Virtual Advent Calendar Day 17: Mini Village

8 Days Left Until Christmas!

Mini houses are all the rage this year!

My inspiration for this came from Suzie Millions and her benchmark tome, "The Complete Book of Retro Craft."  We also had one of these when I was a kid (I'm sure my mom still has it).  Honestly, they are all the rage this year.  There have been two tutorials lately one www.oneprettything.com.   So, instead of a full blown tutorial, I'm just going to tell you what I did that may have been different.

First, I arranged my little village on a styrofoam disc.  I wanted to put a picket fence around it, and I still may, but I couldn't find my packages of mini picket fencing in the crafateria which, again, is resembling the crapateria.  I may come back and add that later.

I created a mini topiary tree for my display:

I found this mini topiary place card holder in the bridal section of the craft store:

All I did was get out the hot glue gun (Sara gave me a new one for my birthday!) and glued on the mini-bulbs.

I also created these pine trees:

I formed a cone out of card stock, then wrapped it in an eyelash trim I had.  If you don't have eyelash trim around, why not use pipe cleaners or yarn?   The decorations and garland are jeweled scrapbook trims.

One other thing, I used glittery cardstock instead of gluing glitter onto plain card stock.  It was a little more expensive to go this route, but much less messy.  Also, I used printable transparency sheets (you can find them at thrift stores all the time) for windows.  I colored the church windows yellow using a yellow Sharpie.

How cute is this as a centerpiece on my table along with my vintage tree skirt and a fun, old Santa ornament?

From Santa' perspective.

That's it.  If anyone is interested in the templates I made for my houses, let me know.  See you for Day 18 in just 24 short hours!