Well, it is finally December, and Christmas is coming at a tremendous clip. It is time (probably, past time) to think about holiday decorating and how you are going to set about it. I have always loved those delightful Christmas villages that I see for sale in the stores. They are ceramic, charming, old-fashioned, and lighted. They seem perfect for under the tree, and they are also very expensive.
Unhappily, we are on a budget that doesn’t allow for extravaganzas like ceramic Christmas villages with lights in them. This being the case, it seemed that if I wanted a village under my tree (or anywhere else), I would have to find another way of getting it. Usually, this means making it myself, and that’s what happened.
Enter paper houses made out of card stock. Now, card stock is a wonderful thing, and it isn’t only useful for printing photographs and cards. You can buy it in the office supply stores in large packets, and if you are careful, you can find a reasonable price as well. Card stock can be used in a variety of creative ways. The way it fits into this story is that you can make your own paper houses out of it.
You might be surprised (I was) to find that there are a lot of paper building directions and cutouts already available on the internet. Apparently, many folks also enjoy the “construction” trades, especially in paper. Perhaps because paper is so inexpensive and easy to work with, it lends itself to such behaviors. At first, I didn’t realize that there were already house plans available, so I found it necessary to re-invent the wheel.
The way I set about it was to find pictures of houses in magazines and on the web. You can also draw the house yourself if you want to. You will need a picture of the entire front of a house. You can use a photo of your own house for this; I did. Then you might want pictures of different sidings like brick, wood, or stone. Using your computer’s photo-editor you can “apply” the new siding to the picture of the house and invent the other three sides. You can also add accessories like more windows, Christmas décor, or different doors using the cut and paste feature of your photo app.
That is your basic house. This general plan can be modified in any number of different ways. And, as I said before, there are lots of these plans already done for you on the internet. When you set up your village, you can add a few trees from the discount store and some sparkle from the craft shop. A string of lights is nice too; just be careful they don’t get too hot. I don’t put them inside the houses, just lay they around for atmosphere. Also, you can get lights with batteries if you have no electrical outlet handy.
Now you can have that miniature Christmas village that you have always wanted without breaking the already-strained Christmas budget to pay for it.
Happy Christmas home-making!
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