Our Hopeful Home: How To Make A Putz House In Time For Christmas

I vividly remember as a child seeing small, softly-lit houses covered in glittering snow around our house at Christmas time. Some of them were actually part of my family's Lionel train display that only got put up once a year for Christmas. There was something about those tiny, darling houses that spoke to me. I mean, you can never have enough glitter, right?

Putz houses originated in Germany. Some people call them glitter houses. They were small, cardboard houses covered in glitter, making for a veritable miniature winter wonderland. Lucky for us glitter house lovers, there's been a resurgence in their popularity over the past few years. And lucky for me, my obsession with Christmas snow globes goes hand in hand with my interest in Putz houses, as they make for the perfect snow globe fillers. I mentioned my DIY glitter house when I shared how to create your own waterless Christmas snow globe. Today I want to show you how I made it.

Last year after Christmas I picked up this not-so-attractive corrugated metal house ornament in the clearance aisle at Target for $1.50. As you can see, it doesn't have much going for it. But I knew right away when I saw it that I would be sprucing it up for this Christmas.

So how did I do it? Easy peasy folks. I used a sponge brush to brush Mod Podge all over the house and then I sprinkled extra fine glitter on it until it was completely covered. And voila.

After the glitter dried I added a miniature wreath with a pretty red ribbon to the front of the house to add a pop of color. I'll love using it in snow globes and vignettes but I can still use it as an ornament as well.

Is that dear not the cutest thing?

extra fine glitter silver German glass glitter

Glitter Guide : Be sure to use “extra fine” glitter for optimum results. If you can find it, German glass glitter would be even better! (Note: should NOT be used with children.)

One tip I do want to share is that you really don't want to be using just any old glitter. You want to be using "Extra Fine" glitter. It gives you a much more sparkly effect. I had wanted to use German glass glitter, only I couldn't find it in the stores and I was too impatient to wait for it to be delivered. So I went to Michael's and used my 50% off coupon for the extra fine glitter. If you do end up getting the German glass glitter, beware: German glass glitter can be on the expensive side if you don't shop around for it, and it's NOT appropriate for use around children (it really is made of glass!).

It was so easy to do I almost hesitated writing this post -- but I was basically dying to show you the pictures of that adorable deer! Seriously, I'm sure you can pick up similar ornaments and/or miniature figures that you can just as easily smother in Mod Podge and glitter and call it a day.

I hope you enjoyed reading

How To Make A Putz House

In Time For Christmas

and that I've inspired you in some way!

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