December 3, 2014

Precious Holiday House Decorations

Nothing like a nice warm home and some Christmas decorations for the holidays. I adore the new Glitter House Template Collage Sheet from Alpha Stamps. It's part of the December 3D Ornament Kit.  I can make as many cute little houses as I like and I even found a way to make a two story house. Imagine how many themes you could use this for!



And the houses even light up!


Don't let the lights intimidate you! Everything is already made, you just have to flip the switch on or attach a battery. The left house is lit using a Mini LED Light with Switch and I used the Lamp Post with Light on the right house. I used one lamp post for the front porch light and then used a second one to light the inside of the house. I simple made a hole in the top of my box and fed the light post through. The box conceals the batteries and the wires. I love the way the light shines through the "glass" that was easy to create. I'll show you below.....



Looking at this pic, I feel like I am back in Chester, England on a cold night, breathing in all of the history and beauty. If only I could have this in a life sized version!  I used the wood designed paper from the Christmas Collage 6x6 Paper Pad to create "wood" strips that I placed in a tudor pattern.  


The chimney smoke was created by using  some Crinkle Wire (Repro Bouillon)* stretched and wrapped around a small wooden dowl to make it a larger curl. Twist a few together on the bottom end and pop it on in for a pretty and non polluting smoke.


It was really easy to create a two story house to go along with my one level house. All I did was trace my stencil, then lined up the bottom left of the stencil along with the top left of the first trace.




Then I just cut the house out and assembled it the same way as the one level house. Be sure to scour your paper to make good folding lines. You want to make your edges as smooth and crisp as possible to keep the house sturdy. 


I also like to make my houses extra sturdy so not only did I attach the original stencil to my designed paper (after scouring), I also attached it to a manilla folder. The fold lines up perfectly with the extra bit of my house and again, just make sure to really scour the paper with each layer for a good for a clean, crisp fold.





After putting my house together and creasing it to assemble, I lay it out flat and decorate. I decided where I wanted to attach my windows, traced around my windows and cut just within the line so that there was an area to allow the window to adhere to the paper.

 
To create my transparent windows, I used a ATC Size Glassine Envelopes*


I attached small pieces of the envelope over the windows with a glue stick. Then, I colored the windows with ink and paint. To create stained glass, just use three or four colors like I did for the smaller house.


I hope you feel inspired to make some of these adorable houses. Each year, my favorite decorations that I unpack are all those that were made by hand for generations. Sewn ornaments my mother made, ornaments made by my former students, the ones I have created, and of course my favorite are those made by my children. They are at an age where creating this precious house is simple and they will look wonderful on my mantle and Christmas tree. Have a wonderful Holiday, a Merry Christmas, and as always, thanks for stopping by! 

 
Supplies Used:
 

2 comments:

Roxanne said...

Ahhhh...so adorable Rhonda! Love your lil houses! They look so much like the original Putz houses from yrs ago. Very well done! :) I subscribe to your blog so I saw them before it came out on Alpha Stamps email today. love your creations. thanks for sharing...and a Very Merry Christmas to you! :)

Roxanne said...

je vous en prie! :)