Make Your Own Country Cottage

The Country Cottage was the first house I designed myself, so it seemed appropriate that it would be the first building pattern I offered. It has long remained one of my favorites. I originally cut the design by hand, then graduated to using Cricut Design Space once I got my Cricut Maker. Now that I have learned how to make SVG files I can share the pattern with you. Included with the SVG file in my library is a PDF pattern as well as a DXF file.

Over time the pattern has changed as I learned more about house styles and the characteristics that define those styles. With the Country Cottage, I specifically changed the window and chimney styles. Below is the first Country Cottage that I made.

This Is How You Make the Country Cottage

Size of the finished house as designed will be approximately 3 1/4″ W x 3″ D x 4″ H. These measurements do not include the size of the base.

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Country Cottage Pattern Specific Materials

My free pattern for the County Cottage from the A Cottage in the Forest Library. Design #1. Get the password for free by filling out the form at the bottom of this page

Favorite Materials Supply List

Cardstock, Cardboard (Kraft Board), 30 point Chipboard, or Aluminum Can – your choice!
Translucent Vellum or pictures to go in the windows.
Glue – If using cardstock, I suggest Bearly Art Glue or 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.
If using chipboard or kraft colored cardboard, start with a base of either Liquitex white gesso or black gesso as primer.
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.
Glitter Gel Pens. I love these for coloring in small details. The company also carries another set with metallic, neon and fluorescent gel pens.
Tim Holtz Texture Paste or Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste to make brick or stone chimneys, walls or sidewalks. I actually prefer grit paste as it makes my stonework look rougher or more craggy than texture paste.
Stencils to use with the texture or grit paste to make stone or brickwork. Be careful to buy or make stencils that fit the scale of your building. For brickwork I often use the Honey Bee Salvaged Bricks stencil or the Stretcher Bricks stencil I cut myself. For stonework I usually use either the Chimney Stone stencil I made myself, or the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Set #28 Stencils.
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.
A Cutting Machine like a Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore
A hand-held craft blade like an X-Acto knife or Cricut TrueControl Knife. I also have a 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. You will also need a cutting mat or a glass media mat to cut on.
Metal Edged Ruler with cork backing
An Embossing Machine and folders.

Steps to Make the Country Cottage

Download the Country Cottage pattern from A Cottage in the Forest library
Cut out the pattern – I use my Cricut Maker
Texture the pieces (necessary if using aluminum cans.) I use my Sizzix Bigkick
Glue on window and door trim
Attach vellum windows
Assemble the house structure
Make base and decorate as desired

How To Make The Country Cottage

Download the Country Cottage Pattern

First, download the Country Cottage pattern from A Cottage in the Forest Library. It is Design #1. Don’t forget to unzip it. The pattern is available in multiple formats – as a SVG (scalable vector graphics), DXF (drawing eXchange format), a Studio3 file, or as a PDF file. The PDF has measuring lines as some printers reduce the size of the PDF when you print them. Currently, while I own Silhouette Business Edition, I do not have a Silhouette or Brother Machine to test the files. If you have problems using those files please let me know so I can troubleshoot what might be going wrong.

If you are using a Cricut machine, don’t forget to change the solid scorelines in Cricut Design Space from cut to score and attach them to their shapes before sending them through your cutting machine. The score lines are the set of lines included with each house shape. There are seven different house shapes where you need to change the score lines and attach them. The score line on the door frame is just a decoration. You will not bend on that score line.

Country Cottage Design Space — Cricut Design Space

Cut Out the Pattern

Cut out all of your cardstock, cardboard or aluminum can pieces using my pattern. If you are using cardboard and don’t intend to paint or glitter your building, you might want to cut out each piece a second time from decorative papers which you can then glue to the cardboard. Or I suggest visiting Lucy Foxworth’s blog at Paper Glitter Glue where Lucy explores multiple other ways to decorate your cardboard house.

Refer to the PDF I included with the SVG pattern for the name of each of the pieces you need to cut out.

Texture The Pieces

If desired, texture each of the house shapes using your embossing machine and texture folders. I have found this is a necessity for the house walls and roof when using aluminum cans. I don’t always texture the window and door trim, but I do run them through my machine sandwiched between cutting pads to flatten them. There are a few embossing folders that work very well with architectural design that I use more than others. These include the Sizzix Texture Fades Stripes Embossing Folder, the Darice Embossing Folder: Brick Wall Pattern, Kwan Crafts Brick Wall Plastic Embossing Folder and the Kwan Crafts Brick Wall Plastic Embossing Folder (this is different pattern from the 1st Kwan Crafts folder)

If you are making your Country Cottage out of cardboard, this is when you would either glue on your decorative papers or paint each of your pieces. Once your paint is dry, apply a layer of clear glue and glitter if you are making a traditional glitter house. Lucy Foxworth of Paper Glitter Glue suggests folding along the score lines before you paint.

Country Cottage texture with embossing folder

Glue On Window And Door Trim

Use the correct glue for your medium to glue on all of the window and door trims. You can add them after you put the building together, but it is much easier to add while the walls are flat.

Attach Vellum Windows

Use the 1/8″ double sided adhesive tape to attach the vellum window pieces to the inside of the building pieces. Once again, this is much easier while the walls are flat. You could use glue to attach the velum instead, but if you use too much (easy to do) it can bleed into your window space and ruin the look. Sign and date the inside of your work now too. Fold along the score lines.

Assemble The House Structure

Glue the tabs on the front and back pieces of the house together. Do not glue on the piece with the front door. I use plastic binder clips to hold the pieces together while the glue dries.

Glue together front and back of Country Cottage

Add the main roof, centering the roof on the building. The cutout part of the roof should be above the front door. The cutout will allow light from your tea candle to shine out through the window above the front door.

Glue the piece of the building that includes the door onto the front wall. It will fit between the cutout of the roof. Then glue the smaller roof piece on top of the door piece. Finally, fold the chimney into a square and glue together using the tab. Glue onto the roof.

Make Base and Decorate As Desired

For the Country Cottage I start with a rectangle of aluminum 3 7/8 inches wide by 4 1/8 inches deep. I cut a small circle under where the cottage will sit, then texture the base and turn under 1/4 inch on each side. This allows me to string fairy lights under the bases of the different buildings in my village. I then used various cutting dies with my BIGKick to decorate the base.

If you decide to add snow to your house, you can either glue on some glitter, or cut out glitter tape and attach to the roof. I buy iron on white glitter vinyl and iron it on to aluminum that I then cut out. Remember to add your roof line snow before you glue on the chimney. I have now included patterns for snow and icicles with the Country Cottage pattern.

If you are using a Cricut machine, don’t forget to change the solid scorelines in Cricut Design Space from cut to score and attach them to their shapes before sending them through your cutting machine. The score lines are the set of lines included with each snow shape. There are two different snow shapes where you need to change the score lines and attach them.

Enjoy making the Country Cottage! I would love to see your finished design. Please share a photo of it with me by emailing me at Jackie@acottageintheforest.com or sharing it with me on Instagram.