Spooky Shutter Tutorial

 Hello All!!  A couple posts back I showed you all my smoking nook in the Addams mansion!  I had made some special shutters to go in there and a few people asked me for a tutorial.  This is my Halloween gift to you... a rare Ara tutorial (most of my stuff is trial and error so tutorials are sometimes hard for me!).

What you will need:  A box cutter or Xacto Knife, 1/4"x1/8" basswood (optional for the end), pliers, a pencil for marking measurements, a ruler, a paintbrush, paint in the color of your liking, cardstock (or cutting up an old birthday card would work), matboard, and a cutting mat to work on!  And GLUE!  I forgot it in the pic of materials!

Here is the basic measurements that I used for my shutters.  They worked great on my Real Good Toys, Alison Jr. windows.  If you are working on another brand or custom house you may have to make adjustments to these measurements.  Notice that you will only be cutting on the lines marked in red!

 Go ahead and mark out the 1.5"x6" for each shutter.  You can do several at one time if you have multiple windows!  I will be doing four at a time here...

 You can draw all the measurements on the shutters before cutting them apart.  You will have to measure less this way because you can just carry the pencil lines across all four shutters.

 Then carefully cut them apart!

 Begin slicing along the horizontal lines (remember not to do the vertical or all of your louvers will just fall out!)

 Cut in both directions for each cut.  This ensure you are cutting all the way through the entire length of the louver.

 If you don't you can get these uneven lines seen below... see how the ones that have been cut in both directions on the top are going all the way through the entire length... the lower cuts have only been cut one way.

 After all your horizontal cuts are made take your knife and stab at the edges of each cut.  This will make sure the paper rips where you want it to when you start twisting the louvers out.

 Can you see the little stabs on the right side of the horizontal cuts?  Do this for both sides of each cut.

 This is where I need to enter a disclaimer!  You are about to get frustrated!!  Especially if you are a perfectionist!  The process of twisting the louvers can get messy and annoying!  But I will show you how to fix the rips and tears to work to your advantage!

Take your pliers and put it in the second cut from the top.  Grab hold of the louver with the pliers and twist it until the bottom of the louver pops out.

 You may have to work your pliers back and forth under the louver to get it to pop out correctly.

 If you are getting frustrated with the first few... keep going.  It starts to get easier as you get a feel for working with the pliers and twisting.

 Occasionally you will have pieces of the matboard rip off.  No problem!  Just glue them back on or rip the piece off.  Remember we are making spooky shutters so they are ok if they are imperfect!

 Also occasionally a louver will totally let go of the side pieces.... no problem...

 Take a little glue and glue the louver piece as if it was supposed to break and it will add to the spookyness!

 Below you can see all of my shutters finished.  I even broke a few more louvers to get the desired effect I wanted!  Have fun with it!

 From here you can rest your hands a bit!  Ouch this process can be a bit painful with all the cutting and twisting!

Cut out six small bits of card stock.  These are approx 1/2"x3/8".  These are your hinges.

 Make sure you know how you want your shutters to lay, and make sure the louvers are all facing the same way before you glue!  Glue 3 pieces on each pair of shutters as seen below.

 Below you can see how beat up my shutters were after twisting!  So don't get discouraged if yours are ripping too!

 Next is the fun part!  Take out your base acrylic color and paint all over the front and back of the shutter.  The acrylic will seal the paper and you won't have to worry about the matboard shutters splitting anymore.

 Next you can take some aging colors.  I have a dark green and dark brown here that I just lightly brush over the white base coat to age them.  And this also makes the lines of the louvers stand out so no one misses how intricate they look!

 And here is your final product!!!

 From here they are ready to glue anywhere you want them.  You can make single ones to glue on the outside of houses too. If you are not wanting to permenantly glue the shutters on, you can do what I did in the smoking nook...

