Skip to main content

Mark & Jo's "House"



This was by far one of the most involved projects I have ever worked on.


My friend, Jo, loves handmade gifts. And with the rash of engagements going on among my coworkers, I've had a bunch of opportunities to make unique gifts for all the wedding showers. I wanted this one to be exceptionally special and tailored personally to one of my favorite couples.

It started with a house. I don't remember how it came up in conversation, but Jo and I had gotten to talking about their future house and I thought it would be cute to make one for them. I thought about creating an actual dollhouse, but felt that would take entirely too long. So I opted for more of a symbolic house. I found a simple wall shelf that was shaped like house: two side walls, a floor, and a pointed roof, with the front and back completely open. I added some carved accents to the front edge of the roof line to make it look more interesting.

I also found some wooden initials, 'J' for 'Josefin', an 'M' for 'Mark', and a pretty '&' symbol to go between them. Originally, I thought to put the initials inside the house, but the size I wanted to work with wouldn't fit, so I found an unpainted wooden sign to use as a base. It was rather long, so even with the house and the initials, I still had a lot of room on the base for something else, so I did another trip around the craft store and found a picture frame. Jo's now husband, Mark, is a photographer and while they have a lot of great photographs together, they don't have a lot of them displayed, so I thought adding a picture frame to this house would add some functionality to the piece. 

I started with a coat of flat white to make everything uniform. I figured out where each item was going to sit on the base and glued them all down. Then it was time to decorate, and since I had access to what they were planning for their wedding, I took several aspects from it to make the look of their gift meaningful.

Mark wanted a lot of green at their wedding, so I knew that was a must. I bought sheet moss and fixed that to the roof of the house and on the base around it.


The bride herself would be decked out in rose gold and the cake stands for their wedding painted in rose gold as well. The accent of the frame was painted in rose gold, and a sheet of rose gold scrapbook paper in a pretty geometrical pattern was fixed to the sides of the house. The bridesmaids were going to be in berry colors, so I added tiny flowers in grape, blueberry, and raspberry colors. I also included a bit of pink to help tie the berry colors with the rose gold. 


To the initials and the base frame, I added green crystals, both in round and flower shapes, and attached some fancy gold buttons painted in the rose gold. I also painted the little '&' symbol in rose gold to keep everything tied together.


Then I got down to the nitty-gritty details... Inside the house I attached some paintings to the walls: one of a seahorse (part of an inside joke), some Dali pieces (because we are all fans and have been to the Dali museum in St. Petersburg several times), a Japanese woodblock print, and a piece by Itzchak Tarkay.

 

I also went back to the craft store and hit up the dollhouse furniture, because it wouldn't do to leave the house empty! I set up a cozy nook with bistro chairs, and a table set up with tea and desserts... a call back to our double date at a local tea room. The teacups that came with the tea set didn't have saucers, so I improvised some with silver buttons that happened to be just the right size. And in the corner, sitting on the bottom half of the 'J', a tray of cheese and wine, to remind the couple of their trip to Paris a couple years ago. I didn't realize it at the time, but the camera I set on top of the 'J' (again, because Mark is a photographer) happened to have a picture of the Eiffel Tower on the display screen! I finally noticed it when I was pointing out bits and pieces of the scene to them.


In the space in front of the picture frame I put a garden rock with their wedding date written on it, some moss and twigs, and a little snail shell (another inside joke).


And while the intent was for the couple to put one of their own photos in the frame, I felt that I couldn't give it to them empty, so I did something I hadn't done in years and did a drawing of the couple from a photo.

So this one project was actually a culmination of several smaller ones, and the work of several months, but in the end, it was one of my most unique pieces. And the best part...  

... was the look on their faces when they saw it.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Applique Evening Cape

When we got invited to RJ's cousin's wedding, it was decided that the family would wear black so that we would all be coordinated for family photos. Now I normally wear quite a bit of black, but usually not in formal wear, and especially not for a wedding. It's the one time I like to get super girly and pick out bright colors or florals and go all out with the jewelry. In fact, before learning about the black palette, I had pictured wearing a ballgown with an illusion style bodice embroidered all over with flowers. After a few sessions of trying to find a black dress that wasn't boring or unflattering, I decided that maybe I would try to put together what I wanted. So I spent a few hours combing Amazon and found a sheer black cape and several beautiful appliques in the craft section. I ordered several, most embroidered flowers in various colors, from cherry and magnolia blossoms to orchids and roses. In the end, I skipped the flowers and went with peacock f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Caleb's Sketchbook

Like all kids, my nephew loves to draw. He scribbles and colors. And every so often I get a present of a drawing made just for me. I wanted to encourage the hobby, and also give him a way to keep it collected and see how his drawing improves over time. So I bought him a sketchbook and decided to decorate it and make it feel special, like each of those wonderful sketches that he gave to me. I had picked the hardback black sketchbook because it was sturdy and durable. But not as expensive as some premium artist sketchbooks can be. Unfortunately, the black color made it near impossible to draw on, so I had to track down some metallic Sharpies, which come in limited colors. I contemplated the design for a while, and because of the metal shine of the markers, I ended up getting inspiration from the stars. I thought it was appropriate, after all, art is only limited by the imagination, as boundless as the expanse space and filled with wonder.
Post a Comment
Read more

Bakery Themed Wooden Cooking Utensils

My good friend, Danielle, is a master baker of cupcakes. When the Cake Expo came to Orlando last year, we went together to attend some classes, watch some live competitions, and view the amazing entries into the decorating contests. So when her birthday rolled around this year, I wanted to do something bakery themed. Perusing Pinterest for some unique gift ideas, I came across images of wooden spoons with designs burned into them. Quieting the voices in my head that told me I would just end up burning my skin off, I looked into what it took to do Pyrography. Basically, you need a wood burning tool, some tips for the tool, and something to burn. Control of the tool involves managing how long the tool touches the wood. Pressure shouldn't be used to burn the wood because it just causes the tips to bend while they're hot. Some tools allow you to adjust the temperature that they heat up to. It seemed rather simple. So I bought some inexpensive bamboo cooking utensils, a rather...
Post a Comment
Read more