The Great Tissue Box Challenge: Winners Winners

Today I announce the winners of The Great Tissue Box Challenge 2010!!!

But first, before any prizes are awarded, please take a moment to stroll through the tiny villages that each one of these participants has so carefully concocted. Isn't it amazing how each little abode is so meticulously cut, pasted, painted and ornamented?

Take a look at what Amy (with help from her husband) has crafted. Their little ornaments are heavenly! This village of 18 structures comes complete with several teensy gingerbread houses, a set of house-triplets spelling JOY, a townhouse, a barn, a Federal building, and the pièce de résistance, a church! To see more photos of the town, and their creative process, please visit Amy's delightful blog During Quiet Time. So beautiful!

The snowy hamlet created by Linda @ Mermaid's Creations is Santa's own village at the North Pole! There you can see his little elves busy day and night. In fact, Linda has made it so that from one perspective, we see her 18 joyful houses during the day, and then turned the other way, they are magically lit up for the night. It's a downright cozy home for Santa and his elvish friends, don't you think?

Caitlin (Catherine's daughter) from The Sewing Attic built 20, count'em 20, teensy tiny houses!!! I am so impressed with Caitlin's little tissue box village. As you can see, no two houses are alike. Each construction is a unique, sparkling and bedazzled delight! Wouldn't it be glorious if this were a real, life-size street somewhere in the world? I'd live there in a heartbeat. I'm not even kidding.

And finally, here is Fiona's email submission to the Great Tissue Box House Challenge. Count Fiona's houses with me... Count'em again to make sure you got that right... What was that? 27 houses? 27!!! Can you believe it? ONE TISSUE BOX = 27 houses!!! That must be a record. Wow. Fierce Fiona, you are a competitor. Now please take a close look at just one of Fiona's houses. The details are wonderful. Stone house, red shingled-roof, a variety of windows, door with wreath, some rooms lit, others not. So pretty Fiona!

If you have time please visit the competitors' wonderful blogs including the Rebel Submissions from yesterday. They are truly an amazing group of crafters in my humble opinion.

NOW, the overarching feeling in my mind right now is this: WOWEEEEEEE.

Don't you concur? I'm in awe at ALL the entries. I hate to choose winners because, and yes this sounds horribly cliché, you are all winners. Let me defend that statement:

Everyone comes at any competition with a little basket of interesting life experiences. You are individuals who have arrived where you are in a unique way. You are not robots. How is it possible to pit one of you against another? How can I compare a house built by a four year-old to one built by a 40 year-old? It's impossible. I treasure all of your submissions because each one is a tiny part of your individual stories. And that to me is so special. Thank you, thank you for joining in. It is an honour to show your amazing work here on this blog. Hugs to you.

Now, all that said, I have in fact chosen the winners. They are:

(1) The builder of the most houses: FIONA

(2) The builder of the most and prettiest houses: CAITLIN

I will be contacting the both of you as soon as possible with details regarding prizes!

CONGRATULATIONS CONGRATULATIONS

TO YOU TO YOU!!!

Now please, have yourself a fantastic day! And Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!

The Great Tissue Box Challenge: From The Rebel Crafters

Over the last few days, as the entries rolled in for the Great Tissue Box Challenge 2010, I have enjoyed some of my happiest moments as a blogger. First off, people actually took part! That fact alone makes my year and has me smiling from ear to ear. And secondly, not only did they join in, but they managed to create some of the best things to appear on this blog yet.

I will NOT be announcing the winners today. I will leave that for tomorrow... Today I want to show you some of the "Rebel Tissue Box House Entries". As you know, I did set out some rules and will abide by those rules in order to choose the winners. The following entries may not win in the conventional sense but they so warmed my heart that I WILL NOT dismiss them without mention.

Here is Doro's entry from the beautiful blog Punkt Punkt Komma Strich (which translates to: Dot Dot Comma Dash). She created 5 whimsical and gorgeously round tissue box house ornaments, and shows us very clearly how she went about it. And look, there are even people living inside! How sweet and joyful are they?

Andrea from the Akinna Stisue blog submitted a little tissue box house created by her 4-year-old daughter Susi! Susi did such a fine job constructing her little house (below) and the Christmas details she added are just right. She made it specially for Santa Claus and, as you can see, Susi attached a very secret wish list for him. I wonder what it says...

