Paper Mache’ Christmas Cottages

journal entry:

 

It used to be that most people had a Christmas Village. The village grew from year to year. Some villages lived on mantles. Some lived under Christmas trees on blankets of white snow. Some integrated miniature trains. Some lived on  top of pianos and some on small tables. I remember glitter houses. Stiff, cardboard houses sprayed to a luster with glitter and fitted with a small, bottle brush tree.

I have a Christmas village. It has evolved. It is built around various sized birdhouses and lighted snowmen and old cars and trucks with presents in the back seat.  This year my village will add three fairy houses. Oh. And a rusted windmill.  Whimsical .Personal and very handmade. [ time-consuming} By ME.

One is a fairy cottage with a banner of JOY.

 

 

This little house is for passing angels. Each side has a little story to tell.  The collage images come from everywhere. Cards, wrapping paper, digital sheets.  I cut everything by hand and used glue and pop-up dots to create the little house. Wire for the bird nest atop the chimney . . .  lined with soft moss and warmed by a little bluebird with her own wings.

 

I keep an Idea File. The little face beside the gate is a picture of a hand-sewn doll. I saved the picture because I loved her expression. The fox and the skunk like whichever door is open. Fairy, angel or storybook house.

Three little fairy and angel houses. Graced with whimsical faces and topped with nests, red boots and a little Christmas tree topped with a butterfly.

 

“Do you believe in fairies? . . . If you do then clap your hands !”

-JM Barrie-

{author of Peter Pan}