Three Storey Popsicle stick Fairy House, with swing and doors and windows.

A very hot hello all of you crafting Helmar readers.  Kristina here with my latest blog post, a three storey rainbow fairy house made entirely out of Popsicle sticks.  I have wanted to make something like this for over twenty years, I honestly just never had the right glue for it.  The first time I used Helmar's Premium craft glue, I realised this was the glue that would do everything I wanted for my fairy house.  So let's begin!!

First off the items required for this project:
Helmar Spray Adhesive
Helmar Gemstone Glue
Helmar P.V.A Professional Woodworking Glue
Helmar Fabric Glue
Helmar Premium Craft Glue
Popsicle Sticks, a lot.
Glitter, your choice of colour.
Craft Knife
Dremel (not required, was just handy).
Lots of decorations, like small flowers, rhinestones, xmas beads, anything your imagination desires to decorate the house.
Cotton wool balls unpeeled for the roof as snow.
Some wood for the base, or you can make the base from Popsicle sticks.  I used Ply wood.
Procedure:

To begin with it is necessary to glue together the popsicle sticks and let them dry.  I started by gluing two sticks together, then when they were sturdy I glued them to another set of two popsicle sticks as shown below.  I used Helmar Premium Craft glue for this and most of this project.  It dried so quick, I had no problems with walls falling down.  I was actually so happy.

The amount of sticks you need to glue together will depend upon the size of your base board.
I also rubbed some of the wood glue on all the panels of the walls just to give them the extra strength that the wood glue should give.  It worked like a charm.  Once you have the required amount of sticks glued together to fit the base board, go ahead and make your design.  I cut out one window before I glued that wall on to the base, and I decided where my front door would go.


I used both Premium Craft Glue and the Wood Glue to adhere the walls to the base.


**Make sure if you want any boards, or interior designs on the windows or doors, do it before you put the roof on.  Yep, guilty as charged here.  I can say it is definitely easier to do this without the roof on**
The whole process is gluing all the sticks to the base board, and cutting out the windows required and making the door.  To make the door I just left a gap of about 6 Popsicle sticks, then I glued three sticks on one side slightly open, and three on the other side even more open.  Using the Premium Glue for the initial bond then the wood glue for the strength.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             The Front Doors.

After the base seemed dry enough, about 2 hours, we are very hot here in Australia at the moment, so in the colder areas it might be a longer wait.  I began the roof/second storey floor.  It is the exact same procedure as I did for the walls, the only thing that needs to be thought about is it you want a verandah and where you want that to be.  Just so you can make sure that you have the sticks overhang in that spot.  Much easier to do it now, than later.  For the roof I glued two sticks across the row that was glued together, just to keep them straight and give them more strength, as pictured below.



I wanted a large verandah on both short edges so I made my overhang quite large.  I put Premium Craft Glue and Wood working glue onto the roof and stuck it on to the bottom level.
Then I just began the second storey the exact same way as I did the first.  Just make sure you plan your windows and doors.




                                                                                                    
 Almost finished the building part, and then on to the imagination part, the decorations!!!

For the top of the second storey walls I used a firm but light weight cardboard (the insert out of a soft drink box).  I glued this on, and the final part of the house building is upon us.  I wanted a pointed roof, but if you want a different kind of roof, go ahead and do it!!  I used Helmar Premuim craft glue to join two sticks together.  I did approximately 20 pairs, because I calculated how big I would need the roof by counting the sticks on the second storey.  I put glue on the base and top of two sets of two sticks, leaned them on an angle on the roof cardboard and added some woodworking glue to ensure it's strength.  The picture below shows the angle of the roof.  I just followed the step of gluing sticks to another two sticks until I reached the end.






Now for the time to let your imagination go wild.  Decorate the windows with any trimmings you want.  I used Helmar fabric glue to make the curtains and to glue them to the house.  Anything that requires fabric I do recommended using the fabric glue, it just works so amazingly well.

I made this verandah fence just by using off cuts and gluing them across the verandah.  I did warn the fairy involved that I am not a certified builder and it may not be amazingly perfect, luckily she is a hippy fairy and didn't much care.  Yes I have made up a whole story about this fairy, it helped me to decorate her house.



I used Helmar Gemstone Glue to apply the door knobs (large rhinestones) and any other beads and gems I wanted applied.
No my fairy has not lost her legs lol, she is just sitting down.  She's a hard working woman!

