Stone Washed by Gill Humphrey

Sometimes the kit and a few choice products is all you need - I know coming from the girl who adds lots of layers to everything this may come as a bit of a surprise but really clean and simple is definitely sometimes the way to go.

I took the Farol house kit and laid out the pieces so i knew which side was going to be inside the building once it had been made up and then used the Daily Art Gilding Set so that inside had a reflective surface that my lights could bounce off. I started by painting the inside with the black gesso in the kit, added a layer of the glue from the kit and then chose the gold gilding flakes as I had warm white rice lights. You could use Pentart black primer paste, metal leaf glue and any other gilding flake you have to do this but the kit really does make it very simple.

Having decorated the inside with the flakes I constructed the walls and roof of the house - the eagle eyed will notice that I did not make it up in the same way as the packaging picture - the joys of receiving prototypes with no instructions! - so the piece that is pictured at the top of the building front was used by me to add to the apex of the roof, it sits there very nicely and gives a good alternative way of making up the building.

The walls of the house were covered with Structure Paste so that the house has a faux pebble dash surface. The windows and roof were then given a coat of Anthracite Deluxe Paste which gives them an almost ironwork like surface before adding them over the cut out areas of the house walls. The step made from three pieces of MDF which layer on top of each other was painted the same way and added beneath the door.

At the back of the house is a small circular aperture - I fed my string of rice lights through this before securing its on/off switch to the outside back of the house before then adding the house to the base also painted with the deluxe paste. Finally I added the lamppost from the kit.

I appreciate that I am a lucky girl and had all three variants of the house which were decorated slightly differently. The Amsterdam with its shaped roof which has the silver gilding flakes inside and cool white rice lights and also the Flores which has been made up with the two pieces for highlighting the floral cut out element on the front stacked together and used on the roof line.

I hope you like the idea of using the gilding flakes as a reflective surface as I really do think it helps the light projection from the building especially at night.