Rusted Roof Widow's Walk Putz House

Rusted Roof Widow's Walk Putz House is a simple gable house with a mansard-type metal roof, a widow's walk on top and a porch out front and a tongue-twister name. It might be easier to call it Wusted Woof Widow's Walk.

Halloween Houses for Habitat Series

This house is another one for the Halloween Houses for Habitat series to be sold in October. I think it's the 6th house I've built specifically for this year's fundraiser which means I am behind compared what I built last year. In other words, I need to start building the little houses faster.

I've made a Widow's Walk house before and wanted to make a similar one but with a rusted roof. You know why that flat space on the roof is called a Widow's Walk? It is a railed rooftop platform most often found on New England houses to provide an expansive view of the sea. I didn't really include rails on this one - just teeth-like projections since it is a Halloween house.

I outlined the method for making the rusted roof on this blog post which made me want to make another house with a rusted roof.

I've also written a PDF called 8 Essential Tools for Making Your Glitter House if you want to know what tools you need to start making these little houses. You can download this information from my free paperglitterglue library. Just sign up below to receive my free newsletter and I will send you the password to the library.

Making the Rusted Roof Widow's Walk House

Pattern for the House

First, I drew a simple pattern for the house. I will make this pattern available when it is scanned into the computer. This one is pretty simple. Certainly much simpler than the Davenport houses with curved gables and a flat roof at the top.

Cover the house with paper drawn to look like old boards

One important detail when you are covering a 3-D object like a house with paper is that you can't just glue it down flat. The corners will tear. I glue the paper on one side at a time which gives the paper room to fold around each corner.

Glue on one side of the patterned paper at a time.

The back of the house is not supposed to be red. I think I cut myself. Often there is more of my DNA in the house than I intend. Most often it's cat DNA though, from those fine little hairs they distribute everywhere. The cats like to come around when the glue is still wet.

Glue the house together

After the house was glued together I added the windows. The same technique as always - Ranger alcohol inks on leftover acetate packaging material glued in the windows. And as usual, I added glossy accents to make the material look like wavy glass.

Add the details to house - the Rusted Roof

Sometimes I remember to take photos during every step but I did not this time. To make the rusted roof, I cut out 4 pieces to overlay on the roof. Each one was covered with metallic tape that I've talked about before - real true metallic DUCT tape that you get at the home improvement store - not DUCK tape. The rough texture is from Ranger Distress texture paste mixed with sand. I would have used the Distress Grit paste because its texture is so wonderful, but I used it all up.

I followed the steps outlined in the Rusted Tin Roof tutorial to make the rusted roof. The angled side pieces cover up the seams between the 4 trapezoidal pieces of the roof. The spiky outline of the widow's walk itself is a leftover portion of a die cut that I always save because I find so many places to use it. I glued that piece down before I adhered the roof pieces.

Glue on the Porch

You can see a little bit of the wavy glass in the windows. I used a dark blue alcohol ink that is just a little too dark.

Extra Details to be Added

I haven't gotten out all of my cool Halloween embellishments yet. All of the current crop of houses need more Halloween details which I will add a little later. I really want to make some more sisal trees in funky Halloween colors. And I want to make another pumpkin tree like I did on the Spiky Shingled house. That was a fun detail for me.

What went right and what went wrong?

Every time I make a house, I kind of go over what went right and what went wrong. I may not always write about it on the blog, but I do it in my head. I think the roof is a little too small - kind of like a big man with a hat that is too small. It just looks funny. When I make the pattern I will include a deeper overhang for the roof pieces. And then the big mistake - the porch roof. It angles upward because I made the porch columns too tall. I didn't notice it until the house was finished. Porches are a real challenge for me.

But still despite what I call errors, I love this house. The blue colors on the windows and the blue tint on the siding are very appealing to me. I still think it is a pretty cool little Halloween house that someone will enjoy having in their collection.