Make Your Own Cozy Cottage

I started working on this pattern back in January when I joined a Facebook group that has pictures of tiny houses. I believe most of the pictures posted to the group, including the one I used as inspiration for this pattern, are AI generated. I prefer designing from real buildings as it is easier to figure out the dimensions if you have pictures of the building from multiple angles. With AI generated pictures there is usually only one picture, and it isn’t straight on from the front. But every week there are pictures posted to the group of the cutest houses that inspire me to make little models!

I did get sidetracked for a while with Guest Designer Louize le Roux’s Cape Dutch House. I have also been spending almost every day this spring in the garden of my son’s new home. He bought a house about 15 miles from ours and it has what was once a beautifully landscaped garden which the previous owners had ignored and let run to weeds. The first gardeners he hired tried to weed-whack everything to the ground, including the flowers! Since then he has hired new gardeners who have been told to stick to clearing the paths, and I have been moving from bed to bed removing the weeds and replanting each bed. While I expect it will take several years until the garden is fully recovered, I hope to have it whipped into decent shape by mid-summer.

Two elements appealed to me about this design. The first was the front porch with the door into the house on the side of the porch instead of in the front of the building. The second is the flat roof. Like with the flat roof of my Village Cafe, I have made the roof 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 the Cozy Cottage into a gift box that you can fill with treats for Mother’s Day, use the solid Putz Bottom.

This Is How You Make Cozy Cottage

Size of the finished building as designed will be approximately 4 3/16″ W x 3 7/8 D x 3 5/8″ H. These measurements do not include the size of the base. I consider this a beginner pattern.

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The Cozy Cottage Pattern Specific Materials

My free pattern for Cozy Cottage from the A Cottage in the Forest Library. Design #93. Get the password for free by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

Favorite Materials Supply List

Cardstock, Cardboard (Kraft Board or alternative), 30 point Chipboard, or Aluminum Can – your choice! Cricut is no longer selling Kraftboard, so I now link to the 120 lb. cover cardstock by Accent Opaque that I use.
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 or Distress Crayons (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 Cozy Cottage

Download Cozy Cottage pattern from A Cottage in the Forest library
Import Cozy Cottage pattern into your design software
Cut out the pattern – I use my Cricut Maker. Texture if desired.
Fold the body of the house.
Glue on the window frames and door. Attach vellum windows.
Glue together the body of the house.
Add the bottom insert.
Glue on porch and step.
Glue on the roofs.
Glue on the trim and window shutters.
Make base and decorate as desired.

How To Make Cozy Cottage

Download Cozy Cottage Pattern

Download the Cozy Cottage pattern from A Cottage in the Forest Library. It is design #93. Don’t forget to unzip it. The pattern is available in multiple formats – as a SVG (scalable vector graphics), DXF (drawing eXchange format), as a studio3 file for Silhouette, or as PDF file. I now include a 1″ square in with all of my SVG, DXF and Studio3 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.

Choose between whether you want a regular back with the light holes at the bottom of the building (this is the option I make below) or if you want to use the Putz Back, where the light hole is in the back of the building.

Import Cozy Cottage Pattern Into Design Software

As of this blog post, a Cricut Design Space update in 2021 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. I am still designing so that if someday Design Space fixes their problem score lines and drawings import as actual score lines and drawings attached to their object, though I have pretty much lost hope of that ever happening.

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 are score lines.

Cut out all of your cardstock, Kraft Board or aluminum can pieces using my pattern. I cut the roofs, window trim,porch and steps out of 100 lb. cover cardstock. I cut the rest of the pieces out of 110 lb. cover cardstock.

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 the Body of the Building

Fold the body pieces towards the back or inside (mountain folds.) Texture or paint your body pieces now if you are going to. I used my mini scoring board to create the siding look.

Glue on the Window Frames and Door. Attach Vellum Windows.

Glue on the window frames and door.

Glue the vellum in place if you are using it.

Glue Together the Body of the House

Glue the body together. First I glued them in a line, then glued the last seam together.

Glue together the bottom tabs of the Bay Window.

Glue the Bay Window onto the front of the building.

Add the Bottom Insert

Check the fit of the bottom insert piece, adjusting any of the fold lines as necessary. You may need to trim the corners. Glue in the bottom insert piece now as it will help to help to stiffen and square the walls of the building.

Glue on Porch and Step

Fold and glue the porch together. Fold and glue the step together.

Glue the porch and the step onto the front of the building.

Glue on the Roofs

Glue the two porch roofs together to make the roof stronger. Glue together the column and glue onto the edge of the porch.

Glue on the porch roof, attaching to the top of the Bay Window, the column, and adding a bead of glue to where the porch roof attaches to the front of the house.

Fold the Main Roof towards the back or inside (mountain folds.)

Glue the tabs to the underside of the roof, gluing the long edgs down first. This will create an edge to the roof, and an opening that can be slipped over the buildings sides.

You can glue down the roof, but it is not necessary if instead you want to make this into a gift box.

Glue on the Trim and Window Shutters

Break the trim on the edge. I have made the trim long so you will need to cut the trim to fit. Glue on the shutters.

Make Base and Decorate as Desired.

Enjoy making Cozy Cottage yourself! I would love to see your finished design. Please share a photo of it with me by emailing me at Jackie@acottageintheforest.com