3D Pen Christmas House

This is a sponsored post,. However, all thoughts, opinions, and comments are 100% my own. 

Do you have crafty kids? The boys and I tried out a new craft project this weekend, a 3D paint pen. While we always do gingerbread houses for Christmas, I thought it might be fun to add another 3D Christmas house to our decorations. And the kids wholeheartedly agreed.

After opening our IDO3D box I headed to their website to look at all the patterns they have available online. I went with the Cottage pattern, with a few minor changes. But I’ll get to that in a minute. We printed out the pattern, grabbed the plastic tracing sheet that comes in the box, and went to work.

Picking a larger project like the cottage meant there was plenty for everyone to do as we worked together to build our house. Tracing the various pages, shining the IDO3D spotlight on our pieces, and then assembling our house.

 

I picked up a few tips and tricks along the way.

1. The spotlight: Make sure that your IDO3D spotlight has fresh batteries. Also, hold the spotlight as close to your project as possible. For thicker areas, you can also cure your pieces from the bottom of the plastic tracing sheet by holding the spotlight under your artwork. This was great for the green decorative piece at the top of our house and the windows.

2. For fine detailed areas do a small section at a time and then use the spotlight. Since the kids and I all did this together we were able to have one person doing the spotlight while someone else traced the lines.

3. The plastic tracing sheet: alcohol-based hand sanitizers help to easily remove any sticky residue left behind by the ink.

The biggest change I made to the cottage pattern was drawing stars instead of hearts. I also drew the shutters and doors directly onto the side pieces of our Christmas house instead of drawing them separately and then attaching them. And of course, we went with red and green colors for Christmas.

You certainly aren’t limited by the patterns available from I Do 3D Art. Let your imagination run wild! With winter coming the 3D pen would make a great snow day activity for older kids. Once we were finished building our house the kids colored a yard, walkway, and street on a sheet of paper for the house to sit on. And they found a small toy person to play with inside the house. Littlest had him napping, working in the garden out back, and answering the door for guests.