The glitter arrived this past week! That meant it was time to put the finishing touches on some of my first putz houses I had made over the previous two weekends and during the New Year holiday. During my online research with how to start, I’d found on a few sites that recommended a glitter called “carrara marble” which is a Martha Stewart Product. I bought a three pack that contains three different types of white glitter and decided to experiment with all three.

I quickly discovered the carrara marble was my least favorite. It’s not even on any of the houses pictured above.  The cottage with the chimney is covered in the “course crystal” glitter from the three pack, and outlined with Ice Stickles Blueberry Ice glitter glue.  The cottage without the chimney is covered in the fine crystal glitter and outlined with Stickles Holly glitter glue.

I really like the glitter glue on the edges and around the windows as a finishing touch, but am still undecided about the glitter on the sides of the houses and roofs, even though the traditional putz houses from days gone by were covered in even more glitter. As you can see from the pics, the country church only has glitter around the windows and edges. I did not put glitter on the sides or roof and I think I like it that way.

The house with the base is the very first one I made.  It was also the hardest.  You might remember from my first post that its template did not have glue tabs and it did not have a floor. That was my reason for adding the base just to close it in, but it also does not have a hole in the back where you’d normally insert a Christmas light.  The other two have floors, and I think that going forward I’ll probably continue to add floors to the ones intended to be tree ornaments. The cottage without a chimney does have a hole in the back, but the church does not.  I’ll probably eventually add holes though.

There are two other houses not pictured that are still be worked on. One of those will have a true putz base and yard. But it’s the one I used the glitter on that I don’t like, so we’ll see what becomes of it.  Today I also started on two non-Christmas putz houses, inspired by a pic I found on Pinterest. More about these later.

So, what will become of these little houses?  These first ones will probably be given away or sold.  I’m happy with them overall and certainly learned from them, and I’m enjoying challenging myself to get better with each new putz house that I build.

How are you 2014 hobbies or crafts coming?