Country Home Planter

Michele Emerson-Roberts 2015

My wonderful friend GayLynn is truly a “country girl”. Her birthday is coming up and I wanted to make something special for her gift. She has a deep window sill over her sink and it will be the perfect place for this rustic “country home” planter. Follow along and create one for yourself or a gift.

Supplies:

• Any of the Arnold Grummer paper making kits
• AG CP house mold
• A sunny window, heat gun or microwave oven
• Blender, small strainer, cello sponges and soft towels
• Scraps of white paper (think junk mail, etc.)
• Die:  Tiny heart
• Spellbinders Grand Calabur II cutting and embossing machine
• Westcott™ paper trimmer
• Tiny heart punches
• Beacon QuickGrip™ and ZipDry™ adhesive
• Tree/bush branches approx: 25 - 30
• Chip board (I used cereal boxes)
• Scrapes of heavy weight dark brown handmade paper
• ColorBox Stylus™ handle and white foam tips
• Brown water based ink pad
• 4 x 4” florist foam block

Instructions

1. Follow the direction for paper making and casting found in any of the Arnold Grummer paper making kits or books to make slurry from the white scraps.
2. Cast four (or more to use on another project) of the house molds.
3. Dry the castings in a microwave oven, with a heat gun or place it in a sunny window.
4. Create a sheet of heavy weight handmade paper.
5. When the paper is dry, die cut a bunch of hearts.
6. Punch a bunch of tiny white and dark brown hearts.
7. Cut pieces of the dark brown handmade paper for the doors and windows. Remember to always save the scraps.
8. Create a simple 4” square open top box from the chip board.
9. Attach the doors, windows and hearts to the house castings and the house castings to the chip board box with QuickGrip™ adhesive.
10. “Antique” the houses and edges of the castings with the brown ink and Stylus™ tips.
11. Attach the hearts to the tips of a lot of the sticks with QuickGrip™ adhesive.
12. Place the foam block into the container.
13. Arrange and Insert the sticks in to the foam.