Putz homes, sometimes referred to as Christmas villages or Nativity scenes, have a long and storied history that is strongly ingrained in Christian customs and the Christmas holiday cultures..

In the midst of (supposedly) getting a head start on decorating for Christmas this weekend, I somehow found myself elbows deep in glass glit...

Take a look at Miniature Paper Houses: Putz Houses today. I've rounded up a collection of 20+ premade Putz houses and DIY kits.

Snohomish,Washington

Balsam Hill 12 Bloggers Christmas Tree Reveal - A pretty Blue Spruce gets a Top Hat as a topper and our Frosty The Snowman tree is born!

Learn how to make this winter village house or ornament using craft glue, a chipboard, and fine powder glitter.

miniature, glitter houses, doll house, dolls house, wood carving

Hab eine wirklich superschöne Idee bei Jeanette von S C R A P P I N H A P P Y X O nach ihrem Tutorial bei YT umgesetzt. Eine echt g...

If you've been around since last Christmas you'll know how much I love glitter houses. If your newer to Happy At Home let me introduce you to my Christmas Time Obsession . . . Glitter Houses! I have quite the collection of houses I've made myself and a few that I have purchased. Personally I love the ones I make more than the others. I find such joy in cutting, painting and glittering them that I don't think I'll ever give it up. Here are a few that I made for Christmas last year. . . My glitter house creations are humble in comparison to examples I find elsewhere, but that's OK, the joy is in the crafting and displaying. So what do you think? Need some more convincing? I can help you with that! Take a look at few more examples I've found . . . (source: http://theroseberrycottage.blogspot.com/2010/11/cody-foster-christmas-houses-are-back.html) (source: http://rhonnadesigns.blogspot.com/2009/12/diy-christmas-no-3-glitter-houses.html) (source: http://afieldjournal.blogspot.com/2009/12/in-lane-snow-is-glistening.html) (source: http://myshabbystreamsidestudio.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-christmas-snow-house-village.html) I fear my hubby is dreading the glittering storm to come. Twice already this past week I've had the dinning room table cluttered with some project or another and the look on his face when he groans "OH, NO, it's not glitter house time yet!!!" is priceless. I always remember to respond with a sweet "No, not yet sweetie" - - I'm such a naughty wife. Hopefully this years plans won't take over the house as in years past. You see I'm going to try my hand at miniatures this year. I think they are lovely and hope I have a talent for them also. Here are a few of my favorite examples . . . (source: http://www.etsy.com/listing/85123882/7-pieces-vintage-style-putz-houses-a) (source: http://calamitykim.typepad.com/calamity_kim/vintage_artwork_cake/) (source: http://romantichome.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-in-white.html) What do you think? I hope I have passed on the obsession and a few of you are ready to get your glitter on! Have a lovely day, Robin p.s. In case your wanting to give it a go, I have a two tutorials to get you started if you'd like... here....and....here. Enjoy! Linked to: Inspiration Friday Vintage Inspiration Friday

Learn how to make this winter village house or ornament using craft glue, a chipboard, and fine powder glitter.

While these little glittered houses are really time consuming to create, I just love making them! The first one pictured is a Spring one, a...

Set of 5 adorable Mid Century Modern Architecture Putz Houses. These are cut out of cardstock and scored and undecorated, ready for your style. 4 styles of Mod houses and one Chapel ready for you to assemble and glue together. Leave them plain for that minimal feel or paint, glitter or decorate them with markers, stickers, rhinestones etc. Perfect for the windowsill, shelf, Christmas tree, ledge etc. You can add your own miniature bottle brush trees or other miniature decorations. These houses are approximately 2"- 8" tall and 3 1/2"-6" wide when assembled. Each house varies in size. Comes with the pre-cut and pre-scored templates of the 5 houses and instructions to put them together. They are super easy to assemble and can be put together with a glue stick or hot glue gun.

All that glitters is beautiful to behold. Use materials that sparkle to give your home a glow during Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year's Eve.

