Make Your Own Holly Manor With Bay Windows

Last year after my friend Hollie opened a craft boutique locally where she sells my kits on commission, she asked me to design more beginner kits for the store. Holly Manor was the first of these designs, and is very easy to make. Yet almost immediately I had people who read my blog asking for bay windows for the building – an element I consider Intermediate instead of beginner. So I decided to make two story bay windows that you can add to Holly Manor.

Even if you made Holly Manor previously you can add on the bay windows as a later addition. The only other addition I made to the house is a deeper porch with roof instead of a step to the front door.

Meanwhile, February’s guest designer Cheryl Sablotny has been working on a design for an attached greenhouse. Though you could make the greenhouse and attach it to the side of Holly Manor over the windows, I show you in that post how to use the Contour function in Cricut Design Space to change any pattern to eliminate a window that might be in the wrong place if you want to add a greenhouse. Using Contour, you can add the attached greenhouse to any building.

Holly Manor with Bay Windows and Attached Greenhouse.

This Is How You Make Holly Manor with Bay Windows

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Holly Manor with Bay Windows Pattern Materials

My free pattern for Holly Manor, and the free pattern for the Holly Manor Bay Windows 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 Cans – your choice! For this blog post model, I cut everything from Christmas patterned cardstock. The model for the store was cut from white Kraft Board.
Translucent Vellum
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. I didn’t emboss any of my pieces for this model.
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.) I didn’t use any here, but you could use a paper with either a brick or stone pattern on it.
Multi-surface satin finish acrylic paints or Ranger distress inks (for cardboard or cardstock.) I didn’t use any here, but having finally used both on a cardboard house, these work very well. 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.

Steps to Make Holly Manor with Bay Windows.

Download the Holly Manor & Holly Manor Bay Windows patterns from A Cottage in the Forest library.
Import the Holly Manor & Holly Manor Bay Windows patterns into your design software.
Cut out the patterns – I use my Cricut Maker. Texture if desired.
Fold the body of the house.
Glue on the window frames and doors. Attach vellum windows.
Glue together the body of the house.
Add the bottom insert.
Glue on the bay windows
Glue on the roofs.
Add the porch, step and chimneys
Make base and decorate as desired.

How To Make Holly Manor with Bay Windows

Download the Holly Manor & the Holly Manor Bay Windows Patterns

Download the Holly Manor & Holly Manor Bay Windows patterns from A Cottage in the Forest Library. The original Holly Manor was published in November, 2021. Don’t forget to unzip the patterns. 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 the Holly Manor & the Holly Manor Bay Windows Patterns 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 patterns 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 are score lines

Cut out all of your cardstock, Kraft Board or aluminum can pieces using my pattern EXCEPT the window frames that originally went on the front of the house and one of the steps. 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 if desired.

The window frames of the bay windows are slightly narrower than the window frames of the main building. You will want to keep them separate.

**If you also want to add the attached greenhouse, download the Attached Greenhouse pattern from A Cottage in the Forest Library. Follow the directions in the Attached Greenhouse blog post on how to contour the right side of the house before you cut it out.**

Fold the Body of the House

Fold each of the body pieces towards the back or inside (mountain folds), except the front, which will have both mountain and valley folds, as shown below.

I have contoured the right side of the building so that I can add the greenhouse. I show you how to do this in the Attached Greenhouse blog post.

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

Glue all window frames and the doors in place.

Glue the vellum in place if you are using it.

Glue Together the Body of the House

Glue the body together. Glue the sides together first, then the roof flaps.

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. I like to lower it in from the top. Once I know the fit is right, I run the needle tip of my glue bottle between the bottom insert and the sides, making sure each side is glued securely before moving on to the next.

Glue together the front and back roof stabilization pieces. I find it is best to lay the building on its back and let gravity square up the front before I overlap the pieces and glue.

Fold each of the bay windows. Glue the vellum into the back side with the sides folded so the vellum lies smoothly. Glue the bay window top and bottom pieces to the body.

Glue each of the bay windows to the front of the building,

Glue on the Roofs

Glue down each of the side roofs.

Fold the center roof. Center on the side roofs and glue down. There is a score mark on the inside of the side roofs to aid in placement.

Fold the bay window roofs. Glue the peaked bay window roof onto the flat bay window roof, matching the edges.

Glue on the gable roof and the bay window roofs.

Glue on the Porch, the Back Step, and the Chimneys.

Make Base and Decorate As Desired

There is a fence pattern included with the Holly Manor SVGs.

Enjoy making Holly Manor with Bay Windows! I would love to see your finished design. Please share a photo of it with me by emailing me at Jackie@acottageintheforest.com.