Just a heads up ......... I think for the month of November, at least, I will only be posting once a week, on a Monday. After almost eleven months of crafting and posting, an awful lot of it of a festive type nature, I am almost totally Christmased out and as I've got lots going on during that month, it seems a good time to try and catch my breath .............
Christmas stash busting ……….
I think I need to get into houses at the moment as a way of trying to use up the mountain of Hobbycraft fairy doors I purchased a couple of years back (pack of 4 for £1). I was excited when the doors first arrived, but at that time I just couldn’t make them work for the ideas I had in mind.
However, two years on and I have tried again with these Christmas cabins, with two different size craft sticks and a pile of small MDF squares to use up. I ordered the squares from China, again a while back, but they were so small that, until now, I didn’t have a clue what to do with them.
I started by getting all the various parts of the cabin put together, six sticks glued together for the main body……….
……. then two for the roof, reasoning that it would be a lot easier to cut two sticks than when all eight were stuck together, if that makes sense?
I put a scrap of yellow paper behind the doors and frames to give the impression that there was a light on behind them.
While the glue was still a bit tacky I added the door and windows which helped to keep the sticks together while they dried.
This was swiftly followed by the shaped sticks and roof, which were shorter and narrower than the others. I also cut the ends of the smaller sticks to make a canopy for over the door. It was fiddly to get them in position as first, but using E-7000 I knew I would get a secure fix. I also added two sticks directly stuck together to add a foundation to the cabin. It was then time to let everything settle before all the fiddle fart.
The wooden snowmen and Christmas trees were duly coloured and varnished. I put a scrap of black paper at the back of the snowman so you couldn’t see through the holes but didn’t bother with the tree.
Then came all the fiddle fart:- two holly sprig punchies on the door with three, tiny, red flat back pearls for the berries, a red pearl for the door handle, tiny green Fimo nail art Christmas trees in the windows and a wooden heart coloured red at the top of the roof ……….
……. followed by the snowman and wooden Christmas tree ……..
……… then the Tulip Slick snow ……………
…….. and finally a little Ranger Glossy Accents to help make things pop and look more “professional”. The Tulip Slick really takes a while to dry, so all the cabins had to then be carefully put aside and forgotten about for another 24 hours. I am currently looking for a quicker alternative to the Tulip.
When the cabin fronts were completely dry it was the turn of the back, nothing fancy, just a small flat bail to hang the decoration from and more Slick, followed by another 24 hour wait.
Looking at the “finished” cabins in the pictures now, I think I will add a little ultra fine translucent glitter to the snow and then varnish the backs, perhaps adding a few streaks of subtle colour underneath to add to the wood effect, before packaging them all up.
I’ve only made 6 of these cabins (of late I’ve been trying to make at least 20 of everything to really try and use as much stash up as possible) however, I fully intend to return to the idea in the New Year, to finally use up all the fairy doors (I did buy rather a lot), as well as the small squares.
Now ……. I am wondering if there’s any way to cover up the Merry Christmas on the door to make a Halloween House or Easter cottage ………hmmmmmmmm