Halloween Manor House Tutorial

Hello friends!! Today I have a really fun post for you, for a Sizzix Halloween project, but which could easily be turned into something fitting for a different theme all together. It's another house to add to my collection of homemade houses.

I used the new Village Manor die by Tim Holtz to create this house - together with the original Village Dwelling die, which you need to make the lower part of the house. I painted it in non-traditional Halloween colours, since I've been in the mood to add some teal to several of my Halloween projects this year (one example is my Halloween Stamped Passport Book). It looks so nice together with the orange.

I really had fun making that wire tree, with a new Sizzix tool by Eileen Hull, the Twist & Style tool.

 

Start by die cutting the pieces that you need. These are the pieces needed from the Village Dwelling die. That is an XL die, so you need the Extended Cutting Pads. The Village Dwelling is the base for several of Tim Holtz house-themed dies, so if you like to make houses, you definitely need it. I die cut the two house parts, the base and the step, from the cover of one of Tim's patterned paper pads. The roof parts are die cut from black kraft-core cardstock. The chimneys were die cut from cardstock covered in metallic tape.

These are the pieces I die cut using the Village Manor die, except for the windows, which come from the Village Surf Shack die. Windows and the extra door are from Ranger's Woodgrain paper, roof pieces from black kraft-core, and chimney same as above. The door part and house structure is also die cut from patterned paper packaging. The fence is die cut from grungeboard (I later needed another three pieces) and the top of the fence (for the roof) from paper covered in foil tape. 

Coat the above pieces with gesso.

Then coat them in Distress Grit-Paste, dragging a palette knife through the paint to create something looking like rough wooden boards. Leave to dry. 

When the paste is dry, paint with Peacock Feathers and Mermaid Lagoon. Paint the step with Hickory Smoke. Do you see that I made a mistake here, and somehow ended up using two front pieces for the house? What happened was that I completely covered the door on the first front piece that I die cut, and thought I had two back pieces. So I prepared a second front piece, only to end up with two front pieces instead. Pretty funny.

 When the paint is dry, dry-brush with Black Soot, for a distressed look.

I always add windows to my houses and my favourite material for that is mica. You can also colour a piece of acetate with alcohol inks. Curtains were made from stained cheese cloth. Some of the windows look broken.

I coloured the metallic pieces with alcohol inks. Dab with an ink blending tool and felt tip until you are happy with the look.

Cut the pieces for the roof as shown here.

The window frames and door were inked with Distress Ink. It brings out the great woodgrain pattern.

Paint the fence with white and then with Hickory Smoke and Black Soot.

For the roof, I used the Village Rooftops die and adhered black Deco Sheet to cardstock to make it stronger. Die cut enough pieces (you might need a few more than shown).

Assemble the Village Dwelling first, which is the base of the house. Check out my Autumn House if for another version of this house. Add the extended door part from the Manor House die. It fits right on top of the step. There are also instructions on the packaging of both dies. I used star brads as door handles. The Village Dwelling is also the base for my Winter Church Tutorial.

Adhere the roof tiles. To make it easier, you can do this before gluing the smaller roof in place. I die cut a piece of Deco Sheet for the smaller roof too. 

Assemble the upper floor and glue it to the roof, as well as the chimneys. I also die cut Deco Sheet pieces for the upper part of the roof. At first I was going to cover it with tiles, but I changed my mind. Glue the spikes in place first, then you can cover up any glue with the Deco Sheet die cuts.

I really wanted a spooky tree next to my house and thought of a bunch of different options. Then I got the idea of constructing one out of copper wire using the Twist & Style tool. To read more about how to use this tool, have a look at my Felt and Wire Flowers tutorial. I made strands of four copper wires twisted together.

Add branches to the tree by twisting wires around the trunk and pinching them with pliers to make sure they are stuck. Twist and bend the branches until you are happy with the look. 

I gave the tree four legs to stand on, and made them pretty large, so that it wouldn't fall over. I didn't glue the tree down since I might use it for non-Halloween decorations too. 

The base and a 5 x 7 canvas board were covered in Grit-Paste. When the paste was dry, I painted it to look like cement or gravel, and splattered some extra paint here and there.

I painted a very rough face on the idea-ology pumpkin. 

The house and the tree are standing lose, but you could of course glue them in place. I wanted to be able to add a battery-driven tea light inside the house. I painted a path leading up to the house.

Glue the fence in place and remember to be very careful if you work with hot glue so that you don't burn yourself.

The door was left ajar and I removed the inside door (from the original Vintage Dwelling, so that you can look into the house. That was actually Anton's idea, he didn't like that there were two doors.

All my houses have numbers. Here you can also see the cool effect of the mica windows.

There is dyed cheese cloth here and there.

Here you can see the cheese cloth curtains through the window.

Glue the chimneys in place, layering the thinner one inside the thicker one. I used cotton wool as smoke.

Here and there, you'll find a spider crawling around.

I wanted a few more orange elements and added some 28 Lilac Lane Pumpkin Spice buttons.

This fence will be useful for lots of different projects.

I was really happy with the look of my twisted wire tree. If you want to, you can distress the tree with black paint, or maybe add some embellishments to it.

This is the back of the house. The Vintage Dwelling normally has only one window at the back, but since I by mistake used two front pieces (the door being totally covered up by paste), my house has two windows.

I like the look with the two windows, so it was a happy mistake. To get this look, all you need to do is to cut off the triangular upper part of the back of the house (the part above the door at the front).

Here's another spider. You can add as many or as few details as you'd like to your house, and it really doesn't need to be a Halloween house. If you'd remove the Halloween embellishments on my house, it would look just like a grungy house.

Fold out some of the roof tiles. I really love the look of the glittery Deco Sheet roof, against the matte textured surface of the house.

I took a quick photo of the house with a battery-driven tea light inside. It looks nicer in real life. 

This house was such fun to make and it will be fun to display. Anton thought it needed some greenery, so he added some to this photo. A little branch leaning against the house. There is plenty of space for more embellishments around the house.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!! I'll be back soon with another house, and that one looks totally different than this one.

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Sizzix Bigz L Die - Village Manor	Tim Holtz Sizzix VILLAGE MANOR	Sizzix Village Dwelling Bigz XL Die	Tim Holtz Sizzix VILLAGE DWELLING	Sizzix Bigz Die - Village Rooftops
Tim Holtz Sizzix VILLAGE ROOFTOPS	Sizzix Accessory - Twist & Style Craft Tool	Tim Holtz DISTRESS WOODGRAIN CARDSTOCK	Tim Holtz Idea-ology HALLOWEEN Deco Sheets	Tim Holtz GRUNGEBOARD BASICS PLAIN
Ranger METAL FOIL TAPE SHEETS	Tim Holtz Core'dinations KRAFT CORE NOSTALGIC	Tim Holtz Idea-ology RESIN BONEYARD BONES	Tim Holtz Idea-ology WICKED	Tim Holtz Idea-ology PUMPKIN PIECES
Tim Holtz STAR FASTENERS	28 Lilac Lane PUMPKIN SPICE	Tim Holtz DISTRESS GRIT PASTE	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK BLACK SOOT	Tim Holtz Distress Ink HICKORY SMOKE
Tim Holtz Distress Paint HICKORY SMOKE	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE Paint	Tim Holtz Distress Paint BLACK SOOT	Tim Holtz Distress Paint MERMAID LAGOON	Tim Holtz Distress Paint PEACOCK FEATHERS
Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink TEAKWOOD Adirondack	Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink PITCH BLACK	Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink TURQUOISE	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE GESSO	Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS
Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium MATTE	Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink MEADOW	Tim Holtz Distress SPLATTER BRUSH	Big Shot Machine	Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White
Sizzix MINT Standard Cutting Pads	Sizzix Accessory - Cutting Pads, Standard, 1 Pair (Mint)	Sizzix Accessory Cutting Pads, Extended	Sizzix CUTTING PAD XL Pair	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET
Dina Wakley Ranger PALETTE KNIFE

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