2016 Topic 11: Our House Karla G Hello everyone Darcy here with another topic, this time a subject close to the heart. Our House. We all love our own little 'Castles', it is the place we feel we can most show off our personalities and creative ideas. Sometimes ideas can get a bit expensive though to follow through on a large scale, so to fulfil that urge the next best thing is to create miniature houses, whether in journals, on cards or as 3d projects. There are so many examples of Arty Houses online, why are we drawn to them so much? I guess because they are often very simple shapes. Everyone can draw a square and a triangle, pop in some windows and it is instantly a house. it was when we were children and it still is now. Art houses are often brightly coloured, though they don't need to be, but the bright colours and primitive shapes seems to ignite our imagination and we can really go to town decorating. Before we start, let's see who won the Topic 10: Scribbles and Doodles Challenge... Well how doodle you do? what a fab topic that was. I bet you never knew you had so many doodles in you. The variety was great with both black/white doodles and coloured ones. There was loads of inspiration in your entries, definitely one of the most relaxed topics I think. The winner of Scribbles and Doodles is: Kezzy from Craftyjourney Email Darcy to claim your prize. [email protected] So let's see just how many styles of Art houses we can find. .We have been copying familiar items in miniature form for thousands of years, so it follows that we would want to recreate our homes. We have been encouraging children to play with dolls houses for 400 years, and though these are no longer fashionable with children they are now hugely popular with adults. Susie Rogers and Kevin Mulvany are art historians and spent a year creating this stunning Parisian building. (It measure 5 1/2ft x 3ft, in case you fancied having a go) I always wanted a tree house as a child, it was not meant to be.. but we can all have houses in the garden. These sculptures by Rob Heard are amazing. For the smaller garden how about these painted stones. Jake Art Moving indoors, and home decor comes in all shapes and sizes. I love this clay house planter. For those of you still tinkering around with Powertex, this would be a cool thing to make. Here is another house/bottle mashup using Powertex. Kavanzo If teeny ,tiny modelling is your thing then how about these fairy houses. Made by Maive Ferrando, you can see a video tutorial HERE. Staying with the tiniest of projects this little house/village shaped book is adorable. Randy Keenan An excellent book full of techniques for creating house shaped pages (like those above) is 'In this House' by Angela Cartwright and Sarah Fishburn. If you don't fancy decorating the actual pages, how about just the spines. Look at this awesome street of books. If you are feeling brave about cutting up the pages then you could create a house inside the book. Marivi Garrido Bianchini Or this haunted house sculpture by Malena Valcarcel If like me you love building things.. and eating crisps.. then this next one is just for you. Recycle Daw A lot of us are used to working on canvasses, whether boards or chunky box ones. Houses make a great focal image for a canvas, can you imagine one perhaps as a New Home gift. Here is a video from Nicoletta Zanella showing you how she puts together a mixed media canvas. Perhaps you prefer to work in a journal, here is a sweet house page from Kate Crane Kate also works in tiny matchboxes, these just make you go Aww! Sticking with matchboxes, why not add some legs, chicken legs of course. I love this Baba Yaga assemblage from Lora Mahaffey I can just imagine it waddling around. Cackleandhoot Of course your art house can be made from anything, literally anything at all. I am afraid there isn't a prize for the strangest mediums, but here are some more to inspire you. Old wood, paintbrushes and a ruler make a brilliant house shaped photo frame. We all have paintbrushes that we could use for this. KMichel And maybe this will have you raiding the china cabinet for teacups. Roxann Dyess If chicken legs don't do it for you, how about doll's arms? Suzanna Scott A really fun medium to use is Fabric. The possibilities are endless, From wall hangings to doorstops, bookmarks and cushions..felted, padded and stitched. KarnaKarna MonikaWintermantel Do you remember the domino craze? I am sure we all still have dominoes stashed away in drawers. Maybe it is time to get them out and make a bracelet like this one from Jekaterina Cuikova. One of my favourite items this time has to be this tiny house on a ring. I would wear this for sure. Elukka There are simply so many houses that I wanted to share with you, paintings and sculptures, jewellery and odd assemblages. Many were simple wooden shapes, painted with love. So I will finish with another video, this time from Cyndi Cesare, she shows how she decorates some wooden blocks. These little and some not so little art houses are a huge favourite of mine. I am hoping they fire up your imagination. Whether you opt for journalling, or wooden blocks, or fabric I hope you create the house of your dreams. In the past I have taken part in art house swaps, perhaps you and some friends could do something similar. Have fun! Don't forget to follow Darcy's and Leandra's pinterest boards if this topic pushes your buttons, you will see plenty more examples to whet your appetite there! I am really looking forward to seeing what you create over the next 2 weeks! Darcy Topic 11: Our House PaperArtsy Blog Challenge We'd love you to share your ideas and link up your creative response to our current blog topic. Take a minute to read the challenge guidelines below. All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Our House link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, June 12th winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00. 1. The challenge is a for you to show how you are inspired by the current blog topic. Your entry should contain: - a mention of which post inspired you and why, and - a link in your blog post to that original post on the PA blog. The whole concept of this challenge is 'play along with us'. You are encouraged to put your own twist on ideas you see on our blog, do your own thing - whatever grabs you! 2. The link you put on our linky page must lead directly to the specific post on your blog where you have explored the technique/ idea mentioned in point 1 above. Don't link to the home page of your blog. 3. We prefer your challenge blog post is created exclusive to our challenge, but if our topic fits perfectly with another challenge, then you may link to both if appropriate. 4. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - it's lovely when you do though! 6. You can enter as many times as you like. We don't want to restrict your creativity! NB. Link closes at 17:00 Sunday June 12th (London Time) 7. The winner of the random draw will receive a £50 credit voucher to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website. The credit voucher includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50. 8. Each fortnight on Sunday, the winner will be announced at 19:00 (London time). In the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. 9. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy. email: [email protected] Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!