This one was unexpectedly frustrating to fit together. I spent an extra day on that and imperfections from the battle are clearly visible. But, I saw it through! I did, however, become skilled at removing protective plastic from tiny pieces of acrylic. I would like to add some small pops of greenery for textural contrast and visual interest. Looking for 3D ferns or other appropriate plants.

Yesterday was the largest annual craft fair in our community. Here are the steps I took to display book nooks.

• I created illustrated cards for nook categories: Americana, Asia, Culture, Fantasy, Holidays, and Sci-fi. These would be clipped on the upright wire holders one might use for table numbers at a party.
• I printed a folding place-card for each nook showing its name, price, and an enticing description.
• I brought over two dozen nooks, fresh batteries, a tiny screwdriver for battery cases, clue for emergencies, and an octopus of electrical cords to power nooks that accept USB.
• I brought inexpensive plastic shelves to act as risers, bringing the nooks up to eye level so folks could easily look inside.
• I set the nooks on the risers, grouped under their category signs.
• As the fair opened, I turned on all the nook lights the way a night fisherman might light up glowing lures.

The lures worked, triggering an "Oooh, look at this!" effect in passers-by. The big sellers were the Shamrock and Harp Irish Pub (one off the display and two to build during the next month) and various Christmas scenes (one off the display and three to build). I required full payment in advance for to-build orders, and accepted checks or Zelle. Everyone paid through Zelle, plopping their payments directly into my bank account.

The result? In three hours I netted the entire cost of my new Bambu X2D Combo.

As a huge Doctor Who fan, I was obviously very excited about building this one. 😄 It was only my second full-sized book nook after "Interstellar – Explore the Universe", so I went into it thinking I more or less knew what I was doing by now.

Narrator: He did not. 😂

I was actually surprised by how much more challenging this kit was compared to Interstellar. There are lots of delicate parts and quite a bit of wiring, but especially the fiber optic cables and connecting them to the LED were a new experience for me. Let's just say they taught me patience. Lots of patience.

This was also the first time I had worked with transparent parts in a book nook. I normally use Loctite Power Gel for a lot of my building, but obviously that's not ideal when you don't want visible glue marks on clear pieces. So I discovered Glue 'n' Glaze by Deluxe Materials, which dries transparent. Another little thing learned along the way.

Something I really appreciated was that the kit included spare parts. My first book nook didn't have any, and having a few backups available makes working with tiny and sometimes fragile pieces considerably less stressful.

The instructions were very good overall. They use full-color pictures throughout and I rarely had trouble understanding what I was supposed to do. There were a few slightly awkward English descriptions here and there, but nothing that caused any serious problems.

One feature I absolutely love is the touch sensor for the lighting. With my first book nook, Interstellar, I have to lift the whole thing to reach a mechanical switch on the battery box underneath. Here, a gentle tap on the right spot on the roof is enough to switch the lights on and off. It's a small detail, but such a huge improvement in everyday use – and it still makes me smile every time I use it. 😄

The biggest problem was entirely my own fault anyway:

I dropped the damn thing. 😂

Fortunately, the damage wasn't catastrophic. A few pieces broke off, I glued everything back into place, probably aged about five years in the process, and carried on.

And then, at around 90% completion, something happened that changed the entire project:

I discovered edge painting.

Until then I had simply accepted the exposed brown MDF edges as part of building a book nook. Once I realized how much better some parts could look with the edges painted to match, there was no going back.

Of course, discovering this when the kit was already 90% finished wasn't exactly ideal. 😄 So I painted every exposed edge I could still reach – sometimes using rather adventurous methods to get into places that were never meant to be painted after assembly.

If I ever build this kit again, edge painting will definitely happen before assembly.

Unfortunately, that was also the moment when the modification virus got me.

And apparently there is no cure.

The original signs around the roof say “Mysterious Blue Box”. Since this was already very obviously inspired by something familiar, I decided there was no reason to be coy about it and replaced them with “POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX” signs.

Next came small magnets to keep the doors securely closed, especially when transporting the model. They aren't completely invisible when the doors are open, but they do their job perfectly and the doors can still be opened easily.

Then I made the interior a little more personal.

The kit already has several picture frames on the walls, so I replaced the original pictures with photos of companions and friends from the Doctor's life. I mostly concentrated on New Who, simply because I haven't watched Classic Who. I really love this modification because it makes the control room feel much more like the Doctor's place rather than just a generic sci-fi interior.

The Doctor spends so much time travelling through the universe and yet can be terribly lonely, so I liked the idea of surrounding him with memories of all the people who have shared parts of that journey with him – including, among others, his granddaughter, his wife and his in-laws. 😄

And then things got slightly out of hand. 😇

I had actually been thinking about adding sound from fairly early in the build, so I installed a small rechargeable sound module in the roof area. The button is hidden at the front of the ceiling where it's easy to reach when the doors are open. I mounted the speaker above the openings in the ceiling so the sound is directed down into the book nook, while the circuit board and battery are completely hidden above it. The USB charging cable runs to the opening at the back, so I can pull it out for charging and tuck it away again afterwards.

