Monday, November 22, 2010

I built a crooked house.

Have you happened to hear about The Great Tissue Box Challenge challenge?  It's up right now on the beautiful, wicked cool blog Michele Made Me.  The challenge is to see how many teensy, adorable cardboard houses you can make from one tissue box.  Check out her examples!  Quite amazingly lovely.

I wanted to play along, but I have a couple of handicaps.  One - I am a little too unfocused (read: profoundly lazy) to work at one thing for very long.  And two - no matter how hard I try, I cannot cut straight.  So I did not manage an entire village of perfect little domiciles.  But I have made one single, lopsided teeny tissue box house.

Oh, also - it's a secret compartment necklace.







I used Michele's template, slightly modified, and cut out the panels from my tissue box.  I placed them onto a sheet of my favorite magical, super-strong metal duct tape, like so:



(Regular readers may remember the magical tape from a previous post, the One Minute Pendant.  It's so useful!)  I put another sheet of metal tape on top, sandwiching the cardboard inside, and cut out the panels.




Although I thought I'd cut straight, um, no, I guess I hadn't.  I realized my house was going to be crooked.  I soldiered on.  On another sheet of tape, I arranged some metal bits and pieces, then used that to wrap up the house.






So I had the two halves of my teensy crooked house.



I poked three holes.



I made an interesting contraption with craft wire and a long skinny chain.  Then I stuck the contraption through the house, and made a loop underneath the floor.







I threaded the chain up through the two holes in the roof, and added some heavy beads and a clasp.



The heavy beads are important, they hold the roof down in a windstorm.  Or if your cat breathes on it.

Finally, a little tassel.  Because I love tassels.



And that is how I built a crooked house.



The roof is lift-off-able, for hiding little treasures.




Just for fun, I shall enter the challenge.  Thanks, Michele, you are one of my greatest inspirations in this bloggy landscape.

Now if only you could teach me to cut straight!

40 comments:

  1. holy moley!!! just unbelievably awesome, Michelle. Did i tell you how much you rock? Well if I haven't... YOU ROCK somethin awful!!! I LOVE YOUR HOUSE with secret compartment (that detail alone is bloody great)! thanks so much for being such an awesome sport and playing my crazy game.

    many cyber-hugs,

    michele

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  2. oh! another fun blog to follow - YAY!!

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  3. This. Is. Stunning. This may be my favorite piece yet! You have that challenge all locked up, period.

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  4. wow! What do you know....duct tape, who would have thought? I knew you'd be a great addition to our crafty party, and I was right on! Thanks so much for dropping by Craft Schooling Sunday, great to see you!

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  5. That duct tape made your cool little crooked house so RAD!! I love it! (:

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  6. Wow - so amazing. I must check out that magical metal duct tape. How smart to add the metal bits to add some dimension.

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  7. Once again you have me sittin' here with my mouth wide open, nothing is coming out, just amazed at your imagination. I thought it was silver when I first looked. Adorable!!

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  8. OH MY GOSH! This is absolutely wonderful! I am just stunned at the creativity! Thanks so much for sharing!

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  9. You never cease to amaze me with what you can whip up into super fun jewelry!

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  10. Oh my goodness - a house! From a tissue box! That's fantastic! You can't tell that it's crooked! How CUTE!! I'm sure I can do something like this with my girls - only 4 days to go till the holidays!!!

    Thanks for linking up!
    Have a fabulous week!

    Jill @ Creating my way to Success

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  11. That is so ridiculously cool, I'd pay some serious bucks for it if I wasn't totally skint. Do you take IOU's or cats?

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  12. I can't believe you just whipped that up! Unbelievably cute!

    Kelly

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  13. I love this!! I almost can't believe it was made with cardboard! Amazing, you are sooo talented!
    Amie @ http://www.kittycatsandairplanes.blogspot.com/

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  14. I am tickled pink. I can't cut a straight line to save my life. How cool to be in the same boat as you are!!

    This house rocks...I love that metal foil tape. We've got a whole role but it is printed!! :(

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  15. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't even KNOW about this metal foil tape. That just looks like metal to me. Amazing. That house is adorable.

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  16. Why on earth would you want to cut straight? There would go half the charm of the piece!

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  17. Does anyone cut straight?!? Frankly, I think it's an urban legend.

    But, wowza, what a fabulous, inspiring piece of art you've created here!! I am so book-marking this ... tfs!

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  18. I love it! Totally cool, pretty and crafty :)

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  19. You're brilliant. Love what you did with this template.

    Nancy

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  20. Love your little house pendant. Also thank you for the great tip on how to use metal foil tape to make bails. I can't buy the kind I need for my project locally but now I can make my own.

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  21. wow...what a very creative idea! such a pretty house!

    many greetings, doro.

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  22. I actually HAVE some of that tape, left over from redoing the duct work in the house! It's just been sitting there! Now, something to do with it. Cool beans...

    I actually don't see the crookedness to the house, but you KNOW it is there, so you say it. But, it reminded me of this::::

    There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,
    He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
    He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse.
    And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

    Anne in NC

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  23. Wow!!! I love, love, love your little house! It's gorgeous and so original. You did amazing!!!

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  24. Wow I love your little house and from the pictures it looks like a wee metal house, you would never guess what it is made from. Perfect!

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  25. This is a great idea !!!! I am going to see about your magical thing , but the effect is so nice ! I love the way you have made your own little different nouse !!!

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  26. Michele huh! you are just unbelievable creative...Continue doing great work!

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  27. Hi, popped over from Michele's Blog to see all the wee houses challenge. WOWeee, just checked out how you made this - I too thought it was silver!! It's just FAB!. Will def. be dropping back in to see your wonderful creations. Thank you for sharing. Karen x

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  28. Amazing. I must try this, though I doubt my creation could compare.

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  29. Your genius is showing. This is darling!

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  30. Beautiful! I have some aluminum tape, I think I will have to make this.

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  31. Holy Freakin' Moly!! I just KNEW that was Precious Metal Clay, until I scrolled down further!! I'm off to my junk drawer to get my silver duct tape and go make something! (I have some left over from the robot costume I made for my kiddo.) Love IT!
    ~Diana

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  32. Thanks so much for sharing, this is fantastic!!!

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  33. I love the necklace it's really cool

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  34. unbelievably wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  35. Adorable. Very creative. It sure LOOKS like metal. I too thought it was metal clay. Great job!

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