Happy Halloween with Elmhurst Hollow Haunted House and SVGcuts.

Good evening fellow bloggers,

First I'd like to say hi to PatK, my new follower. Welcome Pat.

Well, I've been playing (faffing) again. Nearly all the challenge blogs are doing 'Halloween' as the chosen theme, so I thought I'd do something a little different.

I've had this kit for a while but never got round to using it. It's called 'Elmhurst Hollow' and it's from SVGCuts.com. It's an SVG file to use with my cricut, along with the sure-cuts-a-lot software.

So here it is. Isn't it cool. This picture is taken with the flash, to show the detail.

This one is without, so that the lights show up through the windows. Bit more atmospheric, don't ya think? I used core'dinations card in black and grey for the main body of the haunted house, the chimney and rails. Five 12x12 sheets in all, so not expensive to make.

The backing papers for the roof and plank detail are from craftartist and printed onto 220gsm supersmooth card. The bats are made from two identical pieces with a piece of wire sandwiched in the middle, then glittered before being suspended from the roof. The cobweb on the front of the house was drawn on with a quickie glue pen, then dusted with glamour dust.

Behind all the windows and eyes is yellow vellum. Unfortunately the eyes don't show up very well in the photo, but in the dark they look great.

To the rear of the house are the openings to place the candles, not real ones of course. These candles came from a local discount shop and were £1-99 for four. Can't grumble at that, eh? They even blow out!!!!! 

Anyway, hope you like it, I LOVE it. Showed it to my sis and she wants one now.


I am entering this project into the following challenges :-

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Fright night,,,,  Boo!!!

Fab N Funky - Orange, black and choice.

Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge - Pumpkin spice.

Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog - Autumn breeze.

Forever Friends Fortnightly Challenge - Halloween/Autumn.

Fashionista Challenge - Anything goes.

Heck of a Challenge - Spooktackular.
Inky Impressions Challenge - Anything but a card.

Thanks for coming by, hope my house has inspired you to do a bit of spooky crafting.


Cheers,


Jools.   xxxx

Peony Cottage

Hi Guy's,

I wanted to do something a bit different from greetings cards, they say a change is as good as a rest, don't they? I started having a look around the web for some ideas, when I spotted this project on SVGCuts. It's a little gift box in the shape of a cottage, and I loved it, so I downloaded the file and decided to have a go.

The first box I attempted, my prototype if you like, was very similar to the one demonstrated on SVG's website. I made a couple of mistakes, not serious ones, but I know they're there. Can you spot them before I spill the beans?

I put the window frames too high, they should be flush with the step. This means the roof, or box  lid, doesn't go down far enough.  There's a little gap under the gable end. I didn't realise until much later, and by then the quick drying glue was a bit hard!!!  You can't really see it from this view, but I know it's there. Here's a view of the box open. 

I didn't realise the second mistake, until I went to watch the tutorial again. The re-inforcing bar ( the lilac strip on top of the roof which covers up half of the roof tiles!!! )  should be on the INSIDE. When I put it on I thought it looked out of place, but again, the glue dried very quickly, so it had to stay where it was.

 

I think the possibilities for different themes is endless for this little cottage, as you can see from my second attempt, my 'Gingerbread Cottage'.

To be able to make this cottage, you will need software which enables you to import and use SVG files with your Cricut. There are a couple on the market, the one I use is Sure Cuts A Lot 2.

I think the hardest part of the whole process was deciding which bits to cut out in which patterns, etc. All the plain trims, roof tiles and gable end, were cut using plain Papermania 12 x 12, 240gsm card. I'm going to try my next one with Core'dinations. Can you imagine a little seaside cottage using the whitewash card, the edges would look lovely sanded and distressed. Anyway, I digress, there are lot's on the market.

The patterned parts were printed on supersmooth paper using various CD's. The lilac one was mostly printed from the Docrafts Tatty Ted, Me to You cd. That's my fave cd at the moment, LOVE IT!.

The patterns for the gingerbread house come from two different sources. Clipart fairy for the background papers, I love her style, and finally, MCS Crystal Sparkles for the gingerbread men. I distressed the edges using Tim Holtz distressing inks in various colours. The card looked too stark and bright without distressing. Fiddly but enjoyable.

That's about it, hope you like them.

Jools

xx