December 9, 2010

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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28 comments:

  1. What a great idea. Thanks so much for showing us how to make our own. I love the ones that I see in Ballard Design, just don't love the price!

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  2. I cannot believe you made that!! It looks fantastic!!!

    Kelly

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  3. Those are so wonderful! I'd love to find the template, but there's no clickable link.

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  4. What a great project, Robin! You did a fabulous job! They look beautiful as a collection in your vignette!
    Happy holidays to you!
    xo,
    Jo :)

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  5. I just love them all, I wish I had the time to make one. :) I really like the red house, what a great pop of color!

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  6. I am so glad I found your blog, I love so much of what you've done! There's no hyperlink where I think you meant to add where you found the templates. If you could share that website that would be awesome!

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  7. This is an amazing tutorial - thanks for putting it all together! Very inspiring :-)

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  8. They are so pretty. Kind of reminds me of making a gingerbread house. I'm thinking these would be fun to do with Ryan's little cousin over the holidays.

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  9. Robin,

    What a fantastic tutorial! You are so talented at making these...they look perfect and gorgeous! I think awhile back you asked about how I get my tree to stand up in the metal tub...sorry it took me so long to answer you! We had a tree stand that fit perfectly in the metal tub so the tree is sitting in that. Otherwise, I would have maybe tried bracing it with big rocks but I think I would have been worried about it tipping over! A tree stand is probably best...

    I hope you all have a great weekend!
    xo,

    annie

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  10. Love, Love, LOVE these! I am thinking it would be fun to organize a house glittering party with some girlfriends! Was wondering if you could add a tutorial on how the glittering process goes?

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  11. Thank you for this! I would love to make these. I collect them and usually wait until they are at bargain prices. It would be fun to customize my own!

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  12. So beautiful, thanks for sharing .

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  13. this is so so so so cute!! i love it. i think a bunch in a little grouping would be adorable! great idea!

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  14. Thank You For Sharing the How To and all of the other Resources you Provided! I Popped over from Paper Whimsy. Thank you Again!
    Hugs
    Jill

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  15. Hey Robin,

    After seeing this post too late last year, I vowed to make some glitter houses this year. I picked up a few chipboard houses on sale at Hobby Lobby last month and can't wait to make my own very soon! What kind of glitter do you recommend using?

    Thanks!
    Erin

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  16. Awesome!!
    This is such a fabulous project!! I LOVE it!! We've done the smaller versions but the larger ones hold so many more possibilities for decorating. And more glitter! :)

    ~Scarlett

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  17. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  18. Hi, I was reading your blog today and decided to visit a few of the blogs you follow. I went to Carolina Country Living which showed a glitter house, so I did a Google search to find out how to make glitter houses. It brought me back to you! Thanks for this tutorial, I have been wanting to make a house for so long, and now's my time!

    Mary

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  19. ...And I pinned this to my Pinterest account with a link back to your blog. Thanks again.

    Mary

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  20. Nice Tutorial. I've made three tiny houses so far but have not blogged any instructions. I probably should as I have been getting requests. Thanks for your inspirations.

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  21. Hi again... Just want you to know I linked to this post of yours today on my blog post. Diana

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  22. What do you use to cut out the tiny squares in the window?

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