
Make Your Own Holiday Village!
Welcome To A Cottage in the Forest. On this website my goal is to give you everything you need to make your own Halloween or Holiday Village using whatever materials are at your disposal. You can make your cottages out of cardboard, cardstock, recycled aluminum cans, or even recycled frozen food boxes! This site offers unique free patterns, as well as reviews, links and sizing guides to patterns offered by other sources. We will explore various ways to add snow and windows. I also offer accessories like trees, fences, animals and mailboxes that will make your village come to life.
For anyone who doesn’t want to make their own cottages, I also offer a limited number of buildings that I have made out of my personal favorite material, recycled aluminum cans.
Newest Tutorials
How to Re-Stick Your Machine Cutting Mats
The question of how to keep your mats sticky comes up over and over again. This is of particular interest to those of us who use cardboard or cardstock to make our 3D houses. One of the reasons I prefer to use white Kraft Board or Cover Cardstock is it sheds less than kraft chipboard, but all paper products leave a little bit of residue on the mat every time we use it. Over time I have developed 3 steps I use to keep my mats sticky or to re-stick my mats. I've tried many other suggestions I have read about online, but these three steps work for me consistently....
Read MoreMake Your Own Marques Tower
This is the second and last of the castle patterns I am making at Lucy Foxworth's request for her Make A Castle Challenge. I had known that I wanted to explore hexagonal and octagonal towers, and had a chance to do both when I made Hiorne Tower. Exploring making round towers was next on the list, so I looked for a castle for inspiration that had a round tower. Once I saw pictures of the Marques Tower at the Château de Chenonceau in the Loire Valley, France, with its round turret attached to a round tower, I knew I wanted to try to make it. This one was not easy to...
Read MoreMake Your Own French Bond Stencil
I just started my model for my next free building pattern, the last of the castles I am designing for Lucy Foxworth's Make A Castle Challenge. It has some stonework, and there are several ways I could make the stonesk, using either my texture folders like I showed you when I made Villa Torre, or using a debossing tip, like I did with Hiorne Tower. I also have the new stencil I cut when I made my version of Lucy's Chateau. However, I decided it was time that I make and share a new stencil pattern.
Read MoreNewest Additions to Store
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