Model Houses and Miniature Playscapes

I wanted to share some of the stuff we have crafted here out of mostly recycled stuff (would have been thrown away or put in recycled bins). Hopefully, it will inspire the creativity in you :)) I like to create spaces for open imagination to run free. I encourage the incorporation of any toys or bits of stuff that will fit. Most stuff moves so it is a constant new adventure.

The first is a farm I made out of the bottom of a box, some brown textured fabric, green paint, popcycle sticks, left-over fake moss, and lots of room for imagination :)

The Farm

Pigs love mud

Where cows and roosters cohabitate peacefully (lol)

Sheep family

Am I too excited about this farm I made? The horses said "Nay" :))

Noble (after seeing Surf's Up and then Happy Feet LOVED penguins, so I built him a small icy home for his little penguins out of a small box, some styrofoam, covered in packing paper, painted and sprinkled with white glitter. Upon further reflection, I would have glued the paper onto the styrofoam and painted the "snow-covered rocks" differently (especially since Najaia tore the paper off the styrofoam -- I get another shot at it!), but I really love how I made lots of little caves and nooks for penguins (and tigers, as the case may be - but don't worry, they, too, coexist peacefully).

For the water, I poured a couple blue colors of paint and some white and swirled them just enough to make it look like water -- and left a pool of it that took a couple days to completey dry, but I love it!

And Kass made Noble a street for his cars (that we have been meaning to add more cardoboard squares to, so he can place them in such ways like a train track - but we've heard no complaints about it as is :))

And this model house was a birthday gift for a friend. Kassidy made the orginal (not pictured here) that inspired me. Her's was full of tiny little detailed stuff that she so cleverly thought of and used recycled bits of stuff to create. This was one I made:

A bird's eye view - the couch was made from the bottom and one side of a mushroom container, covered in fabric! And do you see the detailed place settings at the dining room table (each piece made and then glued to a fabric piece/placemat)

The bedroom - there is a desk, 2 wall-mounted bookshelves, a bed (made from a pre-made sushi container), and a lamp

See the baby food container used as a toybox? And a piece of an egg carton for a fruit bowl. See the "family portraits" of birds (it was a stuffed animal bird who was going to live here)?

The books and game come off the bookshelves :))

Kass made the pan for the stove :) Wish I'd done something different with this poor blank wall! lol

A lop-sided curtain for the doorway into the bedroom lol

The front door

Side

Back

Other side - the trees and bushes were fun to paint :)

Another view of the bedroom - the lampshade was made from egg carton, and Kass made the diary :))

So, these are some of the first things I have put together, and they inspire me to be even more imaginative and creative for the future. I don't know if you know this about me, but I have a certificate in Early Childhood Education/Child Development and had planned to use my BA in psychology as a stepping stone to a masters program in Child Development, but chose instead to give my all to being a stay-at-home homeschooling mama. Blogs like this one I found a week or so ago inspire me in ways I can only begin to express. Here are some pics from their site that give me ideas of what I might want to do next with miniature playscapes :)

And just one more pic from their site (for this blog anyway -- I forsee LOTS more pics from their blog!). This is one spot in their play yard :)

Oh yes, they inspire me...