This kit is for personal use ONLY. Please do not copy, distribute, or sell any part of this design or the instructions without my permission. Pre-Cut & Digital Maly Palace @2021 Jacqueline Smith
This pattern is inspired by the original Maly (small) Palace built by Tsar Alexander II on his estate in Livadia, Croatia, for his heir. Built around 1865, by the time his son Alexander III took the throne in 1881, the palace had begun to crack from its foundation and had to be torn down and replaced. I could find no photographs on the internet of the original Maly Palace, only of the replacement palace. I designed this building based on a photograph of a drawing of the original Maly Palace.
Please read all instructions prior to beginning the project. If you are new to making houses, make sure you read and understand each step before placing your glue.
I consider this an intermediate kit.
Before you start your new kit, think about how you will want to decorate it. You can paint the house, paint the house and glitter it, glitter just parts of the house like the roof, use the kit pieces as a guide to cut out decorative paper that you can glue onto the house, or just leave the building white for a modern look. If you leave any portion of the house as unpainted cardboard, I suggest spraying with a matte acrylic sealer like Krylon or Modge Podge Sealer.
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Suggested Material List . . .
- Pre-cut kit has been cut from White Kraft Board. This is equivalent to 120 lb cover cardstock or cardboard. A few pieces are cut out of 100 lb cover cardstock where the folds are too delicate for the thicker Kraft Board.
- Materials for Digital version: White Kraft Board, Cardboard or Quality Cardstock.
- Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue. I put it in a bottle with a thin metal tip. If you are new to making kits, you may want to use Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue as this allows more time for you to reposition your pieces if you make a mistake.
- Bone Folder – A bone folder helps you make sharp folds when you are using cardstock or cardboard. While the kit comes pre-scored, I strongly suggest you make the scoring deeper with a bone folder.
- Multi-surface satin finish acrylic paints in your color choices. I find that if I use the multi-surface paint I do not need to gesso the cardboard first. Two coats are usually required.
- Washi Tape (optional.)
- To glitter the house: Extra fine glitter or extra fine iridescent glitter and Spectra Glitter Sparkling Crystals (mixed 50/50) and Modge Podge. I like to apply the Modge Podge with a foam brush to one side of the building at a time, glitter, then move on to the next side. You may like your building glittered with only the extra fine glitter, but I liked adding a slightly chunkier glitter to it too.
- To make the snow: Woodland Flex Paste, Woodland Soft Flake Snow, and Hemway White Ultra Sparkle Glitter. Apply the flex paste and sprinkle a combination of the soft flake snow and Ultra sparkle glitter over it while it is wet. Use a little Modge Podge on a brush to add more of the snow mixture once the flex paste is dry.
NOTES . . . (read before starting)
- Due to variations by each builder you may find a trim piece a tad longer than needed. If this happens, simply trim it down to fit.
- DO use the cutting guide below to identify all of the pieces! It’s always a good idea to lay out all of the pieces before you start so that you have everything in the correct place. I include a few extra window frames in the kit.
- The color coding of shapes in the guide are only used to help you identify pieces. Digital users should change these colors inside their software to suit their own needs.
Cutting Guide for Maly Palace …
Your kit will include either the Regular Back and Regular Bottom Insert, OR the Putz Back, Putz Bottom Insert, and a strengthening ring for the Putz hole, depending on which option you chose when you purchased the kit.
Let’s get started . . .
The following instructions are to show you how the building should be constructed. I show the order of construction without any paint or glitter. Think about how you will finish the building and if any parts will need to be painted or finished before being glued in place.
There is no wrong way to paint, glitter and glue. Personally, I like to paint the trim and walls when flat, then glue the trim onto the building, add the vellum, and then glue the building together. I then glitter the completed building. However, I know people who glitter the building while flat before gluing it together. I suggest you try different methods until you find out what works best for you. Tutorials for various ways to decorate your house can be found on this website.
Constructing the Building
1. Put the stair, balcony and roof pieces aside. Fold all of your other pieces towards the back or inside (mountain folds, except the tabs on the front and back which need to be folded towards the front (valley fold.)
