A Happy Haunted Mansion: Scrappy Tails Crafts

Hello friends! My inspiration for you today will be my last Halloween project for the year. Then I will be moving on to making more Christmas projects. I really do need to catch up on my Christmas cardmaking!

I created this really cute and adorable happy haunted mansion using the Halloween add-on dies from the Harvest Blessing collection. These dies were meant to tie in with the pop-up barn or the pop-up storefront but I used it with the slimline pop-up birdhouse dies. What I love about the products that Sabrina designs, is that they can work with past releases of pop-up dies. It’s really well thought out and truly unique!

Fun fact about me — I do not do SCARY. I cannot watch horror movies and if by chance I find myself in a I-have-no-choice situation, I cover my eyes for most of the movie or I find myself “going to the toilet” a lot! So for this card, I am doing it a little bit creepy but with happy and cute little ghosts floating around!

To create this card, I die cut the main birdhouse and the eaves of the roof out of black cardstock. I also cut three pieces of the roof shingles found in the A7 Storefront Halloween House add-on set. I added some white pigment ink by swiping the ink pad across the body of the house and the roof shingles to create some depth and texture to the haunted house. For the attic window, I used one of the windows from the A7 Storefront Halloween House add-on set, along with the rest of the other elements, the ghosts, tree, lamps, fence, cat, and witch. The rest of the windows and the door of the house is from the Slimline Neighborhood House Pop-Up add-on set. I also die cut some of the elements out of gray cardstock and adhered it to the back, off-setting it a little to create a shadow.

For the ink blended background, I used Distress Oxide Ink. For behind the windows, Mustard Seed and Fossilized Amber. For the main background, I started with Shaded Lilac at the bottom, then Wilted Violet, Villainous Potion, blending into Chipped Sapphire and finished off with Black Soot. Then I took a spray bottle and sprayed with water then dabbed off with a paper towel to create a starry sky.

After I finished with the background, I assembled the house, starting with the shingles which I cut apart and adhering it on top of each other, then cut off the excess . I also added the window and door details as well as the lamps on either side of the door. Then I adhered the whole house onto the ink blended panel but not before placing the witch silhouette behind the right window.

Next, I added all the little fun details to the house — first the tree, then the fence followed by the cat, ghosts and bats. I also added the boards to the fence and the left window. I swiped some black ink onto the gray boards to create the look of weathered wood. I did the same with the shutters on the window attic. To finish off the card, I added the BEWARE! sentiment at the top which I cut out of gray cardstock off-set with black. The panel measures 4″X8.75″ and I adhered it to a side-folding black cardbase measuring 4.25″X9″. It’s a little bigger than a standard slimline but I love it!