Old Sephardic House Front Diorama

EJ, my dude!

This is a diorama I made for a very special woman. What she doesn't express in words, she expresses in actions. And people love her for it.

Well, title says it all. What it doesn't say is that it also has lights, but you probably guessed that.

Yee, so I cut out four nice rectangles, three for windows and one for a door.

You can obviously cut out as many rectangles or squares or decagons as you want, but I'm going to keep it simple. Well, as simple as you can get on Instructables.

So, I got one of those tile samples from Home Depot. Smoked Opal, I think. It doesn't matter what size it was originally because you're going to cut it to size anyway. Then just glue it on your box.

All right, so I made a door also from a Home Depot tile sample and screwed a tiny knob on it. If the knob isn't the color you want it, just paint over it. That's what I did. Oh, and the sample was called "Rustic Slate Clay". It doesn't look like clay, but okay.

Use duct tape to create a hinge for your door. You want only one side covered and the rest should be on the box. It shouldn't show from the outside, so you're good.

NOW, if you click on the fourth picture, you'll see this golden stick. Yeah, that's supposed to be a mezuzah. The official look is in the first pic. It's on the door's left.

I took some fat lacy stuff and cut strips, sticking only the tops on the diorama. I used duct tape for that.

You basically want a piece of cardboard that you fold in half, and one half gets covered in white cloth and sticks out (really, it's in) and the other half is stuck onto the inside of the diorama.

So I made "candles" from chenille stems, aluminum foil and white paint...to paint on the tips of the chenille stem sticking out. Wrap the aluminum foil around the chenille stem that's been bent on the bottom (so it can stand) and then paint the tips on the top white so they can resemble a candle.

As for the challah, I made it out of aluminum foil that I rolled up. I did make a tiny one from dough, but my little sister ate it. -_-

I can't really explain how to fold a challah, so you'll just have to rely on YouTube vids to find out. Sorry.

Once you have your challah, paint it to make it look golden and if you really want to accentuate the folds, use a little black paint to mark over them.

Once you've done that, glue the challah onto a circle of foam sheet. It's supposed to be on a plate.

Finally, you can glue the challah and the candles onto the table in housey.

This took quite a few weeks of brainstorming. Since I'm determined on my methods to be original.

You'll need at least three chenille stems (pipe cleaners) per window.

Take one stem and bend it out of the window, then in around the "wall" and then out again for the other window beside it. Repeat this for the bottom with another stem.

Use one stem to create the remaining of the railing, going up and down the two other stems. Do this for the other window, too.

Once you're done, cut a piece of cardboard that fits the bottom and glue it on. You can use tape if you want to.

Lastly, paint on the pipe cleaners to make them sturdy and hard. Yeah, painting on them actually does that. It'll take a while, but it can be done.

That's right, my dudes! Tea lights! I've been meaning to use some in my 'Ibles for a while now, but I didn't get around to it. They're definitely easier than stringed lights. (My restaurant diorama. Also on my profile.)

You really just need to tape them on. Really simple.

Take a rectangle that is the box's size and cover it in lovely, flowery cloth. Should make a nice, authentic-looking wallpaper.

Then duct tape that wall onto the box.

Thanks to Creative Mother on Instructables, I was able to do this. Check out her profile!

This is really simple and I did not think it up myself. Like it says up there, Creative Mother showed how to do this first.

Cut little rectangles from cardboard and glue one on top of the other to make roof tiles. You can paint them or leave them as they are.

The finished product with and without the lights on. I opened the door in the second photo so you could have a better view. Comment below on how you thought I did!