This Ole House

     Hello to everyone peeking in this blog to see what I have made! Welcome to 'This Ole House'!

         I was on a shopping trip recently at 'The Range' and couldn't resist picking up a couple of paper mache houses. They were only £1 each so a real bargain and I couldn't wait to start decorating.

    ......"Home is where the heart is" came into my head and I thought of incorporating a heart and lots of shabbiness - Lets see what happened.....

    And as you can see it has a surprise.....

       The roof lifts off and......

 

Out pops a heart!

      I covered the sides of the house with some patterned paper. I decided to use corrugated card for the roof - leaving scraps of the paper covering over it to add to the shabby look. I painted the roof with Vintage Photo DP and dry brushed it with Fresco French Roast acrylic paint, adding a few streaks of Antique Linen DP afterwards to add highlights.

     The base section of the roof was painted in Bundled Sage DP and I wrote across it in white gel pen the words "I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself" which is a quote from Maya Angelou.

     The windows were made by covering a piece of card with Black Soot DI and drawing crooked window shapes with white gel pen. I cut them out and stuck them on to the building. The door was made with Fired Brick DI blended onto card and drawn over with black pen. I stamped some script stamp in archival black in over some of the sides of the house, randomly dabbing it in places, and then drew around the edges of the building in black pen.

      Various tissue tape was stuck onto the building and edges were darkened with Walnut stain DI. A metal cog was stuck to the back of the building and a section of a die cut was used as a plant at the front - covered with Peeled Paint DI.

The words were stamped with an alphabet stamp from the Range - another cheap £1 buy......I stamped the words and drew around them in black pen. I then smudged some Walnut Stain DI around the edges before sticking them on the roof.

         The inside of the box was covered with scraps of Melange tissue paper. When I select pieces I use for projects, sometimes I need to cut pieces off to get the right part....but it is all too precious to throw away the leftover bits....so I collect them all and when I need a very small amount I go to the scraps box rather than cut a new piece. This time I covered the box in all the scraps rather than cut new pieces for the box. So it was a really nice to get to use up some leftovers!

       After the glue was dry I covered it with a watery layer of Fresco Vintage Lace acrylic paint.

      I cut out a heart shape and inked it with Fired Brick DI. I blended some Black Soot DI around the edge and doodled over the heart with the white gel pen - one of my favourite things to do...just sitting there drawing random swirls heart, stitches and dots.

              I then wound some rusty wire into a spring and attached it to the back of the heart with some tissue tape..........

..............and attached the other end into the box with some more tissue tape (which blended in very well with the tissue paper already in there)

 - And finally, a little message for my mother-in-law, who will 'probably' like this little house - It is yours (If you want it!)

         Thank you so much for coming here to take a look - Please leave a comment! It would be lovely to know what you think of this ole house!

   I would like to enter this in the following challenges -

Try it on Tuesday - Spring is Sprung (Include something that moves) - The 'spring' in my project is the rusty wire spring attached to the heart - which moves.
Fashionable Stamping Challenges  - Journalling
Crafty-emblies - Anything goes
Anything but a card - Who are you inspired by? - Whenever I make anything 'House' or 'Miniature' related I am inspired by my mother-in-law (Cestina's dolls houses)
The Artistic Stamper - Texture