Holiday Archives - Page 3 of 3 - A Cottage in the Forest

Make It With Me: Halloweenie Town Dead Inn

Cottages, Halloween, Make It With Me / October 13, 2020

I have another designer that I would like to introduce you to. Recently, Teri Hanson of The Covered Chipboard shared her finished building and posted a link to her pattern for the Halloweenie Town Dead Inn to a Facebook group I belong to. I reached out to her about making and reviewing her pattern for my blog, only to find out that the Halloweenie Town Dead Inn is the the first of at least 6 buildings Teri intends to make for her Halloweenie Town! Like myself, Teri loves Halloween and could easily make Halloween houses all year long.

Teri is a long-time designer but is new to making smaller village buildings and SVG files. I had a few problems with the pattern and she has been wonderfully responsive in providing an update. And then she went even beyond that update to add an option just for people like me who have a smaller cutting area (like an aluminum can.) I look forward to making and sharing many more of Teri’s Halloweenie Town buildings.

Join along with me as I make the Halloweenie Town Dead Inn. As usual I will be scaling the Halloweenie Town Dead Inn to fit with the Tim Holtz Village dies.

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Make Your Own Abandoned Mansion

Cottages, Free Patterns, Halloween, Houses / September 13, 2020

I love browsing through miniature houses on Pinterest, Etsy, and Facebook. It is one of my favorite pastimes while I am using my stationary bike, and helps the hour pass by quickly. Many crafters base their designs on old Putz houses from the 1920s and after. While I am not a glitter kind of girl, I still enjoy seeing all the various styles people make. A lot of them are fairly simplistic, but there are more elaborate designs. Recently, I saw a post in a Facebook group where the poster had recreated a disintegrating cardboard Putz house that she thought was probably from the 1950s. Her husband had sketched out a rough pattern on graph paper and she wanted to share the pattern with the group, but she wasn’t sure how to do so. I thought it would be interesting to take someone else’s complicated design from sketch to finished SVG so I volunteered.

Thus the Abandoned Mansion is a collaboration of Shabby Shimmer Designs and A Cottage in the Forest. My pattern is not an exact replica of what she made. I changed the proportions a bit so that would size well with the Tim Holtz Village. Shabby also used reproduction Putz windows and had a Putz-style back (round hole in a blank back.) I provide Halloween themed window and door frames, and also offer two options for the back – either the traditional flat Putz back with a hole, or backs with windows and doors so that the Abandoned Mansion looks like it belongs with the Tim Holtz Village and the other buildings I design.

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Make It With Me: Habitat Spooky Halloween House

Cottages, Halloween, Make It With Me / August 13, 2020

We are getting closer to Halloween…and miniature haunted houses! Both a good friend and one of my sisters goes crazy decorating for Halloween so I try to introduce at least one new Halloween house each year that they can add to their collection..

This year, in addition to a pattern I am still in the process of developing, I decided to add a haunted house designed by Lucy Foxworth and offered for free on her blog Paper Glitter Glue. If you haven’t visited Lucy’s blog you are missing out. Lucy started making miniature houses as a fundraiser for various charities. She made this one, based upon an actual vintage home in a historic district in Upstate SC, for a Habitat for Humanity fundraiser.

Join along with me as I make the Habitat Spooky Halloween House. I will be scaling the Habitat Spooky Halloween House to fit with the Tim Holtz Village dies.

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