Little Pink Houses for you and me

In my ongoing endeavor to "use ALL the craft supplies I've accumulated", I spent my last few weeks of crafty time working on my little chipboard house kits.

I purchased these kits a couple of years ago with the intention of making wee-little house Christmas ornaments.  In fact, they have hangers built into their chimneys for just such a purpose.  I found, though, that my numerous attempts to work on them during the winter would generally end in frustrating creative roadblocks.  The construction of the houses involved a lot of sit-and-hold-while-glue-dries, the designs never seemed to come together smoothly, and the results didn't pan out to look anything like the original concept I'd had in my head (as vague as it was to begin with). For me, the collage process involves a lot of "walk away and think about it", so perhaps Christmas is not the season for me to do collages in the first place. After the winter holidays came to a close, I turned to Pinterest for inspiration on Putz houses - traditional little cardboard house villages, which are usually covered in glitter, and generally put out at Christmas time, although I did find some themed for Easter.  After the relative success of my altered tins, and remembering that I did complete one spring themed house last year, I thought I would apply the spring theme to the rest of my little Putzy houses.

I now have a wee village (which will grow by one house once I get the rest of the Easter decorations out of the attic)

The pink farm house was the first, and most frustrating, house to start with... frustrating only in that it was already assembled, but painted dark red and brown and I wasn't fond of how it looked at all.  I repainted this house 3 times before I was satisfied with the color combination.  The addition of window frames, a little flower garden, and a coating of the traditional Putz glitter finally finished this 2-year old project.

Bonus: finally using the little flower tabs my mom handed down to me.

With that success under my belt, I began digging through my paper stash, putting together color combinations, and picking out inhabitants for my little village.  The map house came together quickly, as did the purple bird house.  The tall gnome house gave me a little trouble, as I'd picked a nice realistic looking clover for the ground, and the swirly red for the roof, so the house needed to be dark... however none of my blue monochrome papers looked quite right.  I set it aside for a couple days, then finally came across the bold stripes which seem to be just the right amount of dark and light to work.

I found that mod-podging all the pieces before assembly made for much easier work.  I also gave up on my regular glue and attempted both double-stick tape and hot glue for the house assembly.  The double-stick tape generally held the first couple houses together well, although one roof was not perfectly lined up, and so part of it kept popping up. so I eventually fixed it with hot glue.  Also, the wee fences would not hold with tape at all, so those were fixed with hot glue as well. Hot glue held everything well, but is not very forgiving if you don't line it up right, and also has the possibility of burnt fingertips, so I would practice putting the pieces together a few times prior to applying the glue.  That seemed to do the trick, and the few extra globs (which seem to be inevitable with hot glue) were easily removed with my xacto knife.

My favorites are my little church, and the red gnome house.

This bird paper pack is among my favorite in my whole stash, and a bird themed church is appropriate for me.

I love the raindrop paper on this roof, and the flags on the fence, such a cheerful little gnome house!

First (completed) Altered Tins

Among the many started-but-didn't-have-time-to-finish projects from our latest Christmas season was the altered tin idea.  I came across the mini-dioramas on Pinterest (of course) and given the surplus of holiday related paper and ephemera which abound in my art room, plus my affinity for a particular brand of mint, it seemed like a creative win-win to embark upon this endeavor.  Although I started several tins, I ran out of project time prior to the end of the holidays, and the partially prepped tins now reside in the Christmas supply box until next fall.  Easter, however, is right around the corner, and I've no shortage of tiny mint tins, so I was inspired to give the altered-tin project a whirl in a more springy theme.

Collage work is somewhat of a slow process for me.  The cutting and gluing doesn't take time, but the pawing through papers, deciding on color schemes, finding inspiration from objects, and time to dry between paint layers makes for a project that needs some space to breathe on the table between bursts of energy.  As a result, I tend to work on 2 or 3 small collages at once, painting one while the mod podge on another dries, etc...

