Some new houses

So.... what happens when the kids are away....... Mom sleeps, lol.

However..... due to some really sad news.... I had to find a way to get my mind of things.... so in between all those naps.... I've been painting houses. I've been working on 3 sizes... like this little Monopoly house...

I made several sets to go on Etsy..... Here I'm using a Monopoly house and a hotel... the wooden ones.... They've been painted with 3 layers of brown paint, a layer of the crackle medium... and then the top layer. And all the windows and doors are stamps I carved myself out of the end of a pencil eraser...

....my pictures are hazy though.... so I'll have to wait till I can get some better ones! The humidity is terrible here! It's just too darn hot!

This is the last type of house I painted. They're some kind of Lego houses? Found them at the thrift store in one of those grab bag bags.

As for the sad news.... My oldest dearest friend called me yesterday to tell me that her baby sister had been hit by a car and passed away Saturday morning. She was 25... with 2 little kids. I grew up with this family! Spent everyday at their house.... And everywhere that me and my friend went.... the little sister went, too. She was my baby sister, too. And it kills me that I can't be there with them.... I just want to hug her and tell her I love her! She knows it.... but its just not the same.

Life is just too short!

Please remember to tell the people who mean the most to you that you love them.... You never know when life will change and you'll miss you chance! I love you baby girl! LYLAS always and forever!

Until Next Time......

Tiny, tiny houses....

When I was working on my birdhouses, I naturally wondered how small I could actually make them. So, I pulled out one of my sticks of wood (I have them in various sizes) ...and started cutting. BTW, I use a hand saw and a miter box, but the hand saw is about to die...lol.... and I'll just keep using it till it does....Anyways..... Once I got a few houses cut out, and sanded down, I painted them.... then I changed my mind, and went to look for my tiny letter stamps. This is what I came up with...

After each one was painted, I then went back with a brown marker and 'stained' up the sides....meaning I went over the edges with said marker, and then went back over the edges with my finger to blend them in.
See how tiny they are?!

After I did the first set..... I wanted all white ones... And what better word to use then Dream.

I made a set to go in The Painted Lady and a set to go up on Etsy.

Just think of all the words that could be used!

OK

Until next Time....

Halloween Birdhouses

Thought I'd make a few Halloween Birdhouses to go with my other ones. One day I'll pull out Katie's Corner and show you where they're all going..... But for now, Here's a few that I have listed on my Etsy Page.

I'm also gonna talk about this darn Crackle Paint..... Last week Americana paint was on sell, so I picked up a few bottles in Halloween colors. I came home, and tried to crackle some sticks.... But had No luck. I thought maybe I wasn't using a thick enough coat of crackle medium, so I went back and repainted them, using 2 thick coats of medium.... and Still... Nothing!! At this point, I assumed it wasn't me, and it was the paint I was using, so I started all over again..... This time using Folk Art brand paint, and I had NO problems...... strange, huh!! Think I'll be sticking to the Folk Art when I crackle from now on.... Americana is good paint, gives me a pretty even coat, it just won't crackle?! So....

Remember the bookcase I refinished not to long ago? Remember the hardware I took off the doors?? Well, that's what I'm using on the purple birdhouses..... worked out pretty well, don't ya think?? I used the same knobs on the orange ones that I had used once before, But this time I painted them black. I also went back and highlighted the raised areas with gold paint, to make it stand out a bit more.

You can see the gold highlights in the following picture...

Then I broke out some of those (finger) nail stickers we have:) I used a cut down dollhouse shingle for the roof... and highlighted the edges to give it an aged appearance.

I just love this little skull!!

But this one has got to be my favorite!!! It's a Kitty over cross bones. Isn't it awesome:) One of these will be going to live in Cora's Gothic Room!!

Believe it or not, I still have a pile of houses to get listed, and another batch ready to get started after that... We'll see how long it takes me to get bored of it???

Until Next Time...