Village Transformation: part 1
I decided a few years ago that I wanted to make a small Halloween village. I have seen some awesome pieces around with brand names like Department 56, and others. While I love how some of them look, they always cost more than I’ve been willing to spend. Halloween isn’t my very favorite holiday, but I wanted a village. I decided that I would just make my own! Finding the less expensive Christmas village pieces is easier to do, and I can just find the shapes that I like, and transform them myself! Hubby found a lovely church to start off the set! As you can see on the box, he found it at Walmart for only $14.88! Fifteen dollars is a lot more manageable than $250 for one piece!
I added a little bit of polymer clay (Affiliate link) to the parts that wouldn’t be so easy to hide with paint alone. Wreaths and stuff look great on a Christmas building, but I didn’t want them on my spooky church. I put some boards over a couple of the windows as well. Polymer clay is so easy to work with! Just kneed it, shape it how you want, and stick it on! You can use as little, or as much as you want.
You can just put the whole building with the fresh clay in the oven to bake! New doors, some weathered boards, covered wreaths, and holes in the building. Bake in a 250 degree oven for about 30 minutes (may take longer if your clay is thick). Let cool completely.
After the clay was baked, and the building cooled I used acrylic craft paint to change the whole look! I painted over the bright happy red bricks, turning the whole building a spookier grey. I also added some Spanish craft moss (affiliate) for that neglected overgrown look. I found the tiny grey gargoyles at Dollar Tree with their miniature Halloween village stuff. They matched perfectly!
The completed building sitting next to the old box! A before and after comparison. I love how it turned out, it’s perfectly spooky! Now it just needs a graveyard to go with it and build a base for it to sit on! Those tutorials will be coming very soon!
