I want to show you how to do the building that I showed an unfinished picture of in my first post. I refer to this piece as the apartment building. I built this as part of the set for my church’s last VBS, which was a detective theme with kind of a “Sherlock Holmes meets the 1940’s private eye” look. I decided to make the platform in the sanctuary into a London street set, so I needed buildings. To this end, I decided to hide our drum-cage with an ‘apartment building’ that was made primarily out of a refrigerator box that my Sunday school director was able to get from a local appliance place.
I have to admit that most of my inspiration for this building was that I love painting bricks or stones. They look impressive but are amazingly easy.
Materials needed:
Refrigerator box
Enough additional cardboard to cut out the doors and windows
Pencil
Paint: brick red, blue, & black
Sharpie
Zip ties
Tools needed:
Glue gun
Utility blade
Drill (optional)
Yardstick (preferably metal)
Small paintbrush or sponge-brush
Sponge (normal rectangle dish sponge)
Directions:Cut the refrigerator box open on the seam and lay it out on the floor, and cut off the bottom tabs. For my project, I decided that I did not want to brick a few inches of the top, so I measured it off first (about 2”), then started sponging the bricks or “bricking” as I like to call it. Bricking is easy. All you have to do is dip your sponge into a thin layer of red paint and press onto the cardboard. Varying amounts of paint on the sponge and varying amounts of pressure used
Cut the refrigerator box open on the seam and lay it out on the floor, and cut off the bottom tabs. For my project, I decided that I did not want to brick a few inches of the top, so I measured it off first (about 2”), then started sponging the bricks or “bricking” as I like to call it. Bricking is easy. All you have to do is dip your sponge into a thin layer of red paint and press onto the cardboard. Varying amounts of paint on the sponge and varying amounts of pressure used creates different looking bricks. I like a good variety.
Brick the whole project except for the top portion that you have measured off.
I recommend starting the bricking at the top and working your way down. Be careful! It is very easy to get crooked. Make sure your first line of bricks is perfectly straight. If your foundation is crooked, the rest of your project will be too. As you can see in my picture, my bricks were a little crooked by the time I got to the bottom. That’s the reason I decided to add a 2” stripe of black to the bottom of the building.
Windows and doors are next. These come from a new piece of cardboard. When I did this, I sat down with a piece of paper and a yardstick trying to determine exactly how big these should be. Sometimes I end up spending more time calculating than actually crafting.
Cutting is another interesting project. I have found the value of yardsticks when it comes to cutting straight lines. I use a metal yardstick and a sharp utility blade to cut my lines straight. The trick is to keep the yardstick still while your cutting. I usually work on the floor, so I kneel on yardstick and my body weight keeps it from moving while I cut.
The windows were a little challenging for me because I’m not that good at making an even curve on the top. Straight lines are fine, but unless I have something to trace, curves are a challenge. After cutting out the windows, draw the window panes in pencil. It’s important to use pencil because even if you don’t erase it later, it doesn’t really show up very much on your project. Once you are satisfied with your penciling, go over it again with a Sharpie to make it stand out. Straight lines are important, so use a ruler to draw in Sharpie over your pencil lines.
Paint the “glass” panes. This is slow. And tedious. Keep in the lines. Childhood coloring prepared you for this. You can do it!
Here is the wonderful part about the windows. No matter how hard you try, you’ll probably go a tiny bit over the lines or even stay a tiny bit within the lines showing a sliver of unpainted cardboard. Wide tipped Sharpie fixes this. After the paint dries, just re-Sharpie over your first Sharpie lines (using a ruler again). You’ll be surprised how much it will clean up your project. I double-Sharpie every project.
The door is super-simple. Measure out a 18” X 41” rectangle, pencil in (then sharpie in) the door panes, and you’re done. A tiny bit more work goes into the door handle and door topper, but not much. I have the full dimensions for the entire building below.
Just cut out these pieces from cardboard and glue together. I also recommend outlining every piece of the door topper in wide tip Sharpie before gluing together to make it stand out.
Now to put the windows and doors on.
Okay, I admit it. I’m a zip tie junky. I get made fun of at my church for putting together my entire VBS sets with zip ties, but it’s starting to catch on. Zip ties rock! I will be trying glue at some point later though. I just have to find the right glue. Glue guns are iffy to use on large portions of cardboard and even more so on painted cardboard.
Before stringing the windows on with the zip ties, make sure you have holes in the cardboard to feed the ties through. I used to make my holes with my utility blade which was kind of messy. I now prefer using a drill. I just put the window where I want it, have somebody else hold it in place for me, and drill through both layers of cardboard at the same time. Just make sure you don’t put a hole in the floor underneath!
I just have to say something about zip ties here: DON’T BUY DOLLAR STORE ZIP TIES!! EVER!! I love dollar stores as much as the next Sunday school teacher, but I have learned that there are some things you just don’t buy there. Zip ties are one of them. Dollar store zip ties will not stay fastened and they are not strong enough to hold decorating projects.
Stand the building up to feed the zip ties through. Have one person start in the back to feed you the zip tie so you can thread it through the door or window and feed it back for them to fasten.
Also, you may want to zip tie the flaps together at the top so they don’t fall down.
For my apartment building, I added a few extra creases to each side to fold back and give it a slight 3D look as well as a few creases on either side of the door to let the door “sit back” a bit.
