Introducing...The North Pole Postal Service...

...or at least the beginnings of it anyway. In my last post I mentioned I had started a new project. Yes, I am aware that I have many unfinished ones but that's what Finish Fridays are for, right? Any of you who have been following my work will know how much I love all things Christmas. My past Christmas projects were a couple of my favourite pieces to work on. So, the idea behind the new project has actually been percolating for several years now.

I have many fond memories of the window displays in the Eaton's, Hudson Bay and Sears windows at Christmas each year when I was a child. We had moved from Prince Edward Island to CFB Borden in Ontario when I was 5 years old and lived there for 6 years before returning to the Maritimes. A couple of times during our stay there, my parents packed us in the car and drove us to Toronto for a day of Christmas shopping. I was so captivated by the Christmas window displays and they have stayed with me all these years. A few years ago I did a search for vintage Christmas window displays and reignited my desire to make some myself.

The projects I have planned are actually 5 separate ones - three of which will mimic ones that have existed in the past as Christmas window displays from the Hudson Bay store but the first and last ones are figments of my own imagination. With these 5 projects I will be telling a whole story. Of course, it might take 5 years to tell the whole story but what a fun 5 years it will be!! So - I guess we should get started:

#1 in the "North Pole Series" will be the North Pole Postal Service - an "authorized agent" of Canada Post. After all, it all starts with millions of letters arriving and someone has to sort them all and make sure they get to the right person!! Okay, the letters to St. Nick do outnumber the rest by about a million to one but still...

First stage - planning. In my little brain I pictured the North Pole Postal Service building to look like one of those extra large rural mail boxes so I went searching for sizes. Turns out, the size is typically 8.5 inches wide by 22 inches long by 11 inches high. I could work with that!! Although those are outside measurements, my building will have an interior floor space of 8.5 by 22 inches. I cut out a piece of Bristol board (poster board to some?) to try out floor plans. Notice the little piece with cubby holes that I will be using in the front part of the post office to hold incoming mail.

Yup - that size will work. The front 11 inches will be for the customer service side of things. Then there will be a dividing wall which will take up 1/4" so the back section will be 10 3/4 inches. In the back part we will have a desk for St. Nick, an employee washroom, a loading area where the big bags of mail will come in - and all the little details necessary to properly run this little post office.

My DH and I cut out the pieces from 1/4" MDF. The floor is, of course, 8.5 x 22 inches. The two sides are 7 x 22. Then I cut a front and back piece 9" wide (since they will go to the outside of the sides they are 1/2" wider) by 11" tall, I then placed them up against the sides and used a piece of cardboard to mark a curve that would start at the top of the sides and curve up to the 11" height. It seemed to work well, even if my cuts aren't the straightest. That's what my sander is for. *smile* The middle wall is only 8.5 inches but needed to match the curve of the ends so the clear plastic top will fit over the curves and the post office interior will be viewed from the top. Make sense? Don't worry - it will eventually.

I started planning the floors first. I had designs in mind and started by cutting 1" white squares and 1/4 " red and green strips from card stock. I also used my Cricut to cut out the logo for the North Pole Corporation. The customer service side floor started at the back where the employees will be waiting on customers. Their side of the counter will have large square tiles.

Moving into the customer area itself, a large inlay of the North Pole Corporation's logo will take front and centre. It was originally planned with 9 reindeer but Comet went off to find his feed bag and Rudolph went off to play reindeer games. Good thing too because 9 reindeer would not have fit into this section of the floor!

Front floor area done! On to the back. I wanted the three areas at the back to have different but coordinating designs. I glued a border around the outside walls and defined the loading dock and bathroom areas as well. Then I started again with 1" white squares but cut the strips of 1/4" green and red into 2 1/4" long strips so the main part of the floor would look like the red and green were woven over and under.

I used a simple "candy cane stripe" design for the bathroom floor and, for the area just inside the loading dock, I opted for the darker colours only so they wouldn't show dirt as much, what with all the deliveries that take place! Then I painted the inside walls of the end pieces, both sides of the interior dividing wall, and the top part of the walls in the customer service area a nice bright red. When these were all dry I glued the end walls, the middle wall and one side wall in place and glued the floors inside. Thankfully, they fit perfectly! Whew! - that was a relief.

The doors aren't installed here. I just set them in place to try them out. By the way - again, those of you who know me do understand how often I use the "fly by the seat of my pants" technique in my mini-making. Perhaps you will notice how the top of the mail cabinet is almost exactly the height of the side walls. Yup - I got lucky with that one!! Did not measure in advance. Did not even give it a thought. I must have a golden horseshoe stuck somewhere in my anatomy! All that said - I did plan for at least some of the lighting so have drilled holes where I expect to need them. The fitting of the lighting - or at least the wiring for the lighting will be my next step. Hopefully I will have a lighting success story to share in my next week's post. Keep your fingers crossed for me!! Until then, keep safe, keep healthy, keep making minis! TTFN!! - Marilyn D.