With the extra cardboard bottles removed, there was just enough space for a small display.
My husband had been downloading some spectactular scenes, including snowscapes. I asked him to print this one out for me, since the rounded snow suggested snowmen to me.
I tried the frame horizontally and vertically. Vertical was better for the appropriate scale..
Using the backing as a guide, I cut out the portion that worked best for our scene, the upper right corner, leaving enough on the sides to glue to frame box ends.
I found this appealing tiny snowman among after-Christmas clearance items last year. He fit nicely in the narrow box, but looked too grimy next to the pristine snow of the background. On the other hand, maybe he was built several days ago! Anyway, if I used him he either needed to be repainted or I needed to warm up the blue-white of the snow in the picture's foreground.
Hmm, I need to think about this. At the least, he will need that wire pulled from his head!
In the meantime, I had found some little trees that might work and decided to cut them from their bases, since I wasn't sure if Joseph could use or would have access to wire cutters. Whatever I did about the snowman, with their wire trunks painted brown and poked into the styrofoam snow strip, the trees will help bridge the background with whatever kind of snowman we wind up with. By the way, I'm going to keep those little round bases. Who knows what they could be used for some time! (I notice I am mixing my verb tenses here, but what the heck ... as I write this, I find myself thinking now in present tense)
So, back to the thinking process ....
My grandchildren enjoy working with clay, so maybe a homemade snowman would be better. Yes, that's what we'll do. Maybe that little snowman can go in another scene.
Here's the way they'll make the carrot nose for the Sculpey snowman; just paint the tip of a toothpick orange, then cut it off a little above the paint and and poke it in. Now for eyes, a hat and buttons, and maybe a broom or shovel?
Well, when we next chatted, Joseph said he would like to do a scene with a house and Santa's sleigh in front of it.
So, change of plans.
Amazingly enough, among my own collection of Christmas-cards-that-I-had-bought-but-never-used-and-still-all-in-the-box, I found a Christmas card that looked as if it would be ideal for just such a small scene.
And, by gorry, it fit the frame, this time horizontally, with only a bit of cropping! Double serendipity!
Also among my stash, along with the snowman and trees, there was a deer that would fit in that tiny space. I knew there was some reason I was saving that piece of styrofoam, too; a strip of it should make a good little snowy base in front of that house where Santa has arrived.
After a trial-fitting, I learned there would be just enough room for the deer and a sleigh. Since there was already a snowman in the scene, another might've been redundant, anyway. So, grimy little snowman goes back into his storage drawer.
Among my old Christmas decorations was a little plastic sleigh that was originally in the center of a pine Christmas pick. It was the right scale for the scene and just fit in the shallow frame. Also, the hole in the center (where the pick stem was) was a perfect fit for a piece of round toothpick that could be glued and poked in place in the styrofoam snow. The sleigh had lots of gold glitter on it, which I removed as best I could. The color I decided to use was Tompte Red.