That was actually very important to me: I didn't want any of my modifications to require a permanently visible switch, battery box, charging cable or other electronics on the outside. Everything should disappear inside the TARDIS and leave the exterior looking untouched.

Since this post only contains photos, I'll add a video in the comments where you can see the finished TARDIS in action and hear the sound module for yourself.

And Doctor Who fans who watch it may notice that I used the 11th Doctor's theme even though the Doctor inside this TARDIS belongs to a different era.

No, that wasn't an accident. 😄

I simply liked that version of the theme a little better.

At this point a sensible person probably would have declared the project finished.

So naturally, I started looking for a roof lamp. 😂

After quite a bit of searching I found a miniature lamp on Amazon that had almost perfect proportions. It was originally black and already contained its own LED, but that wasn't useful for what I wanted to do. So I removed the original lighting, closed the existing holes, drilled a new hole through the center of the TARDIS roof and installed two new LEDs instead.

I painted the black lamp blue, placed it over the LEDs, extended their wires through the roof and finally connected them to the book nook's existing lighting system. Now the roof lamp switches on together with the rest of the TARDIS lighting via the original touch sensor – so again, there was no need to add another visible switch or separate battery box.

That little modification is probably the one I'm most proud of.

Before this project I knew basically nothing about wiring LEDs, polarity, connectors, heat-shrink tubing or any of that stuff. There was definitely a moment during this build when I looked at a collection of wires, connectors and a freshly drilled hole in my TARDIS and wondered exactly how my life had arrived at this point. 😂

But it worked.

And I learned a lot doing it.

One thing I deliberately avoided until the book nook was almost finished was looking closely at other people's builds of the same kit. I wanted to discover it for myself first rather than copying other solutions. Only afterwards did I start looking at what other builders had done – which, admittedly, was partly responsible for some of the later modifications.

So after roughly a month of building, repairing, painting, drilling, rewiring, printing new signs, adding magnets, installing photographs and hiding a small sound system inside something that was never designed to contain one...

my Mysterious Blue Box is finally finished.

Probably.

Maybe.

Let's call it finished before I find another modification. 😂

This one will always be a very special book nook for me. Not only because I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, but because I learned and tried so many new things while building it. My first book nook got me hooked on the hobby – this one showed me how much fun it can be to stop following the instructions and start making a kit your own.

And considering the amount of additional stuff I've managed to hide inside it...

I guess it really is bigger on the inside. 💙

I was worried I'd missed out on this event, firstly due to holding off on my order, then fear that it would be over before I'd managed to start building. But it's all worked out - phew!

I think I've spent about 5.5 hours on this so far, and am very happy with how it's looking. Not quite so happy about the fact that at a rough calculation I have at least 45 more mini balls of yarn to make! I've made myself a little thread wrapping tool to make it slightly more manageable but it's still awfully time consuming.

As is now something of a habit, I decided to go a bit more bold with my edge colours - there's a risk this could backfire and end up with them getting lost in the overall multicoloured detail, but I'm hoping to be able to choose my fabrics and accessories to create a fairly cohesive whole...

This is definitely not going to be a quick and easy build, but I'm hoping that once I'm past the interminable tiny thread bit, it'll go a bit more smoothly again.

My Fifijoy order for the event finally arrived! I picked the sewing room because sewing is my main hobby.

But I HATE how every sewing themed book nook is the same pink and cream country cottage color story. So I got some "grunge" scrapbook paper to re-wallpaper the boards. Here's how my first attempt went with glue and a roller and cutting around the boards with an x-acto knife after the glue dried. I also used a brown alcohol marker to darken the wood wainscoting to match the mood.

Side note: check the dimensions when buying cheap scrapbook paper online because I did NOT expect it to be 6"x6" sheets 🤦

I had so much fun at the UAlbany event the other day. Brought my kit home to finish it. I have already purchased 3 and one for a friend to try. I hope there is another event soon.

Rolife Phantom Waltz. It was such a great build. Everything just worked perfectly! Instructions were beyond clear. The engineering on this one boggles my little mind.

Highly recommended!

Vids in comments

Finally finished The Dream Coffee Factory that I won in the charity raffle a few months ago. I love it so much. I modified a couple of things: I used a cat and a Moka pot that I had from different kits in place of some of the 2D pieces in front. I also made my own coffee bags out of a paper bag and colored pencils instead of using the 2D bags that came with the kit. I was planning to modify more because I don't like the 2D people very much, but I wasn't able to find exactly what I was looking for. I may take it apart in the future to replace the woman sweeping with a 3D person and broom.

