The First Bookend is now Done

 I had fun with this one! Nothing was purchased to make this bookend, it all came from my mini stash. As with the main construction, much of it was made with re-used and/or recycled items. The vines over the little porch roof are fake silk pieces. The "grass" is moss ribbon, with the tiny "flowers" cut off the heads of plastic greenery. The straw under the fruit and vegetables is finely cut raffia, glued on to a piece of acetate, with red ball apple-shapes from a Christmas pick, and the pumpkin and gourd coming from a fall-theme pick. And the flagstones are cut from egg cartons.

 The door hinges are cardboard from the back of a small note pad, cut and shaped, with some decorative outlines done with a very fine ball stylus. The nailheads are 1/16" ( 1 or 2 mm?) cardboard punchies and then the whole thing is painted. The door handle is carved from a scrap of wood (I have a bag full of useful scraps!), and the lovely door knocker is an orphan stud earring with a leaf design, missing its fake jewel. The jewel was replaced with a bead, and the whole painted to look just like the hinges.

A piece of book-binding type fabric was used under the sidewalk to hold the base to the bookend's base, and the same fabric was glued to the back to hold everything snug against the working portion of the bookend. The wood-look banding around the edges of the recycled foamcore and cardboard structure is a strip of brown, used file folder. File folder cardboard is wonderful, as it is beautifully smooth, takes paint well, and can easily and neatly be cut with a craft knife; for strength, I applied a coat of matte varnish to the edges.

Now I have to design the other bookend....