning and made it easy to hide the wiring for the fixtures. The outdoor light is a standard dollhouse fixture that I aged and the indoor light has a shade made from the Provence French Country Kit that's wrapped around a single dollhouse bulb.

Step into La Petite Patisserie for a croissant and un cafe, then enjoy them at the outdoor table with a little friend.

Looking through the window we see creme filled cookies, macarons, and cake, and on the pretty scrolled table against the wall there are more cakes, creme puffs, and teddy cookies. The white shelf got a trimming of Dresden before being topped with a plant, wee clock, and a metal teapot. The Dresden border set came in handy for the cake stand edges and "baseboards". The topiary? It's a stick from the yard with a styrofoam ball jammed on the end. The ball was painted green, covered in glue, then rolled around in some leafy green underbrush. Another styrofoam ball was pushed into a white mini ceramic urn (some things are just perfect, you know?) and voila! Topiary in 10 minutes. It took me longer to find the best stick.

Inside the door is a bread cart stacked with loaves, croissants, and creullers. Some mini silicone cake molds made making the bread quick and easy: Smash polymer clay into mold. Bake. Add coloring with soft pastel. Bam! Done. The chalkboard was made using a sweet mini frame and one of those chalkboard shapes you find in the $1 bin at Michael's. I just cut the chalkboard to fit and used a white gel marker for the script. The dangling piece of chalk is a painted bit of toothpick! On the hook is an apron made from a scrap of white fabric that I stamped and then glued thin ribbon to. That same ribbon, and another in green, was used around the tops of some cake stands.

Here you can see the two tables I made. The long one up front is balsa wood with a set of wooden table legs. The round table has a wooden disk glued onto a wood finial and is trimmed with lace. I LOVE the pretty tiny plant table with all of that fretwork. Fretwork, scroll work? I don't know, but it is lovely. The table comes as a kit, and I used one of the pieces you remove to make the bakery's sign.


 

 

My favorite part of this project was the cake stands and cake (well, those ridiculously easy mini breads were amusing), both of which are simple to do. Alpha Stamps has a cake stand kit, and the cakes are miniature wooden cakes that have a bit of trim glued around the middle! How many times can one use cake in a paragraph? I need cake.

Paint the trim with a few coats of acrylic and you have a nearly instant frosted cake.

Annnnd a few pictures for scale, using a penny because we had eaten all of the bananas.

The filling is Glossy Accents mixed with Distress Stain in Festive Berries! So easy.

 It's been a long day at the bakery. Time to grab the dog and close up shop.

There's a SUPPLY LIST to see all of the pieces I used in La Petite Patisserie.