A Final Tip of the Hat to Halloween for Freshly Made Sketches

Can I confess one last time that I secretly love to make Halloween cards, even though Halloween is my least favourite holiday? I think it's because of the rich colours, the great textures and the stark images. Since today is Halloween, I decided to do one last Halloween card and dedicate it to all my little grandkids who are dressing up to go trick or treating today.

I used the Freshly Made Sketches challenge for my layout:

I used the Jar of Haunts one last time and the Halloween Scenes Edgelits dies. I went all out with Halloween colours: Elegant Eggplant, Tangerine Tango, Old Olive and Basic Black, with a shot of Daffodil Delight for the moooon!

• I love that tree from the Halloween Scene Edgelits. It looks so perfect, silhouetted against the moon! And there are some great accessories in that die set as well, like the bats.
• The Jar of Haunts stamp set has that great pumpkin which looks wonderful on its own, or you can make it into a happy jack-o-lantern, or really go spooky with the mean eyes and the gooey drips. It's hard to see in the top photo, but I used the drippy stamp again at the bottom of the black card stock with the tree at the top. I embossed them with some retired Black Stampin' Emboss Powder and then fussy cut them to give the bottom of the black strip some more interest. You can see it better in the photo below:

• The background Designer Series Paper is from the Halloween Night Specialty Designer Series Paper. This is one of the designs with silver foil.
• I did some light watercolouring with the Blender Pen on the pumpkin.

I have to say that my daughters have gone all out in the costume department. One of my grandsons wanted to be a praying mantis - his latest interest and passion. Can you image? Well, my daughter down loaded a complicated pattern to make it from cardboard and this is the result:

Can you imagine the work that went into this? I hope tomorrow is dry!




















Two of my other grandkids have somewhat quirky wishes for their Halloween costumes as well. One wants to be a Princess Firefighter:

while the other wants to be an.....Aspen Tree Octopus! Bet you haven't heard that one before! Mom knitted him an Aspen Tree sweater last year. So she just had to knit some octopus tentacles this year to add to it.

You'll probably never see anything like this in your lifetime again, so take a good look!





















What are the little ones in your family dressing up as? Do you even participate in Halloween celebrations?

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Jar Of Haunts Photopolymer Stamp Set [142247]	Halloween Night Specialty Designer Series Paper [142022]	Elegant Eggplant 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [105126]	Old Olive 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100702]	Daffodil Delight 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [119683]
Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Versamark Pad [102283]	Elegant Eggplant Classic Stampin' Pad [126969]	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad [126946]
Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad [126953]	Black Stampin' Emboss Powder [109133]	Halloween Scenes Edgelits Dies [141842]	Banners Framelits Die [132173]	Layering Circle Framelits Dies [141705]
Big Shot [143263]	Paper Snips Scissors [103579]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Fast Fuse Adhesive [129026]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

Home Sweet Home Village

I was planning all sorts of paper crafting yesterday, but I got involved in one project and it took me most of the day and that's where it stopped! I had a lot of fun, but I didn't get as much done as I had planned. You see, I opened my Sweet Home Bundle, which consists of the Sweet Home Photopolymer stamp set and the Home Sweet Home Thinlits! The possibilities with this bundle are endless, but I worked on three projects: a regular house, a Christmas gingerbread house and a Halloween haunted house.

As I said, it was a lot of fun, but let me caution you that you should not attempt one of these projects unless you have an ample supply of time, fine motor skills and patience! The results will be well worth your time, but a quick, five minute project this ain't!

Here's Bonnie from Head Office to tell you a bit more:

        


Here are some different angles so you can see what I did with my little houses:

I made extensive use of the Fine Tip Glue Pen. You know, the more I use it, the better I like it! It was sure a big help with all the tiny pieces I glued on these projects. The two things to remember are to hold your piece in place for a couple of seconds to let the glue set up a bit before letting go and try really hard not to get the glue on your project as you can't use your adhesive remover on it. I found the last one difficult with all the tiny pieces, but it was only on the gingerbread door that I had issues and I fixed it by adding a new one.

• This was a pretty extensive project to give you all the ins and outs, but a couple of hints are to die cut the doors and windows and all the pieces before assembling. Glue on the doors and windows, window frames, shingles, decor and pretty much everything before assembling the house. It's much easier to add the items on a flat, horizontal surface than if it's already vertical and 3D.
• The flowers for the window boxes on the regular house were stamped and die cut using the Jar of Love stamp set and Everyday Jars Framelits. They are just the right scale for the house.
• The gingerbread man is actually just fussy cut from a piece of Candy Cane Lane Designer Series Paper.
• The door on the haunted house is embossed using the Woodgrain Embossing Folder and sponged with Soft Suede ink. The hinges and door knob are actually a dismembered bat from the Home Sweet Home thinlits. (Ewww!) The hinges are the wings and the door knob is the body!
• I die cut the windows right through the walls of the haunted house, but then stamped spider webs on the corners of a piece of Whisper White, sponged it with Smoky Slate, cut them out and glued them behind the windows so the spider webs would fit where I wanted them.

Get yourself this bundle and have fun. You can actually make a bird house and a dog house as well! Can you imagine what you could use them for?

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Sweet Home Photopolymer Stamp Set [140936]	Sweet Home Photopolymer Bundle [143516]	Jar Of Love Photopolymer Stamp Set [141587]	Jar Of Love Photopolymer Bundle [142342]	Halloween Night Specialty Designer Series Paper [142022]
Candy Cane Lane Designer Series Paper [141981]	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Mint Macaron 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [138337]	Tip Top Taupe 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [138336]
Peekaboo Peach 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [141417]	Pumpkin Pie 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [105117]	Soft Suede 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [115318]	Real Red 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [102482]	Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [120953]
Early Espresso 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [119686]	Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad [138326]	Peekaboo Peach Classic Stampin' Pad [141398]	Sweet Sugarplum Classic Stampin' Pad [141395]	Tip Top Taupe Classic Stampin' Pad [138325]
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708]	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad [131179]	Cucumber Crush Classic Stampin' Pad [138324]	Tear & Tape Adhesive [138995]	Fine-Tip Glue Pen [138309]
Home Sweet Home Thinlits Dies [140279]	Everyday Jars Framelits Dies [141490]	Big Shot [143263]	Glue Dots [103683]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]