I became intrigued by busy books, walls and boxes while perusing crafts and DIYs on Pinterest. I wanted to make one for my son but I really did not know how and when I researched examples I did not find anything that I liked. The only thing I could do was pin different boxes I found on Pinterest, this way I could save different ideas and maybe come up with my own.
I took several trips to Michaels in which I bought all kinds of miniature things that could go into the box, I still was not sure how to make one.
It wasn’t until I bought a set of small forest animals that I became enlightened by all kids of ideas for a forest setting.
Take note…buy the toy animals or people first and then you can build the environment accordingly.
I found the box on Amazon, I wanted something durable and that can be transported easily during trips, I guess a lunch box and small suitcase can do the same.
This is the list of all the materials I used, pretty much everything was bought from Amazon, if I’m not mistaken only the rocks were bought from Michaels.
- 30 5″ Squares 100{5f1d8eb2f7b1af66c1d7bc9ceb2aa281d02126e533e6634aa35bc96f7c5bd413} Wool Felt Americana Colors Charm Pack
- Beacon Adhesives Felt Glue, 4-Ounce
- Safari Ltd Nature TOOB – Comes With 12 Different Hand Painted Figurine Models Including Gray Wolf, Moose, Raccoon, Beaver, Rabbit, Black Bear, Cardinal, Cougar, Bald Eagle, Fox, Buffalo, and Doe
- WINOMO 20pcs Model Trees
- Miniature Landscape Scenery Train Railways Trees Scale 1:100 Dark Green
- Cargo Cool Euro Suitcases, Soft Green, Set of 3
- Grass Mat 12″X50″-Medium Green
I wasn’t sure the direction I was going to take so I started with the grass mat, I used Mod Podge to glue it to the inside of the suitcase.
After placing several trees (I used a glue gun to get them to stick to the grass mat) I saw that this scenery was missing a lake, using the felt squares I sewed a lake, basically a blue circle with green stripes of felt to hold it up, I put some more trees around it.
Oh yeah, I also ordered some tiny flowers and I hot glue them to the mat as well, I didn’t have any bushes but if you cut the entire trunk of a tree it looks like a bush.
Now on the inside of the box I poured the rocks, they are loose so they go everywhere when the suitcase is closed and carried around. I guess I could have glued them but I wanted to leave them free so my son could also play with them (note the rocks are very small and my son is 5, I would not recommend this for a child younger than 3)
More items were missing, I sewed a cave with the brown felt squares, an hollow dead tree and another hollow tree on the ground.
The end result came up better than I imagine, well the little animals help the whole thing look great. My son loved it, he plays quietly, I caught him very interested playing over the weekend.
If you have done one or need help constructing a busy box like this one leave a comment bellow, I’ll be happy to share more of my experience.
