Welcome to Hogsmeade!

So, last year I discovered the amazing 'Village Collection' from the craft wizard himself, Mr. Tim Holtz! As soon as I started watching the Halloween makes pop up on Facebook, I immediately knew that I wanted to try and recreate the Wizarding World's very own Hogsmeade Village.

I started out following the tutorial posted by the amazing Emma Williams (That's Life: A Winter's Village (stickydots.blogspot.com) as I thought her mansion would make the perfect 'Three Broomsticks Inn'.

I then built the basic structure of the other buildings but added a 'jetty' to create the overhang storey for what will become the joke shop, curved bay windows for 'Madame Puddifoot's tea room and am currently working on items to go in the windows of the other shops.

I've created a base from several sheets high density foam board and covered it with a thin layer of Polyfilla to act as a sealer, then glued plain grey cardboard over the top. The road and pavement have been made with darker grey card run through my die cutting machine with the Tim Holtz 'Mini Cobblestone' embossing folder.

My Dad very kindly made me an oversized wooden tray (along the lines of a super-sized Vignette tray) to lay the foam in. I still have a few more shops to complete, the lighting to fix into place and then the scenic decorating...which is the bit that I'm looking forward to the most. I'll post some more photo's when everything is complete!