Spring Houses

When I was out shopping at Micheals I saw these cute houses.  I immediately had an idea of what I would like to paint on them.  When I got home I keep thinking about the cute flower cut outs they had and how they would make fun rooves on the houses.  So back to Michaels and then I started working on my updated idea.  If you don’t have a Michaels available to you, the houses could be cut from 2×4’s and the roof could be made out of scrape book paper glued to a heavier paper and cut out.

I encourage to use colors that make you happy.  I painted the houses Blue Harbor, Sea Aqua, and Razzle Berry.  On the flowers I used Banana Cream, Foliage Green, Hauser Medium Green, Marigold, Poodleskirt Pink, Soft Lilac, and Warm White (I used DecoArt paints for this project).  I used one light coat on the flowers so the details could show through.

You could stop at this point, but I decided to add a few more details to the flowers. The roses I shaded with Razzle Berry and highlighted with Warm White; the leaves I shaded with Evergreen and highlighted with Foliage Green.  On the hydrangea I painted the darker petals with a wash of Blue Harbor and shaded darker petal centers with Grape Juice and lighter centers with Blue Harbor.  I floated Grape Juice randomly over the flowers and highlighted petals with Warm White then painted dot centers with Marigold.

The assorted flowers on the right were painted Warm White and Banana Cream, the buds Marigold and the foliage Hauser Medium Green.  On the other group the large flower was painted Marigold, the center leaf Hauser Medium Green, the stems and other leaf Foliage Green and the berries Warm White.  Shade center of white flower and place highlight on lighter green leaf with Sea Aqua.  Shade leaves with Evergreen and highlight darker leaves with Foliage Green.  Highlight darker flower and buds with Banana Cream.  Float around center of lighter yellow flowers with Marigold.  Shade berries at base with Foliage.

I decided to stencil the words “Sow”, “Grow”, and “Bloom” on one side of the houses.  I used a  Laurie Speltz stencil, but you could use any stencil, stamp or even freehand them.

I created a stencil for the windows and doors by cutting them out of  heavy paper.

I stenciled the windows with Soft Lilac, the doors are Marigold, Grape Juice and Foliage Green.  I painted over the doors to make them solid and for the colors to stand out.  On the top of each house I stenciled scallops using a lighter color (Sweet Mint, Soft Lilac, Poodleskirt Pink).

You could leave your houses this way, but again I added a few more details.  I shaded my scallops with the house color and highlighted them with Warm White.  The windows were shaded with Grape Juice , the door knob dotted on with Champagne Gold, and the windows and doors lined with my white Pitt pen.

Play with the flowers until you are happy with position on roof, then glue in place with Tacky glue.

I Love how happy they turned out, they would look great sitting anywhere.

Or you could create a vignette for them.  I placed them in a tray that I found at Michaels.  I added the wooded feet and tried to paint them to pick up the colors of the tray.  I cut a piece of oasis to fit inside the tray and covered it with a sheet of moss.  I added larger pieces of moss to look like shrubs and added a few painted eggs.  If you would like to create a banner like I did you can find instruction in this blog post Festive Fall Pedestal.

Even though it is still cold and we had a little snow today, I am thinking spring.  I hope this post will encourage you to also think spring.

If I have time I will be posting my original idea on my business Facebook page Jane Allen Creates, I hope you will stop over and visit me there.

Spring Blessings,

Jane

Printable house pattern (PDF)