This month I decided to do something a little different. While I still want to focus on adding more shops and public buildings to my village, I want to put an emphasis on buildings that you might not find patterns for elsewhere. I received a suggestion for a service station and decided to run with the idea.
I had a fun time looking for an iconic gas station to use for inspiration. I’ve used Pinterest for inspiration in the past, but in the last 6 months it has been flooded with AI building pictures. Some are pretty hilarious, with stairways to nowhere or balconies only supported on one side. Few people seem to be making AI pictures of gas stations, however, so I was quickly able to focus on real buildings. I started looking at pictures of gas stations along Route 66. Sadly, many vintage gas stations have been demolished, though you can still find pictures of some of them online.
In the end I decided on a building still in existence, the Cucamonga Service Station, one of only a few original buildings remaining on Route 66 in California. The building was built in 1915 and remained in use as a service station until the 1970s. The abandoned building was then left to deteriorate, with the garage behind the service station having to be torn down after its roof collapsed in a storm in 2011. However, in 2009 the city designated the service station as a historic landmark, and restoration began in 2012. In 2015 the restored gas station opened to the public as a Route 66 museum. The picture below was one of the few I could find from how it used to look when it was a working gas station.
Postcard of Cugamonga Service Station in the 1930s.
One of the reasons I picked this building is it is timeless. Change out the style of the gas pumps and signage and it can fit a village from any era. I chose to make my model using gas pumps from the 1950s, as I thought it would look fun with my Retro Ice Cream Stand and Mid-Century Modern houses. From my research, the station was a Richfield Distributor, and later an Arco. While copyright law allows me to make patterns of real buildings, it does not allow me to use the logos. Hence, you will need to search the internet for your own signage for the station and pumps as I cannot include them with the pattern. I do include two generic Print Then Cut gas pumps in the pattern.
I decided not to make the garages behind the service station as the station itself is already quite large. Hence I include two choices for the right wall of the building – either with three windows in the wall, as the building was built and as it is today, or with a garage service bay with operating pull up door.
This Is How You Make Last Chance Gas
Size of the finished building as designed will be approximately 4 3/8″ W x 8 1/4 D x 3 1/2″ H (does not include sign on roof). These measurements do not include the size of the base. I consider this an intermediate pattern.
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The Last Chance Gas Pattern Specific Materials
- My free pattern for Last Chance Gas from the A Cottage in the Forest Library. Design #98. Get the password for free by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.
- Ranger Texture Paste or Galeria Sand Texture Gel if you want a stucco texture on the buildings. I decided I wanted more texture than the Tim Holtz Texture paste, but not too much, so I mixed the texture paste and the sand texture gel 50-50.
- Acrylic Paint Marker Pens. I used these to draw the rust-colored line on the walls above the blue paint, as well as to color the edges of the signs and pumps. I received this set for Christmas and find them both high quality and reasonably priced. They also go on smoother than the Sharpie pens I have used previously. I am going to add them to my recommended Supply List.
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 Last Chance Gas
- Download Last Chance Gas pattern from A Cottage in the Forest library
- Import Last Chance Gas pattern into your design software
- Cut out the pattern – I use my Cricut Maker. Texture if desired.
- Fold the body of the building.
- Glue on the doors and trim. Attach vellum windows.
- Glue together the garage door.
- Glue the body of the building together.
- Add the roof.
- Add the bottom insert.
- Glue together the canopy
- Add canopy roof
- Add signs and gas pumps
- Make base and decorate as desired.
How To Make Last Chance Gas
Download Last Chance Gas Pattern
Download the Last Chance Gas pattern from A Cottage in the Forest Library. It is design #98. 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 Last Chance Gas Pattern Into Design Software
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. Use the included pdf to determine which lines are score lines (the dashed lines.) These need to be changed from “cut” to “score”, then attached to their object. See the example below. All of my score lines are red so that you can tell that they are intended to be score lines.
Cut out all of your cardstock, cardboard or aluminum can pieces using my pattern.
I cut some of the pieces out of 100 lb. cover cardstock due to the tight folds, and the rest out of 120 lb. cover cardstock. Cricut has discontinued making KraftBoard, but the 120 lb. cover cardstock I link to above is the same weight and thickness as Kraftboard. I cut the following pieces out of 100 lb. cover cardstock (refer to PDF included with pattern for pictures and names of each piece: Front, Front Extra Layer, Column Tops, Front Top, Canopy Back & Sides, Canopy Roof, Arches, Curves, and the Service Bay Door.
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.
Make the Building
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.
Glue on the Doors and Trim. Attach the Vellum Windows
Glue on the doors and window frames.
Glue Together the Garage Door
The garage door is operable. Fold the door on the horizontal score lines. Do not fold on the vertical score lines as they are for placement. I provide garage door trim pieces in case your garage door is not sturdy enough. You can glue them onto the garage door between the score lines. There will be a small area at the top which is not covered by trim. I felt my door was thick enough so didn’t use the extra trim. Glue two of the narrow door tracks together, then a wider track on top of them, making sure that the right edges are flush. Glue the remaining two narrow door tracks together, then a wider track on top of them, making sure the left edges are flush.
