Rusted Tin Roof on a Halloween House - Tutorial

When I made Jack's Halloween house I cut out another house from the same pattern. I didn't want the house to look exactly like Jack's house because why would you want TWO Jack's houses. I decided I needed to do something very different so this is my first attempt at a rusted tin roof. I think it looks pretty good and it was pretty quick to do as well. It didn't take nearly as much time as the shingles on Jack's house did.

Tutorial on How to Make a Rusted Tin Roof on Your Little House

So here is the photo-heavy tutorial on how to make a rusted tin roof. I'm working with the porch roof since that was the last roof that I did. I had to make sure the first ones were successful before I took photos for a tutorial.

Tape Metallic Tape to Cardboard Roof Piece

The 3M tape is a real metallic duct tape that you can find at Home Depot, Lowe's or other hardware stores. The cardboard is the roof piece.

Peel off the backing of the metallic tape and tape to the cardboard piece.

This is what it looks like taped. Since this is a spooky house and a rusted tin roof it's ok for the tape to be a little lumpy and not very smooth.

Score the Cardboard to look like the Ribs on a Metal Roof

Score the cardboard and tape. Again, it's ok if it's not perfectly straight because it's an old rusted roof.

Color the Metallic Tape with Alcohol Inks

Add alcohol inks to color the metallic tape.

Smear the ink with your finger. I guess you could use a brush, it just didn't occur to me to do that.

Add more inks in different colors to look like the variation you see in a rusted roof. Also if you look at images online that show these roofs, the bottom of the roof is much more deteriorated than the top.

I applied Silver Mixative to make the shiny metallic tape a little more dull and to smear the colors a little better.

Looks pretty rusty to me - time to let it dry thoroughly before the final distressing paint is applied.

Add Black Distress Paint to really age the Rusted Tin Roof

Streak black distressing paint on the edges and wherever you think it needs some aging.

That is all that you need to do to make a authentic-looking rusted tin roof.

Finish the Halloween House

Then I glued it to the porch roof support and then added the porch columns and base and now we have completed the Rusted Tin Roof House. Well, almost completed - it still needs a base, some kind of fence, a new front door and whatever additional decor I come up with. I have already included a witch inside the front window.