Polar Vortex Craft: Little Glitter Village

For years my mother, our neighbor and I would gather around the Holidays to make a little glitter house/church/barn/store. We first saw them in an old Martha Stewart magazine, though you can find abundant examples in the world of Pinterest. This is a multi-part project. The first step is to make a pattern. Here are the two original Martha Stewart patterns, which can modified to make your dream house:

This pattern is one I modified to make a church for the village.

Make your pattern on regular paper or if you are feeling brave draw it right on to your light weight cardboard. Use an exacto knife to cut out the house and windows/doors and score the folding edges to facilitate folding. Next, it's time to fold and glue. If you have a LOT of patience feel free to hold it together yourself... me, I prefer a good rubber band after a minute of hand holding. 

After a few hours of drying, it's time to spray paint it with primer and pick out what color your house will be. The first year I chose to paint my house a bright pink (of course, this is me) and my fellow crafters looked at me like I was out of my mind. They shouldn't have... it turned out great and didn't look out of place with their tamer pastel houses. 

After the paint is dry, you can apply fake snow (see below). After that dries it is time to do the all-over glitter. Paint on a light coat of thinned modge podge or elmers craft glue (watered down) and lightly pour very fine glitter over the wet glue, collecting excess to be reused. 

The middle glitter is coarser and used for the roof, the left glitter is for the rest of the house, and the Snow-Tex gives a snowy texture to the roofs. 

After you are done with the painting and glittering, it's time to place little pieces of velum behind all of the window openings (you can mark mullions on with white pencil) and mini wreaths (trimmed down greenery or mini garland). 

That is pretty much it! As the years have gone by we have made our patterns more and more complicated and added little winter accessories like trees, which can be found in the home decor area of most stores around the holidays. 

Happy Holidays!