Just before X-Mas 2008, I had finally made up my mini-mind about what my next project would be and it was going to be a cute little X-Mas Shop.

In fact, the idea crossed my mind years ago when I went through Issue n° 20 of American Miniaturist Magazine in December 2004. The most beautiful little X-Mas Shop I had ever seen was pictured in that Issue. The article about Dee Irving, the maker of that beautiful shop, and the pictures with all the details, it was just magnificent and I was thrilled to see what she had achieved.

There were lots of others projects I just wanted to make first and so I put the X-Mas Shop on hold, so to say.

But Dollhouse World issue n° 195 from December 2008 suddenly featured that same article and when I saw the pictures again, the decision to mame my own little shop was made !

This wonderful little shop was a gift from my husband Ronny. He got it on E-Bay. It has 2 sides with windows and an glass top, allowing a good look inside the shop. And it was very easy to assemble too.

Thanks honey !

WRAPPING PAPER AND BOWS

The container for the wrapping paper is a simple plastic container, covered with gold spray color and a few little embellishments
The box for the bows is made out of card covered with red (real-size) red/gold ribbon. You may also use fabric or even self-adhesive fabric.
Just be careful to use the right glue if you work with any kind of fabric.

These cute little wooden boxes are available in almost every hobby shop, in several different sizes. I just painted these here onthe inside with gold spray and on the outside, same as for my bow container, with red/gold real size ribbon. Add a few embellishments and voilà, you have a cute little container. I chose to put my crackers in these.

These containers were the top's of the little wooden boxes I used for my crackers. Same procedure here, only this time I added legs so that the customers in the shop have an easier access to the items.

This little table is a simple acryl glass top with legs (wood parts from my left-over box) glued to it and a green tinsel gardland glued around it.
I used it to display gift boxes and my own little shopping bags for the customers to choose on how they want their gifts wrapped.

I made the boxes and the baubles myself. It's really easy to make X-mas Tree ornaments such as baubles (and others) with just a little stock of beads and jewellery findings and your imagination of course.

Some more baubles, to give you an idea of how many different styles you can make.

To make the books, I used the same technique as for many items in my Scrapbook shop. Choosing the book covers on the Internet, copy/paste to my computer, downscaling and printing on photo paper, cutting out and here you go.

Just glue them to a base of your choice to make them look like little books and you can start filling your wall shelfs. I used soft foam as a base for the book.

I guess customers coming to a X-Mas Shop might be asking for artificial X-Mas Trees. These little boxes are printies you can find on the Internet by searching for miniature dollhouse printables.

www.printmini.com is my favorite !

When I started with the furniture, first thing I did was ordering these as "naked" unfinished piece.

I decided to paint them in red and green, which I think are the definition of the X-Mas season colors. The boxes you see in the bottom part of the shelf are all printies and DIY items of course. The X-Mas snow boxes do of course contain artificial snow, that's a must, even though you do not see inside the boxes while they're inside the shelf.

A lot of items are from or www.minimumworld.com

This little shelf contained mostly DIY items, printables of course. The X-Mas cards stock has been made just the same way than the cards in my Scrapbook shop.

This one here contains only Santa figures. I added a mirror at the back, which gives a nice finishing touch to the shelf.

I really love these little shelfs designed especially for miniature shops. This one here opened with 2 sliding doors on the back and has acrylic glass front.

I used these 2 cute shelfs with acrylic glass tops and front for my baubles.

This one is filled with nativity figures. Another items that could'nt possibly be missing in a good X-Mas Shop. A few more are on top, take a closer look at the next picture.

I have to order a cash register to add to my shop counter and maybe I will move a few of the actuel items. I have to think about that and you'll see the result in the next update.

As you can see, my shop counter is well filled with lots of useful items.

I finally added a little section with books and advent calenders, all DIY of course.

I think this pic gives you a good idea of how well my shop is filled with all kinds of X-mas items you might need to decorate your tree and house next year.

Well, here we have Mrs Hodges, the owner of our little X-Mas Shop, behind the counter, busy as usual.

March 6th, 2009. My X-Mas shop has finally been completed ! I hope you'll enjoy walking throug it. Thanks for stopping by.