Well, I had immense fun with this little project! I recently bought some of Tim Holtz's Sizzix Village dies, and got to have a play with them. Here's what I've made so far.
I bought these five dies in a bundle from Cutting Edge Crafts (UK), and they are available here in the US, among other places.
I used all patterned papers from Craft Consortium's Tanya Whelan 'Wild Rose' 12x12 pad. I love how they co-ordinate!
My first house was made using the Village Dwelling die, decorated with the Village Cottage die (which creates the shuttered windows, dormer windows and fence), and the Village Rooftops die for the roof shingles. I've seen the Village Cottage die called the Village Bungalow die in some places in the UK.
I decorated the house with moss and paper flowers, and made the little wreath above the door with wire stems from the paper flowers, and a bit of moss.
Just a note on adhesive. I used an ATG gun on the large house flaps and strips of roof shingles. I used Beacon's 3-in-1 glue for the moss and flowers, and I used Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive in a Fineline glue bottle on the smaller flaps.
I made the house base with die cuts from the Village Dwelling and Village Cottage dies. I cut out multiple fence pieces and glue them together to fit round the base.
For my second house, I used the Village Brownstone die, Village Cottage die for the shuttered windows, and the Village Rooftops die.
I put a mottled pink vellum behind the windows of all three buildings.
My last building I styled into a church. (I thought that this would make a lovely alternative to a wedding card - this with a message on a tag, or something, in a decorated box...)
I used the Village Brownstone die, the Village Bell Tower die and the Village Rooftops die. (Just look at those gorgeous little roof tiles!! They cut out in longer-than-needed strips, which you can stagger how you like and trim off the excess at each side of the roof.
I didn't have any mini bells (in spite of eating plenty of Lindt Reindeer!), so I used a large 'jingle bell', which I hung up with thin craft wire and glued into the apex of the bell tower roof.
Here's the church placed on the base.
And just to give you an idea of the size of the houses... cute hey?!
I forgot to mention too - I met Tim Holtz back in February, at the Stitches Show in Birmingham, UK!
I'd gone to the show to meet up with Karen Burniston (of Sizzix Pop 'n Cuts and Elizabeth Craft Designs Pop It Ups fame). Karen and Tim were working from the same stand, so I asked Karen to introduce us.
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