I measured the height of the window the shutter was going on and then I got two pieces of basswood and placed them that distance apart.  I then glued the shutters down on top of the basswood pieces.  You can paint the basswood pieces the same color as the wall if you want them to be less seen.  Now the top and the bottom pieces of basswood just slip around the edges of the dollhouse window and it stays put.  Easy peasy!

I hope this was helpful!!!  It took me about 3 hours to do these 4 shutters with chasing a toddler around in between.  Just be ready to get a hand massage afterwards!

Please stay tuned as tomorrow I will be posting a give away!!  One of the prizes will be the shutters I just made in the tutorial!!!  So if you have a spooky mini project going on this will be the give-away to enter.

Hugs, Ara

Ara Goes to the Addams Family Musical!

 Well my amazing wonderful husband got me tickets to see the Addams family musical here in Dallas!!!!  How lucky am I!  And he sprang for the good seats!!!

 I went for a "Wednesday goes to Texas" outfit!  I decided to dress up because... why not!?

Even painted my nails black and I haven't done that since Jr. High!

 To my surprise they had tv and movie props on display at the theater!!!  This was an added bonus for me!!  Love the "Lurchy" guy in the middle there.  All the signs said these were props from the 1960's tv show, but there were some obvious ones from the movies.  I don't know why they didn't say "TV show and Movies..."  Maybe they thought no one would notice ;)

Like this one is from the movie Addams Family Values... Debbie Jellinsky was played by Joan Cusack.  Her character married Uncle Fester.


They also had an organ!  I am thinking this might also be a movie prop because in the TV show Lurch played a harpsichord but it might have been in the background somewhere.  I am not sure.  I was excited to see it because of the one I made special for the mansion here.  It had the white buttons and everything!


After this photo with the organ an usher made me take my camera to the car because you can't take pics inside (the props were in the lobby).  I told him I wouldn't but I guess he didn't believe me!

The Musical was amazing!  The songs and the story line were fun and funny!  I don't think I laughed so much in a musical before.  They had several Addams inside jokes too.  For example, they make a  joke that Morticia and Gomez don't know who's mother Grandmama is!  Referring to the fact that she is Gomez's mother in the TV show and Morticia's mother in the movie!  Hilarious!

 I did have one thing I didn't like about the production we saw but I will keep it to myself so others can enjoy!  And it was just so amazing I hate to say anything bad!  You should all definitely see it if you get the chance!

Also I kind of felt special because they were selling the book "The Addams Family; An Evilution" which I was sent to review back in March 2010.  I felt like I was an Addams expert or something :)  Although no one around me knew it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you sweet husband for the tickets!!!  You are the Gomez to my Morticia!  Love, Ara

And finally.... the Smoking Nook!

Hi All,

It's been a long time coming but I have finally made a little bit of progress on the mansion.  A few posts back I did a give-away and people had to suggest ideas for this little awkward nook that was totally stumping me!  Victoria wrote this: " I would like to see a smoking station in the nook with a comfy chair and a big hookah."  It was such a lovely mental image that I just had to go for it!!!

Here's the nook now:

The first thing I made was a removable set of shutters.  You see these in all of the Addams cartoons, shows, movies and even the now showing Musical!  I just had to include them somewhere.  I made them removable because I am not quite ready to commit with glue yet!

Next I made the "comfy chair".  I found a large roll of this printed leather in the scrap bin for $1!!!  Can you believe it??  So I knew my chair would have to be leather!  It was a bit rough to work with and gave me a few frustrations but in the end I am happy!

I already had the Hookah from the lovely Sans!  She made it for me a while ago and it has been all over the mansion... and now it has a permanent home!

Also... notice the lovely open book in the pictures of the nook and chair??  It's made by Victoria!  We did a swap and she made a cauldron, books, candles and papers for Grandmama's liar (which is not built yet!)... but Gomez will be stealing this book to keep in the nook forever!  Especially since its made by the person who inspired the whole Smoking Nook!  Thank you thank you thank you, Victoria!!! (Click here to go to her amazing blog!) I must really get to work on the basement....

