Category Archives: Christmas

winter church has unusual holiday color scheme

Most Christmas greeting cards tend to use red and green, silver and gold, etc. When I saw this greeting card, I immediately wanted to use it as the base for a winter church. The unusual color scheme of pale orange and light purple drew me in. The base measures 7 1/8″ wide by 4 1/2″ […]

craft storage / picket fence supplies

One of my favorite storage systems are small, three-drawer, plastic containers. They work well to contain supplies that are needed only for one particular project.  These drawers are stored in the island in the middle of the craft room. I can turn in my desk chair, grab a drawer, and turn back to my desk […]

drawing a roof for a putz house bumpout or porch

If you have questions about this process, please ask. I will edit the tutorial to reflect points that clarify the instructions. Following is a picture of the simple pattern I drew to illustrate the process. On the pattern, dotted lines are fold lines and solid lines are cut lines. Brown = The depth of the […]

green putz barn

This sweet, ORIGINAL size, Putz barn started with the card I used for the base. The card depicts a winter orchard. The picture is covered with very fine, iridescent glitter. A strip of seafoam green runs along the bottom of the picture and the word “Peace” is colored with the same green. I knew I […]

spring / Easter putz church and a house

I drew the pattern for this church last week. It started as a house, but when I was looking through my stash of Easter cards for one to use to make the base, I found one that would be perfect for a church. I drew some additional pattern pieces to make the bell tower, and […]

MINI Valentine putz house

This MINI size, Valentine Putz house is the last one I am making this season. It’s time to move on to Easter Putz! It was fun to make and fun to landscape. A lot of little details make it fun to look at. The base measures 4 1/2″ wide x 5 1/2″ deep. The Putz […]

Valentine putz house

I used a cardboard, candy box to make this ORIGINAL size, Valentine Putz house. The base is made from an upcycled greeting card. It measures 5 1/2″ wide x 5″ deep. The Putz is 4″ tall as measured from the bottom of the base to the top of the roof. The back of the Putz […]

summertime putz house

I had a lot of fun making this sweet, summertime Putz house. I had planned to make it a Valentine house, but it kept saying “summertime, summertime,” so summertime it is. I found a vintage dollhouse online that I used as inspiration for the Putz house pattern. So sweet. Not my usual design, but I […]

thatching tutorial

I love these little Irish cottages. The thatched roof on the Putz shown here is my own creation and design. Every time I thatch a cottage, I learn something new and tweak the process to make it better than the last time. The first time I thatched an Irish cottage, I used rafia. I like […]

2018 chalkboard Christmas tree

Last year, beginning in December and going forward about six months, I had a lot of trouble with my blog. Many things weren’t posted last Christmas, including the chalkboard tree for 2018. After posting the start of this year’s tree, I realized I never posted last year’s tree. I’ll fix that now! The theme for […]