Let's Make a Little House

I love those old fashioned Putz houses that pop up around Christmastime, like this one:And I've been wanting to do my own twist on a little house for some time, SO. . . Tah dah!I called it Dream House, on account of its dreamy (sleepy?) expression and the fact that I've been dreaming of a house of my own for many many years. I had so much fun making this dolly! I knew I had to start with some sort of sturdy cardboard house for it's base, something simple enough to be able to add whatever features I wanted. I went searching the internet for gingerbread house templates, but none of them seemed just right. So after a couple of failed attempts (I'm not big on measuring), I came up with a successful template of my own. Woohoo!

I liked it so much in fact, that I just had to share.

. It's really easy to assemble. Just cut the pieces out of good strong cardboard and hot glue them together. Now you have a base ready for whatever you want to throw at it! I covered my cardboard base with several layers of rice paper strips dipped in white glue (my stronger version of traditional papier mache) then sculpted features using paperclay.

. . .

I'd love to see what all you arty types come up with.