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Make Your Own Curved Portico House

As I have slowly been making my way through Steven Leeds’ Glitterhouses, converting them from PDFs to SVGs, some of the patterns have been calling me to flesh them out with window frames, doors, or other small changes. But when I got to Glitterhouse #12, a complete yet altered picture of the house flashed into my mind. I actually had to hold myself back from making the changes to Steven’s files right then, and instead published them as he had envisioned the house. Then I set to work making the SVGs of the house as I had visualized it.

3D Outhouse

Free Pattern, Village Accessories

While I am still working on a building pattern for April, I thought I would sneak in this pattern for a little outhouse.

For Christmas each year, I make a different miniature (less than 2″ high) aluminum can building ornament for each of my nephews. This last Christmas, I had thought to make a schoolhouse for them, but my sister mentioned that her boys hadn’t actually been in school since early March – so she didn’t think it fit the circumstances. Getting in the spirit of what fit 2020 best, I made the boys little miniature outhouses. I even cut up toilet paper and made a miniature roll for each outhouse, using part of a toothpick to roll up the toilet paper. Of course, I probably should have had empty rolls in each outhouses to commemorate the great TP shortage of 2020.

Though I have been in a Victorian mood recently and hence added lots of trim to my my outhouse, the pattern works fine without the trim too.

Guest Designer Meg Danforth: Make Your Own Lafayette Square

Cottages, Free Pattern, Guest Designer

I am so excited about this post! This week I am honored to be able to share the pattern for Meg Danforth’s Lafayette Square.

What is so exciting this time is that 1) it’s a Victorian, which are always my favorite, 2) Meg makes gorgeously detailed buildings, and 3) Meg is a ringer with Inkscape and makes her own SVGs! Plus Meg has done all of the hard work of sizing the pattern to fit with the Tim Holtz Village dies.

If you would like to be a guest designer Just reach out to me to work out the details. While finished SVGs make me extra happy, I would also be willing to convert PDFs or (gulp) – hand drawn patterns. Those take me the longest to make and share, however! My main requirement is that you allow me to share the finished files for free on my blog for a minimum of a month.

Make It With Me: Spring Egg-Centric House

Cottages, Review

It’s been a while since I did a make-along of another designer’s building, but with Easter fast approaching I wanted to remake a cottage I had made once before that is just perfect for the holiday, the Spring Egg-Centric House by Sandy Stark of Simply Crafty SVGs. This one does require purchase of the pattern, but it is so unique, and so perfect for Easter, it is well worth it.

Sandy makes a wide variety of different SVGs, not just houses. One of them is a gypsy caravan, a Vardo, that I am just itching to make next.

Make Your Own Mid-Century Modern House

Cottages, Free Pattern

Recently, I received an order for another custom aluminum can house based upon a real house. This one ended up being a real challenge, not only because I had never designed a Mid-Century Modern house before, but because the buyer only sent me one skewed picture of the front of the house. The buyer told me to put it in a winter setting and use my imagination to fill in the back.

I let my imagination run wild on the back, and thus the back of the house has the big windows that are common on Mid-Century Modern houses. For this reason, I expect as many people will want to display the back of the house as the front. I am not providing a Putz back with a hole in it in my pattern. This house really wants to be lit from the bottom!

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