Tim Holtz Village Collection 2021

 Hello Friends

Well, what can I say, it is October (to me that signals Halloween) and Tim Holtz has released a fabulous new die set, called Village Collection along with some new mini embossing folders.  I do have the original Village collection but I like the size of this new one... so I just had to didn't I; especially after seeing all the wonderful inspiration from Tim's amazing Makers.  If you missed the 'live' you can see it HERE.

I have to thank Art From The Heart for their always fantastic service, my dies and folders arrived last Friday and I just had to get started right away.  I don't have a step by step for you because this project just took on a life of its own as I was building it...

I built the Manor House first and then added House #2 and (just out of view) I added the additional side building.  

I had some of Tim's Halloween papers from a few years back and had just enough of the orange and black to complete the buildings.  The windows each have 'glazing' from some cobweb acetate from the same paper pack.  Just like the original set of dies, the houses go together like a dream!

The base is a wooden box 10.1/4" x 6" and I covered it with some of Tim's design tape (Halloween) from a few years back.

The trickiest part of the piece was the brick wall.  I knew I wanted to use the gate from Tim's Village Graveyard die set to create an entry.  

The new embossing folders are approximately 4.1/2" x 3" and I repeat embossed some cardstock to give me some longer strips to create parts of the wall.  I used Hickory Smoke Distress Paint, watered down, and randomly swiped paint over the embossed brickwork to give a distressed look.

I scored each long strip to create the wall (3 bricks deep for the sides, two bricks deep for the top and three bricks for the back).  I mitred the corners to give nice corner edges. I cut strips of card to join onto the base.  Because the top was a little uneven I put a strip of card along the whole top to give a finished appearance.  I also created some 'pillars' to hold the gate in place.

I created the cobbled paths in the same way as the brickwork fence and fussy cut around some of the cobbles to make them look realistic.

The graveyard was added by die cutting the tombstones from black card, again using the Village Graveyard die set.  I put four layers together to give them strength and dry brushed them with Hickory Smoke Distress Paint.

All that remained was to paint the 'ground' with various colours of green paint and once the Manor was in place I added some moss, a few (model railway) trees and twigs together with a small pumpkin charm from my stash.

Some of you may be wondering at this point, whether I added lights to my creation.... well, of course I did, it is for Halloween!  I added a set of Tim's Halloween mini lights in green.  It has quite the eerie glow at night time!

Not the best of photos but I have photographed the original Manor house I built a few years back alongside the new one, just to give you an impression of the difference in size of the Manor house.

To finish off my new Manor house diorama I added a word chip. The light switch for the tiny lights is hidden underneath.

Thanks so much for your visit, it is much appreciated!

Take care, keep safe and well.

Crafty hugs, Anne xxx