As with last year and the year before, it’s on to the Christmas village houses. Though what you might see may be a store shelf, they’re nevertheless dazzling for any Christmas home. For…

Kelly's Christmas Clockhouse is a Christmas Putz house designed with a hipped roof, double chimneys and a glittered, snowy clock tower in the front. The little Putz clock face says "Merry Christmas." This particular glitter

This article appeared in The Collector's Weekly and I decided to share. I have sold many of these thru the years and could usually guess age by looking at them but this now confirms. Thats what I love about Antiques and Collectibles, there is always something to learn. *********************************************** The American “Five and Dime” and the mail-order catalog had grown into national institutions between the 1880′s and World War I, but the truly “Great Golden Age” of the American Dimestore Christmas occurred between the two Great Wars: World Wars I & II. Two names are foremost to be credited with the origins of our American Christmas holiday trappings: The Butler Brothers of Chicago, who in the 1860s invented the concept of the low-priced open display counter from which all “dimestores” sprang; and F.W. Woolworth, who went abroad and provided product encouragement and a vast marketplace – first to the German and then to the Japanese holiday and toy industries, enabling both to bloom and thrive. Prior to WWI, most everything toy and holiday was German. Traveling Europe extensively in the 1890s in search of merchandise for his stores, Woolworth came upon a small glass Christmas ornament cottage industry in the Thuringen Valley region of Germany, sent some home for a trial, and the rest is history. Germany was already famed for cheap and charming toys and cuckoo clocks, but America had not seen the glass Christmas tree ornaments. Demand was instantaneous and insatiable. The words “German” and “Christmas” became synonymous. WWI changed everything. Even several years before America entered the fray, the supply of German goods became unreliable and then totally dried up. Woolworth again set out for foreign shores, but in the opposite direction – this time to Japan, with whom we were not at war. There he did what he had done in Germany some 20 years before. It is fascinating to speculate on the obstacles he surely had to overcome, trying to communicate the kinds of things he wanted to a vastly different culture that had had no idea of Christmas whatsoever. Germany was long steeped in Christmas traditions and had practically invented the Holiday, but to the Japanese it was alien and new. History proves F.W. did it, somehow, but the curious aesthetic nature of so many of the Japanese items from those times remains of never-ending fascination to collectors. In the 1920′s, as inexpensive series lights lit up the average American Christmas tree with blazing color, the middle-class American Christmas came alive with unprecedented electric light and sparkle. Delighted to discover the sheer size of their new marketing opportunities, the Japanese expanded explosively into all holiday product areas and were anxious to sell to anybody. F.W. had no monopoly, and soon Japanese Christmas goods were to be found in every “five-and-dime,” the department stores, and mail-order houses. Thus, the phrase “Made in Japan” came into the American common vocabulary in the “Roaring Twenties,” and German things began to creep back in again during that decade. The Great Depression, for all its strife, was absolutely rich with Christmas – to say nothing of radio, fabulous cars and electric trains and talking motion pictures. If you had a job and money in the 1930s – and 75% of the workforce did – you had an unprecedented cornucopia of wonderful things to choose from. Cardboard Village Houses Arrive: The Prewar Period Sometime around about 1927-28, the ever-innovative Japanese came up with the little cardboard houses – a logical, but brilliant outgrowth of the candy/surprise-box houses they’d been making for some time. Colorful and delightful “eye-candy” on those open counters, they were an immediate sensation, hitting the American Christmas with all the impact that bubble lights enjoyed post-war. There was such an explosion of creative genius and innovation put into these little dimestore notions that it is hard to comprehend! So many different kinds came out in such a short amount of time! Such creative and imaginative – sometimes even bizarre designs and handwork - produced in staggering quantities by virtual slave labor in conditions of abject misery. It was unbelievable what you could buy for a quarter or a dime, so blissfully unaware what great suffering lay behind our delight in bright and inexpensive things. But they have forever made a place in the Christmas memories and traditions of so many American families. And like so many things we’ve loved – we did not begin to appreciate them ’till they were gone …or the untold thousands who produced our dimestore reveries in long days of misery and toil. The End of an Era The period of the truly finest houses was less than ten years. By 1937, war was looming in minds everywhere. The trend was toward the “realistic,” and one sees it in the toys and model trains. Less the whimsical bright fantasies of earlier that decade, they were becoming models, now, and trending ever more toward scale and accurate detail. We had to be “realistic,” now. Put the childish fantasies away and view the dark clouds burgeoning with the clearest kind of eye. Through the War and to the present day, Christmas village houses have continued in some form. They make some really nice ones even now, but it is not the same. The innocence and simplicity of those first Golden Days” when they were bright and newly born can never really be again. Sears Wishbook Catalog 1949 The 1950-1955 Era Houses were made bigger 1955 Sears Wishbook Catalog The COTTON-TOPPERS Some of the largest and nicest pieces of the "Last Hurrah" are the COTTON-TOPPERS. These are definitely postwar, but harken back to some of the sizes and earliest structural features of the prewar - and also especially the figures and cotton-batting roofs which were commonly found on '20's candy-boxes. Some of the churches are remarkably large and resplendent and some are of wholly new design. The huge church rear center is 15" tall! The Cotton-Topper group is very heavy on large churches. I am not sure of the exact year, but it's a big part of that "Last Hurrah" of the mid '50s. Right now I'm betting on 1955. The 1960's: This is where it ends - in the 60's- -like one of those rivers that runs out into the desert , growing thinner and thinner- and finally just disappearing into the sand.......... I guess when you think about it, they didn't fit with Eammes and Danish Modern furniture. "MOD" clothes and all that slick, urbane stuff on TV. They were anything but "cool" as it was thought of then. Also in the 60's you started seeing sets that lit up. Here is the later version. In the mid 60's thru 1970's th Italians came out with their version, not called Alpine Village. The Italian village set shown below is remarkable in that the covers are all light cardboard,the tiny buildings quite interesting and well detailed in and of themselves. But the box says "Genuine Italian Novelty "Lights". Though they do make a cute little town under a small table-top tree. The only problem is that the buildings are so light that the stiffness of the wire makes it difficult to set them level and looking right and have them stay that way.

