I entered the 2005 National Barbie Doll Convention Competition in the backdrop category 'Boston Sights.' I constructed the facade of Talbots, a retail store which has its roots in Hingham, Massachusetts, a suburb or outlying area in Boston. Its flagship store is located in downtown Boston.  I earned a first place ribbon in this category.

The picture above shows how the backdrop was constructed.  It is a thin piece of foam core board, covered with brick themed scrapbook paper. I used coffee stirrers painted back as a chair rail to hide the seam between the two sheets of paper.  The inner wall is a color copy of a backdrop that accompanied a knockoff fashion boutique playset from the 1980's. I made a color copy on cardstock and glued it to the existing brick wall.  I covered a film canister and earring jewelry box with tan and brown plaid scrapbook papers to raise the height of the mannequins.  I framed a small magazine picture with silver painted coffee stirrers and hung it behind the mannequin on the left. 

The mannequin forms were included in the 1980's playset that featured the backdrop.  I dressed the mannequins with fashion pieces from the Silkstone A Model's Life set.  The arms became dimensional by fashioning tissue paper into arm shapes and pinning them to the waist of each outfit.

I added hatboxes and a plant to round out the setting.

In this photo you can see the foreground, which is a thick piece of foam core glued to a thin piece of foam core.  These pieces formed the sidewalk and part of the asphalt street.  The curb was covered with caulk, then dirtied with some black chalk.  The sidewalk is a piece of dollhouse cobblestone walkway, found during the holiday seaon at a craft store.  I cut holes for the doll stands, whose bases were glued underneath the cobblestone walkway.  The bottom of the bases were spray painted black to hide behind the dolls. 

The window was found as is.  It's a great bay window that I purchased unfinished at a local holiday shop.  I painted the base and roof black and the rest of the window white.

I had alrady determined where the dolls would be positioned when I glued the doll stand bases in place.  I dressed the dolls in Designs by Nancy fashions.

I used two different dolls, with different hair colors and arm positions to create some differentiation between the dolls.