DIY Halloween Haunted House Shadowbox

I always love seeing the cute little DIY Halloween themed haunted house vignettes or shadow boxes that I see posted on Pinterest so I thought I would try to make one this year.  I started by purchasing a really cool basic Halloween Haunted House Shadow Box Kit from Michaels Craft store.  After using my 40% coupon I ended up paying around $12 for the kit.  The kit is pretty inclusive.  It has almost everything you need to make the fun Halloween Vignette, and yet it allows the maker to still add a few personal touches to it.

Materials Needed:

Recollections Halloween Paper House Box from Michaels Crafts

Asst Halloween Themed Stickers

Asst Halloween pins

Asst Charms

Black ribbon or lace

Supplies Needed:

Martha Stewart Crafts – Fluorescent Acrylic Paint in Orange

Martha Stewart Crafts – Fluorescent Acrylic Paint in Yellow

Folk Art Home Décor Chalk Paint in Rich Black

White Gesso

Glue Dots

Glue Stick

Scissors

Tweezers

Sponge Paint Brush

Step 1:

Since the house is made of brown paper, I realized I would need to pick a base color.  So I painted the interior of each room of the haunted house shadow box in one coat of white gesso (do not paint the outside parts).  This will create a nice base to show off the different colored paints that are used to paint it with.

Step 2:

Using the Martha Stewart Glow-in-the-Dark acrylic craft paints in Orange and Yellow, I painted the interiors of each room in the Recollections Halloween Paper House Box in alternating colors.  Then I set it aside to allow the shadow box to dry.

Step 3:

Then using the Black Chalk Paint, I painted the outer surfaces of the house.  I love this paint because it is really opaque and covered the entire surface in one coat. Once I had finished painting the surface, I set it aside and allowed the shadow box to dry.

Step 4:

I took some of the fun Halloween themed scrapbook papers I have and cut them down to fit the rooms.  I also used some of the cute papers provided in the kit.  I glued them onto the back wall of each room using a glue stick.  The paper patterns or pictures will create the theme for each room and make it easier to decide which items to place in there.  I could have followed the photo provided in the kit but I decided to do my own thing and loosely follow their example.

Step 5:

I sorted through all of the ephemera provided in the kit.  I added additional charms, tags, pins, etc. from my own collection of Halloween themed items to work with.

Step 6:

Once I decided which items I wanted to use, I started to decorate each room.  I used the glue dots to hold some of the heavier jewelry items in place.

Step 7:

To finish the DIY Halloween Haunted House Shadow Box, I decided to accent the outer frame of the house by adding black lace, ribbon, and few other items.

I love how it turned out.  I even used some light up pins to make it a bit more fun to look at.  Once the paint had dried, the actual part of decorating the shadow box only took  a short time to finish. 

This is my first try at a Halloween themed shadow box, I would love to know what others have used to decorate their boxes.  Leave a comment below and share your experience in making one of these DIY Halloween Shadow Boxes.

Once again, I would like to thank Plaid Enterprises for that cool box of paints they sent me.  I am able to apply them to so many projects.  If you want to see more creative Halloween projects, Plaid does have a bunch on their website, including their 75+ No Carve Pumpkin Decorating Ideas Post.