An Intriguing New Direction!

Book Nook Intrigue® Church by Gill Draper

Rosey the reindeer welcomes you to the annual Christmas Tree Festival in the tiny flint church of St James, deepest Norfolk. This year in aid of the church roof.

The huge front door (with smaller door inset for practical reasons) is decked out ready for the season’s festivities. This big door was already scored to give the look of wood. I washed this over with diluted Paper Artsy Gold Rush chalk acrylic paint (taking pains not to get the MDF too wet; a bowed door may be authentic but I didn’t want it not to fit into its surround) then ran a bradawl down the score marks to lighten those areas. Then, I dry-brushed it over with some Paper Artsy Toffee chalk acrylic paint to give the door a more weathered look.

The small door is drawn on, coloured darker to differentiate, then I scored extra lines on to show it is made of smaller widths of wood than the large door.

The door knocker is made from a washer suspended from a tiny loop of Coolkatz Lightboard, both painted black to give the effect of a heavy iron piece. The small doorknob is a simple dot of dimensional paint.

The snowy look was created using Pebeo Acrylic Modelling Paste. I didn’t want the church to have so much snow that every detail was obliterated, so chose a day when wind and a slightly warmer temperature had melted and shifted some of the snow. You can see where people have already entered the church, obliterating some of the snow around the small door.

St James’s church is a flint church. I’m from Norfolk. So, what could be more fitting than a church clad in good old Norfolk flint? But, how on Earth should I do that? Well, staring at images on the internet, trial and error, wandering the streets of my home city, adding, changing, adapting. I got there in the end. I feel a tutorial coming on (watch out for that).

The windows were coloured using black relief and glass paint. A simple design for a simple country church.

On this side of the church I used two of the MDF offcuts from the side windows, making them into gravestones (ready to be dug in, once the gravedigger’s spade can pierce the frozen earth). Now, why did I choose those names I wonder?

Inside the church are the stars of the show…the Christmas trees. Bedecked with tiny bells, bows, tinsel, lights. Please, leave a donation. It’s for a good cause. The trees stand on the individually tiled floor, the pattern taken from a real church in deepest Norfolk. The black tiles were painted then covered with Glossy Accents which gives the tiles a mottled look.

The largest stained-glass window is almost the size of the back wall. The cross at the side of the window is made from the batons from the window surround in the kit, painted black. The window is flanked by two majestic party cake candles!

Two pews sit up against one wall, painted black, each with a little brass plaque. There are more pews in the kit and there are holes in the walls where you can add them, but I decided to have them loose and filled in the holes in the walls with more Pebeo modelling paste.

Another type of plaque can be found on the wall next to the inner front door. It details the names of all the reverends that have been presiding over the congregation at St James’s since the late 1920s. It is made from Coolkatz Lightboard and the names on the plaque appear to bear a remarkable similarity to the names of my family. Coincidence?

The roof! One side is snowier than the other. It’s the fault of the forceful North wind blowing through the countryside on a wintery Norfolk day.

I added copper leading (made from slug repellent tape) to the top of the tiled roof. I dry-brushed a little Paper Artsy Tinned Peas chalk acrylic paint onto the copper to give it a slight patina.

I added the bell to the tower by using an offcut of MDF from the kit to suspend the rope and bell. The rope was made of candle wick. A robin sits looking sadly in the direction of the broken tiles on the roof, in need of repair, probably letting the snow in.

So, come on down to the Christmas Tree Festival. All proceedings to help fix that leaky church roof!

Things available from Coolkatz used in design: Intrigue Church Kit, Glossy Accents, Paper Artsy Chalk Acrylic Paint (Gold Rush, Toffee, Tinned Peas), Coolkatz Lightboard, Tiger Tape, Pebeo Acrylic Modelling Paste, Pebeo Modelling Tool.