Red Mixed Media House Tutorial

Hello friends! I hope you had a good weekend! We just returned from a very nice visit at my parents. The weather was great and we did a lot of fun activities. It is Monday and a new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is up, Homegrown Summer: 'So many things have grown in the Summer. Inspiration can be found in backyard gardens and jars of freshly canned veggies or maybe children who have grown like weeds. Or an idea that's just taken root.' Lots of possibilities. 

I was thinking of the process of turning a house into a home, and made a funny tall red house inspired by that theme. When you move into a new place, it can take a while to turn it into a home, and into a place where you feel at home. I could move right into this house. Hero Arts blank DIY Wood Blocks are so fun and I knew I wanted to use them to build a house. You can use these blocks for all kinds of fun things, and they are also great if you want to mount cling stamps on wood. Anton built a train with the blocks, I will share it as soon as he has painted it. The blocks come in three sizes, and I used all three here. This is a little tutorial. 

 Start by coating the blocks with gesso.

 When dry, paint with Aged Mahogany and leave to dry.

 Paint again with Barn Door, in an uneven stripy fashion, to imitate wood.

 When the paint is dry, sand the blocks, concentrating on the edges.

Stamp with Hero Art's lovely woodgrain background stamp. It gives a subtle look when stamped with Red Geranium. If you want bolder woodgrain, use a darker ink, such as black or brown. Did you know that I love wood grain stamps? I have a hard time not to get such a stamp when I see it.

I wanted the edges a little whiter and used white paint.

The windows were done with the Irregular Checkerboard stencil and Texture Paste. I also gave the house a number with a Hero Arts number stencil. Apply the paste with a palette knife through the stencil.

When the paste was dry, I painted a window with black and white paint. Since the Irregular Checkerboard stencil gave irregular looking windows, I didn't need to worry about keeping it straight when painting.

The house was embellished with stamping and wood veneer shapes - a family of four birds.

The number was also painted white, so that it would fit in with the windows. I used alphabet stamps for some of the words.

A baby bird and a bigger brother.

The door was done in the same way as the windows, but I used masking tape instead of a stencil when applying the paste.

And the bike parked outside the house is mine, or maybe Anton's.

I glued the blocks together and the house stands steadily, partly due to the extra block at the front.

I hope you will have time to join us this week, and if you do, it might be you who wins a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp, drawn randomly.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

Happy crafting!!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Hero Arts 2.5 X 2.5 DIY WOOD BLOCKS	Hero Arts 1.5 X 2.25 DIY WOOD BLOCKS	Hero Arts 1.25 X 1.25 DIY WOOD BLOCKS	Hero Arts WOODGRAIN BOLD PRINTS BY LIA	Hero Arts PRINTER'S LOWERCASE Alphabet
Hero Arts TIME	Studio Calico TRANSPORTATION Wood Veneer	Studio Calico TWEETS Wood Veneer	Hero Arts Stencil IRREGULAR CHECKERBOARD BACKGROUND	Hero Arts Stencil NUMBERS BACKGROUND
Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival RED GERANIUM	Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK	Tim Holtz Distress Paint AGED MAHOGANY	Tim Holtz Distress Paint BARN DOOR	Dina Wakley Ranger BLACK
Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE Paint	Ranger TEXTURE PASTE	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE GESSO	Ranger 4 Oz. MULTI MEDIUM MATTE	Hero Arts SMALL BLOCK TRIO CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCKS
Tim Holtz SANDING GRIP	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET

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