Hi, my name is June...

And I have a glitter addiction.  Yup, I'm afraid it's true.  A year ago my glitter usage was minimal... but now, after finding these houses... well...  all I can say is thank goodness for 40% off coupons!  Fine, ultra fine, multi-colored, tinsel style... you name it, and I have it.  And, it is everywhere.  It doesn't matter that I ONLY use it in the craft room... it is EVERYWHERE!!!

Ok, now that I have admitted my problem, let's get back to building that house...so, we have the house cut out, book pages applied, book pages white washed, form all glued up, the base has been cut out and is covered with old book pages, and the cute little trim has been made from scrapbook paper... and now we're ready to put it together.  If you didn't take my suggestion to add those tabs to the pattern when you were cutting it out, here is where you will wish you did.

The pattern for the Little Charmer that I'm doing here has an insert that you should cut out of corrugated cardboard, it's a good thing to have for this, it helps "shore up" the shape a bit, so cut that out, and let's use it to position where you will put the house on the base you've already made.

You can see in the photo above that I sort of sit the house on the base and move it around a bit to see where I prefer it sit, most of the time I like it positioned a bit toward the back.  For the larger inset base I glue it (when I have it in the position I want) to the base... I'll glue the walls of the house to it when I'm ready to adhere it.

Now... first do as I learned, not as I did... See those cute little windows all cut out in the house?  Notice that they are open, no covering on them at all?  That was a goof.  I use velum paper to back each of the windows I cut out, when they are lit up, it makes such a lovely glow, and you don't see the inside of the house, which in this case would be the red of the Coke carton.  It's a whole lot easier to glue that velum in when the house is flat, not when it's shaped and ready to glue to the base.  Yup... lesson learned.

Once I got the velum in those windows, I glued the basic body of the house to that inset base.  Now, you'll note, I had already added copper glitter to the door.  I knew that when I added the porch, it would be difficult to get that glitter in there properly.  Good move on my part.  What I failed to realize though was that the base inside that porch would show.  Insert a heavy, frustrated sigh here... was lots of fun painting that from the top after I had already glued the porch on.  Was almost as fun applying the glue and glitter inside there too.  Hint number two... be sure to paint everything inside the porch, as it can be seen, and do the glittering, leaving the tabs free of glitter so the glue will adhere... will be soooooo much easier!

I tied the porch to the house so the glue could dry a bit... use rubber bands, it will be easier.  See... three things so far that I learned!

When I went to put the roof on the house, I found that the cut out for the porch didn't exactly fit.  Fourth hint... do not use any glue for the roof until you are sure of the fit...  Once it was trimmed a bit, I reapplied the glue to the tabs and the roof, and stuck it down one more time.

And, check it out, this time I measured before I added the porch roof I measured so I wouldn't have the issues.  Sadly, I forgot to add tabs to the porch.  Hint number five... if you forget to add them to the pattern, you can cut them from some poster board, fold them in half, and glue them to the inside of the "wall" of the porch, leaving the other half to support the roof.  That rubber band works much better than the ribbon to hold it in place while it's drying.

Now, I know I have said this about a billion times before, and I know I SHOULD always let things dry before moving to the next step... but we all know me well enough by now to know that I didn't.  This time I paid for it.  I thought it was glued pretty well, and that once I got the glitter on it, I'd leave it to dry and it would dry just fine.  I was wrong. 

When you get that roof on there, add the cute little chimney.  I added the scrapbook paper right under the cap of the chimney to continue the look.

I went ahead and glittered it all up using various "clear" or white-ish glitters, and even added my snow, only to realize the roof was sort of separating from the tabs.  ARGHHHHHHHHH... I shall let things dry from now on... I shall let things dry from now on... I shall... and we all know I won't, but I will at least intend to try to...  In the photo above you'll find my cute little house... with the front of the base stuck up against a cup full of water, and two of my handy dandy pointy sticks (bamboo skewers) pushing against the roof.  I had to use something pointy so that it wouldn't brush all of the glitter off... what you can't see is the other end of those pointy sticks are pushed up against the stem of the light on my desk.  All precariously balanced... very precariously balanced... while the house dried.  I would like to say that one day I'll learn... but we both know better, don't we?

Oh, but look, in the end it all dried well, and all's well that dries well... right?  I'm sure you can't really tell in the photo, but I used several different sorts of glitter.  As I said in another post, I prefer the clear or whitish ones, but did use some copper and silver too.  The copper is on the inside door, the silver around the porch opening.  All of the glitter was put on before I added the snow, then more glitter was added to the snow while it was wet.  I used a fine or ultra fine glitter almost everywhere, but went with a bit chunkier glitter on top of the snow.

I'm working on more... and of course, I can only use patterns I find for so long before I want to make my own.  My neighborhood is full of fun architecture that will be perfect to inspire these sweet little houses... I just hope my neighbors aren't too concerned when I am out taking photos on my early morning walks...

Coming up this week... a Halloween project... can't wait to get that started and to share it with you!