Make Your Own Santa's Workshop
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 Santa’s Workshop @2023 Jacqueline Smith
My design is inspired by Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, Finland. There are a lot of very interesting buildings, but I decided to use the Christmas House where you can see Santa year round as the inspiration for my Santa’s Workshop.
Please read all instructions prior to beginning the project. Instructions are given for both the digital and pre-cut versions. If you are new to making houses, make sure you read and understand each step before placing your glue.
I consider this an advanced pattern.
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 cardstock or cardboard. I use 100 lb. cover cardstock for the columns because of the tight folds. I cut the Louvers out of 65 lb. cardstock. Clear window cut from Cricut Acetate.
- 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 lines 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.
- 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 guides in the kit/files 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.
- 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 …
Your kit will include either the Regular Right & Left Back, Trim, Regular Right & Left Bottom Insert, OR the Right & Left Putz Back, Right & Left Putz Bottom Insert, and a strengthening ring for the Putz hole, OR a Left & Right Solid Back and Bottom Insert, depending on which option you chose when you purchased the kit.
The SVG files were created in a way that combines elements to help with possible confusion on trim pieces. If you will be using various materials to create the project and need to separate these, simply “Ungroup” the selection.
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. I have taken many of the pictures using colored cardstock to aid in seeing each step.
Digital users should think about what colors they want to cut pieces from. Change the shape colors inside your software program to cut pieces from the colors you decide upon.
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 the A Cottage in the Forest Website
Constructing the Building – Left Part of Building
1. Fold the front and back of the building.
2. Glue on the window frames and door. Glue the door frame around the door.
3. Glue the vellum in place if you are using it. Use the Big Window vellum pattern to cut the acetate if you are using it.
4. For the Big Window you have 4 choices:
- Glue vellum into the window
- Glue acetate into the window, and behind the window glue on a scene
- Glue acetate into the window, and behind the window glue on a shallow display window scene
- Glue acetate into the window, and behind the window glue in the deeper display window with actual items like a tree or toys inside it.
I decided to glue on a piece of acetate, then found a Santa’s Workshop scene I liked from Creative Fabrica, and printed it out in the center of a sheet on my printer. I then carefully lined up which part of the scene I wanted, and cut out the shallower display window out of my printed piece of paper. The Pre-cut Kit comes with acetate and a pre-printed scene, but also includes the shallow and deeper display windows in case you wish to use them.
Fold your display window and glue the tabs together.
5. Carefully glue the display window into the inside of your building.
6. Glue the front to the back of the building.
7. 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 now as it will help to help to stiffen and maintain the shape of the building. I like to lower it in from the top. I run the needle tip of my glue bottle between the bottom Insert and the sides, making sure each side is glued securely before moving on to the next.
Middle Part of Building
8. Fold the front and back of the building. The horizontal score lines in the center of the building are for placement of stonework if desired, not folding.
9. Glue vellum into each of the front doors.
10. Glue on the window frames. Glue on the doors and the door frame around the doors.
11. Glue the vellum in place if you are using it.
12. Glue the front to the back of the building.
13. 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 now as it will help to help to stiffen and maintain the shape of the building. I like to lower it in from the top. Align the notch with the doorway. I run the needle tip of my glue bottle between the bottom Insert and the sides, making sure each side is glued securely before moving on to the next.
Right Part of Building
14. Fold the front and back of the building.
15. Glue on the window frames. Glue on the doors and the door frame around the doors.
16. Glue the vellum in place if you are using it.
17. Glue the back seam of the building together. You don’t glue the front tabs at this time.
18. Check the fit of the bottom insert piece, adjusting any of the fold lines as necessary. You may need to trim the corners. Glue the building around the bottom insert now as it will help to help to stiffen and maintain the shape of the building. Align the notch with the doorway.
19. Glue on the top insert. This piece is very important to stiffen the top of the building so the roof will fit.
Assemble the 3 Building Parts Together
20. Glue the left building to the middle building, aligning the back wall.
21. Add a top insert onto the left and middle parts of the building to help retain their shapes.
22. Glue the right building to the middle building, with one short wall also attaching to the left building.
23. Glue the right building to the middle building, with one short wall also attaching to the left building.
Glue on the Roofs
24. Fold and glue both the left and the right roofs using the tabs.
25. Glue each part of the middle and cupola roofs together, then insert the cone part through the skirt part and glue.
26. Make the cupolas by gluing the louvers into the inside, then gluing into a hexagon. Glue on the cupola roofs. **Note for digital pattern: I had no problem cutting the louvers on my Maker, using a sticky mat, a new blade, and 65# cardstock and using the 65# cardstock with “less pressure” setting. If you can not get them to cut nicely use the pdf to print them out on your printer and cut with a craft blade.
27. Glue on the right roof. The roof should fit right beneath the back window frames of the middle building. Depending upon the thickness of your building material, you may need to slightly trim the roof where it abuts the back wall of the left building. Your bead of glue will need to be right at the edge of the top insert to catch the roof.
28. Glue on the left roof, then lastly the middle roof.
29. Glue the cupolas to the top of the left and right roofs. If you want the light from the buildings to shine out through the cupolas, cut off just the tip of both the left and right roofs before gluing on the cupolas.
Attach the Entryway and Signs
30. Fold together and glue columns to the left and right of the main doors. Attach the entryway roof to the building and columns.
31. Decide where you want the front columns and glue onto the roof. Then cut as much railing as you desire to attach to the front and back columns to strengthen the entryway. You can glue the railings on the outside or the inside of the columns, or between the columns like I did.
32. Lastly, glue on your signs.
Make base and decorate as desired. This building can be built from a variety of materials and finished with any method you are used to. Have fun decorating yours!
Enjoy making your Santa’s Workshop!! I would love to see your finished building. Please share a photo with me by emailing me at Jackie@acottageintheforest.com.
Examples for Inspiration
