A Silhouette Halloween

The Cameo is really getting a lot of use lately.  I'm really enjoying the flexibility of buying exactly the cutting files that I want and then modifying them to suit my needs.

This year I wanted to pull out all the stops and make Halloween special for the Trick-or-Treaters that come to our door.  We have always had the reputation among the neighborhood kids as the house with the cute decorations that gives out good candy but why rest on our laurels?  Some of the decorations from previous years were just too ratty to make it through another Halloween.  C'est dommage!  I fired up the Cameo and made yard signs, but why stop there?  There are so many cute designs available.  Who can resist Lori Whitlock's Bat candy bar wrapper or Jamie Lane's Spider Web tea light holder?  Not only were these cute but they went together quickly.

Candy bar wrapper and tea light holder.

Close-up of Spider Web tea light holder.

I made the candy bar wrappers in Halloween colors-purple, green and purple.  Only one wrapper (to fit a full size candy bar) would fit on a 12x12 inch piece of card stock so I cut the wrappers out of 8 1/2x11 inch card stock resulting in less wasted paper.  The wrapper can be resized to fit smaller candy bars.

The Spider Web tea light holder was just one of those must do projects because it's so different and so cute.  I made several and placed them along the stairs in the foyer and forgot about them.  Everyone who sees them wants to know where I bought them?  When I say that I made them, the next question is what are they made from?  They really don't look like they are made from card stock.  My husband thought they were made from craft foam and my daughter thought they were plastic.  Nope, just a battery operated tea light in a card stock holder!

Assembling the tea light holder is a little tricky and Jamie Lane no longer has the tutorial on her blog.  When removing the pieces from the cutting mat there will be a long piece perforated on both edges with tabs.  Fold the edges along the perforations and glue the tabbed end to the end with no tab. This should fit around the tea light.  Next glue the large solid circle to the outside (over the tabs) of the piece that wraps around the tea light. This is the base.Now glue the other large circle to the inside bottom.  It should cover the tabs and fit on top of the piece that formed the base of the tea light holder.  Press the top tabs down and glue the large circle with the opening in it to the inside of the top.  Then glue the other large piece over the tabs and on top of the previous circle.  Finally glue the smaller circles with the openings to the top of the tea light.  Insert the battery operated tea light in the holder.  Jamie Lane does have a tutorial on a snowman tea light holder that uses a similar construction process.

Another Halloween Yard Sign

With just about two weeks left until Halloween I have been taking every opportunity to work on projects.  The candy wrappers and tea light holders are finished and will be posted tomorrow (hopefully).  The Boo sign is almost finished and ready to put out and the something wicked sign is in progress.

Boo sign just needs the stake and it's finished!

I thought this little skeleton was so cute and envisioned her as a sign.  All of my svg files are from the Silhouette Design Store but may be available directly from the designers to the owners' of other cutting machines:  Ghoulie Girl (Boo) is a Michele Renee Cloud 9 Design, Spider Web Flourish is a Silhouette Design and the bat came from Happy Halloween by Jennifer Wambach.  All pieces of the this design were cut from Orcal vinyl (available from My Direct Vinyl).


Directions for Boo:

Silhouette SVG cutting files: Happy Halloween by Jennifer Wambach, Ghoulie Girl by Michele Rene and Spider Web Flourish by Silhouette.

Orcal Vinyl for electronic cutting machines- black, orange, dark purple, grey and white.  Available at My Vinyl Direct, limited colors are available at Michaels

Americana Craft paint- Dolphin Grey- available at Michaels

DecoArt DuraCoat Varnish

Small purple button

Small yellow crystals for the bat's eyes

Wood available at Home Depot and cut to 24 inches long by 10 inches wide

Wooden stake available at Home Depot

Small Nails

Hammer


1.  Cut the wood to 24 x 10 inches and seal with water based craft varnish and let it dry.  Varnish again and let it dry. Paint the sign with the grey paint, let it dry and repeat.  Varnish with the DuraCoat and let it dry.

2.  Size the entire Ghoulie Girl to 9.75 inches on the Silhouette mat on the computer screen. Some pieces of the file won't be on the mat but that's fine.  Ungroup the file.  Move the body, the eyes, nose and hands on Mat 1 and open a new mat.  Group the bones and skull together on Mat 2.  Open Mat 3 and move the bottom of the skull (jaw) to this mat.  Open Mat 4 and place the bow, the center circle for the bow and the smaller BOO on it.  Finally place the BOO outline on Mat 5.

