Martha stewart living december 2014I nearly fainted when the December issue of Martha Stewart Living arrived in the mail. Oh my heavens, tiny houses galore! And trees! And glitter! I knew immediately that I would have to make one of these wreaths, so I set about gathering the supplies.

I found the wreath on sale at Michaels for only $6, and this was before Thanksgiving, so I’d imagine they might have even better deals going on now.

I didn’t have any of the Putz houses, nor did I particularly want to buy any, so I used these house templates to make my own. I was only able to find a relatively thick paperboard at Michaels, which meant that I had to modify my houses a bit. (This paperboard looks similar to what I used.) The original instructions require you to cut the houses with little tabs on the walls, which then fold over, joining the walls together. My paperboard was much too thick for folding, so I simply cut out the house panels and used a thin line of hot glue to assemble them. It worked like a charm.

I then coated the houses with Mod Podge and dusted them with glitter, sealed it with a clear spray coat, and then glued tiny pieces of vellum on the backside of the windows. I might go back later and decorate the houses with wreaths, strings of lights, etc. Before hot gluing the houses to the tree, I wrapped a string of battery-operated LED white lights around the wreath, tucking the battery pack in the back where I can easily access the on/off switch.

The snow is cotton balls sprayed with clear spray coat and dusted with glitter. I used a dab of hot glue to secure them to the wreath. The trees can be found at Michaels during the holiday season, or search online for “bottlebrush trees for crafts.”

My last task was to find little people and animals to decorate the tree, and this is where I hit a roadblock. I searched for the figures used in the original wreath, and found that most of them were either out of stock or cost more than I wanted to spend. It occurred to me that I might be able to print and cut out pictures of deer and people, so I searched online for images. And that’s when it hit me: vintage Christmas cards! I’ve always loved the look of vintage and Victorian holiday artwork, and this would be the perfect opportunity to incorporate some of these images into my Christmas decor.

I searched for “vintage Christmas cards” and “Victorian Christmas cards,” and came up with all of the images you see below. They were printed out on card stock, cut out with a pair of small scissors, and hot glued to the wreath.

buildingSnowman bunnies hatsOff krampus mistletoeChildren mushroomMan mushroomWheelbarrow pineconeMen santaSleigh snowFamily snowmansSleigh

Christmas village wreath Christmas village wreath Christmas village wreath Christmas village wreath Christmas village wreath