little holiday houses

With a few Fiskars tools, some paper, and maybe even some glitter and other fun craft supplies you can create your own little house to display for the holidays. Start a tradition of making one each year and soon you'll have a village!

Today we have four design team members that have created little houses so cute you'll want to eat them right up. (Just don't try it - they're not edible even if they do look the part!)

Designer: Katrina Simeck
I love the idea of gingerbread houses – so many possibilities for creativity & fun! I was thinking that it would be really fun to create a house for kids to decorate, but without the mess of frosting & food coloring. My solution? Fiskars tools, felt, paper, and Velcro!

To create the house, I used a Fiskars Comfort Grip Rotary Cutter to cut 4 walls from stiff felt.

I punched holes down the sides, using Fiskars ¼ inch hand punch, then laced the sides together with ribbon. The Rotary Cutter came in handy again when cutting the roof pieces out of glittered felt.

I used various punches to create elements to decorate the house: Fiskars Square-a-licious squeeze punch for windows, Fiskars Round-the-Bend corner punch on the door, and Fiskars Scallop Sentiments border punch for the roof accent. Fiskars Seal of Approval and Round ‘n Round punches add extra decoration to the roof.

After creating the elements with cardstock & patterned paper, I used self-adhesive Velcro to attach to the gingerbread house. Using Velcro makes it simple to replace the pieces and create different looks!

Designer:  Lisa Storms
Gingerbread houses bring back happy childhood memories!  I wanted to create a house I could bring out year after year.  I sawed the perch off of a blank wooden birdhouse from the craft store for a whimsically shaped house base. 

After covering it with vintage book paper from a Christmas story painted with white and brown acrylic paint (using the Scallop Sentiment border punch for roof tiles and Boundary Waters border punch for icicle trim), I went to work with the fun part … making candy!  Gingerbread houses are fun to decorate with real candy or paper candy! 

To create the peppermint swirl candy, simply adhere four medium 'Comma, Comma Chameleon' punches in red onto a medium white 'Round 'n Round' circle punch and cut off excess as shown.  The regular peppermint candies are just as easy.  Layer a large 'Bling, Bling' punch in red or green onto a medium white circle topped with a Circle Pop-up Punch, again trimming off excess. 

The gumdrops are also a snap by punching all but a sliver (as shown) of a large 'A Little Out of Shape' squeeze punch and gluing on a layer of chunky crystal glitter.  The peppermint twist door molding is created by adhering a white border punched edge using the Rope border punch over red cardstock and cropping with trimmer.  The sugar cookie wreath begins by punching a Circle Pop-up Punch out of green cardstock and aligning the large 'Seal of Approval' punch centered, glued with a layer of chunky crystal glitter. 

Add a line of white Stickles along all seams mimicking icing to complete this fun gingerbread house

Designer: Kelly Purkey
Last year my friend Josie invited me to her annual Gingerbread House Party and it was a blast!  She had purchased houses for everyone and supplied every kind of candy you could think of.  I spent hours selecting the right decorations for my house and putting it together... it was so much fun!  I love that I can have that kind of experience all year long (or at least before the Christmas candy hits the shelves) by using your Fiskars tools to build your own gingerbread house out of paper.  I put together this cute house to mimic one made out of food. 

For the base of the house, I cut down cardboard using my Rotary Cutter and Acrylic Ruler to be about the same dimensions as a real gingerbread house would be.  I added "frosting" by punching strips of white cardstock with my Scallop Sentiment border punch and adhered them to the cardboard house. 

On my gingerbread house I had used Necco wafers to create a colorful roof and you can achieve the same look by punching patterned paper with a Seal of Approval squeeze punch and layering the shapes on the roof.  I had also used a Hershey's chocolate bar for the door, but this time I made my own pieces from brown cardstock and punched them with the Something Old, Something New corner squeeze punch.  The same treatment was done on the windows of the house.  Add some Christmas cheer with a wreath punched using Round 'n Round and Seal of Approval squeeze punches, then create a bow with a little heart punched using a That's Amore squeeze punch.

Don't forget to do a little landscaping around your house.  The walkway leading up to the door was created out of brown cardstock with my Apron Lace border punch on the sides, then I added little "stones" punched with That's Amore squeeze punch.  A tree was constructed out of green cardstock trimmed with my Pinking Paper Edgers and layered together.  Add a little snow to some of the branches by trimming white cardstock with my Scallop Paper Edgers then adhereing little pieces of it onto different layers of the tree. 

For a finishing touch, give your house a cute fence.  I made mine by punching blue cardstock with my Twinkle Twinkle squeeze punch and cutting the stars in half.  Bend down one of the tips of the stars and adhere it onto your yard.  Continue gluing them all the way around, then poke a hole in the middle of each piece and add thread to string them all together.  It almost looks good enough to eat right?  Pull out your Fiskars tools and host a Gingerbread House Party for your friends this year!

Designer: Lisa Truesdell
I knew when I started my house project that I wanted to start with something premade – and preferably made of wood. I wanted something sturdy that could withstand many holiday seasons in a house full of boys.  When it proved harder than expected to find a house, I ended up buying a birdhouse at a craft store. I pulled the wooden dowels serving as perches out with pliers, and made sure that my window and door placement would cover the holes.  The shape of it is perfect – and at $5, the price was, too!

I started by giving the house a coat of off white paint. I knew I wanted to incorporate some vintage book paper, and I found that my Medium Brick By Brick squeeze punch was the perfect size to make bricks for my house. I punched a lot of little rectangles, and then attached them with decouprage glue in staggered rows, just like real bricks. I used some paper from a French text book, but if you wanted a more Christmas-y theme, you could use music paper from one of your favorite carols.

I used my XL Brick by Brick punch and rectangle USX template to form my windows and doors from patterned paper.  I chose papers that were pale green and pink, as I wanted my holiday house to go beyond Christmas. The colors and patterns definitely fit for Christmas, but for winter as well.  I layered my patterned paper to chipboard and used my Fingertip Craft knife to cut the chipboard to the same size, and then used decoupage glue to secure them together.  I added a little off white paint to finish off the edges before attaching them to my house. 

I loved my little house at this point, but felt it needed just a little more oomph.  I added a button as a doorknob, and then set to work making a little wreath to decorate the eaves. I used a star hand punch on scraps of patterned paper, and then cut a 12in length of wire. 

I added a dab of liquid adhesive to a star, laid the wire on top, and then added another star to the top of the wire. Once I had decorated the entire length, I twisted it around my fingers to form a wreath.  I used another short length of wire as a hanger, and stuck it unto a gluedot that I’d hidden in the eaves of the house.

We keep our holiday decorating fairly simple here, but I think this house has just enough detail and whimsy to hold it’s own in any situation.  I’m planning on displaying it with some favorite holiday photos of my boys.

We hope you're inspired to go make a sweet little house of your own this holiday season - happy crafting!

By Fiskars Design Team