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Haunted house / canvas by LOUISE CROSBIE
I love this time of year for crafting.
Autumn, halloween, winter, yuletide/Christmas.
I’ve started my Halloween projects this year with this chipboard house kit.
Now the kit is too large for posting so it’s not in the online shop. But I am lucky enough to live just 30 minutes drive from the shop and spotted the kit on my last visit.
Apparently they were originally ordered in for a very specific Stamperia class featuring a tall slim canvas, but there were a few left over. I’m not sure why they were not all snapped up before now but I wonder if folks are unsure of how they could use them without the canvas to go with them.
Well I didn’t have a tall thin canvas either but I reckoned I could just cut out a bit out of a cardboard box or maybe use one of the 12 x 12 canvas style pictures found in a charity shop for £1 each. There are always pictures like this to be found in charity shops. This one was one of a set of three with the “live, laugh, love” quotes that seemed to be on everything for a while. I chose the canvas as I quite liked the idea of hanging my project up. Wall space is easier to find than shelf space. I didn’t mind that the house and tree were taller than it. If I really had wanted I am sure I could have hunted a canvas down from Dunelm or The Works or cut out a bit of cardboard big enough. But using the charity shop finds means it saved me money, gave money to charity and saved something from going to the landfill tip. Recycling.
So I came up with this little scene.
I started on the canvas background first. I put texture paste through the “gothic” stencil in patches and in between added some crackle texture paste in patches. When it was dry I gave the whole thing a coat of black gesso. Then a weird thing happened….
The “canvas” wasn’t really made of actual canvas. It had a bit of a weird sort of plastic like coating on it and when I applied the gesso, it caused it to crackle better than any crackle medium. It was very pretty. I could have given it another coat of gesso to cover that up but I thought it was very appropriate for the look I was aiming for. (Could have saved my crackle texture paste if I had known lol)
I built up some layers of dark colour with Prussian blue acrylic and rust paste. Then I used metallique waxes to highlight the raised parts. I also used the wax to make a bright “moonlight lit” patch in the top corner in readiness for my resin moon.
Then I set it aside and built the house.
I use a lot of mixed media techniques that require water and as chipboard can begin to separate when it gets too wet, it’s important to seal it. So after gluing the house together, I gave it a coat of black gesso, making sure to cover front, back and sides then dried it thoroughly.
After every layer of paint or rust paste etc that I added, I made sure to dry it thoroughly again so as not to let the house become too wet at any point.
The texture on the roof was done using a contour paint which I got in my scrapaholix kit last month.
When I had done with painting I used 3D foam tape to stick my vintage photos at the windows then glued the house onto the canvas. I used heavy body gel for that and smeared extra into the edges a bit like putting silicon round your bath or sink. I just wanted to be sure it would stick well.
Next I added texture to the tree using the contour paint again. The tree was way too tall for the size of my project so I cut a bit out of the middle and rejoined the top and bottom. I could have just cut from the bottom but I wanted to keep the shape of the bottom of the tree. The tree also got the black gesso treatment then a light wash of rust paste. I glued it right up against the edge of the house and again used plenty heavy body gel medium. This secured the tree but also added extra security to the house.
The bats have black gesso then some black glass glitter.
The moon is a resin cast from Finnabair’s mould. It also got black gesso then old silver wax. I rusted up the eyes a little and added some glitter to them to make its eyes stand out.
The string for the bunting is also contour paint. The bunting was cut from some old papers I’ve had in the house for years but any orange toned papers would do. I grunged them up a bit with some watered down black paint. Same with the pumpkins. Cut from paper and darkened with watered down paint. I used a swirly sizzix die and black card to add foliage etc to the pumpkins.
It might seem like there is a lot going on but it really boils down to black gesso and watery paint for most of it; but if you ever have any questions about how something on one of my projects was done, feel free to email me any time with questions at … zuzuspetals62@hotmail.com
I may not answer right away but I will always answer eventually.
So this finished item will go to The Mad Scrapper shop window for Halloween but after that, it can easily hang on the wall. A haunted house Halloween canvas that’s not scary. I mean… witches that hang bunting can't possibly be scary can they?
House kit and 12x12 canvases available in the bricks and mortar shop.
Stencil: Tim Holz Gothic or Dusty Attic Damask
Finnabair Mould (moon): Nocturnal elements
Liquid acrylics : Carmine, Prussian blue
Red rust paste (awaiting stock for the set of three and for the large tub of red rust)
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