Hello Friends!!! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays! I hope that this message finds you well and happy preparing for all the coming festivities…I have been a busy girl preparing foods, wrapping presents, decorating and reminiscing about many Christmas’s of the past…the best way to celebrate is by remembering, appreciating all those in my life and being grateful for all that I have, which includes you all and my love of creating and making.
I am back today to share one more tutorial before the new year starts. This project was created for the Sizzix Holiday Christmas release using the new Paper Village Set 2. If you’ve followed me long enough than you know that I have a thing for all things vintage and especially love decorating for Christmas with all my handed down and collected vintage Christmas things. Among some of my most favorite things are the Putz houses. These were tiny Christmas village houses made of paper that were sold in dime stores in the 1930-40’s. My mother was a collector of them and when she passed, I was lucky enough to receive some of them. Since then, I have been collecting all that I can find to decorate my tree and tuck into Christmas vignettes to display in my home….and that is where my love of tiny houses began.
I was THRILLED when Tim came out with the first Paper Village set, but even more this year when he announced another to go along with the previous set. The combination of both is AWESOME and has easily become my two favorites sets of all time! I love how versatile it is, no matter the season or reason, these little houses can be made any which way that your heart chooses.
So, lets take a closer look.
The Houses…
I started by creating 3 different houses as I knew I wanted to place one house in each cubby of the idea-ology Vignette Divided Drawer. I cut the main house pieces out of White Distress Mixed Media Heavystock, leaving the roof of each of the houses to be cut from Distress Woodgrain Heavystock and the tiny chimney pieces cut from Cracked Leather Heavystock.
Once I had all the pieces cut, I ran the 3 main house pieces through the new Mini Kaleidoscope 3D Embossing Folder. By cutting the pieces out first, then running through the folder, I made it so that the empression was the cleanest and sharpest. I cut out the windows and doors to the pieces then began adhering the main house together.
All the roofs and chimney pieces were rubbed with a combination of Pumice Stone and Tea Dye Distress Paint using my finger, being sure not to do it with a heavy hand..a little goes a long way and I wanted to emphasize the texture. Once the pieces were dry, I adhered all the houses together using collage medium. Once dry, I cut small pieces of vellum to place within to cover the windows and doors.
**A side note on the vellum covers…as some of you know, my Christmas projects were lost in-route to Tim, so I remade all of them to ship out for him and the Sizzix LIVE. When I remade this project, I decided to add tiny lights to them. The photo close-ups that you see below were from that first project and since then, my photos were lost from the newest project (thanks to my hubby cleaning up our photo cloud…oops!) Anyways, I am sharing the photos that I have. My finished second project had tiny lights that lite up the houses. Lights or no lights, this project is one of my favorites.
I added a tiny bit of Opaque Grit-paste to each of the houses in random places, then while the paste was still wet, sprinkled it with Clear Rock Candy Glitter and set them aside to dry.
I created 3 small wreathes for each of the front doors by cutting the small circle window die found in the set, and punching a small hole in the center using a 1/8″ hole punch. (The best way to do this is to punch the 1/8″ hole into your paper, then place the small circle die centered over the previous hole to create the look of a wreath.) The wreath was cut out of green inky paper, rubbed with a small amount of Opaque Grit-paste, then, using a stylus tool and Candied Apple Distress Paint, I dotted on some “berries”.
The tiny red doors were added by cutting the door from scraps of red inky paper and applying them to the fronts of each of the attached doors by using a Xyron tool to make them into a sticker. (This way, I didn’t get the white door tinted with red ink, had I used collage medium to attach them instead, that may have happened.)
The chimneys were all stuffed with small pieces of cotton batting that was pulled to create the look of smoke. I applied it with collage medium, then rubbed it with a bit of collage medium and sprinkled it with Clear Rock Candy Glitter.
Here is a close up of all 3 of the houses…






