I've started on my Christmas houses - a little late, but I am getting there. I actually designed and ordered a custom die from a subsidiary of Accucut called Custom Shape Pros that I can modify to make a range of designs. I cut out 10 houses in about 10 minutes. Only one has been glued together though. That one is shown below

So the first house is the one cut from a die. I wanted to make a printie so I was drawing and painting on a piece of paper where I had marked the die cuts. It was supposed to be a prototype, but I liked the drawing so much I decided to use it on one of the houses. The idea is for the house to look like a house found in a children's book which is what printies kind of look like to me.

Also, I found some Christmas colored aluminum foil in green and red and gold that was not expensive so I used that for the roof and the chimney. I'm experimenting with Snow Tex, still probably a little stingy with it.

The second house is Christmas candy corn still in progress. I like the bright glitter, but it doesn't scream candy corn like the yellow and orange and white house did. I'll probably only make one.

So that's where I am now. I hope everyone is doing well and keeping warm wherever you are. Lucy

lucy...

i just couldn't miss the opportunity to quote Artie Johnson..."Very interesting"...(some young forum members may have to "google")...i was not aware of the availability of a manually operated, non-commercial grade die cut machine...

can you post a pix or two of the cardboard die cuts before assembly?...did you have dies made for roofs?...chimney?...does the die cut the door and window openings?...

my very best regards...howard...

note...i've just spent way too much time drooling over the machine and the possibilities...

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View my Little Glitter House Photo Album
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Howard,

I'm working today so I won't be able to show you the set-up until tonight. I'll show you some pictures then. I think it's pretty cool. I used the Custom Shape Pro die with a sizzix big shot machine that rolls the die through to cut the cardboard. I did not include windows in my die but I could have. I wanted the die to be very flexible so I could use it for so many different houses.

I too would like to hear info on the die.

My wife is a Stampin Up demonstrator. and has various Sizzix die cut machines.

I'd think a custom die might be pricey.

Be col hear more on this.

Steve

Yes, the custom die cost $175, but it really makes life easier. That's why I tried to design it so I could do a lot of different houses with it. Sizzix does customs dies as well, but I don't know what their cost would be. It seemed like a much more cumbersome process to work through them. Lucy

Thanks for the info.

Picture of the house before it's folded up and glued would be great too.

Pretty cool.

Steve

This is an interesting topic. I'll be following it also. Thanks for the information Lucy.

Also, I love the printy look.

Ok, here are the photos for dies.

1. The first picture is the custom die itself. I did not include the roof or back in the die because those are basically rectangles that I can cut easily. I could have asked them to include windows and doors but then the pattern would be harder to modify. Also I figured it was going to be pretty expensive and I thought the other details would dramatically inflate the price. Oh, the foam looks a little ragged because it does have some cardboard dust on it, but mainly because my cat briefly decided to sharpen her claws on it. It won't happen again.

2. The second picture shows the cardboard cutouts. The basic part of the house, the chimney cutout, and the gable cutout - all the things with angles.

3. Just for contrast I thought I would show you the Sizzix Village Dwelling die which costs about $40-50 depending on where you get it from. I made the 4 little houses from that die. There are 2 major design flaws in that die - they wasted a ton of space on the die making the base for the house which is basically a rectangle and the porch supports are seriously flimsy.

Lucy

I made the gable wide so I could add a bump out if I wanted and could use that. The chimney is longer than needed so I can modify it and change the angle for a shallower roof. Also I could cut off the angled part of the chimney to make a post for fences.

The dimensions of the house are 5 inches wide, 2 inches deep and 5 1/2 inches tall at the side peaks and tallest front gable.

I hope that helps. Lucy