Tim Holtz Christmas Village Green

 Hello Friends

Since watching Tim's Saturday video on 'The Village' I have wanted to make a village of my own.  I was totally inspired by the creation that the very talented Emma Williams, one of Tim's Makers had made.  You can see Emma's beautiful and very detailed village here.

I built the village over a couple of weeks so I don't have step by steps but I have a few photos to share.  The first house uses House 1 from the new Village Collection and the brickwork was created using the Mini Brickwork 3D embossing folder.

The trees are from Tim's Idea-ology Woodland lot and I sprayed them green using Distress Spray Stain in Rustic Wilderness and the edges were covered with Picket Fence Distress Paint.  I added Tiny Christmas Lights to the tree and all of the houses.

The wreaths on the houses, the gentleman and the Carol singers were created by using Tim's Vault Series: Christmas 2021 die set with black shrink plastic.  I was quite pleased with the way they turned out!  The bows on the front of the village are from the same die set too.  

The central tree has Idea-ology pearl baubles (coloured with alcohol ink) and stars but no lights and you will see why at the end of this post!

I used House 2 to create a pair of semi detached houses, I simply joined two of the houses together and added a 'drain pipe' to separate the two houses.  All of the roofs were die cut and coloured with Distress Ink in two colours, Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs.

The Post Office was created from House 1 dies and I added the cute little awnings.  The phone box was created using the tall thin building from Tim's Paper Village die set and it even has a little telephone inside!  The post box was created with a wooden button and card - well I needed a post box to go alongside the Post Office. It was the hardest thing to create because it is so tiny....

The pathway at the front of the properties was created with Tim's Mini Cobblestone 3D embossing folder.  The 'snow' was created with Ranger Distress Grit Paste with Distress Grit Paste - Snowfall to add some extra whiteness. I carefully puffed on Distress Clear Rock Candy Glitter to add a little sparkle.

To finish off my project I added some Idea-ology feet (from years ago) and a metal plaque from Tim's new Christmas range, that says 'Season of Magic'.

And finally, I took a little video so that you can see that I added a music box (playing Jingle Bells) and turntable to bring the Village Green Christmas tree to life.  I hope it works and that you like it!

I absolutely love this new size of Village dies and I can see me using them lots more in the future.

Thanks so much for your visit, I really appreciate you stopping by.

Take care and keep safe and well.

Crafty hugs,  Anne xxx

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