Collaged house

Today I am participating in the Blog Hop for the Sketchbook Challenge! This month's theme is Houses and Hideaways. I hope you have been following along! Each of the artists has created something special for this Blog Hop. If you go there today you will see a small fabric house that I created several years ago, as well as this paper house that is a new project. Find it here.

I had a lot of fun making this collaged paper house and wanted to share the process with you. I took photos as I worked, so I could post a little tutorial here.

I created a paper pattern to work from. Using the pattern pieces I roughly cut all pieces from heavy cardstock, a little larger than the final pattern size (leave a margin of about 1/2 inch all the way around). Then I started arranging images torn from magazine pages on the pieces. I had gone through magazines and torn out images that made me think of houses and landscape and architectural details.

Once I had selected all the photo bits, I used diluted white tacky glue and started gluing them down. I brushed a layer of the diluted glue onto the cardstock base, then positioned the first piece, then brushed a little glue over the top of each piece as I lay them down, slightly overlapping and filling in blank spots. A final coat of the glue over the top of all the bits sealed it all down and it dried to a nice glossy finish. I let everything dry well.

Once it was dry, I trimmed each piece to the exact dimensions of the pattern piece. Depending on how stiff your base paper is, the pieces might have curled as they dried. Carefully roll them in the opposite direction to straighten them. If they persist in curling you can glue a heavier stock to the inside surfaces and let them dry under a heavy book. You want them as flat as possible.

At this point I added a door and some windows I cut from black paper.

The next step was to cut several 1" wide strips of heavy paper. Use a ruler and bone folder or table knife to score a line, lengthwise down the center of each strip, so you can fold a nice straight, crisp corner in the strip. These will be cut to length and used to attach the pieces of the house together at the corners.

Start with the walls of the house and glue a paper strip in each corner to attach all the walls to each other.

Add strips to the tops of the walls to attach the roof.

Attach dormer(s) in the same way.

You can add a bottom piece if you like or leave the bottom open. Once the house is put together you can continue to add embellishments. I thought I would add more, but I liked it as it was once I saw it all together!

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 If you would like a copy of my basic pattern for this house as a pdf. file, just email me.