Gingerbread Village Light Box

     The theme this month at Christmas Craft Creations is Anything BUT A Card. I love making decorations and with the arrival of the new Paper Village die set by Tim Holtz and an idea I saw on FB, this is what I've come up with.

     

     Believe it or not this whole box and the church was cut from one A4 sheet of brown card, it took a little bit of planning but it means everything matches.

     I used one of the skinny houses to make the tower on the church, if you lay the house die on top of the tiny house cut out you can work out the pitch of the roof so it will fit.

     To make it look like a gingerbread village I used a white gel pen to add decoration all over, though the doors were coloured with a white Sharpie to get better coverage.

    

     A church should have stained glass windows so I used some patterned vellum stuck on the inside of each opening, it was stuck on the wrong way around so the strong colour is on the inside. I cut a hole in the roof so the light could shine through into the tower.

     To get the roof tiles even I used the deckle edge of a piece of card like a ruler. It was all stuck together with a good strong PVA glue which gave me a little wiggle room to get my edges right.

     

     The base of the box was die cut with all the variations available in the die set for windows and doors, I tried to make every house different.

     I used some plain vellum for the windows in the village and decorated it all with the gel pen.

     At first the houses weren't going to have a porch roof but it didn't look quite right so they were all added later.

     The lid of the box had a white cover added to the brown so I only had to colour the edges with the gel pen. There was a hole cut in the lid so the light from the box would shine into the church.

     The church was glued onto the lid but it lacked something......snow!  Using some True Snow paste I added this and it looked so much better, it also hid any gaps around the base of the church that the light might shine through.

     I added a small tree to the scene and buried it in the snow because it had a tiny wooden base that needed to be hidden.

     I wanted a small car to add to the scene, where on earth was I going to find one small enough?...cake topper?...toy car?....Monopoly piece!  Not wanting to use the only Monopoly car I have I decided to make my own silicone mould so I could have a whole fleet of cars.

     Making a mould is quite easy, silicone glue, cornflour, a few drops of baby oil and a spritz of paint for colour. Push the car into the 'dough' and leave overnight to set. Remove the car and then use hot glue in the mould to make many more. The advantage of this is the glue card had a flat bottom, making it easy to stick in the snow. The car was coloured with a mix of Sharpie pens and acrylic paint.    

     

     It was important that the back look just as good as the front so the whole thing has been decorated all the way round to look the same. Even the rear windows of the church are stained glass.

     The light source is a colour changing LED tea light placed in the bottom of the box. I did try a string of tiny LED lights but all together they were too bright, I rather like the changing colours too.

     This Paper Village is so cute, it's going to be used over and over for years, you have been warned!

I would like to enter this project in the following challenges:

Fezziwigs Festive Frolics - Anything BUT A Card    Top pick

Creative Craft Cottage - Christmas/Winter

Country View Crafts - Anything BUT A Card

Dragonfly Dreams - Christmas/Winter

Jingle Belles - Include A see Through Element - windows

ABC Christmas - W - Winter Wonderland/ X - eXtra Special   Top 5

Altered Wooden Stamp Block

     Having bought a stamp press I decided to take some of my rubber stamps off the wooden blocks and remount them on cling foam, now they can be used in the press and take up much less room in storage. What could I do with all the wooden blocks? They looked to useful to be thrown out, Christmas decorations, that's what!
     As we like anything recycled at Altered Eclectics I have used this project as my DT piece, we like mixed media and re-purposed projects but no cards or ATCs.

   After removing my rubber stamps I cleaned up the blocks and sanded them. If you have glue that doesn't want to come off try using Stix2 sticky stuff remover, it works well and doesn't smell as much as white spirit.
    The next step was a couple of coats of white gesso and a coat of white chalk paint.

      Using PVA glue I painted a layer on the block and then added some patterned tissue, smoothed out with a clean brayer to get rid of any air bubbles.
     To add an edge I used the 2in1 glue pen and dabbed it with my finger all around the edge of the block, once it had gone clear I added some silver transfer foil.

      With a hot glue gun and some silicone moulds, kindly supplied by Aldridge Crafts, I made a few crowns, deer and snowflakes.
     Once these were set I popped them out of the moulds and trimmed them with scissors, then painted them with Starlight paints.
     The crown on top is two identical shapes hot glued together, then hot glued to the block. For the deer and snowflakes I used silicone glue so I had a little wiggle room before it set.
     The frosting on the top and sides is Epsom Salts sprinkled over PVA glue, maybe not the best option as it may react in damp conditions but very effective as ice crystals.
     Aldridge Crafts have all of the items used in this project in stock and this sample will be joining them shortly. Jane has used paper clay in some of the moulds which is ideal for light weight crafting and picks out the detail perfectly.
     Please come and join us at Altered Eclectics with your projects, we have lots more inspiration on our blog to help get you started.

I would like to enter this project in the following challenges:

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything Christmas  

The Holly and Ivy - Anything Christmas   

As You Like It - Favourite Non Card Project - It's recycling something, no waste

Crimbo Crackers - Anything Goes
Creative Artists Mixed Media - Anything Mixed Media

Male Room Vintage Motor Racing

 
     We have a new challenge at The Male Room, vintage. So many options with this one but I decided to go with motorsport. You may have noticed a gap on the top right of the card, there will be a greeting added when I need to use it, something in dark green I think.

      The whole idea started with a small die cast game piece of a 1950's racing car.  I've had this in my stash for some time, waiting until I could make a silicone mould of it.
     Having watched a few You-Tube videos I decided it was high time I tried making a mould. Now I didn't want to use a huge tube of sealant or anything that smelt so bad I'd be banished to the shed, what could I use.....Stix2 Silicone Glue. It has a faint smell but nothing nasty and comes in a handy tube, I got six moulds about 1.5 inches round from one tube.
   

     I made the tiny car with hot glue and once set coloured it with a mix of Sharpie pens and peel off markers.
     The small pictures on the tag are all free images from the internet distressed with ink and crackle stamps. The tag itself is Kraft card also distressed with inks, the cotton ribbon is also stained with ink.
     The card blank is covered with a small sheet of checkered paper, the edges distressed with black. On to this layer I stuck a die cut laurel wreath and a die cut trophy. The tag is mounted on foam pads over the wreath and trophy.
     It always makes me smile when I see drivers of this era, they wore white overalls when the sport was probably at its dirtiest, their faces filthy, the only clean area around their eyes where their goggles had been.
     The Male Room challenge runs for two weeks so please join us with your masculine projects with a vintage theme.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Lemon Shortbread - Anything Goes   (F)
Crafting From The Heart - Anything Goes   (W)