Haunted House Hallloween Diorama - by Claudia

Hi, servus and welcome to my last Halloween project for this year!

Two weeks ago you had the pleasure to meet young witch Porticia Crimpbottle and learn about her witch family (which can be re-/visited over HERE), but today I am back to share with you a little fun Halloween diorama I have created using a piece of press board from my stash and a variety of Calico Craft Parts from their Halloween and Autumn range.

Calico Craft Parts used: 

- Haunted Mansion - MDF Wood Shape 
- Graveyard Halloween Wood Corner
- RIP Gravestone and Pumpkin MDF Wood Shape
- Haunted House - MDF Halloween Wood Words
- Woodland Fungi - Autumn Wood Corner
- Flying Eyeball with Bat Wings Style 1 - MDF Wood Shape
- Skeleton Tree Duo MDF Wood Shape - Style 1
- Haunted Graveyard - Sheet of Mini Halloween Wood Shapes
- Flying Bat Colony - MDF Wood Shapes
- Sheet of Mini MDF Wood Birds - Crows & Ravens

I haven't done any steps images this time as I had a rough plan when I started but some things found their way onto the project as I progressed (but if you know me and my style you will find that I have been using the same techniques as always and there are a lot of pictures that explain what I have done better than any written up text).

I have a lot of left overs from various Mini Wood Shapes and these are always perfect to add that little liveliness that rounds up scenes just perfectly. But I knew from the start that the Haunted Mansion and the Graveyard Halloween Wood Corner alongside the Skeleton Tree Duo and the Woodland Fungus had to become the core pieces to create a scene with a lot of depth.

So when I ordered my wood shapes I made sure I chose them in sizes that were later perfect to create a fore-, middle- and background by . The Fungi Wood Corner is the classic foreground element that draws you into the scene as it looks so close (due to its comparably large size). The other layers just about followed the laws of size perspective - largest gravestone to the front, smaller ones behind it - and the mansion in the background looks as if it was a short walk away from the woodland fungi.

Finding the perfectly matching press board while searching for an emptied chocolate box from my stash was what made me change my mind and do a diorama instead of a shadowbox (which had been my original plan). The diorama can even be put in front of a light source so the windows get lit from behind!  I have used transparent tissue paper that I have painted with DecoArt media Diarylide Yellow (as that is a transparent acrylic paint) and glued behind the openings from the Wood Shape.

To fuse all the pieces on my projects I always try to repeat the same colours in at least three different spots or areas - like the red from the Woodland Fungus, the Haunted House Wood Word and the Flying Eyeball, the orange from the three pumpkins and the windows and the green that I have added to the bottom sections of all the layers. Repeating shapes or colours is always a good thing to do when you want to visually "bind" all your pieces together.

The pieces were painted using DecoArt Americana Lamp Black and Snow White alongside Primary Red, Jack-O'-Lantern Orange and Citron Green acrylic paints. Most of the colours I applied wet on wet, some in dry-brushing technique. As you can see I have aimed for a quite messy and loose style. The visible brushstrokes from the dry-brushing in white and grey add great texture which I have contrasted by adding DecoArt media Liquid Glass to some of the Wood Shapes.

The finished pieces were all glued in place using superglue. I especially like using superglue when fusing pieces that do not have a large contacting area. The little owl in the tree is a separate wood shape from one of the Mini Halloween Wood Shapes sheets but I have added it to the tree as it was sitting on a branch already. The pumpkin to the outer left, the small raven in front of the house and the cat on the gravestone were fixed to their spots with superglue too and all the very narrow sides of the wood shapes that "stand" on the press board base were easily glued in place with it as well. This way I didn't have to support them during drying time.

What I really like about all Calico Craft Parts (not just the ones I have used on this project) is that their silhouettes can stand for themselves as they're so expressive and detailed! See?

There are so many different Wood Shapes to choose from with the Calico Craft Parts Halloween and Autumn section that I could easily create dozens of totally different dioramas....so I am sure you will find the ones you like most to create your very own unique creepy Halloween scene and have a lot of Halloween fun!

Happy Halloween and as always

hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx