House Project

This is the house I'm working on that I mentioned in a previous posting. It's 10-1/2" tall to the peak of the roof, and the side where the windows are is 8-1/2" wide. I found this at a 2nd hand store and immediately saw it's possibilities in being a piece to honor my mom. As you can see, there are 2 long slots; two books go there. There are identical slots on the other end of the house. I don't have much worked out on the house yet - it's slow going.

It didn't take much time to do what you see above. My mom is holding my sister Carolyn. The letters spelling "mom" are 3D. The other end of the house will be for a picture of me with mom. That has slowed me down, because as I go through photos I get too emotional and then can't function. Should I use the photo of mom and me standing next to each other after returning to the house from my college graduation? Or how about the photo of mom standing beside Les and me just after we got married? I like the photo of the two of us laughing about something at one of our "cooking school" sessions. And then there's the photo my granddaughter took several weeks before mom died where I'm sitting next to her on the couch and I'm holding her fragile, but still pretty, hand.

I first sanded the house to remove its glossy finish. Then I painted on a coat of gesso. Next I lightly painted blotches of light pink, yellow and aqua all over the house. At the top of the peak is a copy of a small piece of a handkerchief of my mom's. I added pieces of star patterned tissue paper. At my mom's feet is torn pieces of Czech text, lightly colored green/blue, to give the feel of grass at her feet, and I've rubber stamped some flowers there too. The small wording next to Carolyn says "I love you". The photo of mom and Carolyn is a black and white photo. I used colored pencils to add color to the photo.