And lastly I went ahead and took an updated progress picture of the mansion.  It's not much but I am seeing things coming together - yay!  Progress!!

Thanks for taking a second to look at my Addams Family Mini-Mansion!
Hugs, Ara and the Addamses

One last Day to Enter the Give-Away!

Hi All,

Just wanted to remind everyone that my give-away ends tomorrow.  Go to this post to see details on how to enter to win this throne/chair (scroll to the bottom to see give-away info).

Good luck to everyone!  I will draw a winner tomorrow in the afternoon!

hugs, Ara and the Addamses

Gomez's Train Set and A Give-Away!!!!

 Hello All,   As I said I have been trying to do little things for the Mini-mansion during nap times and when my DH gets home to watch busy little Bella.  One of my most recent projects was finishing Gomez's train set.   Whether in the tv show or the Movies, Gomez is always seen with a train set.  He blows them up as recreation or as a stress reliever!  I knew it was a necessity for the mansion!

I saw a few working trains at a recent miniature show but they only went in an oval and had a huge battery pack that had to be hidden.  I decided to do a train set that looked like it had recently been blown up and left for lurch to clean up :)

Here it is, complete with ignition box!

Here is a photo from a higher vantage point so you can see the detail.  A tunnel, bridge, and rail road house all sits with in a 3"x3" square.

You can also see a corner where explosives have recently gone off.  The bridge is blown and a single train car is dangling off of the side.

Below you can see a photo of where it sits in Gomez's office.  Initially I thought it would fit nicely in the alcove in the back.... but it turned out to be smaller than I thought and just looked dwarfed in the large alcove.

So here is where the give-away comes in.  I have recently passed 300 followers on blogger and I am ready to celebrate!  Especially to say thanks to all of you who have hung on through my long absences!  Here's what you need to do to enter:

Leave a comment on this post with a suggestion on what I should do in the empty alcove (this will get your name into the drawing).  I have also pointed out there is a small library (which you can see here) on the other side of the office wall so I am trying to think of something other than book shelves.  I will be watching the movies and tv shows to brainstorm BUT I know you guys always have great ideas so bring 'em on!

And here is the prize for the give-away.  It's actually a piece from the mini-mansion.  Originally I was using it as Gomez's chair for the living room (you can see it in the house here) but its not working with my vision for that room anymore.  It's a big chair! lol.  This would be perfect for anyone doing a scene with a Seer or Palm reader, etc... as the back of the chair is decorated with 4 hands.  It's painted gold so it will definitely catch the eye in any room display.

Ps.  If you link to this give-away in one of your blog posts let me know and I will put your name into the drawing a second time!

I will pull the name for the winner a week from now (5-24-12) and post the name Thursday afternoon!  Maybe I will have Bella pick the name! Have a great weekend all, Ara and the Addamses :)

Progress and the hatred of baseboards!

 So I pulled my Addams Family mansion out of the depths of my office last week and told myself I WILL DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE THIS WEEK!!  And I have!  I have done a few of the projects I have been avoiding because I knew they would be tedious and time consuming. 

First of all I finally put the columns in on the second floor.  Here you can see the before and after.  As you can see I was able to leave the dust relatively undisturbed lol.

 Here is the same room aged and with the furniture put back in (Gomez's office).

 I also worked on the office ceiling which took a while as well.  I used a punch, a grid, paint and old business cards to create the look of an old tin ceiling. (The house is upside down in case you were confused at the pictures below!)

 On the other side of the weapons wall in Gomez's office I have made a library nook.  I added this extra book case built-in and I think it makes it very cozy! 

I also worked on the bottom floor trying to age it a little more.  Here is a fun pic of the stairs.  Luckily for me, the more dust this project gathers, the more authentic it looks lol!

Anyway, as the title of this post suggests, I am now completely sick of putting in base boards.  There will be several more fun projects in between now and the baseboards on the 3rd floor!