Micro Minis Online Convention 2012

Souvenir Instructions

by Laura Miller

Micro Minis Online Convention 2012 Souvenir Instructions by Laura Miller Page 2

1. Below are the parts of the souvenir kit. Everything else in your box are the goodies that have been donated to you by all the generous people of Micro Minis. So gather your souvenir parts and put them in a box by themselves. Please let us know if you are missing anything. We had a system, but are not infallible.

What you should have:

a. Clear plastic box by Pro-mold b. 4 ounce package of Paperclay c. Lighting kit from Evan Designs d. Bottle of Triple Thick e. Baggie of landscaping supplies f. Two wooden base supports held together with blue tape g. Maple base with two drill holes h. White cardboard box in a baggie (Leave items in box until step )

Micro Minis Online Convention 2012 Souvenir Instructions by Laura Miller Page 3

2. Carefully open your lighting kit packet. There are some tiny pieces to it so you might want to open it into a dish or a box. You should have the following items:

1. Battery holder with switch 2. Coin cell battery 3. Two chip lights 4. One pole chip light 5. One black eyelet (globe support) 6. One plastic globe 7. Two shrink tubes (tiny black tubes) 8. One narrow black straw

3. Test all three lights on your battery. Then put all the pieces back in the bag for now.

Testing instructions from Evan Designs:

The first thing I like to do when I get my lights in is go ahead and light them up with the battery. With this battery you will notice that there is a shiny side and then there's a kind of rough side that has a crosshatch pattern. The crosshatch pattern is negative and the shiny side is the positive. The lights each have a red and a green wire. The red wire goes to the shiny side of the battery the green wire goes to the rough negative side of the battery. Now I have my light lit, I can go ahead and test it out and see where I want to position the light in my project. With the light lit up, if you look at it you can see it is very bright on one side and not so bright on the other side. If I want to put the light on the ceiling of a room, I would put the light with the not very bright side touching the ceiling and the bright side shinning into my room. Do the same for the other two lights.

Micro Minis Online Convention 2012 Souvenir Instructions by Laura Miller Page 4

4. Carefully unwrap the front of your clear box while trying to keep as much of the plastic covering the box as you can. This will help protect the box from fingerprints, scratches and smears. Remove the top of the box. Set the box on one long side so the opening is to the front.

5. Take your base (rectangle wood piece with two holes drilled in it) and place it inside the bottom (long side) of the box. It goes in with the narrower long side to the back. The hole closest to the short side should be closer to the right than the left. Mark the top of the base so you will not forget later. It will be completely covered when you are done so it does not matter where you mark it.

Micro Minis Online Convention 2012 Souvenir Instructions by Laura Miller Page 5

6. Now is the time to determine what way you want to color your base pieces. Unwrap the blue painter's tape from your base support pieces.

Decide if you want to stain or paint your base pieces. I chose to paint them with a sage green spray paint this time. I had marked my base with a black permanent marker so I knew it would show through, but if you use something more solid, then remember which side is the top.

Micro Minis Online Convention 2012 Souvenir Instructions by Laura Miller Page 6

7. To protect the wood from the Paperclay, we need to cover the base with something to waterproof it. You can use a spray lacquer, silicone glue, fusion spray paint, or even acrylic paint. You may need to weight the base between wax paper if it curls, to flatten it back out. I used silicone in a tube that is meant for aquarium repair. I will clear out the holes when the silicone dries. I will use the same silicone to glue some other steps. Note: I only covered the area the paperclay will be on, but you may want to protect the whole base. Just make sure it is smooth and flat under where the rocks go.

8. Glue one of the base supports to the underside back of the base. Remember, the back is the narrower long side of the base. Make sure the base support is flush with the back and centered left to right. Be sure that you remember what is the top and what is the front of the base as the rocks are made to fit the angle of the base side. If you mess up, you can always flip everything and have your waterfall on the right instead of on the left like the prototype.

Micro Minis Online Convention 2012 Souvenir Instructions by Laura Miller Page 7

9. Now we get to one of the tricky parts. Bend the black wires on the battery pack so that the switch fits snugly against the base support. Mark the base support where the channel for the wires will need to be.

10. Use your second base support piece to mark where it needs to be

glued onto the underside of the base. Place the base upside-down on your surface. Place the base support onto the base with the outer edges flush along the long edge. Draw a line onto the base at the edge of the base support. The outer edge of the base support will be on that line when you glue it. See the photo of the drawn line on the top of page 8.

Micro Minis Online Convention 2012 Souvenir Instructions by Laura Miller Page 8

11. Now we need to notch the wood to allow for the black wires from

the battery holder/switch. Set the base support down on a solid surface. Put the blade of the craft knife at an angle on the base support with the blade pointing away from your body. Gently press down on the base to create half of the groove. Turn the base support down and repeat to create the other side of the groove. Test the wires in the groove to be sure that it is deep enough.

Micro Minis Online Convention 2012 Souvenir Instructions by Laura Miller Page 9

12. You will next glue the switch and the lights to the base. Use a silicon

or white glue. You may have to tape the wires to keep them down tight in the notches until the glue dries.

13. Once the glue is completely dry, carefully remove the tape. Then

glue the base support to the base with the outer edge on the line you created in step 10. The edge of the button on the switch should be level with the outer edge of the base. The wires will be sandwiched between the base and the base support. You might want to clamp the base support to the base while the glue dries.