Welcome back to The Raven Talon Dead & Breakfast! I trust you have enjoyed your stay so far?

Yesterday I shared the first of two tutorials on how I put the house house together for this tiny dead and breakfast. Today, I'll be sharing how I altered the book box and how I assembled my little scene. 

Yesterday I was ecstatic to be a part of the Little Halloween Houses Hop hosted by Scrapbook.com! My house was created using their Little Houses Digital Cut File. The bundle comes with 27 different cut files  to create your own unique little house (or an entire village) that is perfect for your Halloween or Christmas projects. 

As soon as I started this project, I knew I wanted to model it after my own home's Halloween decorations, specifically the dead and breakfast sign that I made a few years back and my sparkly raven wreath. And today's tutorial will show you how I assembled the tiny version of my sign! I'm also including a free SVG of my tiny sign so you can cut one out too. [Stick around to the end of the blog to download your free file.]

The first thing I set out to do was to paint my paper mâché book box. I didn't fully paint the inside because I was adding some papers from Tim Holtz's Abandoned paper stash. I used black gesso for the outside and inside and white gesso for the "pages." Once it was dry, I used Distress Collage Medium to glue down some papers on both sides of the inside of the box. 

Next, I painted the binding of book box purple and then added some silver wax to the detail on the binding and on the "pages." The brush strokes in the gesso make it look like actual pages. Make sure that when you apply the wax that you do it in the opposite direction of the grain so that you just highlight it. 

I also added the Poe's name to the binding and raven in black glitter cardstock. I used Distress Collage Medium to glue the die cuts down due to the glossy nature of the acrylic paint. 

To match the purple spotlight on my own sign outside my house, I wanted to light up my little house with a set of purple Tim Holtz tiny lights. In order to be able to change out the battery, I needed to have the battery pack mounted to the inside of the book box. This required drilling a hole in the top of the book box with my micro Dremel tool.

I picked out a drill bit that would fit the fatest part of the wiring through the hole, measured out where my little house would sit on top (I wanted it off to one side so I could add a graveyard and tiny tree later) and marked where I wanted to drill. Once I drilled through the top of the box, I strung my lights through the hole. To attach the battery pack to the door of the book box, I used Tami's tiny lights paper holder tutorial. Then I just used some Sticky Thumb tape to glue the paper holder to the box! 

Now, I know you won't see the the inside of the box 99% of the time, but I didn't want to just leave it bare. I wanted there to be a little something to look at each time you opened the box to turn the lights on or off. So I cut some ravens out of black glitter cardstock. I also cut out out the standing raven an additional 3 times on smooth black cardstock, using Scrapbook.com's double-sided adhesive sheets. I layered these cuts on top of each other to thicken up the standing raven and make him a bit more sturdy.

Using a pair of garden sheers, I cut small stick to fit inside the box, attaching it with a tiny bit of hot glue. I also hid the hot glue with a little bit of moss. Using Scrapbook.com's double-sided adhesive foam squares, I popped the flying raven up off the background a little bit. To finish it off on the inside of the box, I added some vintage melange gems, adhering them with a tiny dot of Ranger's Glossy Accents. Then I pulled the lights back into the box, so they wouldn't get damaged during the next step.

Now it's time to attach the little house and all the tiny scene pieces! I glued the little house down using Distress Collage Medium on the tabs I added to the cut file in Silhouette Studio. Once it was glued down in place, I carefully strung my tiny lights back through the hole in the box. 

Next I needed to glue down the roof. For this I used more of the Sticky Thumb tape. I left the two tabs on the right side of the house and the two next to them on the front and back sides of the house free of adhesive. Because I glued down this house to a book box, I wanted to make sure I could still access the string of lights inside just in case. I carefully peeled off the lining on the tape and adhered two tabs at a time, being careful to center my roof when pressing it on to the first two tabs. 

