Cabins in the forest

I had this idea for weeks before I sat down and actually tried it to see if it would work in real life the way it did in my head.  It's simple math, really, but I have been known to forget parts of the equation.  Anyway, I wanted to make a little forest of trees, and then I decided that I wanted a cabin or two in there as well.  I decided to use my ugliest green scrapbook papers for my test run.

Since the tree die is asymmetrical, you need four diecuts for each tree - two cut from the front side of the paper, and two from the back.  Stick them together on the sides, alternating the front cut trees and the back cut ones.  after you get all the sides together, I recommend a dab of glue at the top.  You can get 5 trees out of two sheets of scrapbook paper.

After doing a few trees, I felt that having just a forest was boring, and that I needed a cabin or two. However, I dreaded creating and printing a template.  Suddenly I remembered the Michael Strong mosiac frame had a strong geometry similar to what I needed to cut the bases of the houses, and I realized I could simply stamp the stamp and use that for  template.  I have created this diagram so you can see where the cuts are on the stamp:

 This makes two bases.  The next diagram shows where the folds and the glue have to go:

The roof was cut from another scrap that was 1.75 by 4.5 inches.

So you are probably thinking that I should now be ready to make this with my good paper, and it would be a lovely little scene.  I agree, however, I think it will be a fun craft project when all my kids are home from school - we can all make trees and cabins together.  I know from experience that I can't have my best work waiting as a sample - if mine looks too good, they won't bother to play with me.  Mine has to make them think that theirs will be better.  Therefore, the good trees and cabins won't be ready for a couple of weeks, but you get the general idea of how it goes.

If you would like to try this and you have any questions on how to do it, just ask.