Cheers! Tiny House Bottle Topper by Julie Ann

Hello, it's great to be back at the wonderful Calico Craft Parts blog. We've been having some glorious warm days here in the UK and there's nothing nicer when the sun is hot than to settle down with a glass of cool, pink lemonade in a shady spot in the garden.

When I saw this little bottle top lying on our kitchen table, I thought it would be fun to add an individual touch of whimsy to a bottle of homemade lemonade.

The next step was to create a miniature world on my bottle top, one that suggested lazy, sunny days in shady arbours with sweet music playing and fairy folk bringing refreshing drinks and fanning us with their gauzy wings!

I covered the bottle top with a layer of PaperClay, flattening out the surface with the base of one of the Calico Block Style Tall House kits (mini size). I then constructed the house kit, using a good, crafting glue and waited for the PaperClay to fully dry out.

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While I was waiting for the PaperClay to dry, I had fun composing these little collages for the house, using Chiyogami papers, my own faces and some Renaissance children's bodies! There's a Calico Bumble Bee and a tiny wren in there too!

I love the shape of these seagulls in flight so I was determined to have them soaring over my miniature world. Also I met with an American crafting friend recently who very generously gifted me all kinds of goodies, including these miniature toadstools. They're on wires so I wanted to have them curling around my bottle top world.

Here you can see how the project was beginning to take shape. I liked the idea of the green wires so much, I stole one from the toadstools and stuck it between two opposite facing seagulls. I was then able to drill a small hole in the base of my house and fix the end of the seagull's wire in here so that he would appear to be flying high.

Moss fixed to the PaperClay with a Heavy Gel Medium, completed the impression of a miniature world at the summit of a lemonade bottle. The pixie has been gathering sweet cherries so they could well have contributed their 'pinkness' to the lemonade.

The narrow sides of the house were decorated with a combination of wide and narrow Washi Tape.

Here is the Fairy Queen Mother who is Chief Bee-Keeper. The honey from the royal bees will have sweetened the lemonade.

I used one of the Calico labels from their MDF sheet of selected sizes to convey a message!

Looking at my miniature creation here, it could almost be a nest! Maybe it's shared accommodation for birds and fairy folk during the summer. Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today. I wish you happy, creative days until we next meet.
Calico Craft Parts used in this Project
Block Style Tall House Kit, mini.
Sheet of Mini MDF wood birds shapes, seagulls.
Sheet of Mini MDF wood birds shapes, garden birds
Sheet of Mini MDF Bees and Beehives
Sheet of Mini MDF Tags, Classic