I purchased a tiny black glitter tree from Michael's Halloween section to help create my little scene. I started by glueing back-to-back two moon die cuts from Tim Holtz's Gate Keeper die set. (Pro tip: if your cardstock is one-sided, like Tim's classic kraft cardstock, cut one of your dies with the back side of the paper facing up so you can still make asymmetrical dies double-sided!) I inked both sides of the moon with Distress Ink in fossilized amber and then added on some bats from he same die set, as well as a double sided version of a tiny raven from the Regions Beyond die set. I glued the moon on using a tiny dot of hot glue and attached the raven with some Distress Collage Medium.

I wanted to add even more sparkle to this tree so I pulled out some holographic sequins from my stash. I used a tiny paintbrush and Finnabair's soft gloss gel to attach the sequins. (If you don't have soft gloss gel, you can use Distress Collage Medium for this instead). I set this aside to dry before attaching it to the top of the book box. 

In front of the tree, I wanted a little graveyard. I cut out some tombstones from a digital cut file from Silhouette design store in the same gray cardstock I used for the main part of the house. I again added a little tab on the bottom of each tombstone so I could later glue these down to the top of my box. 

I used Distress Ink in hickory smoke to add definition and then added some Remnant Rubs to the front of each tombstone. Using a green and white impasto paints, I added even more distressing and mold to both sides of each tombstone. I added another double sided raven to the top of one of the tombstones and also created a little poison bottle to stick next to one of the tombstones, adding a skull and crossbones Remnant Rub to one side of the bottle. 

Now for the tiny version my dead and breakfast sign! I created this file in Adobe Illustrator, scaling it to look about the same height as my real sign in comparison to my front door. You can, of course, make your sign larger if you want. I created this sign to be 3D, creating two parts of the post that fit together with the help of slits in both pieces. I used Distress Collage Medium to glue the two parts together. 

Next, I added a tiny D&B to both sides of the oval part of the sign using a black pen. Then, I glued two very thin strips of metallic kraft cardstock back-to-back and to the oval part of the sign to create the illusion of chains holding the oval part of the sign on. Then I glued the top of the chains to the horizontal post and added another double-sided raven to my sign to perfectly match my sign in real life!

To add some texture to the top of the box, I added some Distress Grit Paste with a pallet knife. While that was drying, I used a pair of needle nosed pliers to bend a section of a metal gate to look like porch railing. I added a little bit of hot glue where the metal gate sections separated (they are very pliable and easy to bend) and added some moss. This will ensure that it is a bit more sturdy. Then I glued the metal gate to the top of the box using a mix of Distress Collage Medium and hot glue. The hot glue helps to hold it in place while the more effective collage medium has a chance to dry. 

I then glued on my tree, tombstones, sign, and potion bottle to the top of my box, adding more grit paste. To add even more texture, I placed a few art stones into the grit paste to look like larger rocks. After the grit paste dried, I painted over it with black gesso to match the top of the box. 

Now to a few finishing touches. I painted a pumpkin from Tim Holtz with white gesso. Then I painted over that with Distress Paint in speckled egg. Oh my gosh! Speckled egg makes the perfect heirloom pumpkin color, guys!! I dabbed off the excess with a paper towel, then added moss and a tiny bit broomstick handle I had left over from last year (a twig works well too). Then I glued the pumpkin and a few bones down to the book box using Distress Collage Medium. 

I decided I needed a few bats in my belfry, so to speak. I used my double sided die technique to cut out 2 set of bats from the gatekeeper die set. I glued one side down onto a very thin length of wire, then glued the matching bat on top, using Distress Collage Medium. Using tweezers, I rolled up a small section of the other end of each wire to help me glue these bats onto my roof. I added a tiny dot of hot glue to each of the rolled up piece of wire and tucked each under a shingle on my roof. 

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed this two-part tutorial series on my little Halloween house. I want to give a big thank you to Scrapbook.com for hosting this hop! Be sure that you check out their Instagram profile for the full details on this hop so you don't miss any of the other amazing projects plus a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Scrapbook.com! 

To download the tiny sign I designed to use for your own little house, click on the image below. This cut file is for your own personal use and may not be used commercially or for resale. 

Happy Crafting!

Adrienne

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Below are products that I used or similar products.