all in an inch

Holiday paper packs and Little Village projects

(created with select components from Little Village 2 and the I Love Christmas paper pad by Lori Whitlock for Echo Park Paper Co. ) 

We have been posting a few of these on our Facebook and Instagram the last few days and just wanted to take a minute to round up the projects, so you can view them all in one place. 

As much fun as it is to stamp, color and embellish the Little Village components, it's pretty amazing the results you get from covering the pieces with pattern paper. We especially love using the paper selections from the very popular 6" paper packs! The papers in these packs have already been 'curated' so they will all work together making it hard to go wrong with your combinations if you just use the papers within the pack for your card or project.

 

In fact, when we were working with Kae Pea from RubberMoon during the conceptual development of Little Village, we sent her one of the first samples and she created this!! 

 

And, there are so many different themed paper pads out there, like this winter themed Jack Frost pack from American Crafts (used to cover all of the pieces from the original Little Village) that your options are virtually unlimited.

 

We create a three panel piece using select components from both kits, and an added ATC Art Square background piece covered with papers from the Holly Jolly pad from Pebbles. 

 

And don't forget to add die cuts! We used mirror image die cuts of the Winter Scene die from SavvyStamps to enhance this 3 panel project.

Hmmm, might have to add a few more panels to this one and put it on the mantle!!

RubberMoon and Little Village

We were pretty excited when Kae Pea, owner of RubberMoon stamps agreed to let us share some of her wonderful Little Village creations with us.

One of the reasons that we love RubberMoon stamps is that they can be combined to create the most wonderful visual stories. 

Beginning with a 4" white Art Square as her base and then using no less than 9 different RubberMoon stamps and 3 pieces from a Little Village kit she has created this adorable 'scape'. According to KP, the background was tinted using Pan Pastels, while the more vibrant colors were created using Acrylagouache. (I have just learned of this product from KP and am eager to give it a try) 

 

Using the same materials as above on an ATC size white Art Square (one of these comes in each Little Village kit) and 4 small pieces from Little Village kits, I would guess that she used 10 different RM stamps on this one!

Be sure and visit RubberMoon to see all of the wonderfully imaginative stamps that can be used with Little Village kits to tell your very own stories.   

Use Little Village pieces as sentiment banners

 

 

Whether you have a few extra pieces left over from your Little Village kit(s), or you have discovered that you can cut up the carrier sheet that comes in the package to trim more bits and pieces from our signature matboard, don't throw them away!!

They make the perfect little banners for sentiments. 

There always seems to be a holiday where we are running around looking for the perfect little gift box. So we keep a stash of shallow jewelry style boxes that have a top that measures 3-5/8" square. Of course this is the PERFECT size to cover and decorate with either 9 Inchie Squares, 4 - 1.5" Art Squares or 1 - 3" Art Square!    

(if you frequent the Inchie Arts FB page you may have seen the Washi tape box tops in February)

• Paint a white 3" Art Square with Bashful Blue and Wild Iris Twinkling H2O watercolor- dry completely.
• Stamp Impress Embroidered Snowflake with white gesso (be sure and wash stamp promptly with a toothbrush before gesso dries) - dry.
• Stamp select leftover pieces from your Little Village kit with appropriate sentiments
• Assemble, and overlap sentiment banners on the completed 3" Art Square.
• Glue 1 or 2 coordinating colors of trimmed cover weight paper to box top, then finished 3" Art Square on top of that 

Be sure and visit Ellen Hutson's inspiration and education blog, theCLASSROOM, every day this week as they join us in celebrating everything Inchie Arts - including 20% off all in-stock Inchie Arts merchandise at Ellen Hutson LLC.

And join us here for the next several days as we share even more Little Village creations! 

A Forested Little Village

Experimenting with different ways to color and decorate Little Village kits is addictive!

The emphasis on this project is on the background; with select components from both Little Village kits used sparingly across 3 white ATC size Art Squares. By only using a few of the little kit pieces you have the opportunity to really spread them out and create more 'art' in the background.

We first stamped repeatedly (and masked) a holiday tree stamp from RubberMoon across all 3 white ATC Art Squares using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Twinkling H20 watercolor paints were used to color the background in very light blues for the sky and white for the snow (along with some detail ground lines drawn with a 0.3 Copic multiliner pen).