Here are the tins I start with:

 

(The vermints are my favorite kind)

They have a glossy exterior, so I begin by roughing up the surface with a little sand paper so that the mediums I work with will adhere better.  On this go-around, I also discovered that the lids can be completely removed and then later reattached (at least on the vermints tins, I haven't tried the Newman's Own one yet)  This made sanding, painting, and gluing quite a lot easier to manage.  

After prepping the tins, I began to go through my many boxes of various supplies looking for papers, trims, and dimensional objects to fit the general springy ideas.  I rarely have a specific end image in mind when I begin, I let the collage evolve through the process based on what supplies jump out at me.  Sometimes I begin in one direction and then turn around entirely partway through.

In the midst of the project, I gather supplies and dry-fit the bits before gluing anything down.  In this instance I'd started with a somewhat pink/green tin for one, but it just didn't look quite right with the papers I'd picked for the inside.  I was eventually inspired by some newsprint-looking tissue paper in my stash, and changed the whole exterior to a neutral beige

Here are the exteriors of my first finished tins

And here are the interiors:

The one on the left began with the fairy paper, and grew from there.  The one on the right started with the "Phogotraphy Studio" and my little owl French feve.  Though these were originally meant to be Easter/spring decorations, I think the photographer studio tin will wind up having a year-round home on my mini-art shelves by my kitchen sink.

 

Christmas Crafting

I have this annual problem as the holidays approach, which is to build laughably long lists of projects to make as gifts for friends/family.  It is not so much that I have more ideas than my schedule allows to make them, it is more like I have more ideas than time exists in which anybody could make them.  Even if I had no job, no responsibilities, and no housework, I could not complete all the projects I think of because I have just Too Many Ideas.

Thanks a lot Pinterest!

(and magazines, and crafting books, and supplies handed down to me by Mom...)

Even when I make my list "realistic", I never reach the end.  Once school starts in September, it is just an out of control train of activity, from school sports to Halloween events, to kid's birthday, to Thanksgiving, to Christmas.  Woo Woo! (that was a train whistle)

This year, however, I refocused my energy, lightened up my schedule by replacing huge Halloween and Birthday events with smaller get-togethers, and came up with a few portable craft ideas which I could work on at sports events.  With those changes, plus joining a craft club to keep me focused and pretty much abandoning all TV watching, I found myself able to accomplish a respectable amount.  (though still not All The Things)

Embroidered towels - this idea came to me from wandering through the craft store's embroidery section.  It was a tradition in our house to have sets of towels embroidered in the corners (one set of which I still own and use, which was embroidered by my mom)  I wanted to incorporate some Zentangle in my gifts this year as well, so this seemed a perfect fit.  I drew the tangle pattern on paper using a thicker pen, making it roughly the size of the embroidery hoop.  I transferred the pattern using carbon paper, and then embroidered away.  There was another towel which I neglected to photograph before giving it away, and a fourth which is still in the hoop because I didn't finish it in time for Christmas.  This is the project I brought with me to G's sporting events to work on in between her playing. 

I love doing the paint-your-own ceramics, and have saved many painting idea/inspirations on Pinterest.  The set of plates is for a neighbor of mine... I'd painted a platter for myself a few years ago which shows a tree bent in the fall, the leaves blowing off.  She compliments it highly every time she comes over, so I decided to do a set of plates for her from a similar inspiration.  The set of plates depicts one tree in the changing seasons (in case the theme isn't obvious)  The vase below was painted for D for Christmas, inspired by designs I've seen on Pinterest.  I do like the way the clouds came out.  I suppose I did a weather theme without really realizing it.

Last year I bought up two sets of Melissa Frances glass ornament dome kits, and put them to use this season.  In my efforts to find a tiny nativity scene worthy of the pretty glass, I discovered French Feves... teeny tiny porcelain figures usually used to bake into an epiphany cake in France.  I bought a few kits on Etsy (straight from France!) and also a few individual feves which really spoke to me.  The ornaments above were inspired by and made for individual friends of mine.

