House Party Blog Hop

Hello All Blog Friends, old and new; Welcome to our House Party!

If you're following the House Party Blog Hop, you should have arrived here from Nancy's blog, via Rinda, Kimberlee, Jacky, Margi, Liz and Ruth. 

If you want to start from the beginning, go Here, for the full story of the House Party, told by the person who dreamed it up!

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So, welcome to my House Party Post and I hope you will enjoy seeing what I have created for Rinda's challenge.

A few weeks ago, my little "baggie" arrived from Rinda.  This is some of what it contained:

However, I was silly and forgot to photograph it before I started on my House. So this picture has pieces missing!

If you've been a reader of my blog for a while, you will know that I "make books".  I also make scrap pages, greetings cards, sock toys and various other crafty bits and pieces, which usually involve paper, yarn or fabric.

So, what to do with my bag of bits & pieces?

At first glance, I wasn't too sure what I would want to do with it all.  There seemed to be a lot of stuff, for a start... I felt a bit overwhelmed... it was too much, I didn't think I could do it...

Silly!

Of course I could. The challenge was quite simple to understand - I had a little card rectangle and a little card triangle, a pile of lovely papers (double-sided too!), a vintage-style photograph, some ribbons, buttons and other bits.  From these I was to create an "Altered House", to be posted in the House Party Blog Hop in May.

Simples!

So I left it for a couple of days and made some paper flowers for my shop....

This seems to be how I work really.  I often will find that, once I have gathered up a pile of bits & pieces for a project, I suddenly feel a bit overwhelmed and that I "Can't".  If I leave it for a while - an hour or two, a day or two, a week or two.... eventually I find I am quite up to the challenge and can create something pretty nice with that pile of stuff.  Of course, sometimes "leaving it" isn't really an option; that is a bit of a luxury and there are days when "now" has to be the time. So then I go and make some coffee, maybe eat a bit of chocolate or my lunch... and it all seems a little bit easier when I return.

I got to work and made my Plan.

I went through my own stash and added a few items of my own to the pile.  I chose a piece of patterned paper in a similar shade of soft bluey-green to a glass tile, brads and a button that were in the kit.  I found some paper flowers that toned in. I picked out some other papers... I came up with a Theme.

The Theme was "Satin Green Shutters".

If you happen to have listened to Chris De Burgh, you may know where my reference comes from.  His album, "Far Beyond these Castle Walls" contained this song, which was also included on one of his compilation albums (I think), which a friend put onto cassette for me (many years ago!). 

Being young and romantically minded, I was rather struck by this song and the images it conjured up. I still quite like it, although it is perhaps a bit sentimental for my current taste...

Still, the idea of a house with "satin green shutters" has always appealed to me somehow and this idea just happened to pop up while I was thinking about my project.

So, my House has Satin Green Shutters:

The white and apricot paper reminded me of tiles or brickwork, so this became my walls. 

The Satin Green paper for the shutters was a piece of pearly-finished paper that I had in my stash. I cut the shutters into the card and covered them on both sides. Then I scored them, to look a bit like louvres and added a few smudges of chalks to give them a little dimension. 

The climbing "vines" on the house were rub-ons from Basic Grey and I had a pack of these lovely butterfly brads, which seemed just right as an accent on the house wall. 

 

I cut a door in the house and covered it with some woodgrain patterned paper (BG again). The kit had included this little greeny heart-shaped button. I stuck it to a piece of plain paper, in soft apricot, so the dark door wouldn't show through, then  added some stitching detail with orange cotton.

Behind the Window and Door, I stuck the vintage photograph that Rinda had sent me.

The Door opens onto a shadowy stairway...

but inside the Window are two of the "lovely children" from the song.

They are rather sweet actually, with their happy smiles.

I think I have really ended up with a Happy House!

Ah, But! It doesn't end there...

What did I say I do?  I Make Books. 

I couldn't just make a House.

It is a Book too. The house front is a cover for a Notebook. 

I covered the back of the notebook with a soft apricot art paper, then used this as a lining for the back of the House and the roof. 

As you may have noticed, the House notebook cover is a lot bigger than the notebook.  This was because I only had a little notebook handy and didn't have time to make a bigger one. I didn't want to cut down the House, so it is like this!  However, it doesn't matter, as the cover opens like a Policeman's notebook, so the roof will fold behind the book and sit flat when I use it.  No problem!

I will use the notebook in my studio, as I'm always scratching about for a scrap of paper to make notes on!

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Well, this is my contribution to the House Party. I hope you liked it!  Now, if you want to continue with the Blog Hop, you need to go to Sian's Blog, where I'm sure something wonderful awaits you!

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Just in case you get lost, here is a complete "Blog Hop" list:  You are at the 8th point in the list now (Me, LizzieMade)! 

Rinda of Gallo Organico;  http://www.gallorganico.blogspot.com/

Kimberlee of Scrap and Sass; http://scrapsandsass.blogspot.com/ 

Jacky of scrappyjacky;  http://www.scrappyjackylive.blogspot.com/

Margi of The Maverick Crafter;  http://maverickcrafter.blogspot.com/

Liz Lee of “Life at the Gables”; http://lizlee-liz.blogspot.com/

Ruth Street of Everyday Life of a Suburban SAHM; http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com/

Nancy Young of Squirrelyart; http://squirrelyart.blogspot.com/

Lizzie of Lizzie made; http://lizziemade.blogspot.com/ (that's Me!)

Sian of From High in the Sky; http://fromhighinthesky.blogspot.com/

Mel of I Speak Melsh; http://ispeakmelsh.blogspot.com/

Deb of Deb's World; http://www.debs14.blogspot.com/

Deb of Paper Turtle; http://paperturtle.blogspot.com/

Karen of Random Reflections; http://www.kbwalker.blogs.com/

Cherry of Nights Dream; http://blodwyn3snightsdream.blogspot.com/

Sharyn of Living Artfully; http://sharyncarlson.typepad.com/livingartfully  

Julie of JuJu's Folly; http://jujusfolly.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth of Hootings of an Owl; http://emhowl.blogspot.com/

Amy of Over at Our Place; http://overatourplace.blogspot.com/

Denise of Den's Crafty Diary; http://deecie.blogspot.com/

and back to Rinda http://www.gallorganico.blogspot.com/ where it all began!