When I was growing up, we had a small plastic flat-pack church that mom would put up every Christmas. I don’t remember if she put a light in it, but of course in those days we didn’t have tea lights. My daughter now has that little church, but for some reason I was inspired to try building my own.
There’s an old song about “a church in the valley by the wildwood, no lovelier spot in the dale”… so I named this ‘Wildwood’. It took countless hours to design and almost as much time to assemble. There are a lot of mistakes and things that were learning experiences for me…things that I think I have fixed in case I want to make another one. I used some chalk spray paint on the parts and let them dry about 24 hours before doing any assembly. My painting area was less than desirable but it worked OK.
There are 6 tea lights illuminating this, so I think I’ll come up with a wired LED light instead. I bought scrapbooking paper in stained glass designs and it’s a bit too thick for good lighting to show through. One roof section is glued in place and the other is removable so you can take lights in or out without having to pick up the whole thing. The steeple is removable, as well.
I’ve thought about submitting this to the catalog but am hesitant….mostly because it’s such a bear to put together……and takes so long.
But, I was in my OCD element with this one… It’s about 4"W x 7.5" long (with steps) and 10" H (with steeple)
A beautiful piece that I think would be wanted in the catalog, especially around Christmas. However, as you point out, making the instructions might be more work than making the original piece.
I love this! And that song is one of my favorites! I would love this in the catalog, even though I know it would be time-consuming to do the instructions. For the windowws, I wonder if you could find a stained glass-type vellum paper? Or even painting it on mylar with glass paints, which would be time consuming, but pretty. The vellum or painted mylar would allow the light to show through easily.
It’s about 4"W x 7.5" long (with steps) and 10" H (with steeple)
