Nebraska State Day 2014: Create a Shop Event

On September 20, 2014, the Omaha-Council Bluffs Miniature Guild hosted the 21st Annual Nebraska State Day in LaVista, Nebraska. The project for the day was "Create a Shop," and the group was able to get their structures up and on their way by the end of the event. We had 33 attendees, and some traveled very far to be with us. We had visitors from Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, Kentucky, and Vancouver, B.C., Canada! That's five different states AND a whole different country! WHOOT!! The event was fantastic fun, and we'd love to share some photos of our time together.

Above, you can see a finished shop that was on display. The structure and methods of building and decorating this shop are truly genius. The outside is one structure, and the inside is another. Because of this, you can "swap out" in the inside of the shop if you like and have multiple stores over time. So fun!

The outside of the shop was made with high-quality foamcore. There were siding lines drawn on one side, and nothing on the other side. The walls were taped to the front to ensure the siding all lined up:

The first step was to cut along the pencil siding lines with a sharp knife. Cork-backed rulers are so helpful in these situations:

We all received one of these handy tools that was cut to 25 degrees on one end and 30 degrees on the other end. What to do with it? Make siding of course:

You take the tool and run it along the cut you made in the foamcore. It pushes the foamcore down, and what looks like siding is left. It seriously does look like siding, people. Love this tool, and love the process!

Next, it was time to get the walls up:

Some members chose to do other decor outside instead of siding. The houses can easily take paper or other methods to get the facade the way you want it:

The room was buzzing with happy miniaturists:

At noon, we took a break and headed to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. We all had a great time catching up and talking about minis:

Back at the event, we raffled off 10 beautiful items donated by members of OCBMG and The Shoe Box Bunch. Thank you SO much for your kind donations:

Then it was back to construction! Here is what the shell of the shop looks like. We all received a small battery-operated light to attach to the main structure. This is what the shops look like when their internal boxes are pulled out:

Here is the inside of a Christmas shop. You can see that the piece along the top is obvious when it's pulled out of the house, but you don't see it at all when the box is inside:

Here is what the back looks like when the box is slid inside. It's not exactly beautiful, but who goes around and peeks at the backs of every house on display? Not me. Unless I'm taking pictures for my guild blog. Ha!

Here is a box-in-progress:

The external structure went together just as fast. The pieces of wood add extra support:

And here it is all together:

I'm not a very straight-knife kind of person, so please excuse my wobbly siding lines, but trust me, people with steadier hands made BEAUTIFUL siding with their little dowel tools:

It's time for internal decoration!! You can make any kind of shop you want, so let the ideas roll:

The outsides take paint just as well as wood, so paint them any color you please:

Here are the fabulous shops that were on display. At the beginning of this post, you saw a train shop. Here is a doll shop:

A jewelry shop:

A Nebraska Cornerhuskers shop:

Yep, that's a big football trophy in the window!

A Christmas shop:

A clock shop:

A ladies shop:

And another lovely Christmas shop:

We were also blessed to have two vendors this year. We were sad to not have our beloved Wanda Leighton working her usual table, but we were happy to have Harlan Schleuter:

And Ron Chase:

Ron's 1:48 haunted houses are amazing:

We did a gift exchange this year. Whoever wanted to participate brought 21 gifts and received 21. More than that participated, so some people got a mixture of different goodies than others. It was so fun to open the gifts and plan how to use them in our shops:

Here is a small sample of some of the goodies we received through the gift exchange and totebags:

All of the gifts were phenomenal, but I have to take moment to call out this set of miniature tools made by Lois Andres, Edna Bonney, Nancy Covolo, and Del Faris. It looks SO real:

There's even a wee foam brush! Too cute:

Overall, it was a very fun and happy day for all of us. Thank you to the OCBMG, The Shoe Box Bunch, and the State Day Committee of Lois Andres, Edna Bonney, Del Faris, Georgia Gregg, Syd Hulla, Harlan Schleuter, and Ada Vicars. Your hard work, creative energies, and giving hearts are much appreciated by all! This pretty smile below says it all:

Want to join us next year? You don't have to be a member of NAME to come to Nebraska State Day 2015. Stay tuned for more details coming up soon. We will be making this incredible screened-in porch. Imagine the possibilities:

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We'd also like to thank Faith Presbyterian Church and their staff for allowing us the use of their beautiful facility. THANK YOU!