'Twas the Night Before Christmas Village

I've finished my "big" Christmas project just in time, because it is a countdown to Christmas calendar and it is almost December 1st.

The village has 24 buildings on three levels, each one hiding little treats that can be enjoyed as you count down the days until Christmas.  It is 12" x 18".

The project features Graphic 45 'Twas the Night Before Christmas paper collection and Tim Holtz Woodland Trees.

I also made a series of videos as I constructed the project - more on that later.


The Buildings

There are five different size building bases, ranging from 1 1/4" square to 2" square with a few rectangular buildings as well.

I changed the heights of walls and the pitches of the roofs to create even more variety to the buildings,

I used both the 8x8 and 6x6 paper pads from the Graphic 45 paper collection to cover the walls.  The roofs were made with cardstock and I created different varieties of shingles with decorative scissors and punches.

The windows were created in MS Word, using some built in shapes and gradient fills to create the illusion of lights on inside each building.

The 24th building was made into a church.  I cut openings for the windows and added acrylic stained with Alcohol Inks for the "stained glass".  An LED tea light provides a warm glow.

The Levels

The project features three different levels to create depth and interest.  These are created from medium weight chipboard.

The walls were decorated with kraft cardstock, dry embossed with a Cuttlebug folder "Musical Flourish", then inked with white ink using a brayer, and then inked with embossing ink and heat embossed with Recollections "Snow" embossing powder.

The top of the walls were finished with a thin strip of chipboard highlighted with the same embossing powder.

The outside Level 3 (top level) walls feature some of the cut-aparts from the paper line as well as a fussy cut image of Santa.

One of the Level 2 walls features a Tim Holtz wreath, I colored and decorated it like I did the trees (see next section), and tied on a red ribbon bow, I used a Tim Holtz screw eye which I opened into a hook and then drilled into the wall with an awl to hang it up.

There is a stairway connecting Level 1 to Level 2 and Level 2 to Level 3.

The first stairway has a landing; the second stairway is a straight flight.  The railings were made with Martha Stewart's Aspen Snowflake punch.

The Trees

The trees are all Tim Holtz Woodland Trees colored with Adirondack green sprays.  Then some Diamond Glaze was patted on and Rock Candy Distress Glitter was added to make it look like snow.

The large tree on Level 3 has some red beads added for additional sparkle.

The Treats

Each building sits on top of a little box that can hold some small treats.  The buildings each have a number on their front door, so that on each day in December some treats can be enjoyed,






Making a Village of Your Own
In the next few days I will upload the Cutting and Layout Guide I used with all the materials, templates and cutting guides for the project.  I also made a series of videos to explain how each section was constructed and decorated that I will upload to YouTube.  I hope you will consider making a village of your own.
**UPDATE**  The guide and videos have been uploaded. Please see the post "Christmas Village Construction" for the details.

Completed Project
Here's a video of the completed project