Horror Diorama - A serial Killers House

Ed Geins House

Horror Diorama

Welcome back to part two of the horror diorama. I'm going to start off by showing you how I finished the tombstone and then you'll get to see all the finale pictures of the whole diorama.

Ed Gein was a serial killer and grave robber active in the 1950's. His horrifying work inspired many Hollywood movies (Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence Of the Lambs).

I painted the tombstone in a base coat of burnt umber.

And then dry brushed white over top once it was dry.

I added some green flock for a mossy look.

And some dollar store moss for an extra mossy look. And now onto the finale!

Full view of front of Ed Geins house

Side view of Ed Geins house.

Top - down view of the house.

Atop the dresser sits some morbid creations. 

My personal favourite, is Ed Geins skull-bowl. A bowl he made out of a human skull. A spoon is added because bowls need spoons. Ed really did make one of these.

A book on bones and grave digging, open to handy pages with illustrations.

A beautiful bone-bouquet. He was clearly thinking of his mother when he made this. 

His floor is scattered with grave digging work.

A tombstone leans against the wall - a nod to both his grave digging hobby and the fact the Ed himself no longer has a headstone because people kept stealing pieces of it.

Tacked to the wall is one of the newspaper articles released when Ed Gein was arrested.

A picture of the notorious Ed Gein himself, framed on the wall.

Ed was a notorious mama's boy. He was obsessed with his mother (which is why it inspired Psycho).

All of the available pictures of Ed's house were taken in the winter - it was soon after burned down. So I added some "snow" to the roof for good measure.

A shovel, a boot covered in dirt, some more dirt, and bones.

The front of the dresser with bone handles.

An antique clock on the wall for an added punch.

Materials

Shingles

Split Front Box

Tombstone Stand Ups

Gothic Dresser

Horror Diorama - Ed Geins House.

Horror Diorama

Ed Geins House

Hey guys, Jess here and this month I'm working on a horror themed diorama, with serial killer Ed Geins house. I started out with doing some research and finding some pictures of his farmhouse and using them as reference pictures as I went along.

I wanted to house the diorama in a...well, a house. So I needed to create one from an existing GSLC product and the Split Front Box was just the perfect shining beacon for me. Take a look at the Split Front Box to get an idea of what it's normally supposed to look like and then I'm going to walk you through how I've altered it to turn it into a house shape.

I'm not going to use all the pieces, so you'll have extras to use for another project, if you so wish.

For the roof arch, you need to take two of these sloped pieces (it comes with 4)

I use a utility knife to cut all the tabs off of both the sloped pieces. You can use a craft knife, but you'll use up the sharpness in an instant, and with the utility knife you can just break off the top piece and keep moving along easily.

It's not wholly necessary, but you can also sand the edges down with a nail file once you've got the tabs removed.

I attach the sloped pieces to the top of the already (normally) assembled box part. You'll want the slope to get wider towards the opening of the box.

Then comes the addition of the foam (you knew I was going to use foam, didn't you?) - I cut the foamcore to fit the front piece and hot glued it in nice and snug.

See, it's already starting to look like a roof! Use foam to fill in the top part of the roof and the back as well.

I used coffee stir sticks along the sides of the box for wood clapboard. 

Then I textured it with my awl. 

I used some balsa wood in the base of the box to imitate the look of  what's underneath floorboards.

Then I built it up using Popsicle sticks and coffee stir sticks and base coated with burnt umber. 

Then I layered down the inside with coffee stir stick clapboard.

The shingles for the roof were next!

Next I prepped the mirror for the dresser using some tinfoil and glued it down using white PVA glue.

I basecoated the dresser in black, added a crackle medium and then painted green over top.

The dresser put together

Back to the clapboard - basecoated with burnt umber.

And then I dry brushed white over top for an aged look.

Same for the inside!

That's it for this week, lovelies - check back later this month for final pictures of how I've finished off the horror diorama!

Materials
Split Front Box
Shingles
Dresser (coming soon!)

Retro Inspired Display for Vintage Camper by Ginny

Hey there peeps! Well today I'm sharing a project with a bit of a story behind it. Last year our family purchased a retro camper. A 1966 Banner to be exact. I can tell you it's been a real family project and labor of love to bring it back to life and we've been able to take it out for mini vacations, which is so awesome to get out in nature with the peeps.  Our theme for the camper has been retro 50's diner. That's a theme right? So we have been adding crisp white paint....aqua accents and chrome and lots of vintage inspired décor items. I created this little display hutch to hold a collection of small ceramics.

 I super love the colors and retro patterned papers on the back of this hutch. I created the base with the fabulous Split Front Box.  Instead of assembling it to be a closable box...I secured the lid portion to the sides and treated it as a fixed unit.  I should note that I added a layer of thick chipboard to the back as well to help secure the sections.