On the inside, lay your garage door into its opening. Glue the door tracks on each side of the garage door The narrow track pieces should lie against the sides of the garage door and the wider track piece should overlap the garage door. Be careful to not get any excess glue onto the garage door. Don’t align the track pieces with the bottom of the wall, instead glue them on about 1/16 above the bottom of the wall. This will make it easier to add the bottom insert later.
Move the door up and down a couple of times to make sure it moves smoothly. The door should be loose in its tracks.
Add vellum if desired.
Glue Together the Body of the House
Glue the two sides to the Back and to the Front Extra Layer.
Glue the Front Extra Layer to the inside of the Front, aligning the door and window openings.
Fold and glue the front columns to the sides of the building.
Add The Roof
Drop the roof into the top of the building and glue in place. It is designed to rest on top of the tabs of the side pieces. I left it unpainted for now as it is designed to fit tightly and I was afraid the texture paste would add too much bulk.
Glue the front arch piece to the top inside of the Front Extra Layer. You may have to trim the ends of the arch to make it fit.
Glue the Front Top piece onto the other edge of the arch and to the columns on both sides.
Fold the Column Tops
Glue on top of the roof behind the columns next to the back. Paint the roof and columns.
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.
Make The Canopy
Glue Together the Canopy
Fold the canopy pieces. All are mountain folds except the outside tabs of the interior canopy sides, which are valley folds.
Glue the trim pieces onto the canopy front and sides.
Glue the canopy front to the canopy sides.
Glue the canopy interior to the canopy interior sides.
Flip over the canopy interior and glue the canopy arches onto the top of the canopy interior pieces, and the canopy curves into the bottom of the canopy interior pieces. Align the canopy exterior with the canopy interior.
Fold and glue the column posts of the interior canopy to the column posts of the exterior canopy.
Glue the other edges of the arches and curves to the Canopy exterior.
Add Canopy Roof
Glue the canopy roof together.
Glue the roof into the inside of the canopy. Fold the 4 canopy column insert pieces.
Glue the canopy column insert pieces into the top of the columns. These provide the outside walls for the top of the columns next to the arches. You may need to trim your arches a little bit..
Glue the front legs of the canopy to the Service Island and the back edge of the canopy to the front of the building. You may have to trim the back edge of the arches to make sure that the canopy is flush with the building.
Glue the colum roofs to the top of the columns. These do not need to be perfect. They just hold the roof tiles.
Curl and cut strips of cardstock to make your roof tiles. I believe my cardstock was around 80 lb. weight.
Glue the roof tiles onto the top of the columns.
Add Signs and Gas Pumps.
I expect that most people will want to use the signs and pumps of their favorite gas stations. I cannot provide these as they are trademarked. Here is what I did to make my own. I do provide two styles of generic gas pumps in my pattern for your use.
For my signs, I Googled the company I wanted (I used Richfield) and looked for clean, good looking signs and downloaded them to my computer. Before importing them into Cricut Design Space I removed any background, though you can also do so as you import them into Design Space. Creative Fabrica’s AI Studio can remove backgrounds for you too, as can most design programs like Affinity or Adobe Photoshop. In some cases (like for my garage sign) I added elements from several different signs together. I used Design Space’s Print Then Cut Feature to print my signs out on my printer and then cut them out using my Cricut machine.
I used the same Google searches to find the vintage Coke machine I used. I had a lot of luck with those on Auction websites. Sometimes I had to use screen capture to grab the picture. I ended up printing the Coke machine out 10 times on 100 lb white cardstock (this is too thick for most printers – use the maximum weight your printer can handle.) I glued the 10 pieces together then colored the edges with my Acrylic paint markers.
For the gas pumps, I started by importing the generic gas pumps I include with the pattern into Design Space.
I then looked in each group of elements for each gas pump and hid the elements I wanted to change, and then added the gas company signs that I had already imported into Design Space.
Once you have it looking the way you want, highlight the pump and convert it to Print Then Cut using the “Flatten” button on the bottom right.
Convert each pump until you have two with the sign on top and the gas hose, and four shorter ones without the sign. Then duplicate those to make 2 pumps.
For each pump glue two of the taller pieces back to back, then two of the shorter pieces on each side to make a 3D pump. I used my acrylic paint pens to paint the edges of the pumps, then glued them onto the service island.
Make Base and Decorate as Desired.
Enjoy making Last Chance Gas yourself! 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 LAST CHANCE GAS
FREE CUT FILES & PATTERN FOR LAST CHANCE GAS
Download the Last Chance Gas Pattern
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All I can say is wow, I have a circut machine but I have never never tried anything like this.
But I am seriously thinking of trying, as I have a grown son that is very into vintage cars and it would be perfect as a birthday present.
Please send me a picture of your completed building if you do! This isn’t the easiest of buildings, however, so you might want to start with a beginner pattern as practice.
Wow what a great project, so much detail. Thank you very much.