Broken Lantern Into a Spook House

by Angie @ Ambient Wares

8 Materials

1-2 Hour

Easy

With Halloween just around the dark corner, here's a ridiculously easy decor idea using an old lantern, some clip art ghosts, and glue. It's in really bad shape. Rusty. Broken. Bent. Dirty. Anyone in their right mind would probably toss it.

broken lantern into a spook house, outdoor living

I printed out some free clip art of ghosts and I could have easily opened the door, put glue on the cutouts and slapped them on to the glass from the inside but, I wanted the images to be behind the bars and in front of the glass because I thought they'd stand out more.

There was one piece of glass missing but the other sides including the door had tabs holding the panes in and all I had to do was bend them outwards slightly. It was easier to remove each glass, one at a time, glue the image and place it back in before removing the next pane. Proceed with caution when removing the glass.

I started out with a spray adhesive which I didn't like for this particular project and ended up using regular all purpose glue.

I smeared it around with a foam brush onto the back of the pictures, and it was much easier working with the smaller pieces of paper over the spray.

When I was looking for scary ghost images to use, I was trying to find something that would somehow work on the side that was missing the glass. The kinda scary dude I found worked well and all I did was glue his left upper arm to the bar and tucked his left arm and foot behind the bars.

Then all that was left was the "steeple". I had thought of something crawling out of the top and luckily this image was right where I found the majority of the rest and he fits perfectly. I glued him as well.

I now wonder if I should have painted the back of the images black since they're just stark white. Although they look pretty neat and mysterious in the picture below.

Now, I'm not sure the guys hanging out of the lantern are gonna make it being packed up until next year without tearing but, it'll be so easy to print them out and glue again if need be.

I think I'll pick up an LED candle next time I'm out and see how it looks.

Thanks for reading! For more information & images, please visit https://ambientwares.com/1371/broken-lantern-spook-house/

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Lantern (gifted)
Free clip art (on-line)
Printer
Cardstock
Scissors
Junk towel
All purpose glue
Foam brush

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2 comments

William on Oct 23, 2016
Very cool and creative! Are you going to let them out for Halloween =:) And will they come back =:0

1 Reply
- Angie @ Ambient Wares on Oct 23, 2016
  Haha! I'm not lettin' 'em out! But, if they do get out, I'm not lettin' 'em back in ;)
  
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