Little Framed Scenes To Hang On The Nursery Wall...

Now that I have rather a lot more time on my hands than usual (like many of us at the moment), I thought I would dig out some photos of something that I put together last Christmas for my two baby granddaughters.  I hope you find them inspiring and maybe the images could kick start ideas of your own. You don't have to use fancy glazed frames like I did, instead you could use something more simple like an old chocolate box or tin turned on its side, and fill with all sorts of bits and bobs you have around your house, maybe some with special sentimental attachment, along with some of your own handmade efforts perhaps? 

It all came about when my eldest son asked if I could make his little daughter something to hang on her nursery wall for Christmas.  I love a challenge so of course I agreed and well...as I had two baby granddaughters, I had to make one for each of them...didn't I?  

These are the little boxes in mid construction...I made them up as I went along and added more over a period of time. 

I literally started with a basic notion of making something special using a mixture of vintage and new pieces. Gradually the ideas started flowing and the concept began to grow. Above you can see the boxes in mid construction and I simply kept adding more and more over time. Then at last I decided they were finished. You can see the results below. 

Both of the box frames with opening glazed frontage, came from "THE RANGE", really crazily cheap! They were lightweight and had a reasonable depth. 

The green floral backing paper was left-over paper from an old workshop project, and I built up a montage of printed images from the internet including one of a little girl sitting at a table reading to her dollies (from an old book illustration), plus various images of vintage paper dolls with cut out clothes printed onto card, and a vintage cut-out pram. 

The boxes had the same background but although they were filled with similar items, they were not completely identical.  I created the names on the computer and edged the nameplates with wooden flowers extracted from a cheap old mobile from a charity shop...plus each little ladybird seen on the top left of each box were old buttons from my old mate Robin's button jar (apparently they were originally on her sons dressing gown)!

The large fluffy rabbits were modern purchases and I made them dresses from vintage pink trimming that I have kept for years which have a lot of sentimental attachment (my late next door neighbour was a dressmaker and she gave it to me over 20 years ago - I knew it would come in useful one day). 

 

The rabbits' necklaces were made from an old necklace that belonged to the babies' great grandmother. The crown and the tiara (old broken jewellery) belonged to the babies great great grandmother. 

The antique bisque dolls with hand knitted dresses were from my own personal collection, the vintage cotton reels, wooden houses plus duck and wooden doll were car boot sale finds. The little bears, pig and giraffe dressed in exquisite clothes, were purchased from Shoebutton Bears - I succumbed when I saw them at the Christmas Kensington Dolls House Festival.

 I absolutely loved making these little boxes, so very different from my usual "KT Miniatures"  tiny scenes. On the back of each I fixed a description of the contents, and sincerely hope that my granddaughters will love and treasure these for years to come, and maybe even add to the contents over time. 
Celia 
PS. If I can get some photos sorted, I will show you what I made my grandsons for Christmas...let's just say they involved dinosaurs!