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DIY Christmas Touches
My husband comes from Germany, where a lot of US Christmas tradition originally came from. He is the one who “keeps Christmas” in our house, and he is also a “crafty half” of our family. A few years ago we were together in Barnes & Noble store when he noticed a paper houses kit for sale. He said that he could perhaps make one himself and immediately went to work on his first Christmas house creating a design for it on the computer in his favorite CorelDraw program. He was cutting out his houses manually for several years, but last year after an exhaustive research he got himself a Silhouette Portrait paper cutting machine. He chose a Silhouette and not a more known Cricut, because Silhouette comes with software that allows users create their own designs and import their designs from other applications. This is his original village before Silhouette:
As you can see, my husband’s designs were already pretty intricate, but Silhouette brought it to the next level. Here is our fully lighted winter village from Christmas 2013 with some new post-Silhouette additions – a pub, a clock house, and a two story house. I am lobbying for a working Christmas carousel this year :)

More Winter Village Ideas
Our Christmas village is absolutely unique to us, and I didn’t ask my husband for permission to share his design. You are welcome to use the pictures above for inspiration. Instead, I will share several other, less involved, ideas for Christmas villages:
- Nurture Store cleverly disguised toilet paper rolls and transformed them into a Christmas village
- Life with Moore Babies has a cardboard tube as a base, and her light-up winter village can be very polished for adult crafters or more child-led depending on your needs.
- Paging Supermom! offers a detailed tutorial on making a recycled Christmas village from cereal boxes.
- Better Homes and Gardens offers a tutorial for adult crafters on making a mini holiday village.
Your Turn
Do you have DIY Christmas decorations in your house?Check Out More Creative Christmas Ideas
- Fifteen Easy Christmas Crafts You CAN Make from Bare Feet on the Dashboard
- Christmas Art Projects for Kids from Hand Made Kids Art
- Seven Simple Lego Gifts Your Kids Can Make from Lemon Lime Adventures
- Simple Things to Put in Clear Plastic Ornaments from P is for Preschooler
- Paper Winter Village from Planet Smarty Pants
- Christmas Countdown with Wooden Blocks from Adventure in a Box
- Pinecone Angels from Peace But Not Quiet
- Fine Motor Christmas Crafts, Activities, & Games for Kids from Still Playing School
- Healthy Holiday Baking from Gypsy Road School
- Bottle Cap Christmas Craft from Sugar Aunts
- Five Things Kids Can Make from Old Christmas Cards from The Chaos and the Clutter
- Creative Christmas from In the Playroom
- Creative Christmas Pinterest Boards from Are We There Yet?
- ransitioning to a MAKE-YOUR-OWN Christmas Tradition from Multicultural Kid Blogs
Follow Becca Eby ~ Bare Feet on the Dashboard's board Festive Family Holiday on Pinterest.
8 comments:
Your village is really beautiful.
Love it! It is so beautiful and love the contrast of the all white houses with the light. Your husband is quite talented!
I absolutely love it! (I can see us using it for a lot of pretend play, lol!) One of those cutting machines is on my wish list but it might have to wait until next year.
Do you think he will transition into wood one day, and make a family heirloom?
ohh a paper village!! how delicate and beautiful!
What a lovely project!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!
That is stunning! Thanks for sharing, stopping by from #MomTimeThurs
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