Hints & Tips for your Lemax Village Display (Vol. One) roadsPathswalls Need a stony path or road?  Shape and cut a thick cardboard box into a curvy pathway.  Apply PVA glue and sprinkle generously with mini stones (like the ones found in fish tanks).  Allow to dry and you’ve created your stony path! Need a cobbled effect?  Visit the Lemaxland tutorials page to create a cobbled walk way Print walls, roads & sidewalks?  Visit these helpful sites: - Walls & Ground cover (French site) - Flooring (US site) - more sites to follow... WaterlakesPonds Need some Ice?   Tin foil can give an icy look to a lake as well as using a small Mirror Need a water effect?   Use scrunched blue cellophane layers.  Or, colour some paper with blue shades with clear cellophane scrunched on top for a gentle wave effect.  Cellophane helps create a shimmer Create depth to a pond?  Find a plastic/poly tray (like those from the supermarket that hold fruit for example).  Paint in Blue shades inside.  Add some small stones and/or some mossy pieces to create an underwater marine effect.  Place a clear lid on top like clingfilm, acetate, clear bookbinder cover or Perspex.  Place your newly created pond in your scene by either sinking it into your base or creating a raised area to give some great depth Want a waterfall?   Buy Christmas decoration fringing (like those placed around tables) and affix to your mountain to give the appearance of flowing down into your stream (you can buy silver or transparent white speckled effects that work well) Using a heated glue gun, trickle the semi liquid glue down from the mountain to your stream – this is fiddly and messy, so be careful! give mesnoweffects... - Cotton wool is the cheapest way to create snowdrifts and flooring - Snow wadding which you can buy everywhere this time of year covers large areas of your scene.  For example place it over a box & pin it at an angle to create an instant mountaintop & slope! - Textured Wallpaper from a DIY store – Lemaxland use this for their village scene, as it’s easy for villagers to stand upright.  It’s fun scouting shops for wallpaper that looks like snow, so get the kids involved too! - Shredded snowflake Sprinkles (readily available at Christmas time) can be scattered on your village (it’s also handy to hide wires too!) - Salt & sugar is another alternative to sprinkle over – brilliant for creating footprints in the snow - White or iridescent glitter is fantastic for sparkle!  Even better, add it to your mountain and base projects at the painting stage for a lovely shimmery look! - Polystyrene is another good snow alternative, but you will need a heated craft knife to shape it - Snow spray aerosols are good, but are a little messy and do not last long - Placing fairy lights under snow wadding is very effective, but be careful of fire hazard! shrubsTreeshedges... - Painted Pinecones.  Gather lots from your local park (great task for kids to get involved in).  Wash & store them in a warm place to dry out thoroughly.  Once dry, paint/spray them Green, Gold & Silver for a real Christmas feel – maybe add some white to the tips for a snow effect.  These will last for years and are brilliant for bulking up empty spaces in your scene if you do not have enough Lemax trees - Grape stalks. Dry them out and apply a lacquer/sealant to stiffen them ready for painting - good for bare trees and shrubs - If you are planning to throw away your old artificial Christmas tree – don’t! Use its branches to create smaller trees and hedges for your village - As a one-time-only, collect some moss from the garden wall and use it in your village this year - Purchase some lichen, which looks very realistic for shrubbery - Use the green part of a scour pad to create hedges LandscapesbackgroundsMountains Need a starry Sky?  Using a large length of black light material, hang this behind your village scene with some fairy/netting lights behind – an instant starry night (be mindful of any fire hazards here with the material used!!!) - With some large stiff card (or cardboard painted Black) prick many pinholes in the card.  Place the card behind your village scene with a background light (or fairy lights) to create a twinkly sky Want a backdrop?  Search the Internet for free image backgrounds of streets, villages, rows of houses, sky, etc that you can print and use as a backdrop to your village - Take a picture of your own scene to your local photography store and blow the picture up to a larger size that can be used as a backdrop - Place mirror tiles (4-5” high) behind your village scene – instantly doubles the size of your village! - Using Black card or painted cardboard, use some cotton wool to create clouds in the night sky Need a mountain backdrop?  Cut large sheets of cupboard into shaped mountain peaks & paint it whites & browns.  A step further from this would be to stick some scrunched newspapers using tape to the backdrop to provide depth.  Once painted, add a layer of PVA glue to seal it.  One step further, would be to add some trees or lichen for fantastic realism Want a house on a mountaintop?  Get an appropriate sized cardboard box; reinforce the bottom with tape (this will support the weight of your building).  Flip your box over and start adding lots of scrunched newspaper balls using tape.  Aim for the effect of boulders and rocks over the entire box, but leave room on top for your house to sit on.  This is a timely process, but is a fun project for children to be involved in!  Consider creating a tunnel through your mountain (cut the shape out prior to adding the newspaper rocks though!).  Once your box is covered in newspaper boulders, liberally cover with PVA glue to seal and strengthen and leave to dry over night.  You can apply another layer of PVA glue if necessary or simply continue to paint it whites & browns for an effective mountain.  Remember, to add some trees and lichen too - As an alternative to the above mountain top, use wire mesh and style it to the shape you require for your village and add paper mache layers MiscellaneoushintsIdeas Do your village people keep falling down?  Use white blu-tac & stick this on the bottom of each figurine.  Or add a pin to the blue-tac & stick this into your base Wrong coloured bases?  Consider painting the bases of your figurines, if they don’t quite match the background they are set in – for example a white base may need to be painted grey to blend in with a figurine who is standing on a cobbled path - An alternative would be to cut or sink your lemax item into your village base material, then cover to hide the lemax base Need a Fence  Using lollysticks, cut & shape them to create fences.  See our Lemaxland tutorial for more Want some log piles?  Matchsticks make good log piles when painted as well as twigs and sticks Need an iron fence?  Cocktail sticks make great iron fencing when painted Black Want a rustic feel?  Twigs and sticks will help – use them for fences, log piles and trees Need some boulders or edging stones?  Visit your local park and gather some large rocks and stones.  Wash and paint them to blend in with your village scene A LEMAXLAND HELP PAGE, WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT !! <<< Back to Tutorials / Inspire Me LEGAL NOTICE: The information on this website is provided free-of-charge, and you acknowledge that it would be unreasonable to hold us liable in respect of this website and the information on this website.  Whilst we endeavour to ensure that the information on this website is correct, we do not warrant its completeness or accuracy; nor do we not commit to ensuring that the website remains available or that the material on this website is kept up-to-date. 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