Haunted House

Remember when I wrote I was really stressed out about work & how awesome Jose was about it? Well the other day I came home after an especially stressful day & Jose told me I shouldn't be working there anymore if I'm so unhappy. I don't normally quit a job unless I have another one ready, but it's been really bad. I don't want to bore you with the details, but I felt like I was being treated unfairly by the new manager & that he was being lazy & passing off his work to everyone else & taking the credit. Talking to the district manager didn't help because they've been friends for a while. Jose & I decided that with him working full time, we'll be ok even if I don't find a new job in the next couple of months, but I'm sure I will since everyone will be hiring for Christmas. Actually my plan is to apply to Joann's (since I shop there all the time- might as well be working at a place I love! Too bad there's no Michael's nearby!) & if I don't get hired, I'll apply for unemployment & then I'll have some more time to look for a job. It's amazing how happy I feel now that I'm not working at that horrible job anymore! Stress definitely isn't healthy!!
   Ok, back to the crafts...I'm going to share with you my favorite Halloween project ever- complete with step-by-step photos!

 I made this Haunted House last year for a swap partner on Craftster. I had so much fun making this; it was really hard to send it away! The first thing I did was make up a template- I borrowed the basic shape from a sticker sheet I got at the Dollar Tree & just drew out a template on a piece of cardboard, changing a couple of things until I was happy with the look.

Then I traced my template twice onto a piece of  foam (I guess that's what it's called?) & for the sides, top & bottom of the house I just cut out different sizes of rectangles (can't remember the measurements!). I used super glue to glue it all together & let it dry. Here's a really blurry picture of one of the bottom corners of the house.

Oh, I forgot the mention, I decided that I would put string lights inside the house, so I had to cut a little "mousehole" in the back so the light could be plugged into an outlet.

Next came the fun part- glitter! I used Martha Stewart's Onyx glitter. I smeared glue in small sections at a time to make sure there was enough glitter (& not too much mess!) and so that the glue didn't dry.

I left the top off of the house while doing this part so it was easier to hold it steady. Here's the house all glittered up!

Love how sparkly it looks! Once it was dry, I put in the (purple!) string lights 

 and glued on the roof, which was cut from a suede type paper- not sure of the technical name for this; I bought it at Joann's along with the foam board!

The final step was to glue the whole thing down to a piece of black poster board and add the cemetery in front & some moss in between the tombstones.

And here's a final look at my finished haunted house:

Unfortunately I couldn't get any good shots with the string lights on. Hope you enjoyed my first "tutorial"! If anyone has any questions please ask & I'll do my best to answer. Also, if any of you makes a haunted house this year, I'd love to see it so link it up here!