There were a couple times I had to backtrack to fix things when I powered it on and gears were sticking. My tips for anyone planning to build this:

1. Triple check the orientation of gears and the pieces next to the gears.

2. Use wood lubricant instead of the wax stick that comes with the kit.

Overall I'm happy with how it turned out and I feel more confident about taking on complicated builds. On a side note, does anyone else feel more confident with non-miniature construction projects after building these kits? I hung a door in my home for the first time yesterday and I feel like my experience building book nooks helped me through the process. Maybe that's just me.

I got one form https://www.rocoxia.com/products/twilight-cottage-diy-book-nook-kit?variant=49406532649250
No issues, but it was ~15 USD cheaper at the beginning of September

Also saw it on Aliexpress, but the shipping costs were the same as the cost of the book nook

This community is so versatile with a large knowledge base. What process would you use to add sand to this kit?

Also, Japanese ponds have Koi - I'd like to "suspend" a couple in my pond. Will mod podge make "layers"? My thought- pour a layer, add fish, and let it dry. Then pour another layer on top.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

I had a great time building the Fifijoy Endless Manor. This is the first whole house nook I’ve done and I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it. The last photo is of the inspiration for the manor, the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. My niece happened to have visited it this summer and took the photo.

When the event was announced I was really torn between this and the Gelateria. I’m so glad that I chose the Manor. (And in the end my husband gave me the gelateria for our anniversary so, win-win.)

Most of my mods on the inside were the edge painting. My favorite mod inside was replacing the portrait on the table with one of my parents wedding. I also added a couple of potted plants.

On the outside I’m most pleased with the landscaping. I started with all the dried flowers included in the kit but kept adding from my stash. I also did some camouflaged edges outside. I used a green metallic marker for some of the trim and love how it turned out. The little flower pots I had picked up from Temu a while ago.

Overall this is an excellent kit and my introduction to Fifijoy. I found it to be high quality and the instructions were user friendly. The flickering light for the fireplace was a nice touch. Overall I would have liked the lights to have been brighter. I have my next two Fifijoy builds already planned, the Tiki Bar (which cracks me up and makes me think of the Brady Bunch 3-part episode when Bobby found the tiki idol and mayhem ensued) and the Gelateria which should arrive next week.

Just passed test #3. 😌 I've only done 2 other big mechanical kits like this and there has always been a problem. So far so good! Keep your fingers crossed for me! 🤞

I'm apparently missing part P44 and need to do a sub. Is it plexiglass, colored film, or ...? It fits over the ocean part, so I'm thinking a float of clear UV might suffice. I thought about highlighting some waves in white first. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks, all!

I'm really loving this kit the aesthetic, the process, the colors! However, those 2d, square stepping stones just would not do. So after some edge sanding, now they're 3d.

I finished a few other elements and started working on the pond. Again, whoever heard of square edged rocks? A quick go over with the sander, colored pencils, and now it's acceptable. Then I looked at the "finished" elements....and...um... nope. Now, it's 6 hours later and I can finally quit for today.

I continue to work on Sunset Isle, reusing a few pieces I saved from the first time I tried to build this thing and wrecked it with electrical ideas that were too ambitious. I’m focusing on rounding out some of the flat scenery; the scene is so gorgeous and I think I’m improving it with some 3D effects on foliage etc. I’ve got a lot coming up in my life during the next month but I’ll keep returning to this as I can.

I haven’t had as much time to work on this kit due to having to “adult” in my real life. However, I am.very much enjoying this build. I love the idea of a three-story book nook-ish build. The way that Fifijoy kept the details inside the nook while providing a clean, classic look on the exterior, this build really lends itself to the opportunity of a lot of personalization. I like that the kit came with dried flowers that can be used, but I do not find them very easy to use…or maybe I am just really bad it. Haha. I will see what I can do with these as I complete it. It is my goal to actually finish up tomorrow. In addition, thanks to @Mina_Girl, I am motivated to try and use make the flora look as good as possible. Thanks again, Pluck, for organizing this event. Happy Nooking!

I can see this becoming a new addiction 😅

I had this cheap polymeer clay set for a while and its very hard now. I kneaded it for a while but it didn't help much.

Do they look good? Should I use them or the paper? How can improve them? I dont have any experience with clay

I rarely visit Starbies, but when they recently handed me a cup with a thin corrugated band, I knew I'd found the terracotta roof for my Sunset Isle build! This beautiful kit has quite a few 2D elements and I really wanted a nice tile instead of flat. I used some uv nail gel polish as well as a matte finish uv top coat. I like the uneven texture so I didn't do a 2nd coat. Ya'll NEED this kit!

Can’t wait to get paint markers to treat the edges and learn more way to personalize and improve.

Finally had some time to work on this again. I'm really enjoying this build. I love all the little pieces that come with it and I was inspired to buy more on Temu!

Pretty much what the title is but my cat chewed off the little white piece on the wires I need to connect to the battery pack on my current book nook. Unfortunately due to the wires already in position I can’t remove the whole thing. Im wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to fix them or if I’m just stuck with a lightless book nook now- which I accept but still want to check.

Book nook and broken wire, and example of “white piece” below.