The making of Fern Lake Township . . .




After neglecting Fern Lake for a few long months, it's time to get back to business! I need to finish the outsides of the buildings. First off, I decided to put little awnings on the pet store/textile shop. I used corrugated card stock and glued it to pieces of foam core cut into little arches.





I laid the building down to glue the awnings in place, so they didn't slide down the front of the building and onto the windows. Notice everyone crowded into their temporary housing in the background.





That's all for this building for now. On to another.





The sweet shop/art store got it's balcony finished and the railing added.





The big corner building is next. Light aqua edging is put on all the window and door edges.





Next I put little raised squares of a darker aqua in the corners of all of the openings. I used little sticky raised squares to attach the cardstock squares. You can see how they're raised in this close-up.





The doors get covered in the darker aqua to match the tiny corner pieces. I don't think this building needs a second trim strip like the other buildings have.





All the signs are added next. The doll and toy sign letters are thick cardboard, made for scrapbooking. I changed the plans for this building, and am combining the dolls and toys in the larger lower section with the double doors. The smaller section, which was formerly the toy shop, is going to be a little dress shop!





The big corner building is now sitting next to the pet store/textile shop. Had to rearrange things a bit - again.





After struggling to move around in the room with the town set up as it had been, I finally pulled it all apart and set it up completely different. Now instead of all the buildings facing each other across a wide expanse of grass or sidewalks or whatever, I separated the two rows of buildings so I can walk in the middle of them. There was no way to reach the fronts of the buildings before, without moving them on the table, and that wasn't very handy. So now the town is set up in a big upside down U shape and the lake separates the two rows of buildings (where I can walk in the middle). At the end of the U there will be a bridge to connect the two sections.





Here's a view of the town with the bridge and part of the lake at the end. When I need to walk into the center of the U to work on buildings, only the last two feet of the lake are visible down by the bridge. The rest you can see hanging down in front of the shelves.





Then, for pictures, I can back out and tack the lake (2 yards of blue fabric) under the edges of the town so the whole lake is in place. I may attach it to foam core sheets instead of doing the tacking, but I'll see. This is good for now.





A little closer look at the bridge and lake's edge on one side of the town. The bridge is foam core (of course), covered in wood printed paper. I cut out the middle part and glued plastic canvas in for the mesh on the side.





And last, a closer look at the other end of the bridge next to the art store/sweet shop. That's all for now. Only one more building to finish on the outside!