Make an Alpine Village Wreath Workshop

Wreath with alpine village houses and bottlebrush trees

In 2014, I fell in love with the idea of making little houses when I saw the cover of the December issue of Martha Stewart Living. It was a gorgeous wreath with decorated with little Putz houses on clouds of cotton snowbanks. Just adorable. When I saw that wreath I decided that some day, I would make little houses.

Then a few years ago, I made a Winter Village Wreath.

Make your own winter village christmas wreath with glitter houses

But recently I've been busy updating my wreath into the Alpine Village Wreath. There are 12 house patterns with variations to make a completely different-looking wreath. I am so happy with how it turned out.

Alpine Village Christmas wreath on white brick

I've made the workshop to show you exactly how to make a wreath like this - an heirloom, really - a special project that your family will pass down for generations. Now on sale for $37.

In addition to the 12 patterns for each of the houses, the workshop consists of 21 short videos including:

Materials and supplies - what is necessary to make the wreath
How to cut out the houses with a Cricut
Assemble the houses - general tips
How to apply snow to the houses
How to apply glitter
Separate videos for how to make each house 1-12
How to embellish the wreath
How to attach the houses to the wreath
Decorate your wreath with bottlebrush trees

Buy Now for Only $37!

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Materials and Supplies to Make the Alpine Village Wreath

Wreath materials:

Artificial Christmas Wreath without lights - I made mine with 30 inch and 32 inch wreaths. Also, it may be easier to find wreaths at your local hobby store.
Artificial Christmas Wreath with lights
- 30 inch National Christmas Tree Pre-Lit Wreath
- 30 inch Pre-Lit Windsor Pine Artificial Christmas Wreath, Clear Lights
Pine greenery to spruce up your wreath - I used branches I found at HobbyLobby. Even though these branches were heavily glittered and shed glitter all over my house, I liked them better than what I found online.
Floral wire to attach houses
- Use lightweight wire for houses made of card stock
- Stem wire to hold cardboard houses
Other embellishments
- Bottlebrush trees - Green with snow various sizes
- Tim Holtz Alpine Bottlebrush trees - higher quality trees
- Tim Holtz Woodland Trees - great trees

Materials and Supplies to Make the Alpine Village Houses

A way to cut out the patterns - I used a Cricut Maker, but any of these Cricut cutting Machines can work:
- Cricut Maker 3
- Cricut Maker
- Cricut Explore 3
- Cricut Explore Air 2
- Cricut Joy Xtra
- Cricut Joy - will work for the houses but you need a way to score (using the foil tool to score is the easiest way)
- Cricut Fine Point Blade
- Green Standard Grip Mat for Cricut Maker and Cricut Explore Machines
- Green Standard Grip Mat for Cricut Joy Xtra
- Green Standard Grip Mat for Cricut Joy 4.5" x 12"
- Scoring Stylus - my preferred way to score
- Blue painter's tape to tape down cardboard or card stock

Cardboard for the sturdiest houses
- 30 pt cardboard - Amazon calls this medium weight chipboard
- 22 pt cardboard - slightly thinner cardboard
- Single face corrugated cardboard for the log cabin

Card stock - cuts much easier and much faster to assemble since you don't have to paint the card stock
- 110# card stock is heavier and pretty sturdy. I used this for the body of my card stock houses
- 65# card stock works for the houses as well, but they will not be as sturdy

Acrylic Paint
- Gesso primer for cardboard houses
- This is my favorite brand of acrylic paint, though it is expensive:
  - Candied Apple - a beautiful red
  - Mowed Lawn - nice green shade, not blue-green, contrast well with the darker green on the wreath
  - Twisted Citron - a light yellow-green, again contrasts well with the wreath
  - Walnut Stain - a medium brown for wood trim on houses
  - Ground Espresso - dark brown for wood trim on houses
  - Light cream or yellow for the base color on many houses - I mixed mine from gesso and a yellow paint
- Other sets of acrylic paints:
  - Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint Set - a nice, inexpensive set of 18 different craft paint colors
  - Craft Smart Acrylic Paint Set - 24 colors for a good price

Glue
- Bearly Art Glue - my current favorite glue for small details and for gluing card stock. Dries fast and holds well
- Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue - strong glue for gluing the structure together
- Hot glue to adhere the trees and figures to the wreath
  - This is a mini glue gun with a detail tip that is rechargeable

Glitter and Mica - despite the name of my website, I'm not really a big fan of glitter. I like to use it sparingly. For the wreath, I used it on the snowy roof of the houses and the base of the house and on the trees.
- My favorite glitter is Clear Rock Candy Glitter
- Distress Mica Flakes - Mica is not perfectly clear, but it adds a nice variation in shine to the trees on the wreath

What is included in the Alpine Village Wreath Workshop?

There are 12 different putz house videos and patterns in both SVG and PDF formats. Additionally there are videos on materials needed, how to jazz up the greenery on the wreath, how to construct each house, how to attach the houses to the wreath, and how to decorate the wreath.

Some of the houses are based on vintage putz houses and most are decorated with trim to look like a Tudor house or a half-timbered houses.

No. 1 Easy Alpine Starter House

This is the simplest structure, but still with a lot of personality.

Christmas Putz house with red windows and green windows

No. 2 Alpine Christmas House

I tried to come up with a good name for this house, but really couldn't think of one, but it is one of my favorite house shapes.

And here is the red version of No. 2 Alpine House. I left off the trim because the red color is so bright. Notice that there are two different window shapes for this house.

No. 3 The Barn

I made this version of the barn by cutting cardboard strips for the siding. I really like it.

Here's the easier, plain version of the barn on one of my wreaths.

Tiny red cardboard barn in front of greenery

No. 4 Twin Gable Front House

This is a relatively simple house with no trim because it's pretty small. It's nice to fit in a smaller space.

Green miniature cardboard Putz on house on wreath

No. 5 Tall Twin Gable Front House (the Alpine Hotel)

House No. 5 is one of my favorite houses. With all the windows, I call it the Alpine Hotel. It's a taller version of the house no. 4.

Small light yellow cardboard house with brown windows and red door

No. 6 Spun Sugar Church

I named this church the Spun Sugar church based on the pink Distress paint used on the church.

Pink cardboard church with red steeple and snow on roof

No. 7 Alpine Chalet (3 variations including the Log Cabin)

I love these versions of the Alpine Chalet. The log cabin variation on the right is made with corrugated cardboard which gives it a great texture and dimension.

3 little cardboard houses in red, green, and brown colors

No. 8 Happy Holiday House

I love the trim on this house.

Little cardboard house with 2 front extensions in red, green, and yellow

No. 9 Swiss Chalet

I've made different variations of this house in past, but I think this version is the best.

Pink cardboard house with red trim and green roof and windows

No. 10 Double Dormer House

This trim makes this little Putz house, I think.

Little cardboard Putz house with brown trim and roof red windows and green door

No. 11 Split Level House

The Split Level Putz house is another house with no trim because the roof line is interesting on its own.

Little pink putz house with red windows brown door

No. 12 Church with Front Tower

And last, the little church that has the tower in the front.

Tiny pink church with red roof and brown windows

Buy the Alpine Village Wreath Workshop for only $37!

If you have any questions, please email me - [email protected].

Thank you for stopping by.