Introducing Tiny Town Series

Welcome to Day 3 of Papertrey's 9th anniversary celebration. Today we're announcing another new series from Betsy Veldman called Tiny Town. Tiny Town is similar to Petite Places, only larger, which opens up some fantastic new possibilities.

The February release will be available at 10 pm EST February 15 in the Papertrey Ink store.

The foundation of the new series is the Tiny Town: Basics die set, which is the basic building plus window and door accessories to make it into a house. Additional die sets will include different building fronts and accessories, allowing you to turn the basic building into all sorts of other buildings. We're kicking off the first month with the Tiny Town: Church dies.

So let me tell you about my project for today -- I'm excited about it! Have you heard of prayer boxes?  There are lots of different ways you can use them, and there's even a book about them, but basically, they are boxes, often decorated, where you can store written prayer requests. I thought the church would be super sweet as a prayer box. More specifically, I created today's box with a Bible Study purpose in mind. My idea is that each person in the Bible Study has her own prayer box. During the Bible Study, each person can write down her prayer request/requests and put them in their box. At the end of the study, everyone takes someone else's box home for the week to pray over that person's needs. Bring the boxes back the following week, add additional requests, take out (and celebrate) answered prayers, then exchange again among the members. Wouldn't that be a super sweet way to pray for each other? Of course the church could also be used as a more traditional prayer box, too.

First I die-cut the Tiny Town: Basics building out of white card stock and gave it a church appearance using the arched window and door dies from Tiny Town: Church. 

I added some grass and flowers using stamps from Garden Variety, and a sweet bunting (or is it a garland?) across the front using an image from Choose Joy. Before assembling, I also scored every half-inch to create siding.

I added a pair of tags (die-cut with Minute To Make: Holiday Tags) stamped with Scripture using a stamp from Phrases & Praises. The tag is personalized using the Type Strips II alphabet and coordinating Type Bits Strip die.

I love that these buildings can be sealed shut if using as decor pieces or the buildings can be made to be opened and closed. Since the prayer boxes will be opened and they will travel, I decided to add the optional carrying handle, which is part of the Tiny Town: Basics set.

I made a bunch of tiny prayer request cards. They're pretty small at only 2" x 1 1/4", but there is some room for writing down requests. I stamped the cards with images from Choose Joy and Garden Variety, stamping off first for extra light stamping that could easily be written over.

Here are a few filled out.

Even though this building construction does open and close, I wanted to minimize the need for that, so I came up with this piggy bank-style input slot.

Just slip the prayer request down in the slot -- no need to open the box at this stage. I used a punch to make the slot.

The person who takes the box home would of course need to open it, and that's easy to do by untying the baker's twine on the handle.

The site I linked to above has some great ideas for ways to use prayer boxes. Some of my favorites:

a prayer box for each family member, everyone fills each others' boxes with affirmations. At the end of the week or month, the family reads them together

a prayer box at each wedding reception table, guests write out a blessing for the newlyweds and put them in inside the church.

fill a box with prayer requests for a certain period of time (month or even year). Keep the box closed until the end of that timeframe, at which point you can open it and see all the requests have been answered.

Stamps: Phrases & Praises, Garden Variety, Choose Joy, Type Strips II

Dies: Tiny Town: Basics; Tiny Town: Church; Minute to Make: Holiday Tags; Type Bits Strip

Ink: Simply Chartreuse, Blueberry Sky, Sweet Blush, True Black

Paper: white card stock; Soft Stone Stripe patterned paper

Other: True Black baker's twine, Scor-Tape, Scor-Pal, glue dots, Ranger matte multi-medium

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For more Tiny Town inspiration, visit the Papertrey team:

Nichole Heady

Ashley Newell

Betsy Veldman

Danielle Flanders

Dawn McVey

Heather Nichols

Kay Miller

Laurie Willison

Lizzie Jones

Melissa Phillips

Thanks so much for visiting!