Christmas Notebook

I continue to work on my box of Putz houses. I put window panes in them and made window and door frames for some of them. I’ll finish that part of the project tomorrow. Yesterday (Friday) I spent my craft time making bases for the little houses. I scoured my Christmas card collection to find cards to match the houses. These days, I pick the card first and paint the house to match. Much easier! But I did manage to find cards for all the houses. I stacked them together before moving to the next step.

All the bases had to be assembled, then painted. I had a few done, then realized I needed a way to remember which picture went to which house, so I took pictures of all of them.

I thought the “gingerbread” and the color matched this cute card perfectly. I see this house still needs window frames.

And I love the colors on this pair.

I finished six of the bases. That process includes making a box from the card to serve as the base, cutting cardboard to fill the box to give it stability, binding it with strips of cardboard and rubber bands to allow the glue to dry tightly, giving it a base coat of white paint, and a second coat, then a third coat of paint mixed with sand to give it that lovely vintage texture, and applying fine glitter to the wet paint. The final step is to let the paint dry completely before attaching the house, fence and embellishments. I like to cut the flaps off flat boxes and use the box as a tray to corral projects. I was happy to have one on hand that held all six bases.

I have three bases left to paint. I will do that in the morning before I make window frames. That will give the bases time to dry after they are painted. Hopefully, I will get all the houses attached to their bases by the end of the day.

Here is a link to my tutorial for making bases for Putz houses. I wrote this blog post four years ago, before I began making the bases from Christmas cards, but the basics are all there. Tutorial for making Putz house bases

All day, as I worked on my project, I watched the ice build up on the big oak in the back yard. The birds were in a frenzy at the feeder, and I was glad I could stay indoors. Be safe out there!

~~Rhonda