1 INCH SCALE FLOWER WAGON TUTORIAL - How to make a dollhouse flower wagon from mat board.

This is the inspiration for this month's tutorial.  I am making it out of mat board but you could make it out of basswood if you have the equipment for cutting.

This is my version of the flower wagon.  This could be used for Teddy Bears and toys, too.  It is small, something to sit on a porch.  You could enlarge the pattern and make it for the gardener to push around in his garden.

These are the beautiful patterns that Nancy made for us.  She even offered a version #2 of the leg, I like both.  On the left of the blog, in the "Things to do, Things to see" list there are instructions for HOW TO RE-SIZE THE PATTERNS.

This is a good project to use up your scrap mat board.

Print your patterns out onto card stock to trace around.

Trace 2 sides onto mat board.

Keep your pencils sharp.  A sharp point gets closer to the edge of the pattern for a more accurate size.

Use a sharp blade in your craft knife to cut the sides out.

Make light cuts first, don't try to cut through in one slice.

Trace and cut out the front, back and handles for the flower wagon.

Use yellow carpenter's wood glue to glue everything together.

Glue the side to the back/front's cut edge.


That's Digger walking around, "I'm awake, I want attention, now, please".

I have the sides glued to the edges of the back and front of the flower wagon.

I want to let that dry a bit.

Nancy made you a beautiful wheel pattern.  I asked if she could even my pattern out and she did, so your wheel will look better than mine.

Do you see that I have cut out every other triangle?  You will have 5 holes or spaces and 5 solid areas or spokes.

Trace the wheel onto mat board.

Using a sharp blade cut your spaces out first while the wheels are still traced on the mat board.  It's easier and safer to do that first.
After the spaces are cut out, then cut the wheels from the mat board.

Don't cut the center hole out, we will drill that.

I didn't make a pattern for bottom.  I thought it would be better if you measured your wagon and make a bottom to fit.

Measure the inside of bottom opening, front to back.

It looks like I have just under 1 1/4".

Measure the inside of bottom opening, side to side.

If my ruler was straight, that should be an inch.

I am using my small square to draw the bottom.  I want the bottom to be square, that is have 90 degree angles at the corners.

I do my best to keep things square, but that doesn't always happen, does it?

Trial fit the bottom, always do a dry fit before gluing.


Glue the bottom into the flower wagon's bottom.

Mark the center of the round top of the handle with a pencil.

Use a "T" pin to pierce the surface of the mat board.  There is no need to go through, you just need an indentation for your drill bit to start in.

When drilling I start out with a bit smaller than I need.  I graduate up in size to the size I need.  Sometimes I use 2 bits, sometimes I use 3 bits.

I am going to use a toothpick for the handle, find a bit that is the diameter of your toothpick.

Being that this is a very small part, I know you had trouble cutting it out, you also will probably have some separation of the layers of mat board when you drilled through.

Apply a little yellow glue between the layers and press together.
Whenever your mat board becomes separated apply glue between the layers right away.  This will stop problems later on.

I put both handles on the toothpick and put the assembly up to the wagon to "eye" a measurement for the handle's width.

Mark the toothpick where you want to cut.

Remove the mat board handles and cut the extra off the toothpick.

Glue the toothpick into the holes.

Glue the finished handle assembly onto the wagon.

I have most of the handle above the top of the wagon.

I am going to make the wheels on the wagon roll.  This is a little involved and certainly not needed.  If you want you can glue the wheels onto the side of the wagon after the painting is finished.

This is going to be our axle brace.

Cut 2 pieces of card stock 1/4" wide and 2 3/8" long.

Glue these together with yellow glue.

Mark the center, 1 3/16" and score a line using the back of your craft knife.

Measure from the center to each side 7/16" and  mark.

Score these new measurements, also.

Measure 1/4" from the new scored lines.


Score these lines just like the others.

Mark the center of this 1/4" x 1/4" space.

I used an 1/8" hole punch to punch the holes on the marks I made in the previous picture.

To take this picture I had to glue one side of the brace to the middle, I don't want you to glue anything, yet.

Holding the ends of the brace in the middle, insert a pencil straight in making a mark where I have my pencil tip.