I've been wanting to make some Putz Houses or Glitter Houses for a long time. Last year I got this old one for inspiration and recently I finally made a few. I used this site for guidance, but customized them a bit. As you can see the originals had red cellophane windows, loofah trees, bright colors, and larger glitter. I wanted mine to all be shades of gold and yellow. I had some cellophane for the windows that just happened to be yellow too. For the church I made the basic house a little larger, cut out pointed windows and added a belfry and porch. I also made more of a wall instead of a fence. After gluing it all together and painting it comes the fun of putting on the glitter. It's so satisfying to sit whilst the family is watching television glittering away. In no time at all, you have a frosty little house to add to the neighborhood. On this one I turned the roof the other direction and made larger windows, a central chimney, and a glass front door. This is the first one I made and it's closest to the instructions with its three windows, picket fence and giant chimney, but however you make them they are cute, cute, cute. Imagine a bunch of them all in pastel colors. Or maybe all white and silver. Or rustic little cabins all in earth tones. You can bet I'm going to be making more of these.

Yummy swap goody from my fab DECK THE HALLS partner JESSI NAgy

Perhaps it's so hot where you are right now you're wishing for snow or maybe it IS winter and the timing of this post is perfectly a...

Candy Colored Christmas via I adore putz houses for Christmas. via I have quit a few both old and new. via They used to be bought for a couple of dollars. Which is when most of my collection was amassed. via New vintage looking ones can be quite ornate. I just got two new houses from my Mom. She bought them at Target. This is them.... Cute, aren't they? I'll be adding details to them to make them even better. via So that they will be as cute as these I've gathered off Pinterest. I had bought one several years ago also from Target and totally remade it last year after Christmas. I added decorations, cotton batting and more snow glitter. I'll show it soon. via That is the plan for the two new ones too. via Aren't all of these so gorgeous? via true confections via They look made of candy with frosting and sprinkled in sparkling snow sugar. via I truly cannot resist them. via Love the colors of this one. So..... Still my decorations are not up. I have to say I am pretty discouraged. All I ever want for Christmas is to just put up my decorations and watch old Christmas movies and listen to my favorite Christmas CDs. Last year I was too sad.... and this year.... too many things keep coming up. Things I have to go do...people I have to help or work stuff. I have Sunday off...first day off in quite awhile and I am not telling anyone that I am off from work. If anyone asks...I am at work. Shhhhhh....don't tell. I want to spend the day just doing Christmas at my house. Put up my stuff and make some crafts without being interrupted. Is that asking so much? sharing at Tweet

Beautiful ideas for a cozy cottage style Christmas.

Cause I Love Em via Isn't that one great? via via via via via via Shelves full of their deliciousness.

Samantha Walker's Imaginary World offers sewing and paper craft ideas, Silhouette and SVG cut tutorials, and occasionally a random RV post.

blogged about at www.cherishedvintage.blogspot.com