The project features Graphic 45 Deluxe Collector's Edition "Once Upon a Springtime", This was one of my favorite paper collections and I was so thrilled when Graphic 45 re-released it earlier this year.
The acorn house is large enough to store a small book or mini album in the inside. The windows all have lights and you can catch a glimpse of a fairy if you peek inside.
There are places for the fairies to relax and play in the gardens around their house.
A lantern hangs from a large mushroom near the entrance to the garden to light the path to the fairies home.
The acorn house is a shaped cylinder made of 17 sections which are slightly smaller at the top and bottom to give the house its curved shape. It has front and back doors and four windows. One of the stickers from the paper collection was used to create the house sign above the front doors.
The top of the acorn is a removable roof to allow access to a mini album or small book and to four LED tea lights which illuminate the windows. Underneath the petals are several sections that make use of geometry to create the rounded shape. The stem is rectangular to give the impression of a chimney.
The walkway is pattern paper on lightweight chipboard cut and spaced to look like stone pavers.
On the left you can see the mushroom lamp post. The battery pack for the Tim Holtz Mini Lantern is hidden in the stem,
The front doors each have a little heart shaped window. On either side of the door are tiny flower pots, each with a tiny flower. These quilled flowers, as well as all of the other flowers were made with Tim Holtz' Tiny Tattered Floral die.
Here you can also get a good view of the ground cover. I used Golden Molding Paste to create texture, then painted that texture with various shades of green and brown. I punched leaves from various shades of cardstock and pattern paper and scattered them around the garden.
The swing is made from one of the chipboard tags from the paper collection. It is suspended with chains from a large leaf above.
Here you can also get a good view of one of the front windows with its flower box.
Leaves made from one of the Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves dies make up a spiral staircase which takes the fairies up a tall two leaf stem.
On the right is the first leaf of that two leaf stem and its little sitting area with a tiny adirondack chair and little flower table,
Continuing up the staircase you get to the top leaf with a larger adirondack chair, complete with little umbrella and another flower table.
I found plans for a popsicle stick adirondack chair online at KylesWoodworking,com and then resized the plans to make the chairs in two smaller sizes.
The leaves were made from medium weight chipboard. I made several sizes of leaf shapes and then joined two with long triangular pieces of chipboard to give them more substance.
This two leaf structure is about 15" tall to the top of the umbrella. The stem is a 1/4" dowel supported by a pinwheel of chipboard hidden in the base structure. The smaller one leaf stem on the left of the house was made in a similar fashion.
Now around to the back of the project...
On the back of the acorn house there are two smaller windows and a little door.
The door leads out onto a small balcony that is not quite two inches above the ground. It is supported by two 3/16" dowel piers.
...and here's a closeup of the little back balcony.
... and now a closer look at a few of the details
On top of the small leaf on the left side of the fairy house is a butterfly.
This butterfly was made from two diecuts of pattern paper with some alcohol ink dyed plastic sandwiched in between the diecuts.
The butterfly is perched on another of the tiny tattered floral flowers.
This is the larger of the two adirondack chairs. The little "rug" is cut from light weight chipboard using TH Tattered Florals die.
The table top is a Sizzix flower die.
The umbrella is made from a 1/8" skewer and a circle cut with We R Memory Keepers Nesting Eyelet Circles die.
This is what the mini album storage space looks like when the acorn top is removed.
The two curved pieces remove for access to the LED tea lights.
I hope you have enjoyed this project. If you would like to take a video tour of the completed project, I have included a link below. Also, I filmed the construction of this project and created templates and a cutting guide. Those videos and the guide will be posted sometime later this week.
4 comments:
April, this project is simply enchanting. Your complex construction and all the tiny details make it something to keep on looking and finding new delights to enjoy. Congrats on a great job!
What a fascinating design beautifully executed. As always the colors, paper patterns and design of the objects all go together so well. You can see the care taken in each and every choice. The swing is a marvelous touch. I particularly like the adirondack chair flourishes on the stairway of leaves (with that climbing vine - cool). The coloring of the chairs is so perfectly weather worn and with the raised mats, little tables and the umbrella, it adds so nicely to the "lived in" atmosphere especially with the potted plants! And the raised back porch works wonderfully with the picket fence. Indeed a joy to admire again and again. Thanks for sharing!
The acorn fairy house is a great creation. One can really see this in your blog since the lighting on the photographs and the photos themselves are superb. You can see all the details: the 3d effect of the sidewalk and stonewall, the knobs on the front door, the pattern of the beautiful paper and the shape of the mushroom with the hanging lantern. On the picket fence, you can clearly see the little holes at the top of each board, the grass outside and even the leaves on the inside of the fence. You can see the translucence of the butterfly that is so realistic as well as the detailing of the 3d floral flowers, the pots and planters. I just wanted to mention that this makes your blog a wonderful site just for browsing and enjoying the pleasures of being the fairies living in the house!
WOW! The detail at every level - on every leaf - just incredible. Love the swing! The mushroom, lantern, butterfly....just amazing. LOVE it!
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Thanks for reading!