Review - Rolife Miniature Craft Kit - Silent Corner Study from the Book Nook and Wonderland series

I received this miniature craft kit in exchange for a review

A little while ago my husband and I had a lot of enjoyment completing a miniature craft kit from Rolife - Cathy's Flower House. It occupied us happily for quite a while, and I love admiring the finished model sitting on the bookshelf. So I was really pleased to be given the chance to review a couple more miniature kits from Rolife.

I began with the Silent Corner Study, which is part of the Book Nook and Wonderland series. The assembly level is 3 stars which makes it slightly easier and quicker to complete than Cathy's Flower House, which is a more advanced kit with a 4 star rating. The Silent Corner Study kit doesn't even require any glue - all that you need in addition to the kit contents are two AAA batteries for the light.

Inside the box are a selection of wooden sheets with press out pieces, a printed cardboard sheet, a printed sticker sheet, a lighting kit and a few other accessories. Then a large instruction book which I found clear and easy to follow. 

The first thing to do is to find some batteries and check that the light works, then you can get started. What I really liked about this kit was that one of the first parts to complete was the battery box and lighting wires - I find this part of the kit a little intimidating so I like to get it out of the way early! It was really easy to install though so I didn't need to worry.

To assemble the kit it's just a case of working through the instructions in order, and pressing out the pieces as you need them. Most of this kit is made using pre-printed and cut wooden pieces, which are really good quality. The finish of the printing is excellent, and all the pieces popped out easily and slotted together well.

When I first saw the picture of the kit I thought that it would take a lot longer as there are so many books to make. But it is deceptive, because many of the books are just printed onto a wooden or cardboard piece which slots into place on the shelf. There are still a few books that need to be assembled individually, and then it's just a case of carefully placing a book cover sticker onto the correct wooden piece. It's easy to reposition a sticker if you get it slightly out of alignment. 

There is never any doubt when it comes to assembly because most of the time pieces can only be placed in one position, and if it's more complicated then there are either guide arrows or extra help in the instructions to make sure that you get it right. 

I love the bookshelves crammed with not just books but also small paintings, vintage suitcases, a clock and even a cat walking along the shelf! There are so many tiny details. 

Although this kit doesn't require any glue, there is still some sticking to be done with supplied pieces of double sided tape. I did find that I wanted to add a dot of glue on a couple of occasions just to make sure everything was stuck firmly, so it's worth having some on hand just in case.

As I mentioned above, the lighting for this kit is very simple. There is only one bulb which is positioned outside the window, and the wires run neatly up the back and are later covered by the back panel. The battery box is at the top with a hinged flap which allows you to easily access the batteries. The switch for the light is affixed to the bottom of the wooden floor piece, and when you touch the discrete power symbol it turns the light on.

I found that this kit was a really good level of difficulty - easy enough to not need to worry about getting it wrong, but complicated enough to make for a satisfying craft project that kept me interested and engaged in the process.

I spent about a week working on this kit from time to time. I would imagine that you could probably finish it in a couple of evenings if you sat down to work on it, but I liked taking my time and enjoying the process!

I've completed a few miniature kits now, and I think that this is definitely my favourite so far. I love the theme - anything to do with books is a winner for me - and it fits beautifully on my bookshelf. The kit was simple to put together but also very satisfying, and I enjoyed every minute working on it. I loved that I could work on it a little bit at a time without having to sit down for hours - it's perfect for busy people that need to snatch some time to themselves when they can. The quality and finish of the kit was excellent and I love admiring the finished product.

If you are interested in trying out a Rolife kit for yourself I have a discount code which will give you 10% off kits from the Rolife website. Just use the code Jennifer10.

The second kit that I have received to review is a DIY Miniature House called Elsa's Tailoring. The kit is a vintage sewing studio with plenty of tiny details, and I'm really looking forward to making a start. It's a larger kit and a higher difficulty level, so I'm anticipating that it will take me a little longer to complete. I'll be sharing my progress soon!

Cathy's Flower House miniature craft kit from Rolife review

A few months ago I wrote about the latest craft project that my husband and I had embarked on - Cathy's Flower House miniature kit from Rolife. We worked really hard on it, and completed it just before Christmas. I thought I'd write a little review of the kit, just in case you've seen them out and about and wondered what it was like to put one together!

We bought our kit on Amazon and it's worth keeping an eye on prices as they do go up and down. Expect to pay around £40 - £45. Our kit is called Cathy's Flower House (affiliate link) and there are plenty of other kits to choose from. If you want to see an assembled miniature house in person then it might be worth a trip to your local garden centre, ours is a Haskins and currently has several on display including this one.

Everything inside the box is sorted into numbered bags, although there wasn't always much logic as to what went where. Our kit included glue and paint but not batteries, I think that the inclusion of batteries (and in some cases the glue and paint) depends on where you buy the kit from. The kit contents are a mixture of small coloured wooden pieces, sheets of paper and tissue paper with both pre-cut and printed parts, the electrical components for making the light and lots of tiny little bits and pieces that fit together in various ways.

There are some large paper templates which you can use to match up the pieces and make sure that you have the correct part for each section. We did have quite a few bits left over at the end which confused us a bit, but I think they were just spares! The instruction booklet is large and detailed with lots of pictures.

We started the kit by painting the large wooden pieces which form the sides and base of the flower house. Then we worked through the instruction book in order to build everything that goes inside. Some of the items were straightforward to put together and others were more fiddly and complicated. Luckily we found that the supplied glue was very good and dried quickly.