The Vignette Divided Drawer…
I lightly painted the entire divided drawer with Dina Wakley White Gesso using a dry brush, then set it aside to dry. Once dry, I rubbed the entire drawer with Distress Crackle Paste, then set it aside to dry and crackle.
I created some background paper by using Distress Watercolor Paper, Pumice Stone and Antique Linen Distress Sprays and water, then dried it with my heat tool. I stamped the paper using the Stripes and Holiday Background Stamp Set CMS281, (I’m sure you all know that this is a classic for me to use for any and all my Christmas makes because it always seems that I find some way to use it every year…it’s one of my FAVORITE sets).
Once the paper was dry, I applied some tiny snowflakes using the Mini Flurries Layering Stencil found in the #50 mini set of stencils MST050. using Opaque Grit-paste and more Clear Rock Candy Glitter…this project has some shine!
Once the texture paste and glitter were dry, I cut the paper to fit into each of the cubbies and applied them inside using collage medium and dried it with my heat tool.
(If you plan on adding Tiny Lights, this is where you would add them. I drilled 3 holes into the back of each of the cubbies using my Dremel Tool then threaded an equal amount of them (as best I could) of the tiny lights through each of the holes from the back of the vignette. I applied a piece of paper on the back of the drawer to cover the not-so pretty part of the lights. The 3 areas of tiny lights in each cubby were left there until the little houses were ready to be placed inside.)
The outside of the vignette was entirely covered in paper that I created using the Sizzix Engraved 3D Texture Fade and Distress Metallic Silver Kraftstock. I embossed several pieces of the metallic paper that was cut to fit the box, then sanded it using sand paper, then, once distressed, rubbed it with Walnut Stain Distress Ink using a blending tool. This created the time-worn look.
I applied the paper to the outside of the box using collage medium, then after it was dry, hammered in some small vintage tacks that I found in my stash. This really gave it a look of vintage metal ceiling tiles, all grungy and vintage.
I rubbed the sides of the box with Dina Wakley White Gesso, then rubbed on, you guessed it…more Opaque grit-paste. I set it aside to dry, then once it was, rubbed on some collage medium in random places and sprinkled it with clear rock candy glitter and some distress mica flakes.
I painted an idea-ology Mini Hardware Knob with Dina Wakley White Gesso, then a light rub of Candied Apple Distress Paint, once dry, I rubbed it with grit-paste, a Walnut Stain Distress Crayon and glittered it up. Using a Dremel Tool, I drilled a hole it the top and attached the knob.
The Poinsettias…
I cut several poinsettias out using the new Sizzix Festive Bouquet set with papers that I created using Distress Spray Stains…here’s a look at the papers I used. I always make a big bunch of backgrounds before I start creating my projects so that I have a good selection on hand. These papers made the perfect poinsettias.
Once the poinsettias were adhered together using collage medium and foam adhesive, I rubbed them with Opaque White Grit-paste. While wet, I sprinkled on more glitter.


I arranged the flowers, greens and some pieces of mummy cloth scraps to both the left side and top of the vignette drawer and applied them using a hot-glue gun and collage medium. I cut small pieces of Quilt Batting to place inside each of the cubby openings. The batting was cut using Pinking Sheers, rubbed with collage medium, then sprinkled with glitter, then adhered inside the vignette.
I adhered each of the houses inside the cubbies using a good amount of collage medium. (If you are adding tiny lights, you would be stuffing them inside each house now.) The overflow of collage medium at the bases of each of the houses was sprinkled with glitter then the entire piece was set aside to dry over night. It amazes me how collage medium sticks to ANYTHING, even to hold these tiny houses on a piece of glittered quilt batting. It just needs time to set-up, once dry, it doesn’t move!
Once the project was dried overnight, I rubbed some of the crackled areas with a Walnut Stain Distress Crayon and rubbed it in using a damp tiny paint brush.
With that, my project was complete. Thanks so much for stopping by today to check this project out and for continuing to support me and my creating and making. I appreciate you and all the love, kind wishes and blessings that you bring to my life. Thanks so much from the bottom of my heart! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and blessings to you and yours!
Have a safe and happy holiday season…see you next year!
Creatively yours,
Stacy
Products used to create this project…click here to shop at Simon Says Stamp.
Sizzix/Tim Holtz Paper Village 2, Festive Bouquet, 3D Kaleidoscope Mini Texture Fade, Distress Heavystock White Paper, Woodgrain Paper, Cracked Leather Paper, Distress Paints, spray stains and Inks, Dina Wakley White Gesso, Metallic Kraftstock Paper Stash, Stampers Anonymous Stripes and Holiday Stamp Set CMS281, Mini Layering Stencil Set #50 MST050, Distress Crackle Texture Paste, Opaque Grit-Paste, Clear Rock Candy Glitter, Distress Mica Flakes, Walnut Stain Distress Crayon, Mummy Cloth, Vellum, idea-ology Tiny Lights, Vintage tiny tacks, Cotton Quilt Batting and more…


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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family….this project is fabulous…I guess the first round of projects that you made were just for practice…LOL…gotta watch out for the package gremlins…they will steal anything….”see” you next year….
I love this! I can’t believe they lost your package and you had to remake them all. Wow! But, I thank you for remaking and for posting this tutorial. It helps to have details and directions when I want to copy a technique. And, I love when I have most of the products you used on hand so I can make my own version. Thank you!
Stacy, I continue to marvel. Your creativity and ability to use the products seems effortless. I have taken countless notes on what to use and when as your instructions provide clear guidance making all of us better crafters. Thank you for sharing your expertise. May you and yours have a Merry Christmas with the New Year filled with laughter, loads of projects, and of course, love.
Wonderful. Amazing. Fab. Thank you for being so creative and sharing your process. I’m hoping to make some soon.
I started following you this past year at the suggestion of my sister who said you were my kind of maker. She was so correct and I love your posts. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful expertise with the rest of us. I have gotten so many helpful tips from you which have inspired and refined my own work. Your blog is one of the things that kept me inspired and allowed me to bury myself in my studio and meet head-on this last two challenging years. Merry Christmas and Happy Art-filled New Year.
Stacy, you have been such an inspiration over the years, and I appreciate each and every blog post. This one’s so pretty, and hopefully that lost one will someday return to you. These little homes are so sweet, and I especially love the ‘smoke’ detail. Wishing you all you are wishing for in the new year! May it be filled with even more blessings!
Your work is just amazing and I’d love be a fly on the wall of your craft room. Thank you so much for all the wonderful inspiration!
I love the colours and textures! Fabulous project!