Just Playing Around

Last weekend was Presidents Day and I took an extra day off so that I could have a 4 day weekend to just play around.  I thought the project I chose would be easily completed during my days alone (Monday and Tuesday). Boy was I wrong! lol

I decided to make SVG Cuts' Magnolia Manor. Have you seen it? It is a GORGEOUS Victorian mansion. You need to check it out. 

The first issue with building any of these 3D projects is picking the right papers. I originally was going to make the house dark red (I even made a special trip to Michaels to buy the paper). I now have several sheets of dark red card stock waiting for something else lol

I ended up using card stock from Close To My Heart. Lagoon, Colonial White, and Black. The 'wrought iron' decorations on the top are Cricut's Pearl paper. I am not sure what they call the color but I would call it Pewter.

I embossed all the siding to look like clapboard using Cuttlebug's Stripes folder. I embossed a diamond pattern on all the roof pieces with CTMH's Diamond folder.

As fabulous as it is I thought it needed 'something' so I created window boxes on the bay window.
I cut strips of the Colonial White to simulate the actual box, folded the ends to give the illusion that they really are boxes then filled them with leaves and flowers. 

 The taller green plants are from Spellbinders Die D-Lites Basil set. The smaller leaves and all the flowers come from Impression Obsession die sets. The leaves are the Small Leaf Cluster set, the flowers are the Spiral Flower set.

Yesterday I made a trip to the craft store just to buy lights for my house. I used Firefly LED lights (a string of 30). I am thinking maybe I need to switch to a string of 10 or 15 but doesn't it look cool all lit up?


All the prior houses I have made from SVG Cuts took just a couple afternoons to complete. This one was much more than that.

It took over 3 1/2 hours just to cut out all the layers!  I was able to call my mom and have a long chat AND then cook dinner while I moved mats in and out of my Explore!

Then over the next 4 days I spent aproximately 14 - 15 hours assembling.  I then spent an additional hour or so creating the window boxes.

Was it worth all that time? YES!!!
Would I do it again? Maybe, but it would probably be as a gift because I don't really need 2 of these houses sitting around.....unless I decided to make one for Halloween or Christmas. I can see this as a really cool haunted house. ;-)

But I did more than just build a house this week.

My brother's birthday was on the 23rd. And I actually made his card BEFORE his birthday! lol
Now, I didn't mail it until the 21st so it probably didn't arrive in time but at least I was closer than I was with my niece and nephew lol

This is one of Tim Holtz' Crazy Dogs. The food dish comes with the dog set. The party hat and balloons are from the Crazy Things set.

I stamped and masked the hat, dish and dog using my Misti. I then colored everything with Spectrum Noir markers. 
I cut the frame with my Cricut Explore. It is from the Pooh and Friends cartridge. I used Distress Inks around the edges.

The balloons are attached with foam tape and the strings are heavy carpet thread. I cut a small slit around the dogs foot so that he could hold the strings.

My Tim Holtz Birch Trees cutting die arrived on Friday so of course I had to try it out. And then I had to figure out something to use it on. Oh the troubles of a crafter lol

I used Distress Inks on the trees.
I then embossed light blue card stock with Crafters Companion Regency Swirls embossing folder. The blue is a white core card stock so I rubbed the embossing with sandpaper to make the swirls white.

A while back, one of the local craft stores had the Gorjuss stamps on sale for 1/2 off. I picked up a few because I think they are so adorable.

I finally found time (and a project) to try one out.

This girl (and her squirrel) are from the You Brought Me Love set.

They are stamped with Distress Ink Black Soot and colored with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.
I then fussy cut them and attached them with foam tape.

I had so much fun coloring the first Gorjuss girl that I decided to color another one. :-)

She comes from a set called The Hatter.
She is also stamped with Black Soot and colored with Spectrum Noir markers.

Notice the cool corners? That was an estate sale find from yesterday.

The listing had all kinds of things....collectibles, books, kitchen stuff, old toys and the last thing....craft stuff.
So we stopped by, it was the last day of the sale so you know all the good stuff is long gone but they usually mark stuff way down to try to unload it.
The sign said anything priced under $50 was 75% off.

I wandered all over the entire house twice. Lots of tacky junk and piles of trash but no treasures.

On my third pass I noticed a couple tattered boxes filled with what looked like old, ratty magazines. I never go through stuff like that, I have enough trash in my own house! lol  But this voice in my head said....what the heck, shuffle through and see.

I found the corner stamp, it is Martha Stewart. I also found a Martha Stewart butterfly border punch. These things are not cheap when brand new.  I was happy.
So I moved to the second box of junk. I shuffled through several tattered magazines and as I picked them up a Cuttlebug folder fell out of the stack...still in it's original packaging. Huh! What do you know!  So I shuffled a little more intently and found 5 more Cuttlebug folders, Cuttlebug plates - 1 A, 2 B and 1 C ....all still in the factory packages, never opened. I left 2 of the Cuttlebug folders - 1 I already owned, the other just didn't appeal to me.

For the 2 punches, 4 folders and 4 plates and a Tupperware mixer/shaker (so I don't just buy craft stuff lol) I paid $6.50  I couldn't buy 1 Cuttlebug folder for that amount!  I had just been thinking the day before that I needed to get some new B plates as mine are in really rough shape!

Yep, estate sales are fun!

So that wraps up all my finds and creations for this week.
I hope you all have a wonderful week as we move into March! (can you believe it???)

Happy Crafting!