Where the heart is: tutorial 3D house

Hi everyone! Today I have a fun tutorial for a 3D house to share, using the Sizzix ScoreBoards House die. This is a Big Shot Pro die, a machine which I don’t have (yet!), and Eileen Hull, who designs the ScoreBoards dies, was very kind to send me a cut-out of the house in mat board. Mat board is really fun to work with, and one of the purposes of this tutorial is to show how easy it is to ink and stamp mat board. Here’s the finished house:

The house is inspired by the typically Swedish wooden red house with white corners.

Die-cut all the pieces out of mat board. The die both cuts and scores, making assembly very easy.

Ink the two house parts with shades of red Distress Ink. After taking the photo, I added some Aged Mahogany to the edges. I used a piece of eclips tape to mask the door of the little house, since I didn't want it inked red. The mat board inks beautifully. Let the ink dry or dry with a heat gun.

Stamp with a woodgrain stamp and Aged Mahogany ink for a tone-on-tone effect.

I wanted some texture on the roof and decided to dry emboss it. In my first attempt (on a piece of scrap mat board) the embossing got a bit too deep, making the matboard a bit brittle. So instead of using the ordinary sandwich for embossing, I removed both tabs on the platform and replaced the bottom cutting pad with a Crease pad, which has a bit more give. Since I used a different embossing folder, I am not sure if it depended on the  crease pad or if this folder was a bit less deep, in either case, the embossing came out great.

Ink the two roofs with Black Soot, leaving the groves lighter.

Die-cut strips of mat board in the Scallops On the Edge die. Paint all the remaining pieces with Picket Fence Distress Crackle, let dry, and rub a little bit of Pitch Black ink into some of the cracks. I wanted the corners of the house to be white, and the simple solution was to sand off the ink on all the joints (which also leaves a nice finished look to the mat board). The base of the house is now complete and we can start to embellish it. It is easier to embellish the house before assembling it, especially if you want to use for example brads or staples.

Mica was used as windows and I also added a little bit of lace ribbon as curtains. To attach the door, and leave it slightly ajar, I glued a piece of cardstock as a hinge on the inside.

I decided to do a love theme for my house since I wanted to use a wedding photo of my parents. I printed out some quotes in both Swedish and English on a scrap paper which had been aged with walnut ink. This one translates ‘and the greatest of these is love’. A bit of white paint was rubbed into the metallic charm.

Here’s what the main body of the house looked like before assembly. All the metallic pieces were painted with white paint, which was rubbed off, remaining only in the grooves. When you have finished decorating the house, assemble the house according to instructions that you can find here. I placed the ‘little house’ at the side of the bigger one, because I wanted two doors. You can place it anywhere you want to, or even die-cut more than one little house and build an even larger house.

The hearts were die-cut from sticky-backed canvas and inked with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo. The sentiment translates something in the line of, ‘it is good be away, but better to be at home’. After adhering the roof to the house, I glued on the eaves (bit tricky getting the joints right).

The faux porcelain roses were made as Tim Holtz showed in his May 12 tags of 2012, you can find the tutorial here. I used the same flowers on my May tag. The flowers were inked with red, yellow and blue Distress Inks, before they were dipped into melted UTEE.

I always liked this sentiment and knew I wanted to use it on the house.

This is the back of the house.

On the 'little house' i used a heart ribbon on the roof. It was impossible to photograph, but I placed a canvas heart on the inside which you can peak through the open door.

The branch was die-cut from sticky-backed canvas and inked.

Here you can see the mica window better, with the lace curtain. 

Thank you for looking! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Let me know if you have any questions.

Anna-Karin

Supplies: Sizzix: House ScoreBoards Pro die, Scallops On the Edge die, Hearts Movers & Shapers, Branch Tree Bigz die, Gridlock texture fade, white mat board; Stamper’s Anonymous Tim Holtz Wallpaper and Wood stamp; Distress Ink: Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, Barn Door, Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany, Black Soot; Distress Crackle Paint Picket Fence; natural sticky-backed canvas, Tim Holtz idea-ology metallic accents; heart charm, white paper flowers; US ArtQuest mica; brads.