First Play With Home Sweet Home

Between working and swimming in the pool with my granddaughter, Raine, I carved out some time to try out the new Home Sweet Home Thinlits and coordinating stamp set, Sweet Home.

I first watched the video from Stampin' Up! but it didn't have a lot of step-by-step info but I found another excellent video by demonstrator Satomi Wellard that had English subtitles and this helped a lot!

I thought that blue and white would make a nice color scheme for a house so I die cut the house from Dapper Denim. To make the house, you need to cut the same piece twice. You then stamp and/or die cut and embellish the house and glue it together.

I used my MISTI to stamp the window and door on the front of the house using Versamark and then heat embossed them with the White Stampin' Emboss Powder. I also stamped the same window on the back of the house and embossed it as well. These sections were then all die cut using the necessary dies. Because I wanted to leave the back of my house unglued, I used the smallest circle to die cut a hole in the back of the house which would allow me to open the house to put something inside.

Stamping the details on the house using my MISTI.

When die cutting the windows and doors, it is important to make sure you have the correct pieces. The smaller window piece is to die cut the hole in the house itself and the larger piece is to die cut the frame around the window. The door is meant to fold open so one side of the door die is for cutting and the other side is for scoring. It is very important to make sure you have the score line on the correct side of the door when you die cut it so that the door opens properly. My door was created for left-handed people! I cut my door frame and window frames from Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper and adhered it to the house.

Next, I scored all the folds for the house and set about gluing the front and back of the house together at one side. Each piece had a bottom flap; I cut off the flap from the back of the house. Once I glued the bottom flap for the front of the house to create the floor, I glued the cut off flap and adhered it inside the bottom of the house to reinforce the floor, using my bone folder to press down the edges inside the house.

Cut off the bottom flap from the back of the house.

Glue the cut off flap inside the house to reinforce the floor.

The roof was a little tricky due to the fact that I chose to use Glimmer Paper! I die cut six shingle pieces for each side of the roof. I used liquid adhesive for gluing the first shingle piece, spaced evenly across one side of the roof, at the bottom of the slope. I then worked my way up to the top of the roof, carefully overlapping my roof pieces so that each new piece shifted either to the right or the left so that the shingles were staggered. I repeated the process on the other side of the roof.

Because the Glimmer Paper didn't allow the glue to set as quickly as with normal card stock, I really had to take my time. A couple of times, the shingles either came off or I managed to push them all into a straight line instead of a staggered one!

I gave the shingles some time to dry before attempting to "cap" the roof by gluing a 1/2 x 3 1/2" piece of Glimmer Paper scored in half lengthwise, to complete the roof. For this piece, it was necessary to use the adhesive from the Fine-Tip Glue Pen and hold it in place for awhile.

Shows the "cap" on the roof.

Hole at bottom allows you to insert a finger to open the back of the house.

Leaving the back of the house unglued allows something to be inserted in the house.

It was at this point that I thought it would be neat to showcase the little house in a winter scene.
Going with my blue and white color scheme, I die cut several fence sections from Thick Whisper White using the Halloween Scenes Edgelits Dies. I also die cut the tree.

It is important to note that with these edgelit dies, the bottom section of the die cut can be any size you choose, depending on the placement of the die. Only the top section of the die cuts.

On a square white dinner plate, I planned out my fence. I ended up gluing the sections together and scoring the fence where I needed it to turn a corner. Because my measuring wasn't entirely accurate, I ended up with a few extra score marks so I then scored the whole fence to create the look of boards.
I masked off the bottom of the tree and sponged both sides with Soft Suede. The tree was set in place against the fence.

I used circle punches to create my snowman from Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper, adhering it with the Fine-Tip Glue Pen. The hat was die cut using a die from the Snow Friends Framelits. The face and buttons were added using a Copic marker. The snowman was set in place against the fence in the backyard. To complete the scene, I added fake snow dug out from my Christmas decorations.

For my first play with the house, I am pleased! In retrospect, the scene could have used some more trees and the fence would have shown up better if it wasn't white but when I started creating the house, I didn't intend to create a scene!

Creating the house was a lot of fun and I look forward to creating future houses using a variety of colors and papers. These houses will be perfect for almost any occasion—Halloween, Christmas, Spring . . . So many ways these houses could be decorated! I'm thinking that they would make lovely little ornaments for the Christmas tree or you could cluster several houses together on your mantel to create a village!

Be sure to contact me to order your Home Sweet Home Bundle when it becomes available on September 1!