Home Sweet Home

Houses are quite a strong "thing" for me, I was always rearranging my room (I had the smallest room as I was the only girl) as a child, if I can't sleep I fantasise about decorating friends houses. And I loved (and still love) reading about houses. all the little doors and windows in the Magic Faraway Tree, Pa building the house in Little House on the Prairie and my favourite turn to when stressed with life - Milly Molly Mandy and especially the decorating of the jam storeroom - for the jam of course, not because it was going to be Milly Molly Mandy's first bedroom.

I have quite a few house stamps from PaperArtsy and PaperBag Studios (and I REALLY want the Claudine Hellmuth houses) and of course the Tim Artful Dwellings die.  I've wanted to make a terrace of houses for a little while and the idea has been steadily simmering on the back burner.

I started out painting an IKEA mirror frame in blues and greens. I used lots of watered down gesso over the top to tone down and give it that beach hut washed out look.  Tissue tape around the edge of the frame and Walnut stain over the top of that and round the edge of the frame as well to give it a bit of a grunged up shabby look!

The house were cut from mount board and painted in guacamole and toad hall fresco paint, a light wash of gesso and then stamped in various PaperArtsy stamps. The roofs were a combination of odd bits of embossed metal from previous projects and tissue tape grunge board. All sorts of odds and ends of metal embellishments, buttons and a paper flower were either inked with alcohol ink or left bare to "dress" the houses. Good old walnut stains added round the edges to continue that shabby look.

The"road" is a strip of grunge paper inked in Peeled Paint and shabby shutters distress stains, more watered down gesso wiped on top and the ruler from Tim's Curiosities stamp set stamped in grey stazon (love this - loads).

The flowers at the bottom are PaperArtsy again stamped in grey stazon and cleared embossed and the centres painted in a turquoise sparkling H20( haven't used these in ages - feel some flower stamping and  gentle painting activity coming on!)

Finally the numbers are Tim grunge blocks left over from the ArtsyCrafty day in February painted in white dabber and the numbers in Weathered Wood distress stain. Again more Walnut Stain added round the edges.

I'm really pleased with how it's turned out, the frame is really heavy and chunky and the houses are sort of folksy quirky shabby - a bit like I imagine the houses were in that Faraway Tree!

Anyway it's Friday night, so there's a bottle of rose chilling in the fridge, a trip to Olney tomorrow for haircuts and shopping (ooh I wonder where - perhaps here!) and the rugby season starts this weekend so off to watch Northampton Saints play Gloucester on Sunday at home - Autumn is indeed fast approaching.

Oh and of course there might be some crafting this weekend as well!

hugs

jo
xx