First Spooky House finished for 2017

Abandoned Italianate Mansion Halloween House based on Knox House in PA #halloweenhouse #halloween #papercraft #putzhouse — Abandoned Italianate Mansion based on the Knox house from Coudersport, PA. Amazingly this house is now being saved and renovated. You can follow the renovation on Instagram if you look under F. W. Knox Villa.

The Making of the Abandoned Italianate Mansion – a Halloween Putz House

The Abandoned Italianate Mansion is a Halloween Putz house based on a real house in Pennsylvania. It’s made of cardboard and glue and paint. Now there is a free pattern for it in my library called the “Faded Mansion”. So now you can make your own version of the Abandoned Italianate Mansion.

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The pattern is available as a PDF file and an SVG file if you have an automatic cutting machine like a Cricut or a Silhouette. Just subscribe below if you haven’t already to get my newsletter and updates on the fun things that I made on this blog.

This house was made as a demonstration model to show to Habitat for Humanity to get their permission to sell the houses for Habitat as a fundraiser. Fortunately, they agreed that it was a good fit.

I am going to share it with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge which is “Anything but a Card”. Thank goodness my house is not a card so it fits well with this theme and I don’t really have to apologize for posting a house – again. I only have about an hour to get it in for this challenge.

Abandoned Italianate Mansion Halloween House LED lights #halloweenhouse #halloween #papercraft #putzhouse — Abandoned Italianate Mansion Glitter House shining with LED lights

Construction of the Abandoned Italianate Mansion Halloween House – Basic Structure

I made this house with a custom die I designed, but it could easily be done with some of the Tim Holtz dies – particularly the Village Brownstone. Also the pattern I used for Jack’s house is basically the same pattern. The Italianate tower in the front is simply a square with the angle cut out where it meets the front of the house and the roofline. The front piece is simply half of the house put on the front as an ell. The porch floor is a piece of corrugated cardboard covered with individual strips of cardstock painted brown. I used a plain piece of cardboard for the metal roof covered with metallic duct tape from a home improvement store. The metallic tape was colored with multiple alcohol inks to give it that rusted look. You can read about making a rusted roof in a tutorial you can download from the paper glitter glue library or at this blog post here.

Rooftop of the Halloween house mansion #halloweenhouse #halloween — View of the top of the Abandoned Italianate Mansion Halloween House

Halloween house with hand cut cardboard trim to mimic the Italianate trim #halloweenhouse # halloween #putzhouse #papercraft — Abandoned Italianate Mansion Halloween House right side gable with hand cut Victorian trim on the side gable.

Windows and Siding on the Abandoned Italianate Mansion Halloween House

The black windows are made from the Village manor die set from Tim Holtz and Sizzix. The shingles on the roof are also from one of the Sizzix Village rooftops dies. I colored some clear acetate packaging with Ranger alcohol ink to make the many windows – 23 or so depending on how you count the front bay windows.

I wrote about how much I love Village Rooftop dies here when I used them for the first time.

The bay windows were probably the hardest thing to make because I used on piece of acetate behind them that was hard to bend. It was kind of a pain.

Then I glued the siding on piece by piece, but I am going to do it a different way next time. I am going to glue the siding pieces on BEFORE I cut out the windows next time. That will save me a lot of time “measuring” (really, roughly estimating by trial and error) the individual pieces to fit around the windows and the door.

Italianate Halloween House back view with the light hole and the crackled siding #halloweenhouse #halloween #putzhouse #papercraft — Back view of the Italianate Halloween House. The back is the funnest side to make because it’s the easiest, but it’s also nice to see all the old crackled siding with fewer windows.

I had to make my own crackle paint because they don’t make my favorite Distress Picket Fence crackle paint any more. I coated a piece of black cardstock with glue then painted it with white gesso, then repeated the process. The paint really does look like old peeling paint on an abandoned house so it worked out, but it took a long time. Then I cut thin strips on my guillotine paper cutter.

Italianate Halloween House porch side view. Yes, hand cut trim around that gable too. #halloweenhouse #halloween #putzhouse #papercraft — The porch side gable with hand cut Italianate trim as well.

Cardboard Base for LED Lights

The base is my normal base of multiple layers of corrugated cardboard glued together and covered with paper mache. I finally remembered to cut out a place for LED tea lights. See how nicely the house lights up. There is also a hole in the back if someone wants to add more light to the house.