The trees were colored by first shading with 2 different watercolor pencils directly on top of the stamped area (a bright green for the body of the tree and a darker green around the edges). Using a small wet brush, 'activate' the watercolor pencil and blend until the desired color is achieved. 

After the background is complete, flip the 3 pieces over and connect (leaving a 1/16" space between panels) with washi tape on the back side.

Select pieces from the Little Village kits, and using the 0.3 pen, draw windows, doors and other doodles on the pieces. Paint them with Twinkling H2O watercolor paints in blues and tans. When dry, add pops of white with a white fine point Sharpie paint pen.

Be sure and visit Ellen Hutson's inspiration and education blog, theCLASSROOM, every day this week as they join us in celebrating everything Inchie Arts - including 20% off all in-stock Inchie Arts merchandise at Ellen Hutson LLC.

And join us here for the next several days as we share even more Little Village creations! 

 

A Holiday Sparkle Little Village

 

Working with the Little Village kits can be overwhelming as there are SO MANY options in terms of how you can color and decorate them!

We laughed when asking Sharon if she was finished with her sample for today's post and she said, "Not yet, I can't decide how I want to color them!" But decide she did, and we think her sparkly Little Village is a perfect example of how you can color and decorate them for the holidays. 

Just as Dina did with her Spooky Village on Monday, Sharon has mixed the components of Little Village 2 with a super cute town silhouette die cut that she positioned in front of, and behind the Village pieces. And to add additional 3D dimension to her piece she actually used the dies to emboss extra details of doors and windows into the LV pieces!

By using a 4" white Art Square as her background she was able to accommodate a lot of pieces! And of course the color and sparkle comes from painting the background and pieces with Perfect Medium, Perfect Pearls and the addition of a bit of glitter tape. 

 Please visit Sharon's blog, PaperFections to learn all the specific details. And be sure and visit Ellen Hutson's inspiration and education blog, theCLASSROOM, every day this week as they join us in celebrating all things Inchie Arts - including 20% off all in stock Inchie Arts merchandise at Ellen Hutson LLC. 

What exactly is a Little Village?

Little Village kits, Original and 2, are new from Inchie Arts!

This is the first time that Inchie Arts has experimented with die cut pieces. The kits were created to provide a series of small shapes that when decorated and assembled would be like little buildings, or a "Little Village". All of the components of each kit are made from our signature 4 ply museum grade matboard. In addition to the small pieces, each kit includes a white Inchie Square and a white ATC size Art Square that may be used as a background piece.  

 

These are all of the components of the Original kit. You can use the carrier sheet as a stencil for drawing buildings on your ATC background, cut more pieces of your own choosing, or even as a palette to test stamping and coloring ideas.  

 

Just to give you an idea of how they might be assembled, here are the pieces from the Original kit arranged (before decorating) in the same way as shown on the packaging. The original kit is distinctive because it has a crescent moon. A single panel village is a perfect size to put on a card.

 

As soon as we shared the Original kit with our friends there were immediately requests for another version with a greater assortment of shapes and sizes. Here are all the pieces included in Little Village 2.

 

This layout shows the pieces arranged in a similar fashion to the sample shown on the front of the packaging. And by popular request we made sure there was a steeple, circles for moons, suns and clocks, and even a Mansard roof!

 

Each kit has completely different pieces so that they may be combined and mixed to create oodles of versions of Little Villages.

 

 By using ALL of the pieces in both kits, you might create a standing 2 panel layout that looks like this!

 

There are SO MANY pieces that you can spread them out by adding another ATC size Art Square to create a 3 panel standing Little VIllage.

 

Or, use only a select few pieces chosen from each kit and arrange them on a bigger background like our 4" white Art Square.

 

(select pieces from both kits, spread out, with an extra white ATC Art Square background to create this 3 panel piece) 

Now that you know what they are, be sure and stop by again for the next several days to see different ideas for coloring, stamping and decorating Little Villages.

And, if you want to see more creative ideas for Little Villages and other Inchie Arts products, visit Ellen Hutson's education and inspiration blog, theCLASSROOM this week to see samples from their design team! And while you are there you can see (and purchase!) every size and color of all Inchie Arts products! at Ellen Hutson LLC.