Michele Made Me

One birdie's attempt to figure things out. Oh, and crafts.

Series 7 – Ornament-ED Finale: Heart House Ornament

by

 

I have been feeling some feelings lately. Like, feelings of well-being. Like, spontaneous-breaking-into-song-and-general-wonderfulness-type feelings. I know… It sounds pretty floofy, but I can’t help it. And I can’t explain it either. I do not know where the feelings came from, when they started, nor why they’ve been persisting. Maybe it’s menopause? Or some sort of hormone imbalance? Could that be it? I don’t know… It’s a combination of things I figure. Like the fact that I have such a fine husband… Or the fact that I’ve been graced with three healthy/crazy/amazing offspring maybe?… Or maybe it’s that I’m doing what I love everyday. Whatever it is, I’m feeling darn blessed. In fact, that’s where this little ornament comes in. It was inspired by our home and all those feelings I’ve been feeling. I call it the “Heart House Ornament” and it is the final installment in the Ornament-ED series!
Before I Begin:  I made two versions of this ornament. The first one I made out of a tissue box; the second one I made out of old greeting cards. In my opinion, the greeting cards were about 100 times easier to work with because the cards are quite a bit thinner than the tissue box. Also the finished greeting card ornament is as light as a feather. So, yes, if you’re going to attempt this ornament, don’t think twice. USE GREETING CARDS. 
Tutorial ♥ Heart House Ornament
You will need:
  • Old greeting cards or tissue box (but I strongly recommend old greeting cards)
  • Pair of scissors
  • Exacto knife
  • Craft glue
  • Clothespins (for clamping)
  • Pretty string
  • Two wooden beads (I stole these from The Boy’s stash. Does that make me a bad mom?…)

1. Start with either greeting cards or a tissue box. To give my greeting card ornament a cohesive look, I  chose several muted Christmas cards of similar style and colour (as above).

2. Create your template similar to the one below. I made mine out of a cereal box. Note that the right and left sides of the template MUST BE mirror images of one another.
3. Using your template, trace and cut out twelve identical houses. Fold each house along its center line.
4. Take a house and apply glue to half of the bad side.

 

5. Take a second house and join it to the gluey house, bad sides together. Clamp this pair with a clothespin or two. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the remaining 5 pairs of houses. You now have six pairs of half-glued houses. Now apply glue to the bad side of half a house in a pair and glue two pairs together. Continue glueing pairs together until you have 3 groups of four houses.
6. Now glue all groups of 4 together as before and clamp as shown in photo #6. Allow to dry.
7. Glue the two end houses together to create the completed heart house. Clamp and let dry. Gather your beads and string.
8. Place a bead on your string. Now thread both ends of your string up through the heart house. Once through the top, place a second bead on your string. Tie the ends of the string to make a hanger. Trim the string ends if necessary. Apply glue to the very peak of your house to adhere the upper bead to the house.

Don’t look now, but the cute heart house is complete and ready to hang!

It reminds me of a itsy garden gazebo or merry-go-round, hee hee.
On that note, it is time to bid a fond farewell to this little series… Goodbye sweet series, à la prochaine. I certainly hope you’ve enjoyed my ornamental foray. I’ve got to get to some gift-making now, wouldn’t you say? I best get at it quick!
Have a happy weekend. I’ll be back here on Tuesday.
♥M

Reader Interactions

Comments

  10. Michelle L. says

    Excuse my while I bite my hand and gasp…one of my new favorite Michele creations! The heart, the house, the delicate intricacy, the recycled cards! LOVE.

  22. Anonymous says

    Hello !!!

    Yes, I made a template from the instructions. So anxious to try this over the weekend. I just love your website. My template is about 4 inches tall, is that about right?

  32. Michele Pacey says

    Hi Anonymous,

    Find an exacto knife at any craft store or, if there's no craft store in your area, any hardware store should carry them as well. Hope that helps. 🙂

  35. Anonymous says

    love this idea and it is adorable but both my daughter and I are stuck on number 6 and can't figure it out.. if you glue any of the pieces together at this point then you end up with 9 half houses in a circle but when I look at yours there are 12 so I'm obviously doing something wrong but can't figure out what??? Help!

  36. Michele Pacey says

    Hi Anonymous… You're stuck on number 6? Okay… Whenever you apply glue to any house, try applying it to the same side every time. For example, if you start by putting glue on the left side of your first house, do the same with every other house. That way when you bring groups of houses together, you shouldn't have a problem. I hope this helps. Fingers-crossed! Send me an email if you need more clarification, okay?

  37. Anonymous says

    Thank you Michele 🙂 I finally figured it out with your help.. yep they are really adorable.. I am thinking of making one and when finished putting the name of all the family members on each half and the year on one.. so that they will always remember who was there that year 🙂

  43. - - Sheryl - - says

    love this ornament! I have a cricut machine so I can adapt your idea withthe images there, as long as they are identical! I also have a snowflake punch this would be awesome to use it for. Thanks

  45. Anonymous says

    Hello, are you able to specify exactly how you make the sides of your template mirror images? Forgive my ignorance, I just don't completely understand that part of the process.

    • Michele Pacey says

      Hi Anonymous,

      To get a template that has two identical sides, fold a piece of paper in half and draw only one side of the design on the fold. Now cut out the design while the paper is still folded. Once the design is fully cut out, unfold the paper. That should give you a template with identical sides to start with!

      Hope that helps!

  54. walt says

    love this. I hope to start a crafters small group at our church this will be one ornament we will use. I have one question what are the measurements of the house template width x height. when I copied mine over I thought it looked a bit small.