3.  Place the black vinyl on the cutting mat, select vinyl on the machine, adjust the blade and cut the images from Mat 1.  Cut the images on Mat 2 in white vinyl, images from Mat 3 in grey vinyl, images from Mat 4 in orange vinyl and the image from Mat 5 in purple vinyl.

4.  Center the body on the sign, approximately 2 inches from the lower edge of the sign.  Add the Skull, jaw and the bones to the body, center the purple Boo outline on the body and overlay the orange Boo before adding the hands.  Add the eyes, nose and bow.  Smooth out any wrinkles or air bubbles with your finger tips.

5.   Open the Spider Web Flourish onto the Silhouette mat on screen and resize to approximately 5.5 inches.  Click Copy and then paste to make three more webs.  Next open the Halloween title and ungroup the title and the bat. Move Halloween from the mat and delete it.  Group the pieces of the bat together and resize to 1.75 inches. Ungroup the bat and move the eyes from the image and delete them.  Click on the bat, copy and paste 7 more bats on the screen (8 total).  Arrange the Spider Web Flourishes on the mat so that on flourish is in each corner.  Place two bats is each of the open areas of the flourish.  Select cut, load the black vinyl on the cutting mat and send to Silhouette.

6.  Carefully weed the pieces of vinyl from around the spider web flourish, remove from the mat and place one flourish in the upper right corner of the sign, smoothing out any air bubbles. Place another flourish in the lower right corner of the sign.  The ends of the upper and lower flourishes will overlap at the middle of the sign.  Repeat this procedure on the left side of the sign.

7.  Arrange the Bats around the open area in the middle of the sign.  I used a grouping of three because odd numbers are more visually pleasing.  Glue the small crystals to the bat's face for eyes.

8.  Center the wooden stake on the sign so that the top of the stake is even with the top of the sign.  Nail the stake to the back of the sign at the top and the bottom of the sign.

Halloween Yard Signs

It's been a while since I have posted a craft project, but I have been working on Halloween decorations.  The kids are just getting ready to go back to school and the stores are displaying Halloween candy and decorations.  While I'm holding on to what is left of the summer and not ready to embrace fall or it's holidays just yet, it does make sense to start working on Halloween craft projects now.

Several years ago I purchased some cute signs to decorate my walkway.  Over time the signs faded and fell apart.  Unable to find replacements I decided to make my own.  The supply list for the project is simple- wood and stakes from Home Depot, craft vinyl, paint and an electronic cutting machine.  The total cost one sign was about $5.

Finished Sign- Stake nailed to sign at top and bottom.

Finally finished and ready to attach stake.

Just need to finish the phrase!

Sign in progress.

 

After sealing the wood with craft varnish and painting it with Gesso, it was painted with two coats of acrylic craft paint.  The bat is a Treasure Box Designs file (available from the Silhouette Design Store). The phrase was also purchased from Silhouette.  The sign is slightly larger than 12 x 12 inches.  The bat was resized and printed on a laser printer using the landscape option to fit on  8 1/2 x 11 inch paper.  The image was hand cut because the wing extended past the registration marks for the Silhouette.  I did try to print the image on printable vinyl but my HP 5700 ink jet printer would not feed the vinyl through.  The bat will be applied to the sign with Mod Podge.






Directions For Yard Sign:

Orcal Black and Purple Vinyl (available from My Vinyl Direct, Cricut or Silhouette)
Batty Print and Cut file and Once Upon a Midnight Dreary quote- available from Silhouette Design Store
Piece of Wood cut slightly larger than 12x12 inches
White paper
Mod Podge-Hard Coat
Vinyl Transfer Tape- I used Cricut
Grey Craft Paint- I used two bottles of Americana
Foam Brush
Craft Varnish- I used DecoArt DuraClear
Wooden Stakes (available at Home Depot in the lumber section)
1.  Open the Batty file and place on the Silhouette mat, then open the Once Upon a Midnight Dreary file and place on the same mat.  Resize the files so that most of the Batty image fits on the lower left portion of the mat and the quote fits across the top right portion of the mat. Once you are happy with the layout, save the file.

