Paper Houses

Just for fun. Cloth Paper Scissors has a reader challenge, using this house pattern, and I couldn't resist making some just for the heck of it. These are made with atlas pages, a stencil and my fave, spray gesso.
And Cloth Paper Scissors did a lovely promo on my new DVD, read it here and another one here.

On the Road...

I'm out of the country for the next week! See you next Thursday!

Tiny Tutorial: Paper Flower Box

Yes, I still do have pages left in the cookbook from my dad... and I'm still making stuff from the pages of the book. Inspired by "Playing with Books" I've created my own project.
      
I used a little papier mache box from the local craft store. They come in all sizes and shapes. I cut strips from the book pages, and covered the box lid and bottom, using acrylic matte medium as my glue.
       
I used a 3" circle paper punch and cut a bunch of circles. I started by folding them in quarters.

     
I have a whole punch that can reach the center of the 3" circle. I punched holes in the center of my circles and cut the petal shapes.



    
I used a brad to hold the flower petals together.

I shaped each petal with my fingers.


Punched a smaller circle to cover the brad in the center of the flower, and glued it on.

   
With scissors I made a hole in the top of my box and attached the flower with the brad.  I could have covered the brad on the inside with another paper circle to be neater.
    
Got out my Luminarte Twinkling H20's and used the Jasper Red and plenty of water to randomly color the flower petals.

I dropped a bit of glue in the center of the flower, and sprinkled tiny pink buttons.




I'm inspired to do more...different types of flowers, different box shapes...oh my... You can check my earlier post here, to see what else I've done with book pages.

More paper work

Is there such a thing as too cute? no! this is SOOO CUTE!  Yes, another Saturday spent with my new favorite book.





Funny, I thought my husband would enjoy an afternoon spent folding flowers with me...hmm. not so much. Like the time I had him help me make felted soap. Not his thing...

I tried spray painting the page first, with a stencil, but I like the plain pages best, I think.





No, I'm not on the payroll of the author or publisher of the book,  (they don't even know I'm a fan) it's just a craft that really speaks to me. It's just so accessible.

A Saturday afternoon well spent.

Did I mention my new favorite book? Yes, I did, it's Playing with Books by Jason Thompson.

Yes, that's my Collage Fabric Vase, it looks good with anything!
              


All these projects are from "Playing with Books". I tinted the paper buds with jasper red from Luminarte Twinkling H2Os. (You can get more ideas for Luminarte products here.)


  
I had some strips left over, so I made a bow.



More strips!



Found a home for my Kusudama flower. I'm going to make more of these.

Then I tackled the house. Now, I think I'm pretty good at folding, but this house was a bit of a coordination challenge--I resorted to glue at the end. My father taught me origami, so it seems appropriate that I'm using a cookbook of his to make these paper projects.

I love my spring flowers and do want to build a village of houses!
(That's a Cathy Cullis piece, in the frame, and a corner of a quilt by Cas Holmes.)