Want to learn how to make SVG cut files? Want to learn how to better express your creativity? Or even learn how to make your own patterns to sell? Do you want to make your
In the midst of (supposedly) getting a head start on decorating for Christmas this weekend, I somehow found myself elbows deep in glass glit...
Free DIY Christmas decoration project for adults, or to do with the kids. Create your own Putz glitter house with this
Free patterns and cut files for Steven Leeds' Glitter Town Putz Village.
What are the best tools for making Putz Houses or little glitter houses? Well, here is my Paper House Putz House making list broken down by categories according to the steps involved. For this first
Making little putz houses for decorations be tricky. Hard to find right patterns that easy to follow. People want make them for holidays, need good templates to cut, fold, and decorate.
Hi everyone! Guess you didn't missed that Laura Cox is going to be our guest designer for the month of December. So we thought it would be nice to introduce her to all of our readers :) My name is...
I made a DIY glitter house - also called Putz house - out of an upcycled toothpaste box! Here is the easy tutorial. Recycling can be fun, take a look!
Katherine, a reader of my blog asked me about sharing the pattern for a house I made a couple of years ago. I made about 4-5 houses with this pattern. Here are a few photos
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...
Making little putz houses for decorations be tricky. Hard to find right patterns that easy to follow. People want make them for holidays, need good templates to cut, fold, and decorate.
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.
Learn how to make this winter village house or ornament using craft glue, a chipboard, and fine powder glitter.
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...
How to make the Sea-Worn Beach house, a little cardboard house with this free pattern template and detailed step by step tutorial.
Crystal Effects (CE) is sometimes a hard medium to work with. Hard as in, what to do with it. Well, the ladies in my class wanted to work with it for awhile, and the first technique I taught them was...
What is a Putz House? And how do you make one? Here is the definitive outline of templates, patterns and tutorials to make your Putz house or glitter house.
What are the best tools for making Putz Houses or little glitter houses? Well, here is my Paper House Putz House making list broken down by categories according to the steps involved. For this first
What is a Putz House? And how do you make one? Here is the definitive outline of templates, patterns and tutorials to make your Putz house or glitter house.
What is a Putz House? And how do you make one? Here is the definitive outline of templates, patterns and tutorials to make your Putz house or glitter house.
What is a Putz House? And how do you make one? Here is the definitive outline of templates, patterns and tutorials to make your Putz house or glitter house.
What is a Putz House? And how do you make one? Here is the definitive outline of templates, patterns and tutorials to make your Putz house or glitter house.
Making little putz houses for decorations be tricky. Hard to find right patterns that easy to follow. People want make them for holidays, need good templates to cut, fold, and decorate.
Learn how to make this Happy Holiday House - a little cardboard house - for your Christmas village with the easy and free pattern I've made for you. Today I'll show you how with the
How to cut out windows for your little glitter house or putz house without hurting your hands. I use an arbor press and some dies I found online.
Free patterns and cut files for Steven Leeds' North Pole Putz Village.
Katherine, a reader of my blog asked me about sharing the pattern for a house I made a couple of years ago. I made about 4-5 houses with this pattern. Here are a few photos
Traditionally little glitter houses were lit by a bulb that was inserted in the back of the house. Sometimes people would take their Japanese Putz houses and cut a hole in the bottom to insert
Learn how to make this winter village house or ornament using craft glue, a chipboard, and fine powder glitter.
Putz houses are charming miniature buildings that have been a beloved holiday tradition for generations. If youre a fan of these delightful little structures, youll be thrilled to know that there are many free printable templates available online to help you create your very own Putz houses. Whether youre a DIY enthusiast, a crafty parent looking for a fun activity to do with your children, or simply someone who appreciates the intricate beauty of these tiny dwellings, these free printables are sure to bring you joy and creative satisfaction.
Free patterns and cut files for Steven Leeds' North Pole Putz Village.
Do You Have What it Takes to Make a Putz House? Putz houses are also called glitter houses or little cardboard houses. They were originally made in Germany in the early 1900s then by Japan.
I still remember the first phone call I had with Pam like it was yesterday. Back in 2012, Pam had discovered my personal blog — Retro Ranch Revamp — and she liked what she saw. She was looking to add a new flavor to Retro Renovation and thought my particular skill set was just what…
Learn how to make this amazing cardboard house called the Faded Mansion which you can use to decorate for any season by adding different decor such as bottlebrush trees or tiny figures around your little Putz house.
How to make a beautiful Christmas Village House with this free paper pattern and tutorial. It's the perfect start for your very own Christmas village.
Want to learn how to make SVG cut files? Want to learn how to better express your creativity? Or even learn how to make your own patterns to sell? Do you want to make your
Here's how to make the Butterfly Roof Mid-Century Modern Putz House. It's a great little retro house that is so fun to make with the free pattern and tutorial.
Making little putz houses for decorations be tricky. Hard to find right patterns that easy to follow. People want make them for holidays, need good templates to cut, fold, and decorate.
