Gus the Ghost’s House – Little House based on a Book

Lucy · April 11, 2018 · 11 Comments

How to Make Gus the Ghost’s Haunted House

I like to participate in online design challenges, but I often have trouble completing my design in time because some of my creations take a while. My latest project is a fairly detailed little house, Gus the Ghost’s House based on a book What’s a Ghost Going to Do?

The story is about a ghost that lives in an attic of an old house where a family stays each summer. (Spoiler alert) The family decides that the house is too old and run down to maintain so they decide to sell it so it can be torn down for a park. Gus was able to convince the new owner that the house is worth saving and turned it into a museum with Gus as the resident ghost, happily banging and clanking away in the attic. The illustrations by Seymour Fleishman inspired this project.

My point is that finding a challenge to fit this project is unusual, but guess what? This week’s Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is — “Mythology/Inspired by a Story”. How perfect is that?

Cover of What's A Ghost Going to Do? — Cover of the book, What’s A Ghost Going to Do?

Since this house is based upon a book, I used the book that I made 2 weeks ago as the base. I need to figure out how to make an embossed title for the book. Another challenge for another time.

The Making of Gus the Ghost’s House

Here are a series of photos of the making of Gus the Ghost’s House:

Front view of Gus the Ghost's House — Front of the Gus the Ghost’s House with the book in the background.

Basic Structure of the Gus’ Haunted House

Basic structure of Gus the Ghost's House — Basic structure of Gus the Ghost’s House. This house has a very simple basic structure – just 2 gables on each end. The challenge comes in the later details. I always paint the house black if I am going to add siding so the cardboard won’t show between the rows of siding. The white edges on the corners of the porch roof are tissue paper reinforcements. They were painted black before I added the roof shingles.

Adding siding to the little cardboard house — Adding siding to the little house.

Smear glue around to attach siding to the house — Smear some glue around to attach the siding to the little house.

Smooth the glue for better adherence. — Smooth out the glue for better adherence. Now you see why I always have glue blobs on my fingers.

Siding on one side of the little house — The pieces of siding for this house are glued on one at a time. It makes better looking siding though it can be tedious. I even inked each piece individually to give the colors that the Seymour Fleishman painted on the front of the house in the book.

Front of the little cardboard house is almost done — Front of Gus the Ghost’s House is almost done. It needs the columns to support the porch roof, the porch floor and a couple of steps. Oh, and something needs to be done about the roof. I just couldn’t do the colors to match the book.

Even Up the Roof Color with a wash of blue paint

Blue paint on roof to fix the wonky colors — Fixed the color on the roof with a wash of Blueprint Sketch blue distress paint.

Glue the house to the book base

Gus the Ghost's house little cardboard house — Gus the Ghost’s finished house on a book base with a drawer.

That’s the story of this little house based on a story. I hope you enjoyed reading about it. I am happily sharing it with the Simon Says Stamp challenge Mythology/Based on a Story.

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Comments

Jennifer Miner says

April 11, 2018 at 12:16 pm

OMG Lucy – another magnificent creation. This is really outstanding. Just amazing. I love the purple color in the siding. I hear you about glue, I was in a meeting the other day picking glue off my thumb, it had to have been there for awhile and I just didn’t notice.

Reply
- Lucy says
  
  April 11, 2018 at 4:43 pm
  
  Jennifer,
  The purple color is not what I ordinarily would have chosen, but it mimicked the colors that the illustrator used. I was very happy about it once I did it. I laughed when I read that you had to pick glue off your thumb at a meeting. Thank you for stopping by. Lucy
  
  Reply
Laney says

April 11, 2018 at 4:16 pm

Hi Lucy! I saw this house in a FB group this morning and was looking forward to being able to come and read your post after work. This siding looks great – as always! Love your process for making it. I enjoy seeing process photos and reading about your techniques. And what a great house to put on top of the book you made! How tall is the book and how tall is the house?

Reply
- Lucy says
  
  April 11, 2018 at 4:41 pm
  
  Laney,
  The book is too tall really, but that was the size of the box I used. Here are the sizes of the house and the book box:
  Book cover 8.5 inches along the spine x 7 inches.
  Book depth (how tall it is lying on its side) is 4 inches.
  House front width with the porch base – 7 inches
  House base side with the porch – 3.5 inches
  House width itself without the porch – 2 inches
  House height to the top of the cupola – 7 inches
  Height of the entire project – 11 inches
  
  Thank you for stopping by. Lucy
  
  Reply
Andrea Ockey Parr says

April 12, 2018 at 12:46 am

What a fabulous project and a wonderful blog post to go with it! I know what you mean about aligning our creative efforts with challenge deadlines, but I’m so glad it worked out in this case! The house is so lovely with all of the amazing texture you created and I enjoyed reading about your story that inspired it all. This was a treat to see and to read and I’m so glad you shared it with us for this week’s Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge!

Reply
- Lucy says
  
  April 12, 2018 at 1:21 am
  
  Andrea, I am so excited to hear from you because I love your projects. Thank you so much for reading the about how this project came about.
  
  P.S. You inspired one of my very best Halloween projects – the Grumpy Back Seat Driver based on a flying car.
  
  Reply
Ann Barnes says

April 12, 2018 at 7:16 am

I loved reading about your house Lucy! The siding looks amazing, well worth the time spent coloring each piece! You have such a talent for these hoses and each and every one is definitely special. Thanks for sharing! ~Ann

Reply
Beulah Bee says

April 14, 2018 at 8:56 pm

Love the house, the story, the book stand! So glad you could do a link up with Simon (I know what you mean about deadlines–sometimes it takes me a week just to think of an idea–hah!).

Reply
Mary W says

June 10, 2018 at 11:55 am

I like the idea of putting the house on the book, it goes along with the basis of the making of the house. And a handy place to store the extra’s or even the house if you didn’t actually glue it to the top and just on another base. So many good and creative ideas!

Mary

Reply
debbie says

August 31, 2020 at 2:27 pm

Saw this link in the your email newsletter. You know I love your work. Can’t wait to see the pattern for this. Any idea when it will be ready? I am thinking I will do this one as a Christmas Glitter house. Debbie W

Reply
- Lucy says
  
  August 31, 2020 at 3:36 pm
  
  Deb,
  I’m working on the Stone House because it just barely won over Gus’ house when I ask people for their preference. My plan is to have it done in late September for my 2020 Halloween series. I will let you know as soon as it is done.
  
  Lucy
  
  Reply