Haunted Hamlet

I saw this super cute idea of using Christmas Village houses to make a Halloween-themed Village from the website, The 36th  Avenue (via Pinterest). They used the houses found at the Dollar Tree at Christmastime. So cute and clever, I just had to make one of these for myself. But since it's the middle of summer, I was hard pressed to find cheap Christmas houses. I already had one that I knew of. An unpainted, forgotten Christmas house I bought nearly 20 years ago that I never got around to painting. I braved the scorching heat of my attic, in the heart of summer, to bring it down. That's one and it was free! Now, where can I get more houses this time of year? I looked online and they were all too expensive. So I searched every Thrift store in my area and found some great old houses that were just perfect. And they only cost me about $2 or $3 each.  Some had busted trim or the lights didn't work, but that didn't matter to me. They were perfect. 

Before I show how I made this lovely little village and some of the details, let's take a stroll through my Haunted Hamlet first. :)

Here are some pictures of my Haunted Hamlet without the lights on. It still looks great unlit! I kept the jack-o-lanterns lit to give it some life!

Haunted Hamlet 
How-to:

Gather up your old Christmas Village Houses. I selected houses that I could
light up. I taped over some of the windows to leave the panes painted with some of the original detail. Here is an in-process example as I taped up the windows. Spray paint all the houses in flat black paint. Once the spray paint is dry, remove tape from windows. Touch up spots around the windows when you remove the tape with black acrylic paint and a brush.
Highlight details by painting the window trim, snowdrifts, rooftops and other accented details with black glitter paint. This gives the houses some dimension and interest with shiny, subtle details.
 
I also found this ugly, acrylic Christmas tree at the thrift store and thought it would make a great creepy tree in my Haunted Hamlet once it was spray painted black. I also rummaged through my Halloween stuff and found this pumpkin tree with bats hanging from them. Another tree for my village. I spray painted the pumpkin base and then placed it in the back and covered it with creepy cloth to hide the pumpkin. I also removed all the hanging bats and hot glued one of the bats upside down from one of the branches. It's a cute detail even if the bat is the wrong scale. It still works for me. I also had some floral sprays that I cut up and turned into trees too. 

Graveyard 
How-to:
It is the middle of summer, but Michael's (gotta love them) had their Halloween stuff out already in July. Yay for me! I splurged a whole $4.99 on these way cool tombstones. I almost didn't want to paint them, the detailing was so neat. They also had a small bag of these miniature skulls for $1.49 that I thought would be perfect for my graveyard.
My youngest son (7), loves to collect sticks. Whenever we go to the park, he usually comes home with at least 2 new sticks, to "add to his collection". He's so cute. Anyway, I rummaged through his "stick collection" and broke off a few thin branches (He won't miss them) and assembled this rickety fence.  I hot glued the whole thing together and then spray painted everything in flat black. Then, I cut up some of the creepy cloth and glued it to the foam base to camouflage the foam board. Cool, huh? 
(Not pictured, but I later added some highlights to the fencing with some glitter paint.)

Light-up Jack-o-lantern 
How to:
2 acrylic pumpkins
tea light, flame removed 
Painters tape
black spray paint

No Haunted Hamlet would be complete without a  few light-up jack-o-lanterns. I got the idea to make these, when I saw a bag of this fall bowl filler. It had mini acrylic pumpkins that were so beautiful, I thought, "I need to light these babies up!" 

First step is to drill a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin. It was pretty easy since the heat from the drill melts the acrylic a little and makes a perfect hole.

Tape up the drilled hole in the bottom with painters tape, cut into a small circle, and then tape up your jack-o-lantern face. Don't forget to tape up the light bulb on the tea light too. Spray paint. Let dry. Remove tape with tweezers. 
You will need to touch-up paint the face a little and add finer details like the teeth. (I had to add paint to make the eyes smaller on the two below.) Spray a little pool of the spray paint onto a piece of paper and use a toothpick to add paint for detail work and to fix any scratches. I checked where the pumpkins needed additional paint by placing it on the lit tea light and painting it while it was lit up.

Assembly
Now it's time to assemble the whole thing...

You will need:
3 strands of 20 light Orange Halloween lights
3 Candleholders in various heights
two lengths of Creepy Cloth (I got mine from the 99CentsOnly store)

I used some candle holders and a small wrought iron basket turned upside down, for the background houses, but you can use boxes or anything that has different heights.I wrapped a strand of 20 lights around the base. 

 

Next, place two layers of creepy cloth over the candle holders and place one of the trees in the background. 




 

 



Add another 20 light strand of Orange lights to the three houses for the background. I taped the strands to the bottom of each house and then placed them on the candle holders. 





 
Repeat the taping of the last 20 light strand of Orange lights to the remaining two houses and place in foreground. 

Add your trees 











Add graveyard and light up jack-o-lanterns and you're all done! Happy Halloween!