DIY Dollar Tree House Ornament Shelf Sitter

I have a special treat for you all today! Dollar Tree has a ton of really great Christmas ornaments this year but what I have in mind for these adorable little houses has nothing to do with hanging them on a Christmas tree!

green dollar tree house ornament in woman's hand in dollar store

When I saw these house ornaments at Dollar Tree, I knew exactly what I was going to do with them. These are so stinking cute! Honestly, a million ideas were going through my head but I think this one beats them all.

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I am going to be making the most adorable shelf sitter with these. So I picked up four of the houses. I got two green, a red, and a white.

a woman with painted finger nails holding a small plastic green house ornament with a tiny wreath on it from dollar tree on a wood background

I began by removing the twine string since I’m not going to be using these as ornaments.

dollar tree house church barn christmas ornaments that are red white and green a woman is using scissors to cut off the tags

We are going to set these aside for now and work on the base. For the base, I found this shelf sitter in the home decor section at Dollar Tree. This has an unfinished side, so we are going to turn it around and make sure that that part faces the back. I’m going to remove the leather gather tag.

removing a small leather tag from a piece of mdf decor that is from dollar tree diy christmas ideas ornaments

It does have pins in it, so if you want to recreate this DIY, just be very careful with this step. It also has this floral design here, but we don’t have to worry about that because it’s going to be covered.

Next, I’m going to do a dry fit with my houses.

holding two little house ornaments on a piece of mdf decor from dollar tree Christmas DIY project dollar store ideas

It’s always a best idea to do this before breaking out any glue, just to make sure everything fits properly. I did a staggering look, placing two in back and two in front.

To secure my houses, I’m going to be using Gorilla Glue Super Glue with a combination of hot glue. The hot glue tacks everything in place and holds it while the super glue sets. If you want a really good hold, this is the best method that I have found.

gluing the bottom of a green dollar tree house ornament with gorilla glue super glue

Hot glue is great, but I do find that it does wear down over time. I begin by putting the super glue on first, all around the base, edge, and then apply my hot glue. You don’t need a lot of hot glue because remember, this is just to tack the houses in place while the super glue sets.

Then I place my houses in the spots where I want them and I repeat the process with the remaining houses. I let this set for about an hour, just to make sure that the glue is really secure.

positioning a little white plastic church christmas ornament onto a piece of mdf wood shelf sitting diy ideas dollar store woman's hands painted fingernails

Once I knew my glue was set, I came in with these mini trees I got last year at Dollar Tree. These are a Christmas staple and they usually have them every year, so I’m sure you’ll be able to find them.

a woman using super glue to glue a tiny bottle brush tree to a diy christmas project close up shot

I used tiny off-cut wood pieces that I’ve saved from my laser cuts, but you can find similar small wood pieces at most dollar stores. I used super glue to glue them into place, then I added in all the trees.

I continued adding in trees until I was happy with the amount that I had. You can add as little or as many as you want. This part is personal preference, but I do highly suggest elevating them and making them varying heights, as this elevates the look of the project.

close up of decoart snow-tex jar 4 oz canister with a christmas house DIY in the background

And now for this stuff, my favorite, favorite stuff for Christmas crafting, Snow-tex. This really elevates your Christmas crafting and I highly suggest picking some of this up.

For my American subscribers, I have a 20% off code for you that you can use on the DecoArt website. The code is HA24H2

Unfortunately, my Canadian friends, DecoArt does not ship to Canada, but I do have a link to Amazon where you can get this. And I’m Canadian myself, so I feel you on that. But anyway, this stuff is super easy to apply. You just pounce it around, you add as little or as much as you like.

using a paint brush to add decoart snow tex onto a base that has little bottle brush trees glued to it from dollar tree

You let the Snow-Tex set for a couple of hours and here is my finished shelf sitter!

Doesn’t this totally look like something you would pick up from a home decor store!? It turned out better than I thought it would.

close up of dollar tree house ornaments plastic covered with snow tex and little green bottle brush trees

If love to watch DIYs in action, check out me making this in my newest YouTube video below as well as 5 other charming Christmas DIYs from Dollar Tree.