Row Houses

The badbabyart group will soon be celebrating it's fourth birthday and to acknowledge the occasion we are having a "Row House" swap. Each participant will make 4 houses (one for each year) from chipboard. They should be approximately 5.5 x 8.5 inches. And can be decorated any way the artist desires.


I was immediately enthralled with this project and created 4 houses in just a couple days. The problem is that I really like all 4 of them and do not want to part with them so I am going to make some more. That way I have some to keep and some to swap.


This is my first house. I chose the birds since there are 4 of them. The "B" in the corner is for the bad babies. The upper script covered triangle is actually one of the corners I lopped off. I then covered it and glued it onto the roof. Although you cannot see it in the photo, the button at the top is an antique. I appears to be some sort of plastic in an antique gold color with 5 faceted "jewels" on it. It is quite sparkly.

House #2. I added a chimney and covered it with script paper to creat the visual effect of "bricks". The image of the woman is dressed in layers of lace so I added lace to the top and attached it with a fancy brad in antique bronze. The wrought iron fence and daisies are both stamped images.

House #3. I wanted to used some more stamps and I also wanted a more rustic feel. I love the large pine tree I used as "columns" on either side of my house. It is such a large stamp I rarely get a chance to use it. And that sun is a very cool image as well. Again, I decorated with buttons. The one at the top is really very bright/shiny gold metal. The one at the bottom with the ivy is shiny gold plastic. And the 3rd button, the one on the ATC, is a brushed gold metal button. They least shiny of the three and yet the brightest in the photo. :-)

I added a library pocket to the front of this one. I cut a scalloped edge and then made an ATC to go inside. That ivy, by the way, was a gift from a friend at least 5 years ago and I have been hanging on to it all this time just waiting for the right project. It is made of rusted metal and was easily shaped to echo the scallop of the pocket.

Here is the ATC I tucked inside the pocket.

Here is house #4. This one took me the longest. I don't know if that is because I didn't use the same type of neutral backgrounds like I did on the other three or because of the many distractions that occurred throughout the day.

This house went through several idea changes before settling on the one below. Originally I had the image of a little girl and she was going to be standing in front of a fence (the flower border down the right side). Then I found a cool image of a girl sitting on a bench wearing a 20's swimsuit and thought she would be fun sitting on the "fence". I finally found the woman draped in nothing but the sheer lace and she seemed to fit with the night sky the best. The fence then became a "wall". I stamped the clock and set the time to almost midnight. What other time would you be prancing around your house wearing nothing but a sheer lace sheet? LOL

The "sister" definition is an acknowledgement to the bad babies who really are like a large group of sisters. :-)

The corner stamp was first stamped in metallic copper but it just didn't show up that well so I stamped it again in brown and it really "pops" in person.

Lastly, I added a couple metallic colored star brads to the sky, placing them directly over existing printed stars. It gave the sky that little extra twinkle.