It took me a few months to get back around to finishing the orange juice-molded house, but it is now a bonafide haunted dwelling! I’ll walk you through the steps.
PAPERCRETE HOUSE
I started with the custom molded papercrete house as discussed in the previous post. The windows were skewed during molding which left it looking like a derelict, and potentially, haunted house.
PAINT
I used acrylic craft paints over the entire papercrete house. Variations of color and techniques were used to get the look needed for the brick. A sponge was used to apply paint to the brick without getting into the grout lines.
The inside of the house, the roof, all the window and door openings were painted black. Alcohol ink was applied to the hardware cloth in the windows. I used clear nail polish on the hardware cloth to form a few panes of glass. The polish mixed with some of the ink and created an eerie effect . . .cool!
A wash of highly diluted black paint was used a few times to “age” the brick and grout. I learned the hard way that many applications of light washes are better than one dark wash. A paper towel helps to remove some of the wash for a mottled look, too.
WOOD & CLAY
Wooden craft sticks were used for the doors and roof trim. The trim boards helped to add a fine edge to the roof before adding the clay. The trim and doors were distressed with scissors and a knife. Several colors of paint were applied until the desired look was achieved.
Apoxie Sculpt was used to fabricate the chimney, window and door headers, and add shingles to the roof. The chimney stones were leftover from another project and pushed into the fresh chimney clay. A red plastic drinking straw served as flue pipes coming out of the top of the clay chimney ruin. They were coated with glue and then painted along with the rest of the chimney.
The roof was painted black, lightly sanded, and then accented with a dark grey. The window and door headers were aged with a diluted paint wash.
METALS
As seen from the above photos, various types of metals were used to embellish the doors: grommets for the front door and attic side windows; wire scraps and a bead formed door handles; hinges created from jewelry pieces, and a flower made from scrap hardware cloth decorates the rear door.
I’m proud of the big finish for this little house. It was renamed to the Haunted Hill House and comes with a story book, fencing with operable gate, and 5-piece miniature headstone set.
Thanks for stopping by!
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