ME Challenge Swap – how I made some dressers
There are just some things that I find irresistible. ME things is on that list. So when Pam Junk sent out a challenge to make a ME house and do a swap (in early 2017), I couldn’t stop myself. Swaps are one of those activities I have done many times in the past, so have quite a collection. I had to make a mall just to get them out on display. So I really didn’t need a new set. But I was going to have to make something to put them in or I could ruin my chance to sign up for future swaps in this group. I did have this one ME idea that I had seen and wanted to do, so decided one more swap and I would make that idea for the house (more later about that)
For the swap I had to make 25 dressers with mirror.
![](http://mini-smallpackages.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20170505_173833_HDR-1024x577.jpg)
This pic shows after I had completed some steps. It shows all the pieces except the drawer fronts.
- I cut out of wood all the pieces except the drawer fronts as I wasn’t sure it was going to be two, three or four.
- Trimmed wood feathers with scissors.
- Sanded all the wood pieces except the legs with very fine grit sanding cloth. I’ve this piece for years and really love it. I think it is the type used on belt sanders.
- Glue legs to sides using a metal jig (shown below).
- Glue wood trim to the mirror back. (upper left corner in the pic above)
- Paint sides with black. I used a black paint pen. And oh my gosh, I couldn’t believe how well that paint pen worked. Now it was only the black that worked and not the white pen I had. I did not sand between the two coats of the black.
- Then I painted the other pieces – top (middle top) and chest front (lower right) white using a brush since the paint pen I had didn’t work. I sanded between coats. Then added black squares around the edge. Had to use a tiny paint brush (10/0 or 20/0 liner brush) for the black.
- The mirror back was painted white around the edges and on the trim. Then repeated the black square process around the edges. In the above pic, I had already started adding the flowers to the mirror trim.
- After painting the white one coat, I sanded and did another coat and sanded again. This gave a nice smooth painted finish.
- Back to the polka dots on the sides. To do that I used a metal tip dipped in a white paint puddle and then touch the tip. If I messed some of them up, I painted over with the black paint pen and did the white dots over.
![](http://mini-smallpackages.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20170505_175016_HDR-edited.jpg)
Whenever I could, I used an assembly line type process – do one step for everything and then move to next step. The exception was when things needed to dry, I might have two processes going at once. This also helps with boredom of the making multiples.
- For the sides, I used double sided temporary tape and adhered a bunch of them to the cardboard. The pic above was after I had already been painting the dots.
![](http://mini-smallpackages.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20170505_174209_HDR-1024x808.jpg)
This is the small metal magnetic gluing jig I got from smallerthanlife.com The chest assembly needed to dry so I would paint the dots in between.
![](http://mini-smallpackages.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20170505_173923_HDR.jpg)
This pic shows having added the top to the chest and started painting the flowers.
![](http://mini-smallpackages.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20170507_142915_HDR.jpg)
- All the tops glued to the chest base.
- Mirror paper glued in place. I glued the paper on and then after it dried I would trim to the edge with scissors.
![](http://mini-smallpackages.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20170507_144236_HDR.jpg)
- Added the back supports. I didn’t measure placement of these as they wouldn’t show. But they needed to extend down at least a third or half of the supports.
![](http://mini-smallpackages.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20170510_112409_HDR-1024x590.jpg)
- The drawer fronts have been cut and then painted white on the front and black on the edges. I repeated the same processes with sanding and the paint pen for the black.
- I was running out of time, so I didn’t do the squares on the sides of the drawer fronts. But I kind of like it without.
![](http://mini-smallpackages.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20170510_112420_HDR-1024x827.jpg)
- Then I added pink dots. Then green leaves, then yellow dots on the pink. When the yellow dots were wet, I added the no-hole beads in the paint and used the paint as glue.
![](http://mini-smallpackages.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20170510_185745_HDR-1024x835.jpg)
Here is all the dressers for my swap finished just need to be packaged to go to the swap coordinator.
![](http://mini-smallpackages.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20170510_185826_HDR.jpg)
Finally here is the finished product. Thanks to my hubby for helping me to finish them. Also for once I did work on the swaps little by little and started on them earlier than I used to do.
Happy miniaturing!
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