This one, for me

As an artist, I know that the best way to kill inspiration is to always make art for others, never for yourself. Go for it, hunt the likes, please your clients, make your family smile, do more and more for others, and nothing that you would truly, really make for yourself and no one else.

And then before you know it, you’re dried up and boring, painting cliché pictures and little cutsie things.

So this one is for me. After the last house I wasn’t perfectly happy. It’s cute and nice and all but …I wanted one that would look cool near my favorite ceramic pot. I wanted one that would look nice near my fake flowers, I wanted one to practice fun botanical patterns, I wanted something modern and fun and not too christmasy…I wanted one for myself!

So I made one modern and fun and not so christmasy that I would have to hide it in January. And I made two since I had room enough.

I also made tons of cute patterns and I’ll be back with that, too.

So, warm up the printer, find scissors, glue, and a sharp utility knife: make something for yourself.

These little houses are fairly sophisticated. For example, the design of the windows allows either to cut out little windows with a nice frame, or open little shutters. You’ll notice a tiny dot in the middle of the roof : it’s the center of gravity and where to thread pretty floss if you want to hang it (do thread before gluing though). It’s also designed to minimise the number of cuts and folds, and, except for the shutters, every fold folds inward, so you can glue in kind of a rolling movement. It’s balanced so it won’t unfold if glued correctly. Built with strong paper, and stored in a box, these little pieces of paper engineering will last several years. I have some for ten years!

Merry Holidays!

And one to colour for extra fun: