Haunted Mansion-Guest Designer for Frilly and Funkie

Beware! Longer than average post!

Welcome friends and visitors, and a big Boo to you! I'm so thrilled to be Guest Designing at Frilly and Funkie and crafting alongside these super talented ladies on the Design Team. I was over the moon excited when Linda asked me to fill in for one of her DTs for a day, and when she told me the theme was A Very Vintage Halloween, I nearly spit my coffee out! Helllooo! Why, CERTAINLY! I knew then just what I would make. My inspiration comes from Pamellia's Haunted House and Anne's Haunted House. Welcome to my Haunted Mansion...

My house started as this birdhouse kind of thing I picked up a a yard sale. I've had it as a decoration for awhile in my home, but each time I walked by it, I just knew it was haunted!

I started in the usual way, by pulling off the shutters and giving it a nice thick coat of gesso. Whoever made this the first time around used some very powerful glue and yanking off these resin shutters was an act of Congress! It was not a clean demolition. Some of the wood yanked off with the shutters and some of the resin cracked and broke. But all is good in my grungy world and it adds to the sense of decay and disrepair. In the end, I can't tell what destruction happened by accident and what I did on purpose! I added Peeled Paint (how appropriate!) Distress Embossing Powder to the shutters and a few Tim Holtz stamped images on Frosted film for some of the windows. Other acetate windows were treated to Rock Candy Crackle paint colored with alcohol inks.

 I have no step by step photos for you today, because... well, I didn't take any! I was so excited, I was lucky to remember to take a before shot! I hope my close ups will give you an idea of my process. After the gesso was dry, I added Wendy Vecchi crackle paste randomly. Unfortunately, I am at the end of my jar. It was quite thick and dry and once it dried, a good deal of it fell off. Again, all good... remember this is supposed to be an old neglected house...we're not putting a 'For Sale' sign out front! Next I added crackle paste through a homemade brick stencil randomly and left it to dry.

 

After it dried for at least 24 hours, I added some grungy color. I have a new man in my life, and his name is Ken--Ken Oliver! I just got my new Ken Oliver Color Bursts from The Funkie Junkie Boutique, and I'm in crafty love! I used just two colors-- Burnt Umber and Lamp Black to color the entire house and base. I spritzed random areas with water and added just a tiny sprinkle of the powder, and like magic these wonderful little bursts of color appeared. I added more water, and wow--more magic! I just kept repeating with the brown and black until I was happy. Ken, where have you been all my life???

Gotta love those spider charms colored with Picket Fence Distress Crayons. I picked these up in Linda's shop, again this year, without checking my inventory. Now my Closet is infested with spiders! And are those spider eggs? Eek! No that's just Prima's Art Stones. I'm probably the last crafty blogger on earth to add the Art Stones to my collection, but I'm hooked! The small stones are all over the house, and the large ones are in the yard.

Around back more decay and spookiness. I stamped Tim Holtz Mini Halloween 4 images on Ideaology Plain Tissue Wrap and adhered with gel medium. They were colored with Distress Crayons. I gave the house a base to sit on to allow for the yard, and in the back you can see that Grit Paste I covered the sides of base with. Because I really liked the look of the stone, I left this part partially exposed. Hopefully it gives an illusion of the house being built on a slab. This mansion had to be built on a slab because this was once swampland and basements would always be flooded. 

The owl and the jack-o-lantern might be a little out of scale, but they add a touch of whimsey. I don't think the spiders are out of scale at all, do you? Or is it just my warped sense of how big spiders look to me?

On the rooftops, I've covered all the caps with Tim Holtz's Grit Paste and textured with a palette knife. Once dry, I again used the Lamp Black Color Bursts to give it the stone look. A couple of tiny skulls that come in the little gift bag Linda sends with your order that I've been hoarding along with a pumpkin from my stash top this roof. And the other three have the original finials altered to look like algae covered stone. Yuck! Another HUGE, hairy spider!

