The first step is to open the block of clay, wrap some cling film around the clay and then roll it flat to a thickness of approximately 6mm.

Next, print out the outline of the house, cut it out and lay it on the clay. Cut it out with a butter knife.

To assemble, lift the 4 walls and press the corners together. Work the clay until the edges are neatly joined. To reinforce the corners, lay a bead on the internal of each and smooth them in.

Place this onto the canvas panel and while this is drying, we can start on the roof.

Roll the rest of the clay out in the same way as the base and cut the second shape out. Then put this aside.

To give the roof some stability we place a skewer through the top of the front to the top of the rear wall.

Next, we must let this get to what’s called the leather stage, basically this just means half dry. You can do this by sitting it in front of the hair drier for 10 minutes.

Next, we can use a hobby knife to cut the door and window shapes out. If you are not yet an adult, please get them to help you with this step.   And if you are an adult remember to use caution.

Once the door and windows are cut out, lay the roof into place. Gently press the roof into shape.  A tube is then created and flattened on all 4 sides and blended on to the roof so that it looks like a chimney. Allow this to dry. The roof wont stick to the base as the base is at the leather stage. A piece this size can take 48 hours to dry naturally or in a front of a hair drier approximately 40 mins.

We decided to create a little pumpkin to sit on the porch. To make one yourself, just roll out a ball and flatten it slightly then create the divots and add the stem.

Once our house is dry, we can paint it. The first step is to paint the roof and the base black. We can then paint brown over the black coat on the base and grey over the roof. A brick pattern is then painted on the chimney.

While these are drying, paint the canvas green and add some stepping stones. Lastly, paint the pumpkin orange and you’re done!