2.  Open another mat and copy and paste the resized Batty file onto the new mat.  Add the registration marks for the Silhouette and use the Trace Outer edge and Cut options. Load plain white paper in a laser printer and print the Batty file. Place Batty on a Silhouette mat and load into the machine and cut the design.

3.  Seal the wood with the craft varnish and let it dry.

4.  Paint both sides of the wood with the grey paint.  Let it dry and then add a second coat of paint.  Set aside to dry.

5.  Open a third Silhouette mat and copy and paste the quote onto this mat.  Place the black vinyl on the Silhouette mat. I use painter's tape around the edges of the mat to keep the vinyl from slipping while it's being cut.  Load the vinyl into the machine and cut out the quote.  Carefully weed the excess vinyl from the design.  Apply transfer tape over the quote while it is still on the mat.  Position the quote on the upper right part of the sign, but don't press it in place yet.

6.  Liberally apply Hard Coat Mod Podge to the back of the Batty design and place Batty on the lower left portion of the sign.  Press in place and smooth out any air bubbles with your finger tips.  Re adjust the quote if needed.  Press the quote in place and use a brayer to secure it.

7.  Apply two more coats of Mod Podge to Batty, letting the Mod Podge dry between coats.

8.  Cut small triangles out of purple vinyl to fit around the edges of the sign.  I cut a 1/2 wide strip of vinyl and then cut the triangles from the strip, making each cut at an angle to form the triangles.  Place the triangles around the edges of the sign to make a border.

9.  Center the sign on stake making sure that the top of the stake is even with the top of the sign. Nail a wooden stake to back of the sign at the top and bottom.  I put a small nail through the purple border and then covered it with a small piece of purple vinyl.

Happy Haunting Pumpkin

This is the last of the decoupaged pumpkin posts. I had a large ivory pumpkin sitting around my studio for a couple of weeks waiting to become a project. Frankenstein is as much a part of Halloween as vampires, mummies and witches, so why not do a Frankenstein themed pumpkin? I chose the image from my "go to" Halloween cartridge (Happy Hauntings) and loaded it into the Cricut machine. This project went together very quickly- about an hour.  This pumpkin is not intended for long term outdoor use. I do intend to display the finished pumpkin on my porch on Halloween night but am using it as an indoor display until then.

Frankenstein Pumpkin

Directions for Frankenstein Pumpkin:

Modge Podge
Foam brush
Modge Podge sealant
Cricut Happy Hauntings cartridge
Black, dark green (a shade darker than the light green), light green, orange and white card stock
Recollections small gold crystal for the eyes and buttons
K&Company Tim Coffey Halloween Paper stack- for the two pumpkins
K&Company Tim Coffey Halloween Bone and Bats Layered Accents-for the bats

1.  Using the Happy Hauntings cartridge cut Frankenstein at 6 inches. Assemble Frankenstein.  Cut the cat at 3 inches. Cut the cat's bow out of a scrap of purple, green or orange card stock. Assemble the cat. Cut Happy Hauntings at 1 1/2 inches out of orange card stock (press Phrase and Frame 9), then cut the word base out of black card stock (press Phrase, Shift and Frame 9). Assemble the phrase.

2.  Apply Modge Podge liberally to the back of Frankenstein and the cat with a foam brush. Place Frankenstein on the pumpkin and the cat to his left. Press the images in place, making sure that the edges of the image are glued to the pumpkin.  Apply Happy Hauntings at the top of the pumpkin, over Frankenstein's head.

3.  Cut two pumpkins from the Tim Coffey pumpkin patterned paper. Apply Modge Podge to the back of the pumpkins and place to the right of Frankenstein's foot.

4.  Coat all of the images on the pumpkin with Modge Podge as set aside to dry. After the images are completely dry, attach the gold crystals to Frankenstein's coat and the cat's eyes.

5.  Using three bats from the Tim Coffey Layered Accents, carefully scrape the foam dots off of the back of the bats. Apply Modge Podge to the back of the bats and glue them to each side of the phrase and below the phrase, slightly to the right of Frankenstein's head.

6.  Apply a coat of Modge Podge to all of the images. Be careful not to dislodge the crystals. Set aside to dry. When the Modge Podge is completely dry, spray the front of the pumpkin with Modge Podge sealant.