 Under the eaves beautifully detailed gingerbread (well maintained, I might add, for this old dilapidated mansion) that I crafted from paper clay and a Prima Vintage Art Decor Mold. While Linda's products at The Funkie Junkie Boutique are always 15% off, I picked this and other Prima products up at an additional 15% off on her Friday Focus sale. Be sure to check in regularly to see what great products you can get at a huge discount. I used only part of the cavity of the mold so the gingerbread would fit better under the eaves. If you're wondering where that missing shutter is, you can find it lying in the neglected side garden. It looks as if we have some bats in the attic--looks like we need to exterminate more than spiders!

You can see the ornate iron fence (Tim Holtz Ironwork Gate) has also seen better days. I rusted it with Grit Paste and Mustard Seed and Evergreen Bough Distress and Decoart paints.

The weathered front door (Tim Holtz Labels Thinlit) is crackled with Rock Candy Distress Crackle paint and Ground Expresso Distress paint. The cobblestone path is laid down with Tim's Crocodile stencil and Grit Paste. The yard "floor" is crackle paste, thread, gel medium mixed with acrylic paint and Lamp Black Colorbursts.

The headstones are wood chippies (gessoed) from my stash covered with crackle paste and Grit Paste, colored with Lamp Black and Peeled Paint embossing powder. I scratched a few epitaphs on a couple of the stones in the gesso while it was still wet. I love how the Colorbursts collect in the cracks and inscriptions. I whacked up a little skellie and colored him with alcohol inks. The spider webs growing under the eaves are bits of plastic I heated with my heat gun.

And outdoors, posing with my rusty iron fence--my newest addition to my Halloween yard props. You can see I'm a little behind with my cemetery, and only one week 'til Halloween! Yikes!

When the sun goes down, this place gets a little creepier. 

Would you go trick or treating at this house?

A special thank you to my husband, who helped me with the lighting. Each of the four towers is a separate compartment, and small holes had to be drilled for each, so I could insert my light string into each tower. Even the tallest tower is illuminated, but does not show up well on camera. I velcro-ed the battery pack to the underside of the base. The house stands just under 18 inches tall.

Thank you to Pamellia of My Little Craft Things  and Anne of Redanne for their amazing inspiration!

Thank you to Linda of The Funkie Junkie blog for inviting me to design for this wonderful challenge! I had a blast! Now I can get to work on those 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style!

All of the following products that I used can be found at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Frosted Film	Distress Grit Paste	Ken Oliver Color Burst Sepia	Prima Art Ingredients - Mini Art Stones (March Pre-Order)	Prima Art Ingredients - Art Stones (March Pre-Order)
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tissue Wrap - Plain TH93275 (February Pre-Order)	$23.96 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Halloween 4	Sizzix Alternations Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Labels	Sizzix Alterations Decorative Strip Tim Holtz Ironwork Gate	Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Sunset Orange
Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Sunshine Yellow	Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Mushroom	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - 6PC Set #3 TDBK47926 (February Pre-order)	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - 6PC Set #2 TDBK47919 (February Pre-order)	Wendy Vecchi Crackle Texture Paste
Ranger Adirondack Emboss It Dabber	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Batground	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Crocodile	Ranger Tim Holtz Ground Espresso Distress Paint	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Mustard Seed
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Black Soot	PRE-ORDER Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Evergreen Bough	Ranger Distress Crackle Paint - Clear Rock Candy	Prima Marketing Vintage Art Décor Mould - Baroque 6 (March Pre-order)	Ranger Multi Medium Matte 4 oz.
Synthetic White Howlite Loose Skull Beads - Set of 12	Charm Pendant - Set of 5 Silverstone Spiders	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Mini Halloween

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Vintage Journey- October Challenge -Make it Spooky!

Scrapy Land Challenge #52-Halloween (Plus use any die Scrapy Land sells) I used 2 Sizzix dies.

Creative Artiste Challenge #19-Anything Mixed Media Goes

-Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge-Autumn

-Southern Ridge Trading Company- Fall

Country View October's Challenge-All Things Spooky

Mixed Media World- MMW#19-Assemblage/Altered Art

Dies R U Challenge #59- Fall (Including Halloween) I used two dies one for the door and  one for the fence/gate.

-Crafty Cardmakers #175 Things That Go Bump in the Night

-Deep Ocean's Challenge Challenge #140 Halloween

Let's Craft and Create Challenge #118 Halloween/Autumn/Fall

Thank you for your visit today and for all your amazing comments! They mean so much to me!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

UPDATE: I'm so honored!