what can you make with 5 bucks? THIS!!! - CRAFTSTER CRAFT CHALLENGES

Popsicle sticks = $3 glue = $1 and I just used scrap fabric so.. wait..only $4!!! I've gone a bit Thomas the Tank Engine crazy lately and since starting this, stopped and made the Thomas Bean Bag toss (posted elsewhere on craftster). I was thinking about what to make for the contest and already had a bag of popsicle sticks in the kitchen drawer(went and bought more AT THE DOLLAR STORE after starting the project for 3 bucks) and this just popped in my head between thinking of making funky jewlery or odd headgear. I opted for the kill two birds with one stone and made Tidmouth Sheds so my son has somewhere to house all of his trains. Here's my process: Oh and yes, I'm MESSY when I create!!

This is the beginning, I made all the doors and the 2 main walls (you can see one of the walls and more doors behind what's standing)
I made frames for the doors and attached them together with fabric so the doors can swing open and shut

addendum: here's a better view of how I got the doors to stay up

Doors are done!

next...

I had to lift the whole thing up so the kid's train tracks could fit under the doors so I made what you see here (between the sets of doors)

The braces you see here were my first attempt to prepare to put on a roof..I'm no architect so it didn't work as well as I wanted, but it looked cool!

So I ended up keeping it simple and easily attached the first level of the roof, well.... after painstakingly making a big long beam that spanned the whole thing side to side to attach the top part of said roof to

this is the view from the front, I added sticks that extended to help support the second part of the roof

2nd (top) tier of the roof, I added sticks standing up along the entirety of it for windows!

These are the beams I created to rest the top tier on

I had to cut down the sticks so the windows looked nice.. I did all of my cuts with this awesome wire cutter!!

Here's a side view after I attached the whole roof ( I only made "half" of the whole buiding so my son can have easier access to the inside

my initial attempt at making the top part of the side wall..scrapped it

made this one and liked it much better, but not the placement

in case it survives and I want to completely enclose the building I made it more acurate

here's the finished product from the front

and from behind

as you may notice I also added some windows and other stuff at the top and I used toothpicks for the windows

I was thinking of painting it but I like the way the natural wood looks and I'm worried I'd ruin it. My kid played with it during every stage, making it harder to finish, but now he's happy as can be that it's all his, it's almost as big as he is..friggin huge. I like it, hope you do too!

Here it is in action!!! ..doing nothing in a corner... wait...sittin' there lookin pretty!