One of my faithful readers, and author of DM Blog, submitted this little desert village which she created with her grandson. However, DM is particularly rebellious. She didn't use tissue boxes to build her houses but rather cereal boxes, tisk tisk... But, she did fully disclose her transgression, and I felt that her honesty was very refreshing.

And finally, feast your eyes on the entry submitted by the too-talented Mich L. in L.A. Yes, it's a secret-compartment tissue box house necklace!!! Isn't it magical? Michelle is a jewelry-maker who travels down some very inventive routes to get to her unexpectedly delightful creations. And you can travel with her too because she provides the steps to show you exactly how to make it!

You see now why I am happy... I couldn't have asked for better... Thank you Rebels!

And don't forget, tomorrow I will announce The Great Tissue Box Challenge 2010 winners, and will show you yet more Tissue Box House eye candy!

Until then, have yourself a wonderful day!

A Little House-ly Encouragement

To give you a little nudge, a little head start on your Christmas crafts, I've provided you with a few little printable house plans for these tissue box house ornaments I've made.

Here's a little house now... very simple and a tad plain really.

Here are a few that I've embellished with dimensional paint...

Use the printable tissue box template and make a few. Vary the dimensions and you get a bunch of different ones. All of these are from ONE tissue box!

And while you're at it... I mean, if you're going to be making them anyway, you may as well join in the fun of THE GREAT TISSUE BOX CHALLENGE, right?

Check it out!

The Great Tissue Box Challenge 2010

THE CHALLENGE IS NOW CLOSED!

Welcome to THE GREAT TISSUE BOX CHALLENGE 2010!

As you may well know, I love to recycle. I can't bear to part with certain recyclables. Like toilet paper tubes for instance. And tissue boxes. Oh, how I heart the loveliness of the empty tissue box. It has such potential. In fact, to kick off my Christmas crafting, I recently started making little house ornaments using an empty tissue box. I made a few. Then I made more. The houses kept getting smaller and smaller. I've made quite a lot from ONE tissue box and I'm not done yet. To tell you the truth I'm enjoying myself so much that I thought, it would be fun to have you join me!

Thus "The Great Tissue Box Challenge" was born. I feel you need this kind of a friendly, crafty, recycling competition... It will stretch your imagination. It will allow you to recycle. It will exercise the mathematical muscles that I know you have! It'll be fun-fun-fun, AND you'll be completing a Christmas craft at the same time! Here's the low-down:

GOAL OF THE CHALLENGE:

Construct as many cute three-dimensional houses as is humanly possible from ONE tissue box.

Challenge Rules:

1. Construct your houses from ONE tissue box.
2. Houses must be three-dimensional. They must include, at the very least, a floor, walls and a roof.
3. The tissue box used must be a standard size tissue box: 22.5 cm (~9'') long, 10.5 cm (~4 1/4") wide, 9 cm (~3 1/2") high.
4. LINK UP your tissue box houses. Once you've made your houses, link up that particular post in the linky list on THIS post.
5. If you do not have a blog you may send me an email with details and photos of your houses. Your email will qualify as your entry.
6. Shoddy construction is frowned upon. Quantity is important as is QUALITY.
7. You may embellish your houses once they are built.
8. Anyone, anywhere, can enter.
9. Contest closes @12 pm noon EST on 24th of November 2010.
10. Two winners will be announced shortly thereafter: Winner A, the builder of the most houses, and Winner B, the builder of the most and prettiest houses (I will be the ultimate judge of "pretty").
11. Prizes: These two winners will each receive the following:

• A $30 gift certificate to their Etsy Shop of choice
• Your house construction project featured in detail here @ Michele Made Me
• My unceasing admiration

Note: I'm doing the challenge too by the way! I can't win, but I can still play the game. Just try and beat me!!!

Now let's see who's up for THE GREAT TISSUE BOX CHALLENGE!

(Here is the link to my little house template and some embellishing ideas if you need a little inspiration!)

THE CHALLENGE IS NOW CLOSED!

To see all entries, visit these posts HERE and HERE.