How to Hinge a House ;)

I made these little hinged birdhouses a short while ago. They remind me something the Victorians might have kept as love tokens... or maybe memorials... creepy buggers ;)

Anyway, here's a quick 'how to' if you'd like to make your own.

With Alpha Stamps Chipboard Birdhouse Shapes as a template, I cut out four houses, using complimentary papers, for each house I want to make. (Side note: I have totally become a Graphics 45'er) To make one house you'll need to cover the front and back of two chipboard birdhouse shapes.

Leave one house intact, this will be the interior background of the house.  The second house you will slice into four parts as shown above.

Glue the two outer most edges to the base house shape.

Now you'll want to glue some hinges into place. These ones swing in the correct direction. Here's some things to think about when attaching the hinges...

• align the swing of the hinge directly over your cut
• use strong glue and let it dry completely before trying to open your house
• make sure your hinges swing in the correct direction!
• do not glue the moving part of the hinge! Keep your glue to the edges.
• for a stronger piece use two hinges on either side
• stiff hinges are more likely to cause problems opening and closing the doors.

To finish off the hinges I added some tiny nail head stickers.

Now open those suckers up and embellish to your hearts delight!

The faeries are out and about!

The faerie folk here are getting rather excited about the upcoming summer solstice. There's been loads of activity over the past few days. Lots of found objects like butterfly wings, bright blue feathers and empty robins eggs. Tiny toadstools dot the lawn. And there are more butterflies here than we've ever seen before!

There's been toads aplenty these past couple of weeks too. I am sure that they are the watchmen of the faerie world. This grumpy fellow was particularly put off by our presence and I'm certain I heard him say "Hrmph!" when I snapped his photo.

If you happen to be in Prince Edward County this Saturday, June 16th, stop by Casa Dea Estates Winery and say 'Hiya!'. They're celebrating their 3rd anniversary and have opened up their banquet hall to local artists. There'll be lots to see, do and taste so drop in and see what all the hub-bub is about :)

And the winner is...

Congrats to Lizbethem who won the blog hop giveaway!

Thanks so much to all who entered and to my fellow design team members for giving away such grand stuff too!

The tall trees loomed

I recently took part in the Wicked Forest Matchbook swap over on craftster.org. Here's what I made for my fantabulous partner...

The base is the small matchbox. There's tiny little mushrooms on that little mossy lawn.

And when the sun goes down the cottage lights up with a flickery glow.

New Needlefelted Fellow

We have moles. They aren't nearly as bad as they were last year, but once in a while the tell-tale hills pop up on the lawn.

Mole hills are fascinating. They are like a very, very, very slow eruption. The earth ever so slowly pushing up.  Strange indeed!

Here's a little needle felted mole I've made over the past couple of days. His fingers and toes are made of paperclay. He stands just a smidgen under 2"!

He's not very photogenic I'm afraid. He's rather much more lovely in real life. He's listed in the shop here.

Meet the Alpha Stamps Design Team Blog Hop!

I mentioned a few days ago that I've had birds on the brain. This month the folks at Alpha Stamps sent along some new Collage Sheets for their Birds in Hats Swap. The birdy images are really, really nice and the Just Hats Collage Sheet is fabulous. You can click the graphic at the right for more information on the swap.

Being part of the Alpha Stamps design team has been grand. It's pushed me creatively, I've used some fabulous products I may not have tried otherwise, and I'm totally smitten with all of the other talented team members. It's a real pleasure to be in their creative company and I'm chuffed to take part in this "Meet the Team" blog hop.

If you aren't familiar with my work, most of my making is heavily influenced by old stuff, dust, history, folklore, nature, fairy tales and nonsense. I adore funny looking people in old photographs and I think that vintage paper is just about the nicest thing there is. I draw inspiration from every nook and cranny I can... from Georges Méliès to Monty Python to the moon - it's all fair game.

Anywho, below are the two "Birds In Hat's" coasters I created for the new swap theme. If you leave a comment below (be sure I can contact you) you could win the pair of them! Easy peasy. Check back on Monday, June 12 to see if you've won!

 

Now, don't forget to hop on over to the next Alpha Stamps Design Team Member Blog for even more chances to win some fabulous artwork by some very talented folks!

Seriously. Go. Now!

Pretty Pillows and Plenty-o-pork (Warning-Meat Images Ahead)

I've spent a week making stuff and doing very little cleaning. With my granny heading back to our house for a last hurrah before she leaves for England, I figured I better get the place gussied up.

Most of my morning was spent cleaning our white couch. Let me just say, if someone offers you a white couch, just say 'no'. This bit of advice is particularly helpful if you have children... or a husband who likes to garden and get muddy. My granny thinks our giant white suite is rather fancy. I think it's a fancy pain in the bum.

Anyway, that big old white thing is starting to show it's age and to distract from the gross areas that defy cleaning I thought I might make some pretty floral pillows.

Awww, so pretty. So flowery. So good at hiding the hideous marks on the sofa. D disagrees and said "What have you done!?" The dog was also agitated and barked at them a bit. They'll get over it.

More pretty pillows and you'll notice there's some manly activity going on in the background.

While I enjoy good food and can bake like no-ones business, my husband is a true foodie. His latest obsession is Charcuterie (fancy meat things) and boy is he obsessed. As I type, he is messing up my kitchen, lost in fleshy bliss, working all sorts of magic with a half pig fresh from the abattoir. (Isn't that a fantastic word?! Much nicer than slaughterhouse.)

Anyway, here's some of the mans new 'toy' and the thing that will give me peace and quiet for the next two hours...

Yay pork!