A Christmas Cottage

Last night I began making a little Christmas cottage.  It started as a plain wooden birdhouse from the craft store.  This is a photo-heavy post, just a little warning in case you're short on time.  ;-)

 

My first addition to the house (after painting it white) was a scrap of paper that I had in my cast-off box.  It's this beautiful Market Street Stamps Vintage Wallpaper stamp in red ink on white paper.  I added some skinny strips of red flocked patterned paper from Stampin' Up! along the exposed edges.  And what's a winter roof without some sparkling snow?  The snow was made with Snow-Tex, which has the texture of cake frosting, and then sprinkled some iridescent glitter on top.

On the two narrow sides, I repurposed some gorgeous aqua pearly paper from a booklet we received while in Hawaii.  I topped each wall with a doily-edged punch border that is also 'glitterfied'.

The photo below shows the back of the house.  I covered both the front and back of the house with embossed white cardstock.  I also added a pale gray wrought iron fence die, which is decorated with Liquid Pearls.

One light blue gem graces the eaves on the back of the house.

Here's a close up of the front of the house:

The wreath die cut is made from the same blue paper on the sides of the house.  I touched it with some Liquid Pearls.  The wrought iron fence sports some of that, too.  The little bird perch has a large pearl on the end as it looked too plain with nothing there.

Challenges entered:

• Lawnscaping - Make It Shine - I used glitter - lots of glitter!

• Sunshine Creations - Season's Greetings - this challenge is run by a sweet, talented 11 year old girl named Anushka, whose mom is also in the paper crafting business.  I'm so impressed by Anushka!  I have an 11 year old daughter, too.  :-)
• Simon Says Stamp - What's Your Fave (tool, product, etc.)?  I am using dies/punches - one of my many paper-crafty loves ;-)

Only a week to go 'til Christmas!  Do you have your shopping all finished?  How 'bout presents wrapped?  I'm still working on that!




Stamps: Vintage Wallpaper - Market Street Stamps
Paper: Going Gray, Whisper White, red flocked pattern - SU; pearly blue paper - upcycled from booklet
Ink: Real Red - SU
Other: wooden bird house - JoAnn's; Breezy Wreath, Estate Fence dies - Memory Box; Doily Lace Trim punch - Martha Stewart; White Opal Liquid Pearls - Ranger; Snow-Tex - Deco Art; iridescent glitter; white paint; large pearl - Recollections; blue rhinestone - Want2Scrap; Petals A Plenty embossing folder - SU