October is finally here! The days are shortening and the air is cooling here in the States. Even better, October is the month of Halloween! Yup that is right the whole month. Time to dive into our chocolate and our Halloween crafting supplies. I will admit I am pretty sure I have more Halloween stamps than any other stamps. This season I had to order some more! I just had to have two of the Halloween stamp sets from Stampin' Up. Witches' Night and Sweet Hauntings were calling my name. Click here to access the my Stampin' Up website to check out these fabulous stamps and much more.
I created these cute 3x3 Greeting Cards and storage box with the Sweet Hauntings stamp set, the Note Tag punch from Stampin' Up, and Doodlebug Halloween Parade paper. The owl sticker came from Michael's Recollection's collection that I purchased last year.
Everyone has there own way of building greeting cards. I like to start with a card blank when building my greeting cards by cutting and scoring white card stock. I prefer to only use white as my card blank, so that it is easy to right any messages you have for the recipient. For this set of cards, I cut four 3x6" pieces of card stock. I then scored them at 3" on the long side of the card. I even stamped the Stampin' Up trademark on the back. I like to try and do all my stamping on the card blank before burnishing the fold. I find it is easier to stamp that way. I did leave what will be the inside of the card blank though, because these are small note cards.
Next I started to build the card top. I very rarely do one layer cards straight on the card blank for two reasons. First, I like to have layers that frame the main design. I used two layers for this card along with some stamped and punched sentiments. I felt this gave a nice effect and more professional look to the card. Second, if I make a mistake I have not wasted a large piece of paper. There are always opportunists to fix or mask a mistake, but I feel more comfortable working on the separate smaller piece. This has just become my preference after some trial and error.
I also like to use tape runner instead of a wet glue. I find it is quick, easy and doesn't warp the paper.
I created these cards in two ways. One way was to punch the note tag shape from the black layer that measures two and three quarters of an inch. Then I attached the decorative paper (that measures 2x2 inches) layer to cove the black leaving a border around the edges. Finally I stamped one of the sentiments from the Sweet Hauntings stamp set that coordinates with the Note Tag Punch. I also used a stamp that I had from the dollar bin at Michael's on a few of the punched note tags. I attached these sentiments on top of the layered piece.
The other way was to punch the note tag out of the black on an angle. Then adhered the the decorative paper underneath the black piece. Then layered the stamped sentiment on top at an angle, as shown below.
I attached the layered pieces to the card blank, leaving some of the card blank exposed to create an additional border. I created the top for the box very similarly. I did stamp the card stock I used to create the box with the bottles in the Sweet Hauntings stamp set, to create my own tone on tone paper. I love making this type of paper and is one of the reasons I joined Stampin' Up.
Have a happy October everyone!