Portrait de Les Squelettes

I wanted to do one more card for Halloween but didn't want to do witches, haunted houses or pumpkins. I wanted something different! I had purchased some cute K & Company skeleton stickers and wanted to use them. The skulls peering over tombstones or looking out of the windows of a haunted mansion just wasn't what I was looking for. I had just finished reading the Picture of Dorian Gray and was putting the book back on the shelf when the idea popped into my head. What about skeleton portraits? I could frame the skulls and then cover the entire card in spider webbing.

Here's the finished result. It's hard to see the spider webbing because I used a thin layer to cover the card.




Directions for Portrait de Les Squelettes:

Cricut Happy Hauntings cartridge
K & Company Tim Coffey Halloween Bone and Bats Layered Accents
Black, lime green and white card stock
K & Company Kelly Panacci Halloween Paper
Spider Webbing

1. Using the Happy Hauntings cartridge cut Frame 3 twice, once at 3 3/4 inches and the second time at 3 inches out of black card stock. Press the Phrase, Frame 3 and the Shift keys and cut the word CREEPY at 2 1/2 inches out of black card stock. Cut Frame 7 at 3 3/4 inches out of black card stock.

2. Place the lime green card stock on the Cricut mat and load into the machine. Press the Phrase and Frame 3 keys and cut the word CREEPY at 2 1/2 inches. Glue the green word over the black word base.

3. Print a Halloween greeting on the inside of the card using white card stock and a card program. Choose the half fold card option. Fold the card in half and crease.

4. Cut a piece of purple and black dot card stock from the Halloween paper to fit the front of the card. Glue in place.

5. Position the frames so the smaller frame is centered on the purple card stock approximately 4 inches from the bottom of the card. Place the larger frames below the small frame (the square frame to the right and the oval frame to the left). Glue the frames in place. Place a large skull in the center each of the 3 3/4 inch frames and a small skull in the center of the 3 inch frame.

6. Glue the word CREEPY above the smaller frame. Place a bat to the left of the word.

7. Tear off a small piece of spider webbing a pull it apart until it starts to form web strands. Cover the front of the card with the webbing a glue the loose ends under the front edges of the card.

Waiting For The Great Pumpkin

This weekend is devoted to Halloween-both decorating and working on projects. While I was out buying supplies for my up coming projects I came across a Linus and a pumpkin sticker set. I just couldn't resist it. The story of Linus waiting in the pumpkin patch for the arrival of the Great Pumpkin is one of my perennial favorites.







Directions for the Great Pumpkin card:

K & Company Kelly Panacci Halloween paper- yellow print card stock
EK Success-Peanuts Linus Halloween dimensional sticker set
K & Company Tim Coffey Halloween Grand Adhesions-pumpkins
Medium purple ribbon
Foam Dots
White card stock


1. Print a Halloween greeting on the inside of an 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch piece of white card stock. Print the card using a greeting card program and the half-fold card option. Fold the card in half.

2. Cut the yellow print card stock 7 inches high by 4 1/2 inches wide.

3. Position Linus and the pumpkin 1 1/4 inches from the bottom of the card stock. Center the image and press in place. Position two of the smaller pumpkins from the Tim Coffey set to the right and left sides of Linus and his pumpkin. Press into place.

4. Center the Halloween sticker from the Linus set approximately 1 7/8 inches above Linus' head. Then center Happy above Halloween. Position the smaller bats to the left and right of Happy and the larger bat above Linus' head and slightly to the right.

5. Attach foam dots to the back of the yellow print card stock and place it 1 1/4 inches from the bottom of the card and 1/2 inch from the fold of the card. Press into place.

6. Cut a piece of purple ribbon 5 3/4 inches. Place the ribbon slightly below the yellow print card stock. The left end of the ribbon should touch the fold of the card. Glue the ribbon in place. Tuck the remaining ribbon under the right edge of the card and glue to secure. Cut a piece of purple ribbon and tie a small bow. Center the bow over the ribbon and glue in place.

Halloween Cards

Every year I like to include some cards in my Halloween crafting because they allow me to experiment with a variety of products and techniques. Here are some of the cards that I made for 2010.



Click on the picture to enlarge the image.



Vampire Cat Directions:

Golden orange card stock
Orange card stock
Dark purple card stock
White card stock
Black card stock

Feline Count Stamp by Penny Black, Inc. (Margaret Sherry Collection)
Hampton Art Mini Flip Flops clear stamps
Sizzix Bats
Martha Stewart Bat paper punch, Martha Stewart trellis border paper punch
Dark purple ribbon
Green glitter glue
Glimmer Mist Sea Glass
Color Box black ink
Watercolors, colored pencils or markers in your choice of colors

Fold an 8 /12 inch by 11 inch piece of golden orange card stock in half.

