Expanding Ledge Village

I started designing Ledge Village back in 2013 when I created my first little set for the ledge in my laundry room. Over the years I have added many, many more buildings and the village has grown. This year I have revisited Ledge Village because of an idea presented on Pinterest by Cheryl Leclaric. She put one of my Ledge houses into a shadow box and I was impressed.  So I went to work with a new house and lamppost. The first house I designed was Tudor Manor and it ended up being too large for the space. I then designed the taller, narrower Porch House to use in a Christmas Eve Shadow Box.

This shadow box uses a standard (12 x12 exterior) shadow box I purchased at Amazon.  I also got LED fairy lights which I added to it because it just looks beautiful when you light it up!

But I still had Tudor Manor which I hadn't used.  So I needed to do more.  I went on to update the Tower House and thought about a new display.  I knew it would look marvelous on a fireplace mantle but I like many don't have one.  And then remembered the crown molding photo ledges I use to display photos in the guest room.  And I started building a new little village.....

This collection includes Tudor Manor, Tower House v2, Chapel, Store 2 and Dormer House all from the various Ledge Village Collections I have released over the years. Here is a detail shot of Tudor Manor. It includes the half-timber detailing of the architectural style.

And The new Tower House v2 has improved engineering.

But the thing that makes the village charming is the new illuminated lamp posts.

I am now going to have to find a new photo ledge solution for the guest room because I love this new Ledge Village so much it is going to be displayed in my office!

Ledge Village cutting files available here from 3dcuts.com.

Ledge Village assembly tutorials are here.

The original Ledge Village buildings were not designed to have LED lights installed. I have added a tutorial on how to add lights to these original files here.

Happy crafting everyone!!

Marji

©2020

 How long have you been following Ashbee Design? Since 2011 when I started? If it has been a lot of years you will know that each year I design and make my own Christmas Card. Even during these years of declining Christmas Card sending I still do it. And I often share the ideas here- generally not until the following year. I have abandoned that trend. If you are on my Christmas Card list and don't want a spoiler - stop reading here.

Otherwise....

2020 will be another zig zag card following on the two previous years. I have just uploaded to my website the Zig Zag Presents Christmas Card.

It is a great crafting design because it is so customizable. All the wrapping papers are from my stash of craft supplies. What is in your stash? If you want to try using some of it up on this design download the cutting file here for $2.99. The easy-to-follow assembly tutorial is online here.

Have you realized yet that this file can also be used as a birthday card? Just use different papers!

And the download comes with a template for making the perfect envelope. It has been designed so that you can also use a standard 6 x 9" booklet envelope. If you are making a lot of cards to send you might prefer that option.

Be sure to share photos of your versions of this design with me at marji@3dcuts.com on in the online facebook crafting groups.

Happy crafting,

Marji

Tea Light Village 2020 - New Buildings!

 I started Tea Light Village in 2013 and I have added to it every year. Making 3d buildings was one of the initial reasons I purchased my Silhouette and it hasn't disappointed.  For 2020 I visited the ocean. The two new additions are a classic  lighthouse with keeper's cottage and a lobster shack with little picnic tables.

It is good to have another taller structure for the village to add variety. The village has gotten so long that it is hard to photograph. My sister lent me her mantle and I made this short video.

You'll notice that it is a thinner display. I found that my standard Hexagon bases were too wide for a narrow mantle so I designed a new series that take one corner of creating and irregular pentagon. It meshes well with the pentagon base and gives you more display options. Here is the layout I used. It even includes a little gap for the covered bridge to span.

If you are interested in making the village or expanding your current one the files for the buildings and the bases are available here.

All the assembly tutorials are here. There are links to the paper and lights I used in the assembly tutorial.

Happy crafting everyone!

Marji

Easy Rider Shadow Box Series

David and I are loving our e-bikes and spend hours on beautiful days exploring the hilly and forested terrain of Connecticut. I have been thinking about shadow boxes that feature the experience of riding but not just e-bikes - any type of bike and from that idea grew my new Easy Rider Shadow box series.

 

My first design was created from tracing photographs of David and myself on our e-bikes. We took the photos and I imported them into Illustrator. I traced the outlines carefully and used that tracing to create the silhouettes. Even though they lack detail they clearly look like us.

I then continued with this concept to make a file that allowed the crafter to insert any of 4 different riders into the scene.  The download comes with a male cyclist, a female cyclist, a single guy on a motorcycle and a couple on a motorcycle all cruising through the mountains. 

The download includes all four riders and and the individual layer 1 needed for each. You can easily swap in the rider you want to make. 

The download file is here. It is $4.59 for all four files together.

The online tutorial is here complete with a video showing the easy assembly process.

Valentines 2020

I design something each year for Valentines Day and I am especially proud of this year’s designs.  These are all available at my sister site 3dcuts.com. I started working with the concept of nesting hearts. As I worked I discovered hearts don’t nest well. You lose the shape quickly so I instead switched to proportional shrinks. I like what was happening and developed these three files for Valentine crafters to use.

First I design the wall decor piece. I especially love the elegance of the all white design although I have made it in all red. Someone just posted a picture on facebook of their interpretation alternating red and white. How about silver? It was designed to fit in a standard 8 x 8” shadow box although be careful. My 8 x 8” shadow box really measure 9 x 9”. Measure the inside of your shadow box before cutting. It is easy to adjust this file to match whatever square option you have.

Save the heart cutouts from the wall decor project. With those you will set to move right into the Stacked Hearts Valentine Card v1 (red). I just adhered the heart cutouts into stacks and applied them to the front of a card. The download includes a “Be My Valentine” cut out sentiment for the inside and a custom envelope cutting file as well.

For the 2nd card - Stacked Heart Valentine card v2 (white) I cut the files for the wall decor piece in a smaller scale to fit on a 5 x 5 card. This download also includes the sentiment and the envelope.

All three files are available as a download from the store and all have online tutorials including videos.

• Get the cutting files here for $2.99 for all three projects.
• View the tutorial for the wall decor here.
• View the tutorial for Stacked Valentine Card v1 red here.
• View the tutorial for Stacked Valentine Card v2 white  here.