Greenhouse - Variation on a Tim Holtz Village Dwelling

I'm very excited to share this with you at last. I've had to keep it under wraps for a couple of weeks because I made it for my Sister's Birthday (Happy Birthday Deb! xxx).  I had been wondering for a while if I could adapt the Tim Holtz Village Dwelling die to make a greenhouse and this is what I came up with...

I cut out the standard Dwelling walls, then cut out sections with a scalpel to make the panes and squared-off the door and removed the front porch section.  I painted it in a pale lilac colour, added a hinge to the back and used frosted acetate for the glass.

On the inside I created a bench using some thin strips of wood and made some terracotta pots from air-drying clay.

The watering can was made from cardboard and PVA glue and painted with "Brushed Pewter" Distress Spray. This is one of my favourite Distress Inks, its such a clever product.  The metallic effect is amazing for a water-based stain/paint. The nozzle is made from a small brass eyelet.

I painted the base to look like gravel and added feint brickwork-effect stepping stones with a paintbrush.  I purposely left this quite pale as I didn't want it to overpower the pots and the greenhouse.

I made two matching Bottle-Brush trees to frame the greenhouse and dyed them green.  I will add a blog on how I make these soon.  Using the same method I made matching Lavender bushes which are made in exactly the same way but trimmed flat on one side.

The flowers are made using "Flower Soft" - 'Crocus' for the Lavender, 'Sweat Pea' for the two big pots and 'Spring' for the two smaller pots. I also used some Reindeer Moss in the pots sitting on the bench inside.

I hope you like it?  More importantly, I especially hope my Sister likes it!!  I'm actually quite missing seeing it on my windowsill where its been the last week or so.  But there are other things rapidly taking up the space which I will share over the weekend... :)

Thanks for visiting, please check out my other pages.

Alli xx