Make This House a Home

Happy Saturday, Friends!
I've got another craft for you today.  During my daily Pinterest/Stumbleupon/blog browsing, I came across this adorable little house over at City Girl Gone Costal.

Precious!

It reminded me of a similar little house frame my mom & I picked up on one of our antique/flea market trips.  She's a bit of a collector and thought it would be perfect for display.  The only thing is...it was pretty ugly.  I told her I'd fix it up for her, and had planned on just spray painting it white.  Alas, it sat under her bed for many months, forgotten, nearly consumed by dust bunnies, until I came across her post and knew exactly how I was going to fix it up.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It wasn't particularly difficult, but I would have done a few things differently a second time around.

Materials I Used

• House frame
• White acrylic paint
• White spray paint
• Primer (okay, I didn't actually use primer, but in hindsight I totally should have)
• Sealant
• Various scrapbook paper
• Glossy Mod Podge
• Foam brush
• Medium paintbrush
• E6000 Craft Adhesive

Directions

1. Spray the house with primer; let dry (this is what I didn't do but should have)
2. Start with a base coat of white acrylic paint - be sure to get into the slots.  It doesn't have to be fully covered, just a nice prime.  (I had just assumed I could paint over the red background...this was my second mistake.  I should have pried it off beforehand and probably taken it to the hardware store to get the same size piece cut out of plywood.  But I was lazy and decided to pry it off and work with what I had.  It got kind of destroyed but I would be damned if I didn't make it work somehow!)
3. At this point, I decided the back needed to be taken off.  There were actually handy outlines of the slots from the priming, so I measured the size of the slots and cut out the corresponding size in various patterns of scrapbook paper.  
4. Spray paint the frame with white indoor spray paint; let dry.  Go over it again if there are any uneven spots.  Once it's fully covered, spray with sealant and let dry completely.
5. Once you have all your rectangles cut out, lay them out and make sure the house will cover the background nicely with no blank spots.  Mod podge the paper onto the background, being sure to coat the paper with mod podge once it's dry.  For the thinner pieces, you might need to cut out a piece of thick cardstock and glue the paper over it.
6. Use a strong adhesive to affix the frame to the background; make sure it's lined up as close as you can get it, because it won't be coming off again.  I'm a big fan of E6000, it smells terrible and I always use it outside because I'm convinced the fumes will poison my cats, but it's one of the strongest adhesives I know of.  It also has to dry a full 24 hours.
7. Add picture hooks to the back and hang.  Display your favourite goodies and enjoy!

Happy weekend, my lovelies!