Where do the weeks go? I don’t work as many days now and I seem to to have less time then ever just for me! However, as I am continuing to “un-nest”, I am doing other stuff, so it’s no wonder. I have started to build my personal art showcase website (doesn’t that sound cool!!!) and it’s a slow process, filled with strange and mysterious codes and text, although I have completed the “image rotator” on the front page…

I’ve just finished my Row Houses for a swap on UKAS, and I’m sharing them here because this isn’t a “partner swap” as such, so anyone could end up with one of these as I shall with 5 different houses myself – cool!

I made these out of one long piece of greyboard, which I painted and collaged, and painted over. But, I did mark them up with a ballpoint pen so I knew where to cut them at the end! Here’s the “Row”:

The rules of engagement were pretty simple – colours = autumnal; measurements as specified; there had to be a face incorporated in each house. Here’s what they look like individually:

"Art..."

One of the faces from the Cherry Pie stamp I use for altered dominos and stampbord pins. I’ve had the flowers for ages – and I used 3 on each house, colouring them with alcohol inks and sticking them down with strong PVA glue.

Sailor boy

The stamped image is one of a pair of Paperartsy “minis” and the text is my MaVinci latin stamp…

"Love..."

This is the middle one of the three muses on the Cherry Pie stamp.

Mademoiselle "Smiley"!

The second of the two Paperartsy minis, complete with beret! I have no idea if she’s the right way round or not, because all my faces are stamped onto thick, flexible plastic so that they are transparent and none of the background detail is lost. I do that a lot, especially if I have taken time to build a background with lots of layers – I am such a texture junkie!! I use Stazon ink and leave it to dry after stamping – if I don’t walk away, the images smudge (she says from bitter experience!).

"Beauty..."

I wanted a tree somewhere in the houses’ design, but I don’t have any tree stamps, so I used a 3 x 1cm bit of rubber that was on my desk and carved this skeletal-ish tree. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, actually and I hope their recipients like them!

If you’ve wanted to join in with swaps and Row Houses in particular, I’d encourage you to go for it – it’s a little time-consuming, but very enjoyable. Don’t be put off by quantity either, because as you can see from this post, you can make them similar and build them up, layer by layer. My final task was to cut the “Row” into 5 separate houses and shape the roofs – for which I used a rotary cutter. I didn’t measure, just eyeballed them, which is why they’re all slightly different!

Now to package them up and post them to Annie! 🙂