​Small House/Creche Made of Wood Shims

Small House/Creche Made of Wood Shims

Small House built from wood shims. Can also be used as a creche for those of the Christian faith expression.

Build Base
1. Glue 2 wood shims together to make one solid piece.
2. Place 5 pieces of wood shims next to each other and connect with 2 crosspieces with wood glue.
3. On one end of both crosspieces, mark line for the place to glue pieces that will be the base for the rear wall of the structure. This will be about 1 cm or 1/4 inch from the end of the corsspieces.

1. Start to build the base of the side walls by gluing wood pieces vertically on the crosspieces.
2. Start to build the rear wall by gluing a wood shim piece to connect the 2 crosspieces.
3. Use clamps to hold them in place.

1. Add 2nd layer to 3 of the walls
2. Once the 2nd layer has dried, glue a wood shim piece vertically to the rear wall.
3. This will be the vertical support beam for the structure.

1. Continue to build up side walls up to a 3rd layers of wood shim pieces glued on.
2. Build the rear wall up to a 4th wood shim layer.

1. Side walls should be 3 wood shims high.
2. Build back wall up to 5 wood shims.
3. Glue a horizontal support beam on top of the vertical support beam.
4. Tape the horizontal beam to the back wall while it dries.

1. Once the horizontal beam is secure, use wood shim pieces to connect the horizontal beam to the side walls.
2. Glue some scrap wood under the wood beams to further connect them to the horizontal beam.

1. Continue to add additional roof beams on both sides of the structure until roof is finished.
2. Should be about 6 beams wide.

1. If using it as a creche for a Nativity scene, add vertical beam to hold the Star of Bethlehem offset from the center of the structure.
2. Glue an acrylic sew-on stone to the top of the vertical beam to simulate a star, similar to these:
http://www.mjtrim.com/accessories/sew-ons
or
https://www.jfallen.com/wholesale/category/23080/