My favourite part of the whole kit is the blue drawer and cupboard piece. The gold coloured wire has to be bent into shape to form the handles. When complete it is filled with flowers and has plants trailing out of it. It's a shame that after all that effort it's tucked away in the back corner!

Some of the plants, like the ones in the photograph below, are made using printed leaves which pop out from a backing sheet and are glued into place on lengths of green wire. It's a bit fiddly, but they look really good when put together. You can see a pound coin in the photo which gives an idea of the scale.

We didn't realise when choosing the set that the plants would be so difficult to make, and this kit has a lot of plants! There are lots of tiny pieces of paper, little bits that need to be rolled up, glued and stuck together, and sometimes the instructions were a bit vague with a few translation errors. But on the whole the instructions were very good and it wasn't too difficult to work out what we needed to do.

Once all the plants and other accessories have been built then you can position them on the shelves and glue them down, and there are clear diagrams showing where each part goes. Then the shelves are glued to the base piece.

This is the chance to have a good look at what you've built, because once it's inside the greenhouse part it isn't as easy to see! You need to make sure that everything is glued down firmly because once the roof is on you can't get back inside to make any adjustments.

I love the way that the flowers and plants have turned out. Some of them are so simple, just some green fluff glued inside a large bead, but they look so effective and realistic.

Next it was time to build the plastic outer greenhouse part. This was quite easy to put together. The black frames are already in place, although you glue more black strips on at the end to hide the joins in the plastic and the wiring.

The most difficult part of the build was fitting these plastic walls onto the base. I suspect we may have made a mistake somewhere along the line, because our tabs didn't line up correctly with the slots in the base. We had to use a small saw to make the holes larger so that we could fit the top part on properly. It worked out in the end but it was a bit awkward at times.

And here's the finished flower house!

We love it and we are so proud of it. It's so detailed and it looks really good from the outside.

The greenhouse is fitted with a small battery powered light which you need to wire up from scratch, although it's only a simple circuit. Wire cutters and strippers were really helpful here as the wire is very thin and fiddly to work with. You also need to use plastic tubes which are heat shrunk to the wires. This wasn't something that we had done before so we were a bit nervous, but we watched a few YouTube videos and managed to do it quite easily using a lighter. 

The light inside looks really good, I love how it shines out of the plastic panels. It certainly adds some interest to our bookshelves.

Before starting the kit I read in an online review that it would take about twenty hours to put together. It's difficult to estimate how long we spent but I'm guessing that it took us at least that long - and that's with two of us working on it at the same time! But once you've got the hang of it I think that subsequent kits would be quicker, and all those plants did take a long time. 

We had a lot of fun putting this kit together, when we got started it could quite easily absorb us both for several hours, even my husband who has a very short attention span. It was lovely to have a project that we could work on together. We are already eyeing up the next one, they do a lovely Book Nook range which would look great on my bookcase!

Our new project - Cathy's Flower House kit from Rolife

A few months ago while out shopping we spotted these miniature kits from Rolife. We spent ages admiring all the different tiny model kits and wondering what they would be like to have a go at. A few days later I was having a browse on Amazon and I added a couple to my wish list so that I could check the prices. When the one that we were most interested in came on special offer a few weeks later it felt like fate, and so we bought one as something that my husband and I could work on together.

The price of this kit is around £40, and when you realise what's included it's not a bad price at all. I don't even want to think about how long it's going to occupy us for, but we've spent at least 10 hours on it already and aren't even a third of the way through, and that's with two of us working on it! I thought I'd share our progress so far, in case you've also seen these kits out and about and are wondering what they are like and what's involved in building one.

The kit includes a decent glue, paint, tweezers and all the materials that you need. We are also using our own wire cutters, pliers (small nosed ones are best if you have them), a scalpel and cutting mat and a ruler. I think we may need other tools like a screwdriver later on. It's a good idea to have a box or tray ready to store the finished pieces while you work your way through the instructions.

When we visited our local garden centre the other day I found a completed version of the kit on display. It's a little faded but I was able to have a good look at it and see what we are aiming for!

The first step was to paint some of the larger wooden pieces that form the base of the greenhouse. Then you start by building the the items of furniture, shelves, boxes and so on. This is followed by the smaller accessories, like the bird houses, plant pots, books and baskets.

The instructions are pretty good with clear step-by-step pictures. There are some translation errors and a couple of items in the wrong numbered bags, but with a bit of common sense it's easy enough to work out. Sometimes you do need to use your initiative a little bit, and I'm expecting that when we get to putting all the pieces together there may be some room for personalising it.

Currently we are working on the plants, and there are so many of them in this kit! They are made in various different ways. Some like the plants below have pre-cut leaves which are pressed out and then glued to green wire before being fixed into a large plant pot shaped bead. There are some made from thinner tissue paper that needs to be folded, cut and positioned before being glued down. These plants have been very fiddly to make and the glue goes everywhere. We've been sitting down together for a couple of hours and managing to produce just five or six between the two of us!

When we've worked our way through the plants then we can start to assemble the greenhouse and arrange everything inside it, which I think will be the most fun part. I'm hoping that the electrical wiring part of the greenhouse isn't too tricky, and we'll need to make sure that everything is firmly glued into place, as once the walls are in place I don't think we'll easily be able to open it up again to make adjustments!

It's been a really fun project for my husband and I to work on together and we are already thinking about our next kit! There are some lovely pieces in a 'Book Nook' range which are designed to fit between books on a bookshelf, they have a cleverly angled mirror to make it look as though they extend back further than the shelf. Watch this space!