Cicada Moon Workshop

Do you ever find yourself starting a little collection of "this-n-that" that makes very little sense?

I make these little collections all the time :)  There are certain things I just can't pass up when I am at the thrift store, an auction, or an estate sale.  Little wooden houses happen to be one of these addictions (for me, anyway).

I have a wide variety of these houses, and wanted to pull them together into a cohesive piece.

So . . . welcome to week 5 in the Cicada Moon Workshop ~ we are going to re-imagine some little wooden houses and take them from . . . 






Let's do this:


1.  You will need little wooden houses, all of mine were used and picked up very cheaply from a wide array of venues (the afore mentioned thrift stores, estate sales and auctions).

2.  I also pick up small display shelves whenever I find them, the brass/glass/mirrored display case shown came from our local Salvation Army for $4.99 :)

3.  You will also need:  paint brushes; a sponge cut to need; acrylic paints (I used Apple Barrel (aka Walmart brand) Turquoise, Ivory, Caribbean, Burnt Umber, Ivory, Black and White); ModPodge; scissors; antique/vintage letter or blueprints; air dry clay; an old credit card; I had some PearlEx Powdered Pigments on hand and used them for one of the roofs but you wouldn't need these necessarily (gold leaf would be pretty cool); printed images if you want to use them for the decoupage

4.  Paint your houses white (if you want, I needed a blank slate):




5.  Then paint several of the house's roofs with the color palette of your choosing (you know what I used).   I paint an undercoat, then sponge on an alternate color then sponge an overcoat in the 1st color I used.  To get the final roof, I painted in the lighter blue, then sponged on the turquoise, then a bit of black, then the lighter blue.  (also NOTE, I took a very small brush and dry brushed some whispers of white onto the edge of the roof line) 

TIP:  use water with your paints to make them easier to work with and to aid in blending.  TIP:  do one coat after another, don't let them dry.  TIP:  If you mess up?? no big deal, just layer paint until you are happy with it or let it dry, paint it white and begin again:








3.  Painting a vintage facade :  I painted the front of the house in Ivory paint, that was watered down, then added in some Burnt Umber, I alternated between brushes and a wet sponge cut down to size:











5.  Repeat the technique around the entire house:








6.  I wanted to decoupage the following image onto the front of the house, so I measured the front of the house (3" by 2.5") and took the image into PowerPoint, sized it to fit, then decoupaged it onto my little house.  Then I painted the the green parts of the image with watered down turquoise so they matched my color scheme better.  TIP:  when you decoupage, water down your Modge Podge a bit and always COVER the backside of your paper first, stick it to your surface, then coat the outside with Modge Podge.  ALSO: USE YOUR Wetted FINGERS to smooth out the surface, but not for too long, or the Modge Podge will start to goop up (if this happens, brush off the goop or let it dry and rub it off):













7.  Let's paint some houses, and cover others in air dry clay.  Start with a dry house, painted white and the roof painted in your unifying color scheme.  Shape the clay, by spreading it with your fingers, keep water handy and wet down as needed.  TIP:  make tiny clay tools by cutting up a credit card:













8.  I "clayed" 3 of my little houses, then finished of the roofs in various manners.  One with the gold colored stamping pigment.  The others I used a variety of painting techniques to make them look different:



















And look there, we're finished :)


Hope you are very happy with your little houses ~





See you next time, at Cicada Moon Workshop ~ never know what's in store!