How it all started and evolved.

One of my friends suggested that I could fill my crafting hiatus by posting blogs from my old blog site here, so I will do so. I will combine topics and improve them, so I removed almost all old blogs. Let's start with the beginning.

It started on a funny note. My husband and I had some time to spare by the end of 2017 and strolled through a toy store. He had never seen Sylvanians before. I did, I loved them from the first time I saw them in the mid eighties, shortly after they appeared, yet never had the funds to start collecting them.

As soon as he saw them, he slapped his thighs in laughter, and breathlessly pushed out the words "I want this!" So happy to find a partner who loved them too! My dad, who died when I was 12, would have loved them a lot too, so that moment at the store was extra special.

Once that the Sylvanian setups started taking shape, hub said to me that he wanted the Sylvanians to tell him a story, so I posed them as if they are in the midst of doing something fun.

We said we would get 1 house and some dolls ... yeah, right ... *hides and laughs hysterically*

At first, we had enough space on cabinets in our home to display items. I weaved a lot of fond memories of my dad trough the setups.

Our last guinea pig, Binky, who lived on his own as other pigs rejected him, loved to stare at the setups often. Once he was gone, we used his gigantic cage to construct our Town setup, with a BinkyVille district in memory of him, a wonderful suggestion by that same friend I was talking about.

Although I started with a Beechwood Hall, the collection expanded fast. At some point, I even did "the great purge" and removed all items which did not offer me that much joy and only kept the best. It grew out of hand and I was ever so pleased that I did this. Less is more!

Here are some blogs about items I removed with the great purge:

Sometimes items grow upon you. I did not like the Town series at first, besides the Grand Department Store. The buildings were too shallow. I managed to do a workaround to expand levels, by adding extra floor levels at the back. Non-permanent plastic glue and tiny office clips were used like this:

Once, we even had a vole indoors, who slept in the town diorama. We chased him out with loud 80ties rock music, lol. We met him in the garden after and he wasn't even afraid of us, he passed us by without being bothered by our presence!

I wanted a cobblestone street for my town, but the Sylvanian slabs they sell are hideously priced! So, I bought only one. I first tried to scan it, but as it's larger than A4, you can't get a decent result, as it sits a bit above the scanning glass of a printer and it looks blurred. I then took high resolution pics from above, and was pleased that this did work.

The result can be cropped and resized to your demands in any standard photo editing package, even good ol' Paint. If you have the luxury like me to have Photoshop, I am able to use hub's version from work, that allows you to even change the colors into anything you desire.

I bought photo paper to print it on. The result was stunning! As the pic managed to catch the 3D aspect, it even looks 3D!! I cut the rims off once it dried well, just make sure, as it doesn't cut well before and damages the edges. To protect the print, I put a plexi piece on top. Fab!

I took a pic so you can see the real deal compared to the print. Hope this inspires you to make as many floor boards as you need. The bottom one is the real deal, the top one is the printed version with plexi on top. This picture doesn't do the custom-made version justice, actually, it looks better in real life.


Once I got into 3D printing, I managed to make nice additions to the town. I started with these: assigned signs!

I looked to find a type of PLA filament to 3D print, which came close to the original lantern color. Winkle dark green iridescent came closest at that point in time. I created some custom-made printable files.


Rode Road - Sylvanian Street - Clock.
Via Way - Gracious Gardens.
Theatre - Superb Suburb.
Pass By Passage.
Amicable Avenue - Adventurous Alley.
Furfair Park - Frolic Forest.
BinkyVille - Lickadilly Park
(in honor of my dad who used to take me to the local ice cream park, relating to our Dutch dialect designation name)
Next one was before the Town sign got a dark green marker fix:
All signs have text on both sides. I hope you enjoyed the result!

Gathering so many items only works by running a tight ship. I use transparent plastic containers upside down to store tiny items, or used clean Chinese food containers, besides transparent plastic boxes.

Links below might prompt for a redirect notice to websites outside this one, that's normal.

This is my JollyOaksField town setup, part of several dioramas. Once we move to a better climate in years from now, I will make sure I have a better setup, slightly deeper, as I would love to have a street all the way around town. Enjoy!

How about taking a peek on my old homepage to check out custom-made Sylvanians:

There are a few old blogs which are still worth reading:

Hope you enjoyed this condensed recap of some old blogs! More to follow!

















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