Assemble and Paint An Alpine Christmas Cottage Ornament

The backside and frontside of our Popsicle Alpine Cottage.
It has been painted and the glitter added.

       To make an alpine Christmas cottage out of Popsicle sticks you will need the following supplies: tacky craft glue, twine for the hanger, acrylic paints in white, red, brown and green, a small bottle brush wreath, two cotton balls, transparent glitter, 10 small Popsicle sticks, 21 Larger Popsicle sticks, masking tape, hot glue and white school glue. 
       Clamps to hold wooden craft sticks in place while these dry come in handy for this project!

The front and back of the Christmas cottage before the painting and other details are added.
See cross-bracing craft sticks on the back; the beginning Popsicle sticks
are first glued on top of these for strength and accurate position.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Line up 10 large Popsicles side by side and then use masking tape to hold them together right down the center of the group. 
2. Now glue two more Popsicles, spaced two inches apart perpendicular to the rest, to hold the bulk of the sticks in place permanently. Let these dry in place. Remove the tape once everything has dried.
3. Build a roof in the same way using five Popsicle sticks. Clip the ends on each side to form a pitched roof.
4. Glue on two supporting sticks on top of the right and left sides to form an inverted "V'' shape that reinforces the pitched roof line. See photos above for correct placement. Let these sticks dry.
5. Now glue the roof and front of the alpine cottage together, overlapping just one Popsicle at the ends. The cross-bracing on the walls of the cottage should face to the back of the ornament. The cross-bracing along the roof-line should be facing the front of the cottage.
6. Now glue on the large window and shutters to match the scaling you see in the detailed photos above.
7. Draw, with a soft pencil, a wavy line across the roof cross-bracing, in order to mark the place where you will be gluing the ''snowdrift'' across the roof. 
8. Unravel a cotton ball and glue this directly to those wooden sticks carefully in order to keep the snow in place.
9. Cover the entire pitch of the roof on the backside of the ornament and layer unravelled cotton batting on top of it. Let all of the cotton dry while the cottage is standing on it's bottom edge.
10. Apply more glue and transparent glitter if you like.
11. Next, paint the wooden surfaces to match those shown in the photo above. 
12. For our window, I cut window mullions in a diamond shaped pattern from white paper and glued these to the painted surface for more detail.
13. Hot glue on twine for hanging to the backside of the ornament.
14. Hot glue on a white, bottle-brush wreath to the front above the window.
15. Glue on more glitter snow inside the nooks and crannies of the window pains and shutters too!

More ideas for dollhouse window treatments:

• Mullion Garden View Windows
• A brick dog house for winter weather