Monday, December 3, 2012

challenge: house rules

This is the time of year when I fill my house with decorations. One of my passions is the small collection of houses that I’ve assembled - both store bought and homemade in my own quirky village.

This week to join in our challenge you can be inspired to create your own little house, alter an exiting little decor piece that isn't quite how you'd like it to be, play on canvas, use a favorite home sentiment or house stamp on a card or tag -  or anything else you can think of!

I (May) am such a fan of taking little wooden houses and covering them with my favorite papers and craft supplies - especially in December! I had to take this challenge as an opportunity to create a new treasure for my collection.

Using some white gold and clear glitter, my Pink Paislee papers, Tim Holtz trees, and a few other goodies you wouldn't believe how fast this house came together. I love making whimsical little houses and taking this bird house and turning it into a snow covered confection for my shelf was such fun. I really think plenty of glitter is the key if you want to really get a magical snowed in look. I love how my buttons and all the little details came together - this is my favorite house yet!


Tracy loves Christmas, filling the house with home decor pieces and scent from Christmas candles so this piece reflects the enjoyment she gets from the season.
I love losing myself in a piece like this, deciding on how to fill each room is so much fun, I spent many hours decorating and painting and gathering bits and pieces and enjoyed every minute. The reindeer creates a focal point and dimension in my house cut from mount board using the Reindeer Flight die. Die cuts add lots of interest and further dimension using Memory Box Bubble Joy, Curved Antlers, Pop Up Joy and Simon Says Stamp Mod Tree dies. Do I give this away to a family member for Christmas, or do I keep it myself? Decisions, decisions!
 
Suzz was hoarding an old game board to use for a special project and decided that this challenge was the perfect time to bring it out!
The birdhouse is constructed with stamped bingo cards using the DarkRoom Door Fun & Games set. I used the beautiful Darice Tinsel Stems to create a braided wreath to frame the opening for the birds. The snow is the beautiful Stampendous Shaved Ice Mica Flakes. I used the Maya Road Mini Wood Spools were the perfect pots for my dry Statice from the garden. My children helped with the design of the winter scene and it is on display for the holidays!
 
This little house in Sandra Mouwen's art journal represents her cozy home this season.
I really enjoy the winter when everything is covered in snow! Everything looks so peaceful then. Hopefully we will have a white Christmas this year! That brings the holiday so much more coziness. For this challenge I made an art journal page, where I used as background the pretty Tissue Wrap Melange. To tone it down a bit I covered it with some Studio Gesso. On the edges of the page I rubbed some Studio Sky Blue and Classic Teal paint with my fingers. For the snowflakes I used the gorgeous Let it Snow stencil from Dyan Reavely. To create some snow on the ground I used some Lace.
 

Sarah caved and gave into the early Christmas vibes with a Grungy little house...
I love metal but always go for rusty tones so I fancied creating something with the silver tones of Christmas yet without losing my love of metal. I decided to go for Tim's industrial metal look and thought it would be fun to try out the same look with my Rosette die. I got my hubby to saw off a chunk of wood and then set about covering it with Metal Foil Sheets before going to town with my Ten Seconds Studio embossing tools. I spent a while choosing my words and thought this extract from a famous carol was just perfect. Have yourself a Merry Grungy Christmas!


Candy's vintage Christmas house is sure to be a welcome addition to her Christmas decor this holiday season!
I love making home decor that captures memories of my childhood Christmases.  What began as a plain saltbox paper mache house has turned into a winter wonderland with a little help from Claudine Hellmuth's Dash of Red Studio Paint and some wonderful texture fades and die cuts from Tim Holtz.  The added tin roof front porch (thanks to Ranger's Metal Foil Sheet Tape and Tim Holtz' Notebook Texture Fade) gives such dimension to the front of the house and is the perfect place to hang Tim Holtz' Mini Lantern to greet Santa on his journey.  The added front porch is enclosed with gaily decorated picket fencing from Tim Holtz On The Fence die cut, painted with Picket Fence Crackle Paint. Wreaths decorate the eaves of the house while Tim Holtz' Mini Rosettes hang from his red Winter Tinsel Twine from the front dormers.

Trace has been wanting to make a "house" mixed media board for quite some time.


