I am so excited about this release from Tim Holtz and Sizzix! The ability to create a bunch of different little buildings out of one set of dies is just so much fun. 

First, I want to give a huge shoutout to Scrapbook.com for sending me this Village Collection die set along with some other recently released Tim Holtz goodies in order to create this project! I squealed with delight when I opened the package (guys, they wrapped it up so cute and even sent me some candy, which I'll be sharing over on my Instagram so make sure you are following me there too)! This die set and the new mini lumber, cobblestone and brickwork embossing folders just went up as "coming soon" at Scrapbook.com (due to some shipping delays) so sign up to get a notification as soon as they are available!

If you have been following me for a while now, you'll know that my Oma (grandmother) was from Austria. The Christmas carol Stille Nacht (Silent Night) is an Austrian carol and our family's favorite. So whenever I think of Christmas, I think of Stille Nacht being sung in quintessential Austrian churches every Christmas Eve. 

I've previously done a vignette based on the Stille Nacht Chapel but this time I wanted to do a vignette based on another iconic church in Austria--the one you always see in those iconic photos from Hallstatt (pronounced hall-shtaht). Apparently Hallstatt was Disney's inspiration for Arendelle in Frozen and this tiny village of 780 citizens was named the most Instagrammable location--it's not hard to see why! But back to the church, which has an exterior of rock brickwork. I didn't want to go too overboard on texturizing my mini church because I wanted to create a cobblestone bases for it to sit on, so I just used the Mini Brickwork embossing folder on one piece of the building. Now let's get into my walkthrough tutorial. 

First I started by cutting out the tall house (house 2), the coordinating tower, entry way and rooflines from the Scrapbook.com A2 Smooth Cardstock Neutrals pad. And because this is inspired by a church from Europe, I made all of the windows arched and chose the gothic and mullioned frames. To add just a bit of brickwork to this mini church, I misted the entry way cut with a bit of water and embossed it with the Mini Brickwork Embossing Folder from Tim Holtz. 

I then added depth to all of my die cuts by brushing or dabbing on a bit of brown Distress Ink. To highlight the bricks, I swiped a couple of brown Distress inks over the surface and misted it slightly to soften the ink. For all of these, I chose to use Tea Dye and Ground Espresso. 

I wanted to create stained glass windows so I used some of the new Scrapbook.com acetate as my base. I first spritzed a little rubbing alcohol on the surface and then dripped some Alcohol Ink in Stream, Wild Plum and Bottle on top. I tipped the acetate sheet around to get the colors to swirl. To add some cells to the ink, I spritzed it again with rubbing alcohol and then let the ink dry.

As the alcohol ink dried, I prepped the pieces of the house by folding at the crease lines, using a folding tool to get it nice and crisp. I also added Scrapbook.com's 1/8 inch double sided adhesive to all the tabs, leaving the backing on until it was time to assemble the house--but first the acetate needs to be added to the windows!

Once the acetate stained glass was ready, I cut pieces to fit the three sides of the structure. I used Scrapbook.com's 1/4 inch double sided adhesive to adhere the acetate to the inside of the house. then I peeled the backing off the tabs and assembled the church. 

I chose one of Tim's small vignette boxes as a base for this project. I wanted the church to look like it was on one of those old cobblestone streets you see across Europe. I took 2 pieces of dark brown paper from the Neutrals pad, misted them and embossed them with Tim's Mini Cobblestone folder. To add color and highlight the dimension, I swiped on some Distress Oxide in Antique Linen, Pumice Stone, Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo, in that order, spritzing with water and drying in between each color. I only used Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo sparingly, to dirty up the cobblestones a bit. 

I then cut the cobblestone pieces into strips to cover the vignette box and used Scrapbook.com's 1/4 inch double sided adhesive to stick it down. Using my Micro Dremel tool, I drilled a small hole in the center of the box. I threaded through some tiny lights (I used 10 bulbs) and twisted the wire around two fingers then pulled the coil out a bit so the lights would fill the house vertically. 

Before glueing down the house, I wanted to add a bit more color to this vignette. Winter can be drab but your projects don't have to be! So I cut some Funky Festive greenery using a sheet of green cardstock from the Scrapbook.com A2 Smooth Cardstock Harvest pad. I also cut the poinsettia from that die set from a red in their Christmas pad. 

I dabbed a little Vintage Photo Distress Oxide on the greens using a Scrapbook.com domed foam blending tool, spritzed it lightly and dried them with my heat tool. Once dry, I shaped the greens and the poinsettia pieces with some shaping tools. I used Distress Collage Medium to glue the poinsettia layers together and then glued the larger greens down to the box. 

I then glued the house over the lights on the box using a bit of Collage Medium on the bottom edges. And because this is Austria at Christmas, I just have to have snow. I used Distress Grit Paste in opaque to create snow. This also helps glue the structure down better to the surface of the box. I applied small amounts at a time using a palette knife and then dusted it with Rock Candy Glitter. 

I also added some "snow" to the roofline. I added the Poinsettias and silver thread around the church with Prima's Heavy Body Gel and some additional sprigs of greenery, thread and a poinsettia to the roof. I dabbed a bit of grit paste on the greens and flowers and dusted them with some glitter. To finish it off, I added a silver metallic droplet to the center of each poinsettia. 

I really love how this little Christmas Church turned out. If I close my eyes, I can almost hear my Oma singing Stille Nacht. She passed away over 5 years ago and I miss her so much, but projects like this really are cathartic. Until next time, happy crafting!

Adrienne

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