First Spooky House finished for 2017

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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.

Well, I finally did it. I finished the spooky house I’m going to use as my demo model. I hope to have an art sale of my Halloween houses with a non-profit charity as the beneficiary and I needed a model to get things going.

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.

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 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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