Last one, again

Okay, positively the last one, for now.  I've no more room on my mantelpiece.

This is the one I made today...

This one is a Tudor thatched cottage, and I've altered the die cut to add another window. This was achieved by cutting out two sets of the dwelling and then snipping off the window on the right and left side of each of the second set, including the tab, and glueing those to the tabs on th first set, so adding an extension. I also had to add an extra strip to the roof piece - though take care which side you add the piece to as I put it on the wrong side to start with and so the dormer didn't sit in the right place.  I'm sure you'll not be as stupid as me though.  

The beauty of 'black and white' houses is that they tend to be a bit on the squint, so any mistakes can be put down as historical accuracy.  For instance, I made my back extension a little too wide and now the back of the cottage is slightly curved. ;-) but that's fine by me. But my one big piece of advice when doing a black and white house is to draw all the lines before sticking the walls together. It makes decorating so much easier.

I had such fun drawing the lines. Google 'black and white Tudor house' and you get some amazing images to work from.  And if your hand is a little wobbly then that adds authenticity too. These houses are NEVER made in straight lines!

The windows in made slightly differently this time. I used some frosted paper one of last year's Xmas cards. This paper had some images on it so I cut away the mostly blank bits, and used those. I kept a couple of pieces with images and coloured them in using alcohol ink pens so you can see a Xmas tree, parcel and a star through the front windows. I had decided not to do diamond panes of glass, but it didn't look right once I the Windows were stuck on. I drew panes with a graphite pencil and actually like this technique better than using the ink pen like I did on the pub. Can get window panes much more to scale.

 

I cut out another door using a bit of card with spare window from the cannibalised set. I made this a rectangular door as the curved one just isn't right for a Tudor house, I painted it black and covered it in glossy accents so it looks painted.  The wreath decoration is a snip from a jewelled ribbon that I coloured with alcohol ink.

The thatched roof is felt sprayed th adirondack espresso ink, and the dormer has been shortened so it doesn't stick out over the roofline by much. I had to hand cut the snow felt as the roof is a little longer due to the extension. I made the chimney in red 'Tudor bricks' (barn door and fired brick distress pens).  

These little house look amazing when lit with a battery operated candle. I can't wait for Xmas day when I can switch them all on.

Merry Christmas everyone.

May Day May Tag

It's the holiday weekend, and of course it is raining.  We were intendingto go to Dobbies for bedding plants and stuff for the hanging baskets, but the rain gave me an excuse to stay indoors and play about in my craft room.  I recently ordered some new dies and embossing folders from the fantastic Sizzix sale, which arrived on Friday, so I was dead keen to get in there and start messing with them.  Spent a while unwrapping and examining them all, as you do, and it was only when I started to do my May tag that I realised that one of the items I ordered is missing, so I will have to ring Sizzix and get that sorted.  I ordered the movers and shapers old jalopy and arrow, but it was not there and it would have been great on this tag - I was going to use the jalopy in place of the butterfly that Tim put on his, but never mind.

Tim's tag did not have a theme, but he made it with the advice to crafters to stop hoarding all our ideology charms and stuff, and actually get it out and use them in our projects.  LOL, that's me. Got a drawer full.

 Tim's May tag showcased ideology bits and pieces, so I had lots of those to choose from.  Anyway, I'd decided to make mine on a travel theme, old jalopy or no, so here it is:

I did not have the Shadowpress embossing folders that Tim used, but found that one of the Texture Fades embossing folders from a set called 'Travel Signs' ( one of the folders I had just received) had some partly debossed words in it, so I used the word TRAVEL from the embossing folder.  Using his ink technique, where you ink the actual folder before inserting the. paper and putting it through the embossing machine was a bit scary, but it worked a treat and the leftover ink did come off the plastic with a bit of buffing with a baby wipe, so that was alright.  The little train is made of wood and is from a set I got in Hobbycraft.  I inked it with felt pens and embossed it with several coats of embossing powder, including a dip into silver embossing powder at the end, to metallise the wheels.

The white bird in the frame at the top is cut for another texture fade embossing folder (called Patchwork) which i embossed on white card and Then gave 3 layers of clear embossing powder to turn it into a 'charm'.  The chipboard frame it is in was one I had In a drawer, out of the packet so no idea who makes it it was originally cream with blue glitter, but I gave it several coats of silver embossing and then pressed a paisley patterned rubber stamp into it before it cooled down.

All the other items are Tim Holtz, including the background papers which are a mixture of his Retro Grunge and Seasonal stashes.  

The only thing I would change would be to use thicker chipboard behing each item.  Mine is quite thin and it looks too much like I've just stuck bits of paper behind each piece. Tsk.

My other project today was another altered metal biscuit tin.  I got this one from a charity shop a couple of weeks ago, and after I took the sticky labels off I stuck some embossed metal tape on it, added a Tim Holtz drawer pull and a dymo label.  I then swiped it with DecoArts Traditions raw umber acrylic paint, rubbed some of that off before it was totally dry, then dabbed it with Ranger alcohol inks in Rust, Espresso, Bottle and Pool..  This is another box for husband who after having walked the dog, cooked the dinner, brought me sustenance and coffee throughout the day today, is now vacuuming the floors to make me feel guilty for having closeted myself away in my craft room.  Not working though, I'm still here, and I'm not moving.

I've been doing a lot with this metal tape recently.  Gone a little metal mental tbh.  Here are some more charity shop finds that I have 'improved'.  Or so I like to think!  

Cheery.