GET CRAFTY: DIY Glitter Christmas Houses

Christmas is coming and I'm so excited!

I love this time of year, it's so busy and cozy all at the same time.

One thing I love most about Christmas is being able to decorate my home with all of our favourite decorations. Some are old, some are new, some I've bought and some I've handmade. My absolute favourite decoration for this time of year are my beloved glitter houses.These adorably whimsical miniature houses make me feel so happy and I'm sharing with you how you can make your own glitter houses for your home or for a special gift to give.

The supplies you'll need for this project are:

- one Putz style cardboard house

I purchased these miniature pre-assembled houses from Little Village Houses on etsy

- assorted acrylic paints in your favourite colours.

- hot glue gun and glue

(find at Michael's or Walmart)

- beads and assorted decorations for your house & trees

- crafting glue

- miniature bristle brush trees

(I purchased the Celebrate It brand from Michael's) 

- Snow-Tex

- spray adhesive

- glitter

- transparent paper 

(I found some in the scrapbook paper section of Michael's)

Step 1: Paint your house. Make sure to paint the entire surface, including underneath the roof etc. so that none of the original cardboard colour shows. Paint your fencing and the base for your house as well. You shouldn't need more than 2 coats for this step and the paint will dry quickly on the cardboard.

Step 2: Take your transparent paper and measure the sizes you'll need to cut for your windows. Now you can cut and glue the paper to the inside of your house and cover all of the windows on your house with crafting glue. You can find the paper in the scrapbook section of any craft store. This will give a nice glow for your lights/battery operated candle (no real flames please!!).

Step 3: Take your glue gun and glue your house to the base. Make sure to place it properly onto the base and to leave room for your fence and any decorations like trees, etc. that you will be adding later on.

Step 4: Glue your fence to the base. Make sure to hold up the fence while the glue cools to make sure that it won't fall or lean. (approx 5- 10 seconds)

Step 5: Decorate!! This is where it gets even more fun! You can add all sorts of cute decorations to your house. Wreaths, trees, garland, a mailbox, presents, a snowman, an old fashioned car, a deer, and whatever you can imagine! I usually go to Michael's and shop from their Merry Minis collection from the Celebrate It brand. You can also look for anything in the miniature dollhouse sections of any craft or hobby shop. Use your hot glue gun to add all of these special elements to your house and please let your imagination go wild!

Step 6: Add snow to your house with some Snow-Tex. I like to take a seperate container, and mix some Snow-Tex with a small amount of water. This will make it easier to add the snow to your house. Take a rounded paint brush and dab the snow onto your house. Don't forget to add to the trees, fence and chimney!

Once you've finsihed decorating your house, you're ready for the final step. GLITTER!!

Step 7: Take your house, spray adhesive, glitter and some newspaper outside. Place your house onto the newspaper and spray your house in sections making sure to follow the directions of your spray ahesive. Spray one section and sprinkle glitter onto the area where you have applied the glue. I like to do it in 4 parts, front, back and each side. Make sure to cover every inch of your house with glitter and shake it around to get any loose glitter off of your house. 

That's it! So easy and so much fun to create, I absolutely adore these pretty, sparkly houses! You can create an entire village if you want like I do too. Here is a little look at some of the houses (and trees) that I've created. The larger purple and pink houses were made using Melissa Frances house kits. These are very labour intensive and take a lot of time and fine details to create. I really recommend these houses as well for a fun craft DIY to do. When making the Melissa Frances houses, make sure to paint each component first before gluing them together. 

I hope you had fun creating your DIY Glitter House, and I'd love to see your creations! 

Tag us on Instagram with #BrooklynDesigns #bdcrafty so we can see what you made.

Check out our other DIY projects here, here and here, and stay tuned for a cute DIY bottle brush project next week.

DIY: Sparkly Snow Covered Bottle Brush Christmas Trees

I found myself needing a couple days off from making jewelry this weekend and of course I couldn't sit around doing nothing. So I decided to indulge my obsession with bottle brush Christmas trees and tried to make some myself.

I had bought 2 cute Cody Foster white & blue trees last year and they looked so adorable with my sparkly cardboard houses that I had to add to my collection and what better way than to make my own!

Here is a step by step guide on how to make your own sparkly snow covered Christmas bottle brush trees.

 

Step 1.

First you need your supplies. You will need the following:

Bottle Brush Trees

Snow-Tex

Diamond Dust

Mod Podge

2-3 Paintbrushes

Assorted beads & baubles for decorating

Hot Glue Gun & Glue

Optional: Garland & other miniature Christmas decorations, spray glue/adhesive, coloured glitter

& Mod Podge Finishing Spray

I picked up all of these supplies at Michaels. I also bought some higher quality bottle brush trees at Target, they were a little pricier $5 & $8 instead of $1-$3. I found that the more expensive trees had nicer bristles and looked more expensive once I was finished.

 

Step 2.

Now is the messy part! You will want to lay down some newspaper or a plastic table covering to keep from getting snow-tex & glitter everywhere. 

1. Water down the Snow-tex a little bit in a plastic container until it is the consistency of white glue. That way it will be easier to paint onto all of the bristles on the tree. 

2.Start painting the Snow-tex in sections. I prefer to start from the bottom and then work my way up to the top so that I can hold onto the top of the tree while I am painting.

3. After you paint each section of the tree you will then sprinkle the Diamond Dust onto the wet Snow-tex. This will allow the Diamond Dust to stick to the Snow-tex creating a sparkly snow like texture onto the tree. Don't forget to work in sections so that you can sprinkle the glitter onto the wet snow, you don't want it to dry before you have the chance to glitter it up!

4. Let it dry for at least an hour. The Snow-tex container suggests 3 hours but I am not that patient. You could always do this part in the morning and then finish them later in the day or after dinner. 

5. Decorating! The funnest part of all. Before you decorate make sure to turn your tree upside down and shake it gently to get rid of any excess Diamond Dust. 

6. Get your glue gun ready and start gluing your decorations onto your tree. Have fun and be as creative as you like. You can also use a small thin garland to wrap around your tree (I couldn't find any that I liked in store and ended up buying some online and will be adding it to some of them once it arrives).

7. If you chose some pearls like I did (I picked up some .99 cent strands at Michaels) you can then use the Mod Podge to add more glitter to them. I painted the beads individually in sections and then sprinkled Diamond Dust onto them for a frosty appearance.

{ALTERNATIVE}

If you would like to create a different appearance on your trees you can choose a different method other than the Snow-Tex. Glitter! Take a container of spray adhesive and spray your tree really well. Then roll it in your glitter so that you cover the entire surface of every bristle. Once your glitter is dried you can then decorate it with your glue gun. 

 

TaDa! And there you have it, gorgeous glittery festive Christmas trees! Made by you to decorate and love for years to come.

 I love how my trees look with all of my little glitter houses!

The small white tree with blue & silver ornaments is from Target and comes with a battery pack that lights up the LED lights around the tree. My houses also light up and look so pretty at night. 

I just ordered some DIY cardboard houses and will be blogging about my journey for you once I am done, can't wait! I hope you have fun decorating your own trees!

Brooke xoxo