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.

Fairy Flyers

Fairy Flyers are miniature paper mobiles that are strung on wires and affixed with a magnet so they can go anywhere a magnet goes. I hang them from my metal work lamps. If you want to hang them from somewhere that does not have a metal surface, (such as a lampshade), you can place another magnet behind the flyer magnet to hold it in place, with the lampshade in between. I bought 100 magnetic clasps years ago. They were not secure for jewelry and being the magnet hoarder I am, could not discard them. They work perfectly for my little fairies as the figures are lightweight.

This little lady is a design from my book, Silhouette Style. She is cut from Yupo paper and colored with alcohol inks. She is glazed with a paper glaze. When dry, details are painted with translucent iridescent paint, glazed again and sprinkled with glitter. When the glaze is completely dry, the fairy is glued together. Her body is actually four pieces. Her wings are two pieces, treated with a crackle glaze.

Shot in front of fiber-fill synthetic batting and twinkle lights, this violet fairy flyer seems to be on her way lightly. This one utilized a new hanger design. The hanger is hidden between the wings. For some reason, it threw off the balance of the fairy and she went into a nosedive. She gets a pretty glass flower belt and the problem is solved. Well, for this one. Now back to the drawing board on the hanger....

Violet is also the palette for this tiny girl. She is a little over 2" tall. The figures start out white. I drop alcohol ink on the surface. It dries unevenly, which I encourage by touching it with a brush as it is drying. I spatter alcohol onto the dried ink and it makes little bleached variations that I enhance with the iridescant paint. Her skirt is trimmed with a coarse silk ribbon.

I can't seem to remove this shot, so let's talk about the wire. I found that bending the wire is more interesting and effects the way the fairies turn. I put fishing swivels on some of them to give them a nice spin.

Orange and sunshine yellow combine for vibrant color splashes. She is not glazed. If you look closely, you can see the variegation in the wings. Her dress is embellished with the tiniest pearl sequins I have ever seen, and teeny hologram stickers from Dillons, of all places.