One of my besties has really gotten into Feng Shui and attending to her house over the last couple of years, so I decided it was time to make another tiny paper house model… for her. Because these are not exact replicas in miniature, I think getting many of the details right or close is important to capture the vibe of the house, to make someone immediately recognizable to people seeing it before they notice what is inaccurate. That means these take hours and hours and therefore I have taken many, many photos. BUCKLE UP!
Last autumn, when I was visiting my mom, I stayed at my friend’s place to watch her cats for a few days while she and her husband took a short road trip, so I was able to get lots of photos to base this on. I wonder if they ever looked at their ring cameras and wondered what I was doing. 
I did my best to match their paint and roof colors to paper from my vast stash and I think came very close! I think the black metallic worked great for the solar panels! I had never noticed the dart board on the back door to the garage and I don’t think it’s important to them, but it added a little detail to the back view that I liked. I found a black/white candy-shaped enamel dot that I added a little red to for that.
The other wee lantern house models I have made for friends have been Christmas gifts, so have had snowy bases. Since this is for a spring birthday, I was challenged to come up with another idea. I do not want to do landscape replicas at all, so I thought I should avoid anything lawn-like. Then I saw my cloud dies and decided that floating on clouds would be fun! When combing though my white and white glitter papers, I came upon a sheet of white glitter craft foam which got me thinking of using plain white craft foam for the clouds - which I didn’t have in my stash. When shopping at Michael’s for some I found this “furry” white craft foam which I decided was perfect for clouds. WOO!
The house comes off the base to reveal the lantern portion; two LED tea lights that set into the base which is two layers of foam board. There is a layer of plain white craft foam with the footprint of the house cut from it, that is then covered with the cloud die cuts.
This is the first ranch-style house I have done and I decided that the additional width needed some interior support, which I hadn’t had to do on the others. I used craft paper to make them, but they also needed a way for the LED light to fill the whole space since even the garage had vellum windows. For some reason I went to my punch stash instead of my die stash (why?) thinking I had a circle punch that would work. I didn’t, but I did have 2 sizes of paw prints. Perfect! They have 3 cats and she is an animal lover. FUN! I also needed addtional suppor for the roof and added pieces for that.
I did decide to make a nod to grass or at least earthly greenery by making the bottom of the base green. I used wood plugs for feet. I think giving the bases feet makes this look just a little more polished and elevated… literally and aesthetically.
On previous houses, I had a ribbon or textile trim piece that worked, but I didn’t have a sky blue color. I did have a sky blue swiss dot embossed paper, though. To cover the seam in the front, I made a plaque with their house number with stamps, embossing powder, and an oval die.
Pervious recipients have not realized that these are lanterns until I mention it, so I made a little tag to help her discover that LEDs and the little pawprint cut-outs.
Speaking of lantern, here are some shots of that!
Thanks for taking this wee paper home tour!
UPDATE: I learned in an email this morning that they’re painting it! A darker green. D’oh! She won’t get this until mid-April for her birthday. I know she’ll still appreciate it, but c’mon!
