Too early for a Christmas Decoration?

Hi everyone!
A quick post tonight to share some photos of the technique I used to create these cute little decorations! I make these every year with the intention of building up a glorious collection but somehow I end up giving them all away. These will soon wing their lovely way to my swap partner ( no idea who yet) in the Mini Marvel FB group which I host. November's theme was ' Miniature Houses' and there have already been some gorgeous contributions.

I vary the media I use each year to first create a masterboard. This year I tried out the new 'Artistry Ink' dye ink pads that Barbara Gray at Clarity is now stocking. This is the first time I've used them. They blend beautifully and are a little more subdued than the Tim Holtz version. Last year I used some of my gorgeous paper stash and the year before, paint. I always use the same little House die: Marianne designs collectables. Each masterboard starts with clear embossing Christmas images. This year I used a variety of Tim Holtz and The Unmounted Stamp Company (Circa stamps), incorporating a mix of snowflakes, holly, pine cones and other greenery, to cover several sheets of PaperArtsy Smoothy 240gms card.  

Each sheet had a different variety of images which would dictate my colour choices. So, with that in mind, I chose 3 dye ink colours per page and blended the colours with cut and dry. 

Now for the fun part! I remove the embossing ink by placing each sheet, in turn, between two sheets of copy paper and, using a medium hot iron (not steam) press down over the embossed images. You get a more vividly white image. 

So this can now be over stamped, which I did, still using the same dye ink pads and more stamped images. 

Interestingly, the copy paper retains the removed embossed ink so can be used for a later project! Nice one! 

Here are some other masterboards I made using different colour dye pads and stamps. 

Now to die-cut the houses from the stamped masterboards, then ink all the edges.  This is a bit time-consuming but worth it.  You need six houses to complete each 3D  'house' 

You can make each house from the same masterboard but I wanted to use contrasting papers. It's just a matter of folding each house down the middle and gluing the contrasting sides together. However, first I added some pretty twine and a bead to hang beneath each one. 

Glitter along the roof edges is of course a necessary addition so they can really twinkle on a twig branch or shop bought tree! And now a close up of my favourite colour combo....

I hope you will have a go at making some of these gorgeous little houses. Thanks for stopping by. I would love to see what you think and which is your particular favourite. Until next time, happy crafting!