Christmas City Holiday Collection Introduction with Yana Smakula

The holidays are returning to the city! The Christmas City Holiday Mini Collection expands the original City Holiday Etched Dies with new architectural details, festive decorations, and coordinating sentiments designed to bring even more personality to your paper-crafted buildings. The original City Holiday Collection introduced the basic building, followed by the Everyday City Holiday Collection with windows, awnings, and flower boxes, and Halloween City Holiday for creating spooky seasonal scenes.

Now, we are returning to Christmas with three new products: Wrapped Up City Holiday Etched Dies, Mansard Roof Etched Dies, and a coordinating Press & Foil Plate and Die Set filled with festive sentiments.

In the video below, I’m sharing a closer look at every product in the Christmas City Holiday Mini Collection, the inspiration behind the designs, and several finished card ideas. I’ll also be sharing separate tutorials showing how to assemble and use both new die sets. 

The Wrapped Up City Holiday Etched Dies include ivy, a decorative lamppost, and an oversized ribbon and bow designed to wrap around the original City Holiday building. The ivy was inspired by the beautiful greenery often seen growing across historic European buildings. Add a small detail along one side of the building or layer several die-cuts to create a lush, overgrown look. Although included in a Christmas collection, this element can easily be used for spring, summer, and fall scenes as well.

The decorative lamppost can be positioned beside the building, repeated to create a larger street scene, or used independently on other cards. You can even trim away the base and use only the lantern near the roof or entrance. The oversized ribbon and bow were inspired by a building I saw while visiting Naples, Italy, with my mom at Christmas. The entire building was decorated to look like a giant present, and I immediately wanted to recreate that idea with paper.

Add the ribbon and bow to your City Holiday building to transform it into one very festive Christmas gift.

The Mansard Roof Etched Dies introduce a beautiful new architectural option for the City Holiday building. Inspired by classic European architecture, this roof changes the shape and personality of the original design. Replace the third floor with the Mansard Roof to create a shorter building, or keep all three original floors and add the roof on top for a taller, four-level structure.

The set includes the main roof, decorative trim, two chimney styles, chimney accents, and smaller windows designed especially for the roof.

Mix these pieces with the arched windows from the original City Holiday set or the rectangular windows from Everyday City Holiday to create a different building every time.

The coordinating Holiday Holiday Sentiments Press + Foil and Die Set features five festive greetings intentionally sized to fit inside the large gallery window of the City Holiday building. The sentiments include:

• Holiday Hugs from Home
• We Wish You a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
• Deck the Halls with Love and Laughter
• Season’s Greetings
• Eat, Drink and Be Merry

These sentiments were inspired by the large storefront windows found throughout historic European city centers, often decorated with a shop name, seasonal greeting, or special message. The plates can be used with the BetterPress Letterpress System or the Glimmer Hot Foil System.

Coordinating dies are also included, allowing you to place the sentiments inside the gallery window or use them independently on other Christmas projects.

The City Holiday concept reminds me of building with LEGO, only with paper. Begin with the original building, change the windows, add a different roof, move the chimney, decorate the walls with ivy, or wrap the entire structure in a giant Christmas bow. Every new component gives you another opportunity to customize the building and tell a different story. Combine pieces from the original City Holiday, Everyday City Holiday, Halloween City Holiday, and Christmas City Holiday collections to create architecture for every season and occasion. Thank you so much for joining me to celebrate the release of the Christmas City Holiday Mini Collection. I hope these new additions inspire you to continue building, decorating, and reimagining your own paper city. I can’t wait to see what you create! Happy crafting!