2. If you are going to make two colored walls, such as in my model, paint or cut decorative papers and glue them on now. If you purchased the digital kit, I include a file named Separated Walls that you can use to cut the walls out of different colored cardstock. I decided I wanted different colored and different textured walls with siding for the side walls. I used Teri’s Easy Siding Tutorial to draw the lines. After I drew my lines, I glued the sides together and painted. I applied stucco on the walls that did not have siding, as I saw a picture of another palace near the Maly Palace that had stucco walls. I like to use Winsor & Newton Galeria Acrylic Medium Sand Texture Gel for the stucco, but you can also buy Sandtastik Sparkling White Play Sand that you can add to your paint.
3. Glue all window/ door frames in place. Glue the extra trim onto each of the window trims. This is much easier while the walls are still flat. Do NOT glue on any of the horizontal trim pieces at this time.
4. Glue the vellum in place if you are using it. The door is supposed to be glass. The original building had old paned glass in all of the windows and the door. I provide two files you can use for the paned glass. The first is an SVG file named Paned Glass. Import into Cricut Design Space and change the lines from cut to draw. Use the Cricut Extra Fine point pen. If you don’t have a pen, there is also a PDF file called Paned Glass. You can use this to print the paned windows onto your velum with a laser printer. I prefer using the pen to the printer as you can see the printer pixel lines close up. I provide the paned glass velum in the kit. Remember to reserve enough of the vellum for the clerestory windows at the top of the building.
5. Glue the body together.
6. Check the fit of the bottom insert piece, adjusting any of the fold lines as necessary. You may need to trim the corners. Glue in the bottom insert piece as it will help to help to stiffen and square the walls of the building.
7. Starting with the front and back, glue the upper wall flaps. Then glue the side upper wall flaps on top of the front/ back flaps. This will help the building retain its shape.
8. Add each of the broad trims to the building. Place the fold into one of the inside wall folds of the building, with the shorter piece towards the front or back, and the longer piece towards the side. Glue the trim to just that one wall of the building, wait until it is dry, then wrap around the corner and glue to the next wall. Repeat around until you reach another inside wall fold. Trim the piece to fit, then repeat. I have purposely made the trim long to accommodate different thickness of materials used by each builder. For the upper two trims, I used a metallic print washi tape over my trim pieces.
9. Add the thin trim to the middle and upper broad trim, but do NOT add the thin trim to the bottom broad trim at this time. Once again it is best to glue them on one wall at a time, making sure the trim is level before going on to the next wall. There is no trim at the top of the top broad piece.
10. Fold and glue the balcony together. Glue directly below the second story window. Glue the balcony supports below the balcony.
11. Glue the smaller roof braces onto the ends of the building. Fold and glue together the bottom flat roof. Turn the building upside down, center on the inside of the flat roof, and glue down.
12. Glue together the top peaked roof, trapping the finial between the pieces at the top. Center and glue onto the top flat roof.
13. Fold and glue together the top flat roof. Glue the vellum into the inside of the clerestory window pieces. Attach the two pieces together. Glue the larger roof braces onto the sides of the clerestory windows. Then glue into the bottom of the top flat roof.
14. Turn over roof assembly and glue bottom of clerestory windows onto top of bottom flat roof.
15. Fold and glue each of the smaller peaked roofs. Glue on to the bottom flat roof.
16. Fold and glue each side of the stairs. Starting with the top stair, glue the stair treads into the stair tread sides. I like to glue each stair onto both sides, then move down to the next stair. Then glue in the bottom. A short Youtube video on how to make stairs can be found here. I stenciled texture paste onto my stair fronts. You can find a tutorial on how to use texture or grit paste here.
17. Glue the three pieces of the stair railing front together. Glue onto the front of the stair treads. Glue to the front of the building, centering under the door. Glue the pieces of the stair railing backs together, each with three pieces. Glue onto the back side of the stairs.
18. You can now glue the thin trim onto the bottom broad trim. There is enough trim to cut a piece for under the stairs.
This piece can be finished with any method you are used to. Don’t worry about it being perfect. Just have fun and enjoy the process!
Enjoy making your Maly Palace!! I would love to see your finished buildings. Please share a photo with me by emailing me at Jackie@acottageintheforest.com.
Examples for Inspiration