Aqua and red are the colors and lightened  up with some crisp white.  I used regular acrylic paint which covered beautifully.   I've also included fun cork covered clips to secure postcards or smaller mementos.  The funky polka dot ribbon and birdie brads are a fun finishing touch.



This center box portion is nice and deep and I can add my new collection without worry that things will stick out and possibly get knocked over.

The first addition to the collection came as a surprise gifty from my very lovely and generous friend Linsey Rickett. I love them so much they inspired me search for more vintage themed memorabilia.

I couldn't ask for a better color match and this just makes me all kinds of happy!!!!

Here is our little camper. I'm not sure we would have jumped into this project had we known in advance how much work it would wind up being. LOL but now we have a great little home away from home to make family memories in.   I should mention that my dear Hubby has done soooooo much to reframe the inside and build in new bunks and storage to adapt this little camper to meet the needs of how our family likes to live. The outside was painted by the previous owner in multiple shades of taupe and brown house paint...what were they thinking????? So my big project last summer was to scrape and sand all the old stuff off and now we have a super bright and cheerful and very retro home on wheels. I can't wait to hang the new hutch inside!!!

Okay that was a long post for me huh???? Anyhoo..I'm wishing all of you a happy and productive day with lots of time to be creative : ) G

13 Acorn Lane - 1:12 Scale Roombox

Designed by Jessica Armstrong

Story by Jessica Armstrong

Hey guys, Jess here again and this week I'm not just bringing you a new project, but a children's story I've written to go with it.

13 Acorn Lane

    This is the story of a witch, Ms. Daisy Buckle, who lives at 13 Acorn Lane, the house with the red door. Her curly red hair is piled atop her head and fastened with an array of bobby pins. She has green eyes and a trail of freckles painted across her rosy cheeks.

    Her black cat, Mr. Theodore Buttons (who must always be called by his full name, lest he be terribly upset) wakes her up every day at precisely seven in the morning. He pounces upon her chest and meows loudly until she greets him.

    Today, Daisy climbs out of bed and tiredly wanders into her kitchen to make her morning jasmine tea. As her tea steeps, she checks her mail slot to see if there is anything besides bills (as there normally is). Instead of bills, she finds a red envelope neatly stuffed through the mail slot. Picking it up, she notices it is from her far away friend, Mrs. Dorothy Pennybottom. Mrs. Pennybottom has written to her, asking that she come and visit her across the pond at her residence for an upcoming lunar festival.

    Unfortunately, Mr. Theodore Buttons would not be permitted on the airplane (as it was too far to fly on her broom), which left Daisy with an uncomfortable dilemma to ponder as she sipped her tea.    She hadn't been to a lunar festival in quite some time and it had been even longer still that she had seen her friend Mrs. Pennybottom. But poor Mr. Theodore Buttons – what would he do all by his lonesome?

    She pondered the situation all day and well into the evening. It was just about bedtime when Mr. Theodore Buttons wandered into the kitchen where she was sitting. He jumped up on the table and sat in front of her. He meowed loudly at her, but she didn't look up. He meowed again and she still didn't look up. Finally, Mr. Theodore Buttons said (in a most distinguished voice), “Daisy, why don't you go and visit your friend Dorothy across the pond and I'll go and visit my relatives down the lane. I'm certainly able to fend for myself while you're away and you won't have to worry one bit about me.”

    Daisy blinked at him. He had never spoken to her before, though she had often thought he'd wanted to. He was, of course, completely right. He did have family down the lane and would be able to take care of himself while she was gone.

She would of course miss him, but he seemed thoroughly excited at the prospect of visiting his own family.

    So she packed her bag and picked out her favourite broom and left for her friend Mrs. Pennybottoms house, where she had a lovely time. Mr. Theodore Buttons left the house and went on his own adventure to see his family down the lane, but that is another story altogether.

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The roombox is designed inside the split front box from GSLC, but I have removed the outer part of the box to use in a later project. The box measures 8.75 inches wide by 6.75 inches tall by 3 inches deep, which is just perfect for fitting a miniature 1:12 scene inside. You could, of course, also do a 1:24 scene and would have even more space to fit tiny things.

 Here, Mr. Theodore Buttons has knocked over one of Daisy's flower pots she'd left outside.

 Some packages waiting to be retrieved upon Daisy's return.

her mail slot is stuffed with letters from far away friends.

 Cheeky Mr. Theodore Buttons.

Here you can see the cobblestone floor I've built inside the roombox using the cobblestone texture from GSLC. I've used the sheet as a stencil and a ball point pen to trace the pattern onto a piece of foam core, which is then painted to look like stone. I've used a moss effect to fill in the in between bits.

I'm never happy with brooms from miniature shops, so I've made my own from a twig and coconut fiber.

Supply List
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*Split Front Box
*Cobblestone

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