Tutorial: Glitter House

Many of you expressed interest in a tutorial for making glitter houses.

It's a little crazy around here today, so please forgive me if this tutorial seems a bit hurried.  It really is just a matter of cutting, gluing and glittering.

Here goes . . . .

I'll show you how to make a version of this house.

I found the template here. 

I think I've made just about every house on this site and then I started to make some of my own designs.

For today's purposed I've altered mine a little.  I wanted it larger than the template and I also added another "wing".  The process is the same.

First step, find a template you would like to use, enlarge it if necessary.  Cut it out and trace it onto cardboard.

For small houses, cardboard from cereal boxes work's great.  For larger houses, I like to use a thicker cardboard like from a paper ream box.

Before cutting the shape out, score any fold lines

I use a ruler and a butter knife, running it over the the line to form a small dent.

If you look close, you can see the scored lines below.

Cut out the shape, fold along the scored lines.

Here is the cut and folded entryway.

Continue this process until all the pieces of the house are cut out and folded.

The next step is to break out the hot glue gun.

I like to glue on the windows and doors next.  It's much easier to do when it's laying flat.

Then the chimney.

Now you can glue together the house itself.  Just fold along your scored lines, and glue the seam.

It should look like this.

Here's the front.

Now glue on the entryway. 

I first glued one seam and attached it to the house.

Then I glued the other side.

Now it's time to glue the house to the base.

For small houses I like to use canvas panels I've picked up at Micheal's.

For todays house, I've used a scrap piece of thin wood cut to size.

Holding the house upside down, run some glue along the bottom of each wall.

Then place on your base and hold until the glue firms up.

It's a good idea to mark each corner of the house before you add the glue for easy placement of the house when your rushed to place the house before the glue hardens.

If there are any gaps between the house and the base, just run a bead of glue along the base of the house to fill it in.  I normally do this step regardless.  I feel like it's attached better this way.  The paint and glitter will cover it up in the end.

Now it's time to add the roof.

It's a good idea to make sure it fits before adding glue.  Sometimes you may need to do a little trimming.

I normally glue one side of the roof down first, then the remaining side.  It seems to make it easier.

Run a bead of glue along the top of the house front and up the peaks on both side.  Then place and hold the roof on until the glue hardens a bit.

Repeat with the back of the roof.

It's should look like this.

Then add the entryway roof the same way.

Add the chimney next.

You will want to paint the house in your choice of colors.  I normally just use white.

There you have it.  Now the fun part begins . . .

Glittering!

Here are a few more places to find house templates.

(the link is in red below)

Big Indoor Trains: Little Charmer

Martha Stewart:  Winter Village

Better Homes and Gardens:  Snowy Village Ornaments

Here are some examples of house I've made before.

Have fun with this.

If you decided to make a few, I would love to see them!

Robin

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