DIY: Winter Village

Years ago at my childhood friend’s house during the holidays my son admired her holiday village on her mantle, marvelling at the details.  He has been in love with these holiday scenes ever since.  This year, we decided to make our own wooden one!

Our daughter was home sick with croup and thus, she enjoyed painting embellishment pieces for everyone to use, gluing the pieces on (she is really getting into patterns) and creating designs.  This is a great activity to do over the winter holiday and treasure for years!

Materials

• Wood scraps (we used two-by-fours)

• Wooden Pieces (You can get these at craft or dollar stores)

• Acrylic paints
• Paint brushes
• Cotton batting (You could stretch out cotton balls and use that too.)
• Glue gun/glue
• Sandpaper (*Optional)
• Tray for the paints
• Gesso (*Optional)

We always find these items helpful too:

• Smock
• Craft tray

Directions

• On your wood pieces (ours were various pieces from projects), draw peaks for your roofs.   Have an adult cut these for you.  Save the excess pieces to make trees!

• Don your smock and your safety glasses.  Sand your wood.

• Coat your pieces with Gesso.  This will make an easier surface area for painting on.  Allow to dry overnight.

• Paint your houses.  We went with one side at a time.  Allow to dry.

• Paint your embellishment pieces and allow them to dry.

• Glue your embellishment pieces onto your houses, making doors or shingles for example.  We used a glue gun, but your could also use wood glue.

• Once your houses are ready, set up a scene.  We added our trees, little planters with a bit of greenery and cotton batting to form snow.  You could even make little people to include.

Purpose

• Designing and executing a plan.
• Painting various objects.

Safety Notes

• We suggest that you wear a smock and use a craft tray to protect your clothing and surfaces.
• Use scissors and a glue gun with care and direct adult supervision and guidance.
• Small, wooden pieces can be a choking hazard therefore be sure to keep them out of the reach of children ages 0-3 years of age or those that tend to put things into their mouths.
• Follow product directions.