  I was inspired by the challenge title of "house rules" to make a house mixed media board with carefully chosen word stickers that really portray what I think a house/home is all about...my personal "house rules". I once again reached for my favorite paper pad at the present time...Authentique Lively, such pretty papers! I added a bit of dimension with my Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt Artist Pens and Gelatos. To finish off the board I added a Wendy Vecchi Blosson Bucket resin heart and Tim Holtz idea-ology Foliage flowers.
 
Dan has created his Santa-themed house to help spread the "Believe" message.
Although I'm British, my first 5 or 6 Christmases were spent in the USA in the 60s (I know, I know, I don't look a day over 21). Consequently, the images that represent all that's most magical about the holiday for me are Americana Christmas images from that period. Luckily for me, the Shiny Brite ornament boxes and Twinkle Tone Santa that I remember so well have been brought back to me courtesy of Tim Holtz's Seasonal Paper Stack. I painted the wooden house with Claudine Hellmuth A Dash of Red paint and toned it down a little with Gathered Twigs distress ink. I used the Calendar 2, Holiday Wishes, Santa's Wish and Odds and Ends stamp sets and a couple of Numerals coloured with Tarnished Brass distress stain. The roof tiles (which don't show in this photo) were cut from the Retro Grunge paper stack. I've already planned where this is going to be displayed and I plan to pack it away carefully and bring it out every year!



Anna-Karin made a winter wonderland house to add to her growing village of houses:
I love to make little houses and to use any type of house related stamp or die. I used the fabulous Sizzix 3D House die and made a wintery house inspired by my grandparents' house and by a Swedish Christmas song. I used lots of dry Rock Candy glitter, Rock Candy distress crackle paint, some faux-snow, white paint, and modeling paste to create a snowy feeling. The house was embellished with Tim Holtz Idea-ology pieces, wood veneer shapes, an old Christmas photo, and die cut snowflakes, pine tree and hearts.



Terry made a Christmas House, a House filled with Joy, Love and Laughter
When I saw the theme for this weeks challenge, I immediately was thinking about a sweet little bird house, it was just a perfect home piece for the challenge because after all the little birds need a home too for Christmas. This house is filled with joy, love, laughter, and family because I think that is what Christmas should be about. I worked on the background with the fabulous papers from Graphic45, wooden stars, those gorgeous snowflakes from Tim Holtz and lots of accessories. I played with crackle and placed a Christmas rose. and use Distress ink for all the borders, a pearl string for the roof and snow at the bottom of the Christmas House.
 
This week's challenge gave Ashli the perfect excuse to craft some wacky and wonky Christmas houses.
I have always admired hand-crafted little houses, especially holiday houses. This week's theme was the perfect reason for me to turn a pile of recycled cardboard into some wonderfully wacky little decor pieces. To get started, I constructed the "bones" of my houses out of cardboard and tape. Then, a good coat of Modeling Paste gave my houses some strength. After layering on some Lily Bee and Basic Grey patterned papers, I went to town decorating my houses with Stickles, Mists, Metal Foil, and wood veneer snowflakes. This little trio adds the perfect amount of whimsy to my holiday decor!

 

I encourage you to check out each of the design team member's blogs for more photos, supply lists, and more. Simply click on their name (above the photo of their project) to visit their blog.

Now that we've shared the team creations - we're ready to see yours! As always, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $50 gift voucher that will go to a random entry chosen by Random Generator. The challenge will close at 11:59pm Eastern time on Sunday, December 9th and and the winner will be announced during the following week. To qualify all you need to do is create a new project that ties in (in any way!) with our theme and post it, along with a link back to this challenge, and add a link here.

For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.
 




9 comments:

  1. absolutely stunning work - and so inspirational - love them all xx

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  2. I think this is in the top 5 of my fave challenges from SS! Love the houses. Now I must try to put one together. hmmm

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  3. Perfect! Love what each of you have created in your own unique styles! Great holiday inspiration!

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  4. These are all so great! Thank you for the wonderful inspiration! :)

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  5. These DT creations are over-the-top gorgeous!

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  6. What stunning creations...those houses are so cute. Hugs

    Annie x

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  7. Thank you for my win last week, totally inspiring projects again by the DT for this weeks theme. x

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  8. Thank you for the challenge and wonderful inspiration.

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  9. Stunning DT work as always! Amazing inspiration week after week... Thank you.
    Alison x

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