Paper Houses

It looks like someone is having a garage sale or a fight. The disarray makes me giggle. This photo shows the collection of miniature furniture that has built up over the weekend. Each item is cut many times until it is easy to fold and glue.

See the wagon? It has striped wheels. This is my adaption of Mr. Cloud's free toy.

The little table on the right needs more work. In this scale, the tabs have disappeared. Make them too large and they overlap the space in the legs. Most of these tabs are kept in place with the tip of an x-acto knife while the glue sets.

Note: The Aileen's Tacky Glue Pen, which I reviewed earlier this year, proves to be invaluable for this kind of work. As I have used the pen, the glue has thickened slightly and does dry quickly. The fine tip lays down the tiniest glue line or dot. The cap is easy to keep track of. The precision is complimented by the pen-style application.

Ah yes, simpler times, before the neighborhood got over run-(Friday). Here are two houses in different scales. The bed is still not small enough to go in the green house. It may end up as a playhouse or something. All of these houses began with the cottage lantern from my book, Silhouette Style. I changed the peak, the windows and added a floor and moldings for the windows. I discovered a setting on my Klic-n-Kut cutter that makes these adorable pounce (fold) lines in an appropriate size. The folds are crisp.

The bed is one piece with a bedspread and pillow. The pillow is a miniature version of the one in my book. The pillow puffs up just like the big ones. I glued the pillow in place. The hardest part of working in this scale is holding on to the pieces. I lost a spade one night and didn't find it until I felt something odd on the sleeve of my shirt. If they hit the floor, they're finished.

The divan! This gives you perspective on size. The houses include a set of furniture. The doors open and close. There is a butterfly from another project sticking out from under a layer of scrap paper. It builds up to a certain point beneath my work lamp, gets excavated and goes into the vault of the shoebox.