Welcome you are, to the garden house

Looking for an activity next weekend? Something to spend time with your loved one? Maybe a birthday present for your crafty sibling? Or something to do as solo meditation-

Here's a perfect answer - Garden House Book Nook DIY

A miniature dollhouse made with MDF wooden board cut outs and craft papers.

A bonding experience, uh..literally

Craft projects like this one, that contain several puzzles within, do require people to come together and team work. As we progress, piece by piece, it's set to encourage discussions, strategies, division of labour, disagreements, and negotiations to work through those disagreements to finish the project. Plus it's an actual bonding experience (hehe).. with all that glue involved. As a tip, I would definitely say, Glue is your friend- most of the pieces will fit together in snap form but don't hesitate to add glue in order to add more stability to the structure. Making this garden has been a challenging and rejuvenating, all I can say is that this experience will certainly stick with me for a while ;)

A patience test

With many, and I mean, MANY, small pieces, putting it together will certainly test your patience. Wow am I glad to have never studied architecture because istg when I was unable to install the lanterns, it got very frustrating and I almost gave up. I think one of the challenges of this project is to keep going no matter how frustrating it gets. When the garden finally completed and the lights turned on, it was worth it. There was so much joy in knowing we had done a good job and created a collectable.

I would also suggest to be creative with the smaller parts. While for the larger structure, follow the given instructions but for smaller things like lamps, pots and plants, do what makes sense and is relatively easier to craft. If parts are too small, improvise. The objective is also to finish the project and not end up frustrated and call it quits. (A lesson I'm trying to include in other aspects of my life).

No, DTS does not make it faster.

Are you also someone who plays background shows- a little bit of F.R.I.E.N.D.S while bathing? Brooklyn Nine-Nine while cooking? Grey's anatomy while mopping? Don't worry you're not alone. I do that too and it's absolutely okay (I mean have you seen the world outside, jeez man it's hard to exist).

Well we tried, and it was not possible to do the puzzle with something playing in the background (In hindsight, DTS was a poor choice to watch anyways). It served as a distraction rather than a support because this project requires focused work. Plus not watching something in the background, for once, was rejuvenating in its own way.

Don't break the beam

Not gonna say who..(me).. but someone, someone, was not careful while taking the cut out pieces from the MDF print board. And accidentally broke two of the main structure support beams (whoops!). Looking back, I would recommend being very careful while taking the parts out. They can feel a bit tight, but be relaxed and don't use any excessive force. They actually don't need any tools to be taken out from the board, just a simple push does it.

Why stop at what's in the box!

We had two rabbits from a kinderjoy box, a graceful master Yoda and a visiting Obi-Wan who agreed to be part of the garden house. Let your imagination flow and add elements that make the garden yours.

What's in the Kit -

The box of materials contains coloured and precise cut outs, an instruction booklet, forceps, craft papers and all other items required to assemble and organise in order to complete the garden house. Once completed, the very finely detailed interior makes it worth the work. A pair of scissors, paper cutter, some glue and a pair of AAA batteries will be required additionally.

The kit is listed at INR 4,999/- but is available at some discount. This is a big puzzle and one can expect to finish it in 2-3 days (with breaks of course). For us, it took two of us, two days and a birthday cake to wrap it up.