Introducing Putz House Monthly

Update: The Putz House Monthly Website shut down in Mid-2022. Both Teri and I had changes in our personal lives that made it impossible to keep up the pace of designing we needed to produce monthly patterns. All of the patterns I designed for Putz House Monthly can be found in my shop. All of the Patterns Teri designed can be found at her website The Covered Chipboard .

Also, wherein I make my first cardboard house and glitter it! Instructions and supplies on how to glitter your own Putz house below.

A few months ago, I met Teri Hanson of The Covered Chipboard through an online Facebook group. Teri also designs Putz-style buildings, and back in October I reviewed her pattern for the Halloweenie Town Dead Inn. Teri approached me with the idea for a joint venture to produce high quality Putz-style kits for people who do not have cutting machines. Shortly thereafter we decided to also offer SVGs of the patterns for people who want to cut their own. Teri’s vision was for us to take turns to produce original and exclusive patterns that would be different than any of the kits or patterns you can find on Etsy. Thus Putz House Monthly was born.

Each month we will take turns designing a house or a shop building. Though each of the kits or patterns can be purchased on a monthly basis, we also offer 3, 6 or 12 month subscriptions. Extra bonus items will also be included with the subscriptions. At the end of 2021, we will have produced 6 houses and 6 shops that YOU will have built and decorated for your village.

Teri and I will each make several models of the buildings to give you ideas of how you can finish and decorate them. Thus, for the first time ever, I have had to make a house out of cardboard! Our kits are made using Cricut Kraftboard. Both Teri and I experimented using other cardboards of the same weight, but so far Kraftboard is the only one that acts consistently – it folds very well, doesn’t split apart when folded, and you can paint on it without it warping. So here is a peek at my model of our January 2021 building, designed by Teri. While Teri designed the building as a post office, it can be used for any type of shop you desire. To me, it looked like a bank in my home town so I made it into a bank. This was my model before I decided to glitter it.

For those of you who have read some of my other blog posts, I do not like to paint. It is a lot of the reason I like making my cottages out of aluminum cans. So not only did I have to make a model out of cardboard, I had to paint it, and then I decided to glitter it too!

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Materials I used to make the January 2021 Putz House Monthly Shop

• The January 2021 pattern from the Putz House Monthly website.
• Cricut Kraftboard
• JAM PAPER Translucent Vellum 30lb Paper – 8.5 x 11 – Spring Ochre. I love this color of vellum. It is tinted just enough that it gives the light inside a warm glow, without turning orange. Unfortunately it is rather expensive.
• Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue. I thin it enough to put it in a bottle with a thin metal tip.
• Folkart Multi-surface satin finish acrylic paints, colors used were Midnight and Dove Grey
• Matte gold adhesive vinyl

Items I used to make the snow. This is before I decided to glitter the entire building. You do not need to add the soft flake snow and glitter if you will be glittering the whole building:

• Woodland Flex Paste
• Woodland Soft Flake Snow
• Hemway White Ultra Sparkle Glitter

Items I used to glitter the building:

• Foam brush
• Modge Podge. I used matte.
• Spectra Sparkling Crystals Glitter, clear
• Iridescent extra-fine glitter

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What I Learned About Glittering A Building

• If you want your building to have color, use a dark shade. Glitter lightens it a lot.
• Do NOT use just extra-fine iridescent glitter. I started out using just the extra-fine iridescent glitter and it looked horrible. I mixed in the Spectra Sparkling Crystals 50/50, and loved the look. I used about 1 3/4 ounces of glitter to cover the building.
• Use a foam brush instead of a paint brush to apply the Modge Podge. I couldn’t get the smooth coating of Modge Podge with a paint brush that I did with a foam brush.
• Use the foam brush to completely coat one side of the building at a time with a thin layer of Modge Podge. Bury that side of your building in a heavy layer of glitter (I spooned mine on.) Then turn your building upside down and tap the bottom of the building until all of the extra glitter falls off. Repeat with each side of the building.
• Next time I will try not to get so much glitter into my windows. If you apply the Modge Podge from top to bottom, you get the effect of snow piling up at the bottom of the window frames. I overdid it, though.
• If you have just a few little spots that are lacking glitter, you can touch up with a little Modge Podge on a small paintbrush. Apply more glitter and tap off.

Have fun! I would love to see your Putz House Monthly finished designs. Please share a photo of it with me by emailing me at Jackie@acottageintheforest.com.

Putz House Monthly can also be found on Facebook. Ask to join our Facebook group where you can share your creations or ask for help.