I made my own French Feve parrot ornament for myself (unfortunately it dropped during our un-decorating of the tree, and the dome is now cracked, the parrot is laying down.  I'll repair it next year)  I made the bear ornament as my annual bunco ornament exchange contribution - this one was inspired by (and supplies purchased at) my favorite craft store/money pit.  It had originally been opened by my good friend, who immediately recognized that I must have made it, and we made eye contact from across the room.  Then it was sadly stolen from her (but by another friend who really appreciates bears, and really did adore this little guy)  I happened to have picked up duplicate supplies, with the intention of making a bear dome for myself (because Cute Bear!) but instead I used the supplies to make a duplicate for my good friend.  I suppose that could be considered "cheating" the bunco exchange, but people also declare where they bought their ornaments in case anyone wants to buy something they saw, so... all is fair in my opinion.

The craft store was sold out of the adorable bears, so I needle-felted myself a little cardinal and set him into a dome ornament for myself instead.  (This was my project for our December crafting club meeting)

I am most proud of the two sets of coasters I made for D for Christmas.  The idea came to me early on... I've attempted several types of tile coasters in the past, all with poor results, but after a little research I found people had been able to create the look I was going for using resin instead of modpodge like medium, so I headed to the art store for resin kits.  There I found actual coaster kits, with holders and all, just above the resin.  It's like they knew I wanted to make coasters!  

I made two sets, one with 4 images from Jamaica, and one with 4 images from Kauai.  Printing, trimming, and gluing the photos onto the coasters was easy.  I painted over the photos with a layer of mod-podge as well, however the paint strokes did show a little in spots, so I wouldn't recommend doing that... just glue them down all the way to the edges really well, the resin will coat the images nicely.

(I regret that I didn't take photos during this process... I really had to sneak it in without D noticing, so I had very little time in which to work)

The resin did not smell nearly as much as I thought it would, though I still did the resin part inside a bathroom with the vent fan going and a window open just in case.  I set the coasters on small wooden blocks inside of the lids of banker's boxes (to catch the drips), mixed the resin, and poured.  I did the 8 oz kit, which was well more than I needed for the 8 coasters.  After pouring the resin and smoothing it out, gravity pretty much does the rest.  I tried and tried to scrape the drips off the bottom of the coasters, but it kept dripping and once it was set, the bottoms of the coasters had bumpy resin bits.  

My solution to the resin drips on the bottom was to put the scraping blade on my Xacto knife and pop them off, which also took off some of the white paint on the coaster.  (note: use the scraping blade like a planer, scraping away from your body, NOT the pointy one... I started with the pointy one, it slipped and stabbed me in the thumb)  My original plan had been to attach little felt feet to the bottoms, however with the paint scraped they looked beat-up.  After starting to paint the bottoms (which looked uneven at best) I realized that I could just cover the entire bottom with felt instead, so that is what I did.

Here is a close-up of my favorite coaster - notice the teeny tiny helicopter in the shot :)

Outside of gifts, I also worked on my own projects... completing two buildings for my Christmas village.  A little house (colors somewhat based on our own house colors)

The gingerbread bakery (because SO CUTE!)

My village has expanded in size, now requiring a larger space and more lights.  

Inspired by a friend of mine, I hang my Enterprise ornament over the village.  I've often joked about making an Away Team for my village, and this year I decided I should paint some villagers with Star Trek uniforms, as my Away Team incognito.  I was unable to start that project this year, but I already have a Riker and Westly in mind for next year.

I managed to paint just one ornament for myself this year... a little black-capped chickadee who happens to be a Gryffindor.  (I am nerding out our Christmas stuff in subtle ways)

Done back in in the fall... I also gifted out jars of home made jalapeno/anaheim chile jelly, made from peppers grown in pots in my yard.  My grand hope this year is to have a proper garden again, with herbs galore, so that I can return to gifting home grown items to friends again.