Guest Designer Cheryl Sablotny: Mary’s Greenhouse

Last month Cheryl shared her Attached Greenhouse with all of us. This month, Cheryl has designed a freestanding greenhouse she named Mary’s Greenhouse.

Cheryl used a stencil and texture paste for the trim, floor and stepping stones. We are still working on an accessories blog post to complement the greenhouses which will include some of Cheryl’s landscaping ideas. The post will also include several accessories I am designing like the wheelbarrow in Cheryl’s pictures below.

A few words from Cheryl regarding Mary’s Greenhouse:

It’s Spring and the perfect time to introduce you to “Mary’s Greenhouse.” I named it after my mom  because she loved anything she could grow and had an amazingly green thumb.

 Even though it’s a simple design, I’m very proud of it. (I can’t wait to do a Christmas version!) I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 

Jackie, thank you so much for having me as your guest designer again. I can’t put into words how happy this has made me.

Cheryl

This Is How You Make Mary’s Greenhouse

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Mary’s Greenhouse Pattern Materials

• The free pattern for Mary’s Greenhouse from the A Cottage in the Forest Library – get the password for free by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.
• Cardstock, Cardboard (Kraft Board), 30 point Chipboard, or Aluminum Can – your choice! For my blog post model, I used a heavy cardstock.
• Cricut Acetate, or clear report covers from Office Depot or The Dollar Store. The Cricut Acetate is designed to be cut by your machine, and has a film on both sides that you remove after cutting the shapes. Since the report covers do not have a film protecting them, I would suggest you cut those by hand.
• Glue – If using cardstock, I suggest Art Glitter Glue. For aluminum cans, I use Aleene’s The Ultimate Glue. For cardboard or chipboard houses, I like Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue. I put it in a bottle with a thin metal tip.
• A Cutting Machine like a Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore or, if you are going to make the pattern from the PDF, a hand-held craft blade like an X-Acto knife or Cricut TrueControl Knife. I recently bought a new type of hand-held knife called the Excel Knife. It is nice in that it uses the cheaper craft blades, but the blade doesn’t work its way loose like the blade in my X-Acto knife often does.
• An Embossing Machine and folders.
• Bone folder (optional, but strongly suggested) A bone folder helps you make sharp folds when you are using cardstock or cardboard. I have found it even helps with aluminum cans. I now use my bone folder to deepen score lines all the time.
• Decorative papers (optional – for cardboard.)
• Multi-surface satin finish acrylic paints or Ranger distress inks (for cardboard or cardstock.) Both the FolkArt and the Craftsmart paint brands work equally well. If you use distress inks, make sure they dry thoroughly before handling the pieces or you will have stained fingers. I speak from experience.
• Tim Holtz Texture Paste or Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste to make stonework or brick floor or trim. Grit paste will make your stonework look rougher or more craggy than texture paste.
• Stencils to use with the texture paste to make stone or brickwork. Be careful to buy stencils that fit the scale of your greenhouse. For stone walkways I like to use the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Set #28 Stencils. For bricks I have had trouble finding a stencil in the correct size so ended up making my own. I have since been told that the Honey Bee Salvaged Bricks stencil works well too.

Steps to Make Mary’s Greenhouse

• Download Mary’s Greenhouse pattern from A Cottage in the Forest library.
• Import Mary’s Greenhouse pattern into your design software.
• Cut out the pattern – I use my Cricut Maker. Texture if desired.
• Fold and glue together the body of the greenhouse. Glue on the trim as desired.
• Glue in the Acetate Windows. Add the attached shelves.
• Glue the trim and the acetate onto the roof.
• Make base and decorate as desired.

How To Make Mary’s Greenhouse

Download Mary’s Greenhouse Pattern

Download Mary’s Greenhouse pattern from A Cottage in the Forest Library. Don’t forget to unzip it. The pattern is available in multiple formats – as a SVG (scalable vector graphics), DXF (drawing eXchange format) or PDF file. Currently, I do not have a Silhouette or Brother Machine to test the corresponding files. If you have problems using those files please let me know so I can troubleshoot what might be going wrong. I do now include a 1″ square in with all of my SVG files. Scale the pattern so that the square is 1″ to make the building in the size it was designed. Of course the wonderful thing about SVG files is that you can easily scale them to make your building whatever size you would like.

Import Mary’s Greenhouse Pattern Into Design Software

As of this blog post, a Cricut Design Space update broke the attached score lines. You will need to go through the pattern in Design Space and change the score lines to Score and then attach them to their object.

Here is a great tutorial from Jennifer Maker’s website on attaching score lines. I have started making all of my score lines red so that you can tell that they are intended to be score lines.

Cut out all of your cardstock, Kraft Board or aluminum can pieces using the pattern. If you are using cardboard and don’t intend to glue glitter or decorative papers onto your greenhouse, I suggest visiting Lucy Foxworth’s blog at Paper Glitter Glue where Lucy explores multiple ways to paint and texture your cardboard building.

Refer to the PDF I included with the svg pattern for the name of each of the pieces you need to cut out. Texture your pieces using your embossing machine and texture folders if desired.

Fold and Glue Together the Body of the Greenhouse. Glue on the Trim As Desired

Fold each of the pieces on the score lines. Glue on the front door. Cheryl provides two different style of doors to choose from.

Glue together the two body pieces of the greenhouse. Add the bottom trim as desired. I used trim cut from brick PDF paper that I printed on my own printer. The brick PDF file can be found here. Cut off any excess trim. Or, like Cheryl, you can add brick or stonework trim using a stencil and texture paste.

Glue on Acetate Windows. Add the Attached Shelves.

Add the acetate windows now. If you are using the Cricut Acetate, remove one side of the attached film before gluing each piece onto the building. Once the glue is dry, remove the film from the other side. The pattern pieces for the acetate are larger than just the window area. This allows the acetate to help stiffen the sides of your building.

Glue in the attached shelves, making the bottoms flush to the bottom of the building. The shelves help to square up the building.

Glue the Trim and the Acetate Onto the Roof.

Glue the trim pieces onto the sides and the top of the roof. Cheryl attached the top trim pieces to the roof by gluing them to the top of each side of the roof peak, and then gluing the top of the trim together. I glued the two pieces of the trim together, then glued to the very peak of the roof. I had to hold it until the glue had dried enough that the top trim piece wouldn’t shift.

Now glue your acetate onto the underside of the roof. The acetate is designed to be just wider than the openings. Since the roof is designed so that it can be lifted if you want to add more items to your greenhouse, this helps to hold the roof in place. If you are using the Cricut Acetate, remove one side of the attached film before gluing each piece onto the building. Once the glue is dry, remove the film from the other side.

Make Base and Decorate As Desired

Stone or brickwork would look very nice as the floor of the greenhouse, or you could leave it as dirt with a path or stepping stones. For her model, Cheryl made both the stone floor and the stepping stones using Tim Holtz Texture Paste and a stencil.

Cheryl and I are still working on other accessories for your greenhouse, as well as a few other items for your garden. Look for a future post!

Enjoy making Mary’s Greenhouse! I would love to see your finished design. Please share a photo of it with me by emailing me at Jackie@acottageintheforest.com.

MAKER’S GALLERY FOR MARY’S GREENHOUSE

FREE CUT FILES & PATTERN FOR MARY’S GREENHOUSE

Download Mary’s Greenhouse Pattern

Get the password for the library with the free Mary’s Greenhouse pattern and SVG/DXF/PDF files here by filling out this form:

If you have any trouble subscribing please contact me at jackie@acottageintheforest.com

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