I used the 1/8" hole punch to punch 2 more holes where I just made my marks.

Now, glue the ends down in the middle.

Mark the center with a pencil and mark with a "T" pin.

I decided to drill the holes for both wheels at the came time.  I used a smaller drill bit first and graduated up to the drill bit that my toothpick fits.

Measure 3/16" from the front edge and draw a line.

Center and glue the axle brace onto the bottom of the wagon.

Cut another strip of card stock, this can be 1/8" to 3/16" wide.

This is for spacers to keep the wheel from scraping the side of the wagon.

Here is my axle inserted through the brace.

Roll the card stock around the toothpick and glue.  I rolled my paper around the toothpick twice, no more.

Don't glue the spacers to the tooth pick.

I've inserted the tooth pick again and slid the spacers on for a dry fit.

I've slid the wheels on and measured about an 1/8" from the wheel and marked with a pencil.  This will be the end of the axle.

With a "T" pin make a dimple, don't push through, you may split the tooth pick.  This will be where you drill a hole to hold the little stick that holds the wheel on.

I made the dimple a little more than a 1/16" away from my mark.

I am using my little pin vise drill to drill the hole.  I bought this from Hobby Builders, www.miniatures.com.

I used the largest bit I could without drilling through the sides.

After you have drilled the holes cut off the extra length of tooth pick.

My holes are not perfectly aligned but I didn't split the tooth pick!

Sand down the tips of a tooth pick for the little sticks.  Dry fit into the axle's hole.

I was able to glue my spacers into the holes of the axle brace.  If your spacers don't fit into the holes you can just glue them to the outside of the axle brace.

I used a mixture of glue and craft paint to seal the cut edges of the flower wagon.  I usually add glue to the paint until just before the glue starts to change the color of the paint or about half and half.

Choose the style of leg you like and trace it onto mat board.

Carefully cut out with your craft knife.  Make light cuts first and work your way around.

Here's my leg.

I want you to sand down another tooth pick, it only needs to be tiny for about 1/4" to 3/8" long.

This is going to "dowel" the leg into the wagon.  I don't like to butt glue anything if I can help it.  This dowel will make the leg sturdier.

I want you to make a hole in the center of the top of the leg using a "T" pin.

I know it's difficult to do and the mat board splits, but drill a hole for the sanded down tooth pick/dowel to fit into.

We want a hole, material must be removed so the dowel can fit into the leg.

Glue the dowel into the top of the leg and clamp.  Let this dry.

Carefully insert the "T" pin into the bottom of the back of the wagon.  Make sure you don't poke through the mat board.

Drill a hole, removing material just like you did for the leg.  Be careful not to drill through the mat board.

My leg is dry and ready to be inserted into the bottom of the wagon.

After a dry fit glue the leg into place.

The flower wagon assembled.

The flower wagon disassembled.


I am cleaning up the openings in the wheels with small files and sanding the surfaces of all the parts smooth.

I've painted  two coats of craft paint and sanded.  I will paint another coat and sand with a fine grit sand paper, 400 to 600 grit, which ever you have.

For my finish I used a finishing wax.  I wiped it on, let it dry and buffed out with a softened piece of brown paper bag.

You can do this using natural shoe polish, too.  This is the kind in the flat tin.

To soften the brown paper bag you wad it up over and over again.

You will have to drill out your holes in the axle for the little sticks to fit.  Be careful not to split the tooth pick.

Here she is all buffed out.  The wax gives the surface a nice smooth finish.

For all of you painters out there this has great sides to paint on.  You could also paint the surface to look rusty like it's made from metal.  The surface could be painted and aged, grunged up a bit.

I know there are metal wheels available and those would look great on the wagon, too.

With all of the snow I have sitting outside my window this little wagon makes me think of how soon spring will be here!















I hope to see some flower wagons in the Follower's Gallery filled with all sorts of things!  Remember, my e-mail address is camceiling@frontiernet.net for any questions you have and to submit pictures of finished tutorials.

Have fun, Expand on it, Make it better . . . . .

Just keep making minis!

TTUL  Kris