Curtains and gold embellishment glued on with fabric glue.  Go crazy....have fun.... go overboard!  I did.  I have made a YouTube video on the whole process of the making of this fairy house.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfinjhDF0ww&t=44s





Just one last note, while making this fairy house my two youngest boys seemed to hover a lot over me.  Then they saw my stash of wood and embellishments and they just started to glue and glue and design their own houses.  We all had so much fun sitting in my garage just building our houses, it was a great family night in.  They are both so proud of their houses, they too used Helmar glue.  So sit down with your kids, grandkids, dogs (yep my pugs definitely had to sniff and knock over everything) and have a wonderful and memorable day with Helmar, creating a fairy house.  I am so thankful for the premium craft glue, I couldn't of done this house without it!
Here are my wonderful boys and their awesome creations!  So proud of them.





Thank you for reading, watching the video of the making of this fairy house, and I cannot wait to show you my next project.  It's based on Christmas (shhhhhh).

The making of a paper mache Dobby, from Harry Potter, and then painting him on to the canvas, AND my mini polymer clay jack o lantern!!

Not the most gorgeous face ever, but definitely one that I fell in love with.  Dobby, the elf from the Harry Potter series.  I actually came up with him because I was applying to be on a design team, whose main focus is adhesives.  An Australian company called Helmar.  I saw their design team call and knew that I wanted to be a part of the team.  It only just closed so at the time of typing this I have no idea if I am.  Maybe, maybe not.  At least I tried, and for that I am really happy.

I use adhesives in absolutely everything that I do, but they aren't the main focus, just an important element.  So I set myself a challenge to make glue the hero.  I think I did quite well.

I had a completely ruined Harry Potter book, so I ripped 😮 out some good pages that I could find, and I covered the whole canvas in glue.

I then added all the pages to the canvas, in a variety of directions.  Ensuring that the edges of the canvas were covered too.

Now came the hard bit.  Once it was dry I had to get the outline of Dobby onto the pages.  I used an 8b pencil and it did a great job.  To get the outline I found a picture online of Dobby that I liked, then I printed it out at the appropriate size for the canvas, and I traced it onto the canvas.

I then went over the edges in a raw umber outline, just to ensure that I didn't lose the lines while I was making the paper mache part.

Using glue I slowly layered up Dobby's nose and forehead, as they are the most prominent on him.  I ripped paper into small bits, glued them onto Dobby, making sure they didn't go over the outline.  I thoroughly covered each piece of paper in glue, before and after putting it onto the canvas.  I was honestly flying by the seat of my pants here.  I had no idea where I was going with this, and I was scared of how it was looking.  I persevered.  I am glad I did.

I kept building up his nose and his forehead, and then began to build up the tip of his ear and his lips.  I didn't want them too big, just enough to make the canvas seem lifelike.  I kept ripping and gluing until I was happy with the height.  The tip of the nose has to be higher and more rounded than the rest of the nose and forehead.

Kind of looking a little worrying at this stage, hehe.  I covered his face in unbleached titanium, and I wanted to make his lips and the end of his nose a little pink, so I added a speck of Alizarin Crimson to the unbleached titanium.

Ahhhh, beginning to look a little better, thank gosh.  I just kept building up the layers of unbleached titanium and the crimson at this point.  I wasn't worrying about the details of his wrinkles or lips.  I just wanted to get some paint on him to see how he was going to turn out.

I just kept my eye on the picture of Dobby that I printed and I worked from that.  His eyes are a mixture of sap green, light green and cadmium yellow.  His eyes seem to radiate in his pictures so I tried to capture that glow.  His whole face was differing mixtures of unbleached titanium, alizarin crimson and raw umber.  I then used Titanium White for the high lights and reflections.







I am really proud of how he turned out.  I loved the opportunity to dabble in mixed media.  Hopefully I continue to do more of these types of projects.

 The glue I used was Dina Wakley ultra thick gel medium.  I purchased this product a while ago from my favourite art shop here in Hervey Bay, Art & Soul Studio.  It was less than $12 and went a long way.
https://artandsoulstudio.com.au/

I am yet to varnish it, but when I do it will be Liquitex Gloss Varnish in a super large bottle that I love oh so much.  I am going to try the Super Glossy Varnish from Liquitex next.  I just love the finish it gives.

That is my glue inspired project I did on a whim.  Take a chance I say.  Follow your instincts, try it.  There's no real failures, just lessons learnt.



















On to my next piece, a miniature polymer clay Jack o lantern that I put on top of a battery tea candle light.  I love it.  It took me a few attempts, as usual, to get it the way I like it and to figure out the best way to do it.

This is the next YouTube Tutorial, it will be up in a day or two.  The month of September is dedicated to Halloween!!  So bring on all the spooky and scary things.

So happy with the way the jack o lantern turned out.  I saw the battery tea lights and I thought yep, I need to do it.

Here is the link for my Youtube Channel.......MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL!!

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