Cut bats using the Sizzix Bat die and black card stock. Use green glitter glue for the bats eyes.
Lightly spray a piece of black card stock with Glimmer Mist Sea Glass. After the card stock is dry use the Martha Stewart punch to make three bats.

Stamp the cat on white card stock with black ink. After the ink dries color the image with watercolors, markers or colored pencils. I used watercolors for my cat. Cut the card stock to approximately 3 1/4 inches by 3 1/4 inches.

Cut the purple card stock to approximately 3 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches. Glue the white card stock on top of the purple card stock (leaving a 1/4 inch border).

Cut the orange card stock to approximately 4 inches by 4 inches. Glue purple layered card stock on top of the orange.

Cut the black card stock to approximately 4 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches. Glue the orange layered card stock on top of the black.

Cut a piece of purple ribbon and glue across the top left corner of the layered card stock. Glue another piece of ribbon across the lower right corner of the card stock. Make a small bow and glue it to the ribbon in the left hand corner.

Center the framed cat image on the golden orange card stock and attach it to the card using foam dots.

Glue the Sizzix bats across the top of the card.

Stamp the word Fright Night in black in under the framed image. Use the Mini Flip Flops phrase (Fright Night).

Glue the Martha Stewart bats around the greeting.

Cut 1/4 inch off the long edge of the card. Punch a border out of black card stock using the Martha Stewart trellis border paper punch. Place the border slightly under the edge of the card and glue in place.


Haunted House Card Directions:

Halloween card stock: black or dark grey pattern, dot pattern
Sizzix Bats die
Martha Stewart Haunted House paper punch
Circle paper punch (large circle)
Orange plaid ribbon
Green glitter glue
Black, orange, light grey and gold card stock
Hampton Art Mini Flip Flops clear stamps
Color Box black ink

Fold a piece of 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch card stock in half.

Cut the dark grey patterned card stock approximately 5 1/4 inches long by 6 inches wide.

Punch a circle out of gold card stock using the large circle punch.

Punch the Haunted House out of black card stock using the Martha Stewart Haunted House paper punch. Glue the Haunted House on top of the gold circle.

Cut a piece of the Halloween dot card stock approximately 3 1/2 inches long by 3 3/4 inches wide. Glue the gold circle to the card stock.

Cut a piece of black card stock approximately 4 inches long by 4 1/4 inches wide. Glue the dot patterned card stock on top of the black.

Cut a piece of orange card stock approximately 4 1/4 inches long by 4 1/2 inches wide. Glue the black layered card stock on top of the orange.

Cut a piece of black card stock approximately 4 1/2 inches long by 4 3/4 inches wide. Glue the orange layered card stock on top of the black.

Glue the Haunted House framed card stock one inch from the top of the dark grey patterned card stock.

Using the Mini Flip Flop stamps and black ink stamp Have a Haunted Halloween above the framed image on the dark grey patterned card stock.

Using the Sizzix Bat die and black card stock cut out several bats. Glue the bats over the Haunted House and to the left and right sides of the greeting. Aplly a small amount of green glitter glue to the bats eyes.

Cut a 2 inch long by 5 1/4 inch wide piece of Halloween dot card stock and glue to the bottom edge of the card. Glue a piece of plaid ribbon over the area where the dark grey and dot card stock pieces meet. Make a bow and attach to the ribbon.

La Sorciere

After years of use some of our Halloween decorations were looking kind of ratty and worn. Brittany and I decided it was time to replace them and headed off to our local Home Goods store to browse the Halloween section. It was there that we found a collection of interesting colorful witches unlike any thing that we had seen before. These witches had smiling green faces carved out of resin. We couldn't decide which witch to buy because all three were cute. Unfortunately Home Goods had only one of each of the styles of witches. As we debated our choice a woman came up to us and told us the witches were so cute and then patiently hoovered over us waiting for us to put the unwanted ones back on the shelf. Still indecisive and not wanting to relinquish any of them just yet Brittany suggested that we use the Mac Beth rule. The witches in Mac Beth traveled in threes. As you can see I invoked the Mac Beth rule and we came home with all three.
We added the trick or treat sign and made the witches into a display.