day 4: Decor houses

In contrast to other projects I am doing these days, decorating little wooden houses isn’t exactly the fastest of tasks. That said – it’s a LOT faster than you might think – you can easily build yourself one in under an hour! This particular house was done over three days in little five-minute bits of stolen time here and there. I will guess it took about 2-2 1/2 hours of actual crafting. Often for a project like this it is the best way to tackle it!

I make a plan:
1. Pick the papers/colors I want to decorate with. Come up with a general ‘look’.
2. Do any/all painting of roof, walls, etc.
3. Adhere patterned paper to surfaces as needed, use strong double sided tape so liquid adhesive isn’t required.

The big rule is this: there are no rules. Think about the look you want to achieve, and what you have that can make that work. For me, I wanted it to be a very simple house. Oh, You see I have plenty of little accents but I wanted the PROCESS to not take 94 hours and I didn’t want a ton of paper cutting or detail fussiness. I’ll share the how-to of what I did here on mine.

Roof: painted with green paint. Edged (using glossy accents) and glittered (white gold) and allowed to dry. Then coated with PPA adhesive (see supply list) and covered with clear glitter for sparkle.

walls: nothing! Just covered in paper with exception of front, where I added a front door.

greenery: used Tim Holtz new trees and colored with distress stains. Once dry, used hot glue to adhere. On big tree, also edged with white paint + added white gold glitter while wet for sparkle.

the base: this is always a BIG question mark. There’s tons you could do – what to choose? For me, I decided SIMPLE. Coated all visible wood surfaces with liquid adhesive, coated in glitter that is clear/sparkly. Insta-snow!!

the edge: I LOVE grabbing my bucket ‘o buttons and throwing random buttons on the edge. It’s silly I know, but I just always LOVE the effects. Hotglue was used for speed on this. My favorite detail is that #36 on the front porch.

Indeed – welcome #36 Holly Lane to my collection! I’m glad to have a new creation to add to my growing set of altered wooden houses. Personally, I love grabbing a CHEAP wooden birdhouse at a craft store (or any cheap wood item!) and covering with paper and bits of fun stuff. I hope you enjoyed this upclose look at my little house.

Supplies Used:


This house is also my entry for this week’s challenge over at Simon Says Stamp & Show. I encourage you to head over to visit Simon Says Stamp & Show to see all of the other creations and for entry details and rules.

 

 

27 thoughts on “day 4: Decor houses”

  1. Sweet! I can’t believe you made it that quickly even over a couple of days. It takes me lots of meandering around to get to a design. Love the row of buttons and the whimsical charm of your holiday house!

  2. May, what an adorable house! It’s very festive and love the traditional red and green color theme. Love the glittery roof and the button accents. So cute! <3 Candy

  7. This is soooo cool, May, and I can’t tell you how many unfinished bird houses are out in my garage right now.

  8. I’m so happy to have cought up with your Christmas days, May! Heard you on a recording over at Paperclipping! it sounded wonderful.
    This House is adorable! My Girls and I decorate a house, some of these ideas might be be able to be worked in! The glitter is wonderful.

  9. That house is absolutely darling! Looks like alot of work. Love the colors and detail in decorations. Nice!!

  14. Hi May, such a charming little house. Love the. Love the candy cane stripe and the buttons are a lovely addition as are the trees. Love all the sparkle too, adds a whimsical touch. Tracy x

  16. This is fantastic .I’ve never seen one with a porch before-I love it..I’m actually working on 2 at the moment,definitely going to incorporate some of your ideas.

  20. I love your house. It is so delightful and cozy looking even with all the glittery snow. I try to spend at least 15 minutes a day crafting and it always amazes me how much I can get done in such a short time. Thanks for sharing your house. I love all of your ideas and may have to steal ummm I mean borrow some of them when I get around to doing my own.

  22. Gorgeous house, May!! I love all the sparkly elements and the Tim trees are perfect along the side 🙂

    *mwah*
    Steph
    Simon Says Stamp!

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