A Real Play Day in the Craft Room!

Aloha, all!

     What fun I had earlier this week when I got to spend the whole day in my Craft Room decorating a little doll house.  Well, it's not like those we made for our daughter when she was a little girl.  With those, there were wood and nails and hot glue guns all around as we struggled to put together and furnish a 1" scale house.  You can believe that took more than a day to complete!

     No, this house was made with the new Chipboard House, Design-a-House, from the 2010 Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog.  As October and Halloween are fast approaching, I decided that my first effort would be a witch's home.  But not a scary haunted house.  No, just something fun that looked as if a cute little Halloween witch had designed it.

     Of course, that good little witch would have to be the one from the Stamp Set, Halloween Hoot.  Here she invites us all to come into her parlor (said the spider to the fly!)  As we look over the house today, I'll share some of what I did to make this house a fun one to have around my big house for the whole month of October, not just on Halloween.

     I began by choosing the colors for the house and roof.  That became easy when I found two sheets of papers from the Specialty Designer Series Paper Set, Wicked Fun.  The "specialty" part of this paper is that much of it is flocked.  But not these two sheets, one of which has Cajun Craze as its primary color, and the other Old Olive.   A key to making sure that you get the paper on easily is adhering it to the basic house pieces BEFORE you start to put the house together.  Stampin' Up! provides a pattern for you to use to to cut out the basic house and the openings for the windows and door.  I chose to lay the pieces of the house out onto the Designer Series Paper and trace around it with my Hobby Blade.  Once I got the papers all cut out, I applied them to the house using Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue.  While that glue dries pretty quickly, there's still a bit of give when you first lay the paper down to skootch it into place.

     Then I shingled the roof – literally!  But these shingles were in continuous strips made by punching the Olive Green paper with the Scallop Edge Punch.  To get the rows of shingles lined up properly, I used the Stampin' Up! Grid Paper to align them as shown by the arrows.  This piece of the roofing is from the part that is on the near front of the house.  Rather than applying the shingles directly to the house, I cut a piece of card stock in the shape of that section of the roof and applied the shingles to that, using SNAIL adhesive.  Then I applied the entire piece to the roof using the Tombow adhesive.  I did this for all sections of the roof, still at the point before the house has been put together.

     For the trim around the windows, Stampin' Up! provides a template for cutting.  I cut a piece of the Old Olive Designer Paper into a piece 4" x 6", scanned the templates into a 4" x 6" computer document, then printed the template onto the BACK of the paper I would be cutting.  Even though the back of this paper is Basic Black, you can still see the printed image very clearly. 

     Once all the pieces of the house were covered as I wanted them, I then put the house itself together, using Sticky Strip, and began adding all the trimmings!  For the roof caps, I just cut strips of Basic Black Card Stock 3/4" wide and long enough for each piece of roofing.  The fancy trim pieces were made using the Eyelet Border Punch.  Rather than using this to trim the tops of the windows, I just had to use the Bat Punch.  Maybe I got carried away with the bats all over the house.  But I had fun doing it!

     Here are some of the details of the decorated house:

• The Frog and the Window Dressing.  This little guy wants to turn back into a prince (hah!) so he offers "Free Kisses."  He's cute, but I think I'll pass.  Now look at the window – those lovely black lace curtains are made with the Raven 1/2" Lace Trim introduced in the Holiday Mini Catalog.  I attached them to the inside of the house using some Sticky Strip.  And of course, there's the bat decorating the top of the window.
   
• The Owl on the Chimney.  This is yet another image from –  and the namesake for  – the Halloween Hoot Stamp Set.  He's such a cutie, and I agree with him wholeheartedly!

   

 

 

 

 

 

• Round back by the "kitchen," Ms Witch is cooking up some yummy dinner for her guests!  I used Medium Window Sheet material on which to stamp the "bubbles" with Jet Black Stazon ink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Even in the bat world someone has to be different.  Here's one bat who wasn't content to decorate the tops of windows.  He has to go roost under the rafters, upside down. 

     Lots more details in this little house.  I can see that, once I put it out towards the end of October, I'll be making some more additions.  Hmmm.  I'm thinking now that I need a little landscaping!!!  I'll share the final project with you around Halloween time!

     If you're thinking that this is a cute project, let me tell you that you really only need two Stampin' Up! products beyond what you probably already have in your supplies:  The Design A House (120911 @ $5.95 each); and the Stamp Set Halloween Hoot (111582  wood mount only, $29.95).  For the second and more houses, you'll only need the chipboard house!  You can use papers and inks that you already have!  So much fun for this holiday, and I'll bet you can even get the little boys in your family to work on this project (bats are so cool!).

     Whatever you do, have fun with it!