Petit Four House

Post by **BrianB** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 1:52 am

Good evening!

I just finished up construction on a new house. I went through the houses of the month and Putz displays on Papa Ted's site looking for my next project, and I saw/remembered this one. I love the unique architecture on the round part of the house. I also love how this one has a tree coming right out of the roof!!
A lot of houses here in Portland have living roof tops...mostly moss..

Tom was kind enough to answer a few of my questions and I think I was able to get pretty close to the original. The pillars are rolled up paper. They sit on corrugated trim. Apparently there is no light hole for the light to reach the smaller section on the house. This worked out well for me because I forgot to ask Tom before I cut that part out. However we both agreed it would have been cool if it did. If I ever do another one of these, I think I will add the light hole.

Heres a link to the original on Ted's site. It was featured January of 2006.
http://www.cardboardchristmas.com/papateds/Hom2006.html

Im going to try and hit it with primer tomorrow.
-Brian

Post by **les** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 9:49 am

Love it, Brian!!! Great choice!!! I'm biased as I have one that was passed down from my grandmother. She bought it in the '30's and it has some candle wax on the roof as she put real candles on her tree at that time. I don't know if this belonged to a set, but I think there are three other houses that seem to go with it. I'll check through my pix to find them.

I made a light hole in the round section of the house as it shows up better in a village.

Post by **les** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 9:58 am

Brian, I just went to Papa Ted"s and found them. Go to 2005 Putzes, scroll down and you'll see the three of them in a row. There are two that seem to go with this one, not three.

Post by **BrianB** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 12:04 pm

Thank you so much! I used that pic along with all the pics of Tom's to make my pattern. Those two other houses are awesome!! I may have to find more info on them. If you don't mind taking close up pics of yours, it would be great to see them in the HOM section on the forum!

I started making the foil windows. I found a couple sheets of Magenta foil at Michaels. It is on a cardstock, and makes pretty heavy duty windows. I'll post a pic of one soon and a pic of the sheet.

Thanks again!
-Brian

Post by **Antoinette** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 12:47 pm

Brian, regarding those foil windows: I had to replace a missing one on my "Granary" a few years ago, and it just so happened that it was Easter time, and the local stores were featuring foil-covered chocolate eggs. I bought a bag of them and VERY carefully removed the foil from one of the pink ones (rewarding myself with the chocolate within). The foil is super-thin, which is what the original was. It was crinkly but flattened out pretty well. All in all, it was a pretty good excuse to buy a whole bag of chocolate eggs, three of which still remain in the fruit drawer of my fridge -- just in case they ever stop making them.

Barb · Post by **Barb** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 2:00 pm

I snagged an original of one of these houses on ebay, and had to replace the foil windows. Found a package of assorted origami paper (also at Michaels... what did we do before Michaels??) which included very nice, thin sheets of foil in assorted colors. One was just perfect for the windows in this house.

Post by **BrianB** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 4:26 pm

Antoinette, Barb, thank you for the tips!! Tom told me he collects various foils around Valentines day from candies and such too. Great Ideas!!! Awesome excuss for eating chocolate!!

I just picked up some Halloween candy last night...it always taste fresher/best around the Holidays!! I was thinking a florist would probably have other color tin foil for wrapping bouquets in as well. I got fortunate to find this sheet of magenta foil, it seems very durable!
I strive to be as accurate as I can when reproducing these, but I do like the windows to be a little more durable! Especially with a 4 yr old around. I have to say though, she really respects the little houses, and is pretty much an eyes only kid...I feel I lucked out there. I don't know if ya'll saw my Putz display from last year, but I keep a giant plexiglass border around it when it goes up. Kids are one thing....Godzilla Cats are another!

Heres some pics of how I intend to do the windows. You can see my prototype. I made a pattern and traced it onto the foil cardstock. Then glued it down to the red mylar. I used the magenta sharpie to go around the edges where where the foil got a little scraped up and you cant even tell.

Post by **BrianB** » Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:09 pm

Got this one all done! It definitely had some new elements for me to figure out!

I picked out the next three houses I'm going to work on. The next one is a little yellow coconut, I have one in my personal collection, can't wait to get started!

Hope everyone is having a great night!!
-Brian

Post by **paulrace** » Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:37 pm

HOW can you work that fast? I am dumbfounded. Well, maybe just dumb!

Post by **BrianB** » Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:47 pm

Nah... I finished some of my big orders for my business a couple days ago, so I had a little more time yesterday and today. I had a lot of the prep work done on this house too. Like the tree. I did the windows while paint was drying etc. This is probably the quickest one I have done.
I got to think about the Japanese and how fast they had to do them, that is mind blowing!