Country "Home"spun

Good Monday morning and a Happy Halloween to you!  Thank you for dropping by to see what I made this week for our Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  This week, we want you to show us a house.  You can put your own spin on the theme and you can be sure our fabulous design team members did just that.  Stop over at the challenge blog to check out their awesome art!

I had a few different ideas for this theme, but I wanted to wrap in all the things that a home means to us. Homes are very close to my heart right now because for the past three years I have been managing a food pantry/outreach ministry for my parish.  I see so many folks in jeopardy of losing their home or people that have already lost it.  The foreclosure rate in Miami is one of the highest in the nation and you don't have to be living on the street to be technically "homeless".  Many families have lost their homes and have moved in with family - some houses are bursting at the seams with the number of people residing there.  

With my piece, I explored the ways our homes support us.  I started with a larger-than-normal piece of cardboard (11x14" - I cut up a box to get it) and dry brushed it with gesso.  I used the Spellbinders Label #1 die to cut the houses, with a full piece for the structure and a half piece for the roof.  Each structure piece was stamped with a different Wendy Vecchi background stamp and I used her wonderful gingham stamp (from the Nature's Art set) with red ink for the roofs.  I also cut chipboard for each piece and adhered them to give extra dimension.  Additionally, when I adhered them to the cardboard, I used craft foam behind some of them to give a bit of different dimension to each house.  

Since my theme for the piece was "Home is Where the Heart Is", each house had to have a heart.  I cut the hearts from old vintage book pages and also a piece of chipboard for each with the Sizzix Hearts, Primitive #3 die, glued them together and then ran them through the Cuttlebug Textile EF.  After applying Vintage Photo DI liberally, I punched a hole in each and tied a scrap of the homespun type fabric to it.  I created tiny tag sentiments on my computer to describe all the things a home means to me:  family, love, friendship, comfort, security and support.  The houses still needed something so I cut some metal with the smallest flower from the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die, added a tiny floral bead cap and a brad to each, but before I added the metal to the heart, I coated it with Ginger Alcohol Ink.  

My tin heart was cut with the largest heart in the Spellbinders die set from an aluminum pie tin.  I ran it through the Tim Holtz Checkerboard texture fade and dripped Ginger alcohol ink over it.  When it was dry, I sanded all the high points so the aluminum color showed through.  But I wanted the high points to be red and couldn't figure a way to do that without ruining the brown ink in the low points.  I ended up taking a paint brush and painting them with red re-inker.  

Thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end of this post!  Nows the time when I encourage you to stop by the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog to see what the other have created.  I can tell you that you will NEVER be disappointed by the line up over there.  Not to brag, but I think we have one amazing group of artists on that team. 

And of course, there is the support given us by our super generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp.  You need to go by their store and check out all the fabby crafting supplies.  And they are always super generous with prizes for our challenge, a $50 shopping spree at their craft-loaded store.  So whatcha waiting for?  Get busy building a house and share with us over at Simon Says Stamp and Show.