flew the coop: All Things Lemon! Market Stall

Oh, August. I'm going to be honest with you. You're miserable. And hot. And buggy. And these daily afternoon downpours only make it worse. Doing anything outside (or even opening the door) is right out. So I thumb my nose at you, August! My curtains are closed, the lights are off, and my new Niche Shrine from Alpha Stamps arrived, so I don't even have to think about you.

This unbearable weather has me a little irritable, but luckily, creating a cute little market stall distracted me long enough to change my attitude.

What better way to cool off than with a nice, tall glass of lemonade! Maybe have a lemon tart or two?

I love, love all of the niche shrines. They are quick and super fun to make. Each new one instantly turns into my favorite, but this little Cabana House Niche Shrine with the Market Stall Niche Add-On? Be still my heart! And it is super tiny; an amazing 5 1/2" tall and 3" wide! The House Ornament Base that the market stall sits on is 4 1/2" square and couldn't have worked out more perfectly for the extra minis I added around the stall.

I did add a top to the counter of the Add-On (more on that later) because I wanted a wee bit more space for the fancy Tiny Doilies - White - Set of 4, two plates of sweets, a glass of lemonade, a bowl of lemons, a few tiny jars of lemon curd, and, wait...is that it? There's more room up there!

The cakes started out as Tiny Resin Cookie Cabochons that I dipped in Winter Snow Glitter Mix before adding half a slice of lemon and half of a Tiny Iridescent Four Leaf Clover Glitter to the top. I also repainted several cakes from the Tiny Resin Cakes Cabochon Mix to fit in with the lemon theme.

Here's a look at the inside of the market stall. I used the two shelves that are included with the Cabana House Niche Shrine to hold jars, bottles, more polymer clay slices (I love those things, too), and a metal baking pan which I stuffed with polymer clay and made a lemon loaf. Do you see the adorable lemon paper in the back?? Gah! It is included in the equally cute Summer Fruit Stand 12x12 Paper Set.

The top shelf has a teapot and teacups (altered a tad with Sharpies) and another cake from the Tiny Resin Cakes Cabochon Mix.

I made the lemon tree from a portion of a Mini 3D Bare Tree and Leafy Green Underbrush. The ends of the branches were covered with glue and then stuck into the underbrush. You have to use a lot of glue and squeeze the green stuff a while but once it's dry, those leaves aren't going anywhere. The polymer clay lemons on the tree are the second set I made as the first were scorched beyond recognition after a scant 4 minutes in the oven. I painted a watering can and added more lemony goodness to the front before sticking the finished tree into it. To make it stand, I stuffed florist foam inside, stuck the tree in the foam, then glued Miniature Brown Path Pebbles on the top. While I was at it, I also made a simple plant using more leafy green underbrush but dusted the top of it with yellow pollen. You can see it in the second photo up there. ↑

The pot of sunflowers was created the same way as the polymer clay flowers used for the Tiny Tub of Whimsy. The sign board used to be a part of the Simple Wrought Iron Fence on the back of the market stall. After everything was glued down (yes, I actually attached ALL THE THINGS for once) I slathered the entire top of the base with glue and covered it in Green Turf Grass. Lemme tell you about this if you haven't already played around with it. It's amazing. A little goes a loooong way - I covered the surface and barely put a dent in the container it came in. Just don't sneeze when the lid is off.

Okay, so here's the "later" stuff: How to make a fun market stall and a sign board!

I wanted to cover the open sides of the Cabana House Niche Shrine so chose to wrap the paper around the edges and glue it to the back portion of the shrine.

I covered the front of the shrine with paper, turned it over, and trimmed around the bottom and roof. I left some paper on the sides to fold around, and also cut out the center, leaving some paper along the inside edges to also fold around.

Here you can see the little flaps inside the shrine that were folded around to cover the edges. You could also paint the edges before papering it and skip this step. Do it your way!

What you see here in this delightfully blurry photo is the front of the shrine on the right and the back of the shrine on the left. I skipped the part of the tute where I assembled the niche portion, because it is sorta self-explanatory. Cover it in paper and glue over the hole. There. Done.

With the niche glued on, it is easier (for me anyway) to measure where the folds need to be on the extra flaps. The back of the shrine was papered, and again I left extra paper on the sides to fold over the edges. The top was left alone since it will be covered with a cute roof.

The niche and the extra flaps were glued to the back of the shrine. Half-way there!

The Market Stall Add-On is simple to assemble. It has a few parts - a platform, a front facade, a counter, and two supports for the top. I glued and papered the counter and then added paper to the front of the facade. The platform that goes between the Cabana House and the Add-On got a strip of paper down its center, and then the platform's tab was glued to the back of the facade. I covered the platform tab and the back of the facade with paper, glued on the counter, and finally (and this was a nice discovery) slid the Cabana House over the other platform tab and glued it in place. I also added a countertop, which is nothing more than a scrap of painted chipboard. The awning is a rectangle of a sweet print from the Summer Fruit Stand 12x12 Paper Set and two 3-3/4 Inch Wooden Posts along the sides finish it off.

The sign board is leftover bits of fence.