Dreadfully Delightful Manor

The Dreadfuls are getting ready to have a party!

Mr. Dreadful straightened up his library today since it's been an entire year since he had cleaned or dusted it.

Normally it's quite a site and one can hardly see the floor with his books and papers strewn all over.

Mr. Dreadful's idea of cleaning up his library is to call upon his friend, Mr. Pelvis Costello to pick everything up while he sits and smokes a cigar. Mr. Costello was bone tired afterwards so he had to take a nap on the bottom shelf of the bookcase.

Urmath and Sulkar, Gargoyles who live at Dreadful Manor don't seem to be having very much of a good time while getting jumped right off of the couch.

They thought they'd just have a quiet night of relaxing after bringing down more Christmas decorations from the attic, but instead they're having to deal with the Siamese Twin Terrors Permelia and Prentis.

Well now isn't this a sweet treat of a feast? Judging by the way that Permelia and Prentis are acting, I'm guessing that they may have snuck quite a few sugary sweets. (Let's hope that the girls didn't get into the edibles by accident!)

Mr. & Mrs. Dreadful ran out to pick up the self-portrait painting of Krampus to hang in the dining room from the Customs Office. Krampus sent it all the way from Austria, even framed it himself. (Truth be told he is verrryyy smitten with Mrs. Dreadful.)

Looks like Maynard the Mouse is busy checking out Cuthbert's new bike. Cuthbert is Permelia and Prentice's bothersome little brother.

Maynard is Cuthbert's very best friend and they have great times getting into things that they shouldn't.  Like sneaking into Mr. Dreadful's laboratory to try to create their own electricity. Cuthbert's hair still stands on end when a storm is coming after that experiment. Maynard hopes that they can try again with much better results.


The entire project started out when I was sent the House Room Box with 4 Cubbies from Alpha Stamps to play with. I knew that I'd want to make it some sort of a dollhouse, but didn't want a prissy perfect one. I also wanted a fireplace, but didn't have one that was 1:24 scale. Which meant that I'd have to try to figure out how to make my own because a. I'm way too cheap and b. I'm trying to create stuff with items I already have here at home.

Not having a prissy perfect dollhouse meant of course that it would have to be inhabitable by none other than The Dreadfuls.

If you'll notice, the couch that Permelia and Prentis are jumping on is pretty lumpy to start with before they sprung the springs on it. (Damn kids.)

Anyways, it is really easy to make the lumps - it's done with tissue paper.

• Crumple up a piece of tissue paper in your hands.
• Tear in strips of varying sizes, and then glue each piece haphazardly to the item you're adding texture to. Do not smooth out the tissue, you want it wrinkly. 
• In the case of making lumps, you'll want to build your lumps with the tissue paper. Add more than one piece of tissue to the same area, pinch it, squish it...just don't smooth it out.
• Once you're happy with the texture or lumps, then let dry.
• After drying, apply a coat of liquid gesso. You'll want to let the gesso pool in the wrinkles of the tissue; it adds more texture when your item is finished.
• Paint whatever color you want when the gesso is dry.
• To further dull the appearance, apply a matte medium over the dried paint.

You can not see in any picture that I took, but the finishing touch to the couch is to paint it with a Lindy's Gang Starburst Spray that is darker than the color I used.  You could spray the object, but I feel like there's more control where you want the emphasis if you just use a paintbrush. (Shake real well before dipping your brush.)  The Lindy's will pool in the wrinkles making an object seem more worn, with just a tiny bit of sparkle.  

I also used the same technique for the fireplace minus the Lindy's Starburst Spray. The fireplace is made out of the lid of a Tiny Square Paper Mache Box. 

• Draw the shape you want for the fireplace opening; then carefully cut it out with an Xacto Knife.
• Apply crumpled pieces of tissue paper to the whole piece.
• Once dry, cover with a coat of liquid gesso, let dry.
• Paint your fireplace whatever color you like. To show off the texture, lightly rub gold, bronze, or silver over the top of the painted area.

I used the Ornaments and Settings Silicone Mold with Creative Paperclay to further enhance the fireplace; painting it to match it.

Supply List for Dreadfully Delightful Manor.

See more creations with House Room Boxes on the Alpha Stamps Blog.