My First Miniature Project: Samantha’s Room Box

In 2014, I discovered Pinterest and all the amazing things that can be found there. I began looking at fairy gardens, which eventually led me to dollhouse miniatures. All my life I have adored dollhouses and miniatures but never realized that I could make them. 

I am the type of person that jumps into things with both feet. Instead of starting with small things, like furniture. I jumped right into a huge project. 

Around September of that year, I began my first project, a Christmas gift for my BFF. I actually thought I would be able to finish a detailed room box for her before Christmas. lol! She was my disabled daughter’s nurse for many years until her death. I considered her to be my daughter’s ‘other Mother’. I wanted to make something for her to remember my daughter from. 

I used wood to make the room box. I scoured the internet for the perfect wallpaper. Samantha loved purple and hippie things. The outside was covered with printed brick wallpaper.

I was not experienced enough to attempt windows, so I found some I liked with a nice view, printed them, cut them out, and glued them to the wall. Then I found some curtains I liked and did the same.

The shelving unit was the only purchased item. I went through pictures and made a list of all the things that were on the shelves and did my best to recreate them. 

The top shelf has unopened boxes of gloves. Prescription and over-the-counter medications. The bottles are made from capsules with a seed bead for a top. I was not able to make any very tiny prescription bottles, but probably could today. The blue arm wrap is made from a roll of crepe paper. 

The next shelf has cloth diapers that we used for drool rags made from tissues. Disposable diapers that I found online and printed on cardstock. Boxes for creams for diaper rash. And cans of the special formula we fed her made from dowels with labels I found online. 

The bottom shelf has blue disposable pads which I made from tissue paper and boxes of supplies. 

The hospital bed was made of wood with paper clips for the side rails. The feeding machine is a box with the controls glued to the front. The bag with formula in it is a piece of plastic bag with white paper for the formula. The tubing is fishing string. The stand is made from wood and wire. 

   The shelf above her bed has a bottle of medicine made from a capsule, Qtips printed from online, pulse oximeter for monitoring her breathing, an open box of gloves printed from online with a tiny piece of a real glove poking out, baby wipes printed from online, suction machine for clearing her mouth and nose, and a syringe for rinsing the tubing. The pulse oximeter is a box with a picture of the monitor on front. The suction machine is a box made of cardstock with blue tape and a seed bead for connecting the tubing. I was not able to figure out how to make the white part clear. Today, I would know how to do it with plastic. 

The couch was made from a pattern I found online. There is a box of clear gloves on the back of the couch with a tiny piece sticking out. There is the notebook that she kept all of her notes in. The oxygen machine was made from a box of floss. I used a piece of glue stick for the bottle, seed beads for the knobs, pictures from online, and fishing line for the tubing. The oxygen bottle is made from a dowel with a printed gauge and labels from the internet. The stethoscope is made from a sewing snap and black wire. The picture on the wall and rug are printed from the internet on cardstock. 

This is the biohazard box for throwing away used syringes. It is made of cardstock with a printed label from the internet. The syringe is made from a straight pin, earing back, and tiny clear bead. She was bad about leaving them on top of the box instead of in it.

Samantha wanted to be a ghost and I tried making one from tape, but it didn’t work out. So I made her body white using a tutorial I found online using a bead, pipe cleaner, and embroidery floss.  She has purple hair, which she had while alive. 

   Now for the backstory of this room box. As you can see in the picture above this one, the Gem Shopping Network is on the TV. She is holding her phone in her hand calling the number. On the arm of the chair is the remote for the tv and my credit card. She often woke me at 3 am wanting my card so she could buy something. 

Making this room box was a LOT of fun. I felt Samantha there with me, helping me and giving me advice throughout the project. I was really sad when it was finished. 

I was able to gift it about a month late and my BFF loved it.