Abandoned Italianate Mansion Halloween House LED lights — Abandoned Italianate Mansion Glitter House shining with LED lights

Cardboard base for Halloween house with LED lights — Cardboard base for the Abandoned Italianate Mansion with cut outs for LED lights to make the house shine in the dark.

That’s the first Halloween house of 2017 for me. I am really happy about how this one turned out. I can’t wait to add others to the collection.

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Comments

Rein says
January 25, 2017 at 11:57 am

great spooky house!

Redanne says
January 25, 2017 at 11:57 am

Wow Lucy you have done it again!! This house is out of this world beautiful – a truly spectacular creation! You took me right back to my childhood in Canada where there was an old house just like this in our neighbourhood, you really have captured the scary vibe of that house. You really are a master builder – well done on creating such a life-like building! It's incredible! Anne x

Matxalen says
January 25, 2017 at 11:57 am

I love it

Tracy Freeman says
January 25, 2017 at 11:57 am

This is AMAZING !!So many fantastic little details and i love all the texture. I could look at it for ages and I bet it looks so much better in real life…brilliant !
Thank you for sharing with us at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge x

Jo Nevill says
January 25, 2017 at 5:46 pm

Many congratulations you have won our challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with your awesome spooky house ! Please email us at the address in the sidebar so we can explain how you claim your prize ! Please be sure to include your full name in your email.

Happy shopping !

Jo x

Sunshine HoneyBee says
January 26, 2017 at 2:51 am

Visiting from seeing you won at Simon Wed Anything Goes Ch. This Haunted House is anything but anything; superbly made with wonderful Tim Holtz touches. Congrats!
Melissa
"Sunshine HoneyBee"

Lynn Koeppen says
January 26, 2017 at 5:10 am

I love how this house turned out! I love the lighting!

Sara Barker says
January 28, 2017 at 3:43 pm

Can you hear the squeal? That's me! LOVE your house and I read your previous post–go for it! You are amazing and you will raise plenty of money for HFH with your amazing creativity! I see above you won SSS–biggest congrats–you are so deserving! FINALLY! Yippee!

Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving your sweet comment–it made my day!

Will Davidson says
February 3, 2017 at 11:56 pm

Hi Lucy, this is Will from the forum. Who do you have make your dies? I am looking to have some custom made myself. Please email when you can at: therealwill65@gmail.com thanks!

Will~

KEN from Central FLorida says
December 5, 2017 at 12:49 am

THIS is awesome to the MAX….wow….Love love love Halloween. I can look at these all day seriously. You've done a wild job for authenticity….I can't stop looking and studying them. I hope I can figure out how you put the shapes together from what dies. I have the standard house and also the MANOR is coming. This sure reminds me of my car modeling and construction modeling sets I grew up with as a young lad…..but wow…these are the best. Thanks for sharing with us. I hope I did it right to follow your blog and newsletter.
Ken
Orlando, Fl.

Lucy says
December 5, 2017 at 5:36 am

Hello Ken of Orlando! Thank you for your enthusiastic comment. The house itself is not made from the Tim Holtz dies. I used the Manor windows on the house though. Structurally the house is very simple though. It is a regular house with gables on the each side, a gable extension in the front and a square addition next to that. The porch is just an L-shaped piece. See the post on October 20th for the basic pattern – here's the link: https://withglueandglitter.blogspot.com/2017/10/make-your-own-original-putz-house-part-1.html. I'll write a better post about it maybe next week.

Dana says
October 13, 2018 at 12:20 pm

Wow! You’re absolutely the queen of paper houses! I’m so glad I found your site. Your homes are works of art and your talent amazing.

- Lucy says
  October 13, 2018 at 12:39 pm
  
  Thank you, Dana. I am glad you found this as well. The Abandoned Italianate Mansion really is one of my very best houses. Most of them are not quite as realistic as this house. I don’t know about the queen title, but I do know that the king of little houses is Howard Lamey of the CardboardChristmas.com forum. His stuff is incredible. That’s one person that I have been learning from. Anyway, thank you again for your kind words. Lucy
  
Marilyn says
December 11, 2018 at 11:32 am

Absolutely wonderful!!!

- Lucy says
  December 12, 2018 at 4:49 pm
  
  Thank you, Marilyn. If my internet comes back on after our recent ice storm, I will post some new stuff. And I do intend to make a pattern for this house, it’s just that I have some specific Christmas ideas I am trying to get done first.