
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
Shingle Patterns
Earlier this month I held a Halloween House class at a local store. One of the participants was making my new Sparrow House and wanted to add shingles. There isn't time during the class, but I referred them to my website and told them they could find shingle patterns there and cut them by hand and add them at home. Once I got home, I realized that while I had included shingle patterns in several of my house patterns, they weren't that easy to find. I decided that I needed one post that included all of my shingle patterns.
Read MoreMake Your Own Sparrow House
I had a bit of a challenge in deciding on a Halloween building for this year. I am teaching another class locally in October, so I wanted to design a building simple enough that a beginner could finish it in 3 hours. I also wanted to make a building that could be used for multiple seasons. Since I like basing many of my patterns on actual buildings I tried a Google search and decided on the Jack Sparrow House in Helston, Cornwall. This cottage is one of Airbnb's most wish-listed properties in the UK. With seasonal decorations it could be a witch's cottage, a fairy house, or a building that...
Read MoreMake Your Own Stacked Stone Wall Stencil
I just finished my pattern for the Village Pub, based on the Gus O'Connor's Pub in Doolin, Ireland. Since the pub had a stacked stone wall front, I decided I wanted one too. There were several ways I could make the stones, using either my texture folders like I showed you when I made Villa Torre, or using a debossing tip, as I did with Hiorne Tower. I really love the look of stenciled stones made with grit paste, however, so I decided it was time that I make and share a new stencil pattern.
Read MoreNewest Additions to Store
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