Mix it Up Challenge: Christmas Village by Mendi

Hello Doodlebugs!  It's Mendi today with one last project for Christmas featuring a mixture of some darling papers from several of my favorite Doodlebug collections.  

I have been wanting to create a Christmas village ever since I received these sweet Sizzix Village dies earlier this year.  I knew if I didn't do something with them now they might become buried under a pile of other things on my rapidly growing "someday" list.  

Knowing these would take some a bit of time to create and wanting them to last year after year, I started by first cutting my houses from some heavy weight chipboard.  I then cut them again from some of my favorite Doodlebug Petite prints and other small prints from various 6x6 paper pads.  Because of the thickness of the chipboard, I needed to cut my patterned papers apart at the corner seams so that the windows and other openings would line up properly on all four sides.  To get around this, I matched the patterns with a corner piece that I created for each corner using a small piece of paper, scored and folded in half.

To add a fun detail to my roofs, I turned to various scalloped border dies in my stash, cutting them from 1/2" wide strips of patterned paper.  To keep the layers from blending together, I inked each edge with a bit of distress ink using a foam applicator.

One of the die sets come with the pieces to cut the snowy rooftops.  I started by cutting them all from white cardstock and then coated them with a Marvy Uchida Snow Marker.  Before heating them with my heat gun to puff them up and make them look real, I sprinkled them with Doodlebug's Lily White Sugar Coating Glitter.  When heated, the glitter becomes permanently adhered and it left them looking so sparkly and pretty! I completed my houses, with simple wreaths created with a couple metallic pipe cleaners wrapped around a pencil and adhered with a little liquid glue. I love how they added a touch of green and added even more sparkle to my scene!

To complete my scene I picked up some miniature trees and an iridescent garland at my local craft store to act as a filler in the background, while hiding my miniature strand of battery powered lights.

I hope I've inspired you to think outside the box and mix papers from different Doodlebug collections on your next project.  ;) To create my village I mixed the following papers:

• Dragon Tails 6x6 pad (stone print)
• Milk & Cookies 6x6 pad (brick print)
• Ladybug Daisy-Stripe Petite Prints
• Beetle Black Dot-Grid Petite Prints
• Bon Bon gingham-linen petite prints
• Stone Gray gingham-linen petite prints

Before I go, I would like to thank everyone at Doodlebug for allowing me the sincere pleasure of sharing projects using their adorable products for these past four years.  It has been a dream of mine since I first discovered Doodlebug back in 2003 and I while I must step away for now, I hope to be back again someday soon.  They are truly the best of the best and I feel so fortunate to have been given this opportunity!