Labor of Love with my Kaisercraft house and Graphic 45

 Once upon a time, a young girl......wait, back up.  Let's try this again.   Once upon a time, a middle aged woman (wink!) had a dream.  In that dream, were castles, kings and queens, and magic wands.

Ok, hold up.  That is NOT how it happened.  But very, very close.  The summer of July 2014.  It was the summer of love for this crafty chic. 

 

The journey of this house begins here, where I won a blog hop giveaway featuring the Papercrafts & Scrapbooking Magazine, Creative Spaces issue #3 from Stacy Cohen who's craft space was featured in the magazine.  The prize?  A Kaisercraft House. 

 

While waiting on my Kaisercraft house to arrive, I spent quality time at the Scrapbook Expo in Duluth, GA where I met some cool crafty designers; Jenny Bowlin (her paper from the Family Tree collection is used as the tag reinforcers for the keyholes), Richard Garay of Spellbinders, and other fabulous, crafty geniuses. 

Next, it was on to the CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) Paper Arts show in Atlanta where I scored the lucky gig of being the guest blogger.  I was priviledged to hang out with Graphic 45 who are sponsors of Mountain Plains Crafters, a crafty fun site of which I am co-founder.  It was so fun to meet Jeff and Joanna and attend the G45 workshop.  I decided then and there, that I would use the gorgeous "Come Away With Me" papers on my Kaisercraft house when it arrived.

 

This is what I started with:                                                                                                                 

 

 

And this is the finished project

 

 

First, I Mod Podged the roof and painted the house in white.  Thank you to the lovely folks at Plaid who gave me samples from CHA.  I used the Folk Art white paint, as well.  I tried to incorporate as many "CHA" products as I could into this project.  It truly is a labor of love and I loved my time with all the vendors at the Paper Arts show!

 

 

Next, I cut the covers for the drawers.  I made a template and cut multiple copies from the template, and Mod Podged these as well.  The Come Away with Me collection has many, many locations mentioned on it's papers.  It's all about traveling to far away places. 

 

 

Being a native New Yorker, I used as many of the NY graphics that I could find.  A homage to my home state that I dearly miss, along with my family, as well. 

 I also cut the Graphic 45 keys with my plier wire cutter, to use as handles on the drawers.  I ended up using 3 packages of keys on this house.  I've got to say, it's been really fun putting this together!  Slow going, but fun.   How are those keys staying put?  Tombow Aqua mono glue.  Front and back.  You've got to break out the good stuff for a project like this.  #smile

 I really wanted a gorgeous topper for my house so I made my own.  There's a bunch of product on this beauty; Maya Road (kraft doily), Prima Marketing (enamel dots), Unity Stamp Co (background woodgrain stamp inked onto the kraft doily), May Arts Ribbon (white rosette and kraft twine), Tombow Xtreme adhesive, Fabscraps, UmWow Studio (woodchip butterflies), My Favorite Things (Die-namics scalloped flower die for quilling) Pinkfresh Studio (Scribbles die).....much of what you see on this topper was inspired by the beautiful creations I saw at the Paper Arts show. 

 

I am finally finished with my house.  Now, it's all about filling it up.  I intended to use it as a keeper of small items such as sequins, buttons, etc.  I'm saving the maker labels inside each box and identifying each drawer with a glued item.  This lets me know where to find what so I don't have to pull out every drawer, plus, it adds a little more inventiveness to my house. 

I hate to admit it but I'm a little sad that I'm finished.  The saving grace is that I have so many memories of my "summer of love" tied up into this house.  I'll forever cherish the good times I had and look forward to making fabulous, new memories.

#CHA #CHASHOW #Cre8time #Kaisercraft #g45papers #graphic45 #plaidcrafts #prettypinkposh #maggieholmes #primamarketing #mayartsribbon #unitystamps #tombow #cratepaper #laurakellydesigns #vintage