Three years ago, I bought a set of little
cardboard houses. They were inspired by the
vintage Putz houses we see at antique shows.
I have a very modest selection of original
houses, but want to put my own spin on them.
Of course, this idea went the way of so many
projects, onto the shelf for another year.
The following year, the kits came off the
shelf, but then got set aside, again.
This past Christmas, it happened.
I got the kits out, opened them, and started working
with my Mom and sister O to see what we could do.
For this first house, I used a vintage aeronautical map
for the walls, and stamps for the roof. My Mom came
up with the idea of the vintage stamps, and we all
ran with it.
I bought a big bag of vintage postage stamps at a
sidewalk sale in my neighborhood during a rare walk
between hospital visits this September. We had so
much fun with them.
Of course, once we started making these houses,
it was hard to stop... so I had to buy more.
They are so fun,
they offer so many possibilities. And the palate
of the stamps had the hues we wanted to work with.
I'm not sure it would have been as fun to do with
project without them. Perhaps, we just needed to wait
for the perfect convergence of supplies.
It's been a bit hard to stop making the houses.
I confess to buying more of the kits on Christmas Eve.
I had to have them transferred from another store,
and when they arrived, they'd been marked down
50% for the after Christmas sale. I, um, bought a dozen.
And then there was this house. My father sent me three
packets of butterfly wings. (Wait!) They came with
the guarantee of being from a butterfly conservancy.
The butterflies live their full lives, and are then
collected from the ground. No lovelies were harmed.
Honest.
I used the cover of an old dictionary for the roof.
I've stopped making houses.. for the moment. Although,
I do rather like the idea of making a Valentines one...
or two...