Servus and welcome to my little creative spot here in beautiful Vienna! I would like to share two tiny mixed media houses today that just hopped off my plate and that I had a lot of fun creating. When I saw the fab Tim Holtz "Tiny Houses" Sizzix die for the first time I knew this was a must have - even though I have ordered myself to keep crafty stuff shopping at a minimum this year (because I have too much of it already and no place to store away any new items ;) ! I also love seeing all the gorgeous houses out there in crafty blogland with the lovely idea-ology "Collector" images on them and the latest designer papers and washi tapes. But I wanted to go for a mixed media version of the cute houses and here they come (at least a first mixed media version for starters...I could also imagine using these houses as a kind of "art journaling" format to work on...each time with different media and a different topic...if you do one every other week or so you'll end up with a lovely little art journal village at the end of the year...): They were done using DecoArt media and paints alongside my beloved Stabilo All Aquarellable black pencil and my much used black soot Distress Crayon. Here's a quick how-to: I first collaged torn tissue and dictionary page scraps to heavy cardstock using DecoArt "Paper" Decou-Page. Then I scraped on some white DecoArt media Crackle Paint with a palette knife. Once that had dried I applied a wash of a mix of DecoArt media "Transparent Red Oxide" and "Raw Umber" Antiquing Creams. After I had sprinkled on some black and white DecoArt media Shimmer/Misters and heat dried everything properly I die cut my tiny houses. I smudged some black soot Distress Crayon along the edges using my fingertip, then I glued my houses together with my hot glue gun. I drew the doors and windows freehand with my aquarellable black pencil and activated the pigments with a waterloaded fine tip brush. DecoArt media "Translucent White" was used to paint the door and window frames and also add some flowers and a washing line. As the wet acrylic paint re-activated the black aquarellable pencil lines I got "smudges" of grey here and there (which is an effect that adds a lot of depth). I finished off my houses by adding details in "Bahama Blue" Americana acrylic paint for bit of contrast against all the brown colour tones. I left the backsides as they were...just in case I might need the houses as a more "decent" decoration without the whimsy touch. The cool turquoise paint makes the brown tones look even warmer and more intense. The roof tiles were handdrawn with the black aquarellable pencil too. The other roof only got turquoise lines as a pattern as the design from the collaged on paper looks already "busy" enough. I painted the mown lawn all around my smaller house as I love how it forms a kind of "border". I had also done a first try on a tiny house when my die and Distress Oxides arrived using two fussy cut images showing me as a kid... I found that for me the Distress Oxides worked a lot better on high quality mixed media papers than on my usual cardstock. Not too bad for a very first try I dare say.... ;) The roof was done by stencilling on a heart pattern with white DecoArt Modeling Paste and adding spray paint once all was dry. So here's the start of my little village...and looking at the image I can no longer hide from myself that I seem to have a slight obsession when it comes to houses...lol I hope you enjoyed your visit! Thanks for stopping by! Hugs and happy crafting! Claudia xxx