Cottages Archives - Page 2 of 6 - A Cottage in the Forest

The Great Halloween Spooktacular

Cottages, General, Halloween, Miniature Village Ideas, News / August 2, 2024

The Great Halloween Spooktacular has started! I am going to post the pictures of each of the projects as they are revealed. You have 24 hours to download the files and watch the instruction videos on the Spooktacular pages (9 am EST to 9 am the next day.) However, you still need to get a Free pass to do so.

Once the day of the project is past, the only way you can get the project is to buy a VIP PASS. These will be available even after the Spooktacular ends.

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The Victorian Village Collection

Cottages, General, Miniature Village Ideas, News / July 9, 2024

Back in 2021 I joined with Teri Hanson of a Covered Chipboard for a year in which we each produced a Victorian building pattern for sale every other month. It was fun, but life caught up with us the next year and we decided we didn’t have the time for both our individual websites and producing files for PHM. We each retained our own files. While brainstorming ways to fund my website, I decided to bundle some of my individual Victorian Village patterns into a collection that you can buy at a discount. I have collected 5 building patterns I designed, plus related accessory patterns into the Victorian Village Collection. The collection includes all the files you need to make an elegant Victorian village!

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The Fairy House Collection

Cottages, General, Miniature Village Ideas, News / May 25, 2024

When Lucy asked me to design a fairy house for her Whimsical Fairy House Challenge, I decided that no fairy village was complete without at least one shop. So besides designing Viola Cottage, I also designed the Forest Fairy Bakery, which you can find in a bundle that Lucy is now offering for sale through her website called The Fairy House Collection – Fairy Houses for All Seasons. I have never participated in a collaboration like this before so I am quite excited!

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Make Your Own Viola Cottage

Cottages, Free Patterns, Houses / May 12, 2024

My friend Lucy Foxworth of Paper Glitter Glue decided to have another challenge and asked me to design some buildings for it. This time the challenge is a Whimsical Fairy House Challenge. Lucy is releasing a different fairy house design every day for 12 days. I have committed to making two fairy house designs.

I decided for the first of my buildings to give Sparrow House a fairy remodel. I knew I wanted to add flowers to my roof, and decided on violas as there are so many color combinations to choose from. For anyone who prefers pansies to violas, I include a pansy pattern too.

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Make Your Own Rose Cottage

Cottages, Free Patterns, Houses / April 13, 2024

I wanted to make another easy beginner cottage this month. While looking through pictures of simple houses on Pinterest together for inspiration, my friend showed me this house, as she loved the porch and curved railing. I loved how it was so cheery looking, and reminded me of spring! I named it Rose Cottage not only for the color of the house, but also as I envision roses growing up the side of the house and along the curved railings.

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Make Your Own Village Cafe

Cottages, Free Patterns, Shops and Village Buildings / February 18, 2024

I thought it was time for another shop for our village. I saw a picture of a cute two-dimensional computer drawn building and decided to imagine how it would look as a 3D building.

I also decided to do something a little different this time. With Easter fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to make a building that could also double as a gift box. Thus I made the roof of this cafe so that it does not need to be glued down to stay on, and can be removed at any time. If you want to make your cafe into a gift box, use the solid Putz Bottom.

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Make Your Own Gull Cottage

Cottages, Free Patterns, Houses / January 26, 2024

Ever wonder how I get the ideas for the buildings I design? I search both Google and Pinterest for pictures of buildings I would like to build, and save the ones I like in Pinterest boards. While I prefer to be inspired by real buildings, I’ve used sketches and even computer or AI art to inspire me. This month I received a suggestion that I modify Cheryl’s Place to add a bay window in the front on the first floor, with a balcony on top of it.

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Make Your Own Santa’s Workshop

Cottages, Free Patterns, Shops and Village Buildings, Snow Village / December 8, 2023

After I made my Barn with Stables (Reindeer Stables) earlier this year, I knew that I wanted to make a Santa’s Workshop to go with it. I started researching Santa Claus villages for inspiration, and landed on Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, Finland. There are a lot of very interesting buildings, but I decided to use the Christmas House where you can see Santa year round as the inspiration for my Santa’s Workshop. I wanted a large window so you could see into Santa’s Workshop, thus I made the building wing on the left two stories instead of one. For anyone who has no interest in making Santa’s Workshop, I thought the building would also make an interesting department store.

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Make Your Own Sparrow House

Cottages, Free Patterns, Halloween, Houses / September 22, 2023

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 could fit into Whoville.

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Make Your Own Village Pub

Cottages, Free Patterns, Shops and Village Buildings / August 30, 2023

This month I decided to make SVGs in Inkscape of one of the early buildings I originally designed in Cricut Design Space. This building is based on Gus O’Connor’s Pub in Doolin, Ireland. From TheJournal.ie: “SINCE 1832, GUS O’Connor’s has been a fixture in Doolin, Co Clare. Over the years, it has garnered a reputation as one of the best regarded traditional music pubs in Ireland.”

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