Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand. – Rodney Lynn Temperton

It is safe to say that 365 days is a fairly long time to wait for anything. Yet some events are more than worth the days, weeks and months of pining and patience.

In my books – and those of many others – one such happening is October 31^st.

This enchantingly magickal day houses not only Halloween, but for many Pagans, witches, and Wiccans who observe it, the sacred sabbat of Samhain as well.

There is almost a sense of disbelief that greets me when my eyelids blink open on the morning of Halloween/Samhain (I observe both events, seeing them as being akin to two sides of a coin).

Can it really and truly be October 31^st? Have I fallen asleep on an icy February night or a sizzling hot July afternoon and dreamt that All Hallows’ Eve had returned once more?

Awesomely, today is not a figment of one’s imagination. Halloween/Samhain is real, it is magnificent, and it never fails to be even more incredible and meaningful than I could have hoped for.

On this day, the veil between the worlds is the thinnest (in the Western Hemisphere). Mystery hangs in the air like a chorus of bats dangling from a fall maple tree branch.

Halloween swirls with nostalgia, spine-chilling thrills, a glut of sweet treats, old favourites, new ways of celebrating, and the promise of a day filled with intrigue and enjoyment.

As much as I could (gleefully) wax poetically at length about Halloween and Samhain alike, I know that plenty of us are very, very busy today, so I shalln’t keep you for too long.

Here, on the last and final day of October, when spirits drift through the nippy fall air, grinning pumpkins peer out from porches near and far, and magick of all kinds reigns supreme, I am popping in to share one of my latest Halloween cards with all of you.

Sweetly spooky multi-layer Halloween card

Here on the blog, October began with a Spooky Multi-Window Halloween Ghost Shaker Card that featured a colour palette of dark blue, black, cream, gold, and copper.

Thirty-one days on, a good chunk of that same colour palette returns in the card featured in this post.

Gone, however – much as on many of the local trees that now sit barren until spring jolts them back to life again – are the warm autumnal hues of sunshine and fire.

From the colour scheme to the imagery, I set out to create a Halloween card that channelled the dark, inky evening hours of this resplendent annual happening.

A realm filled with things that go bump in the night, where shadows seem to take on a life of their own, and which those of us who celebrate Halloween and/or Samhain are likely to have many fond memories of throughout our lifetimes.

A touch eerie, but considerably more sweet and charming, this card is a multi-layered symphony of All Hallows’ Eve related imagery, merriment, and the timeless soul that embodies October 31^st.

It features a palette of midnight blue, jet black, grey the colour of cold sidewalks, ghostly white, and a wee hint of gunmetal (via the pearl embellishments).

Only one patterned paper appears on this card. That of the black tree silhouetted against a dark blue sky. This layer is subtle though, and that is intentional.

Much like how one often begins to make out their surroundings more clearly after you’ve been outside in the dark for a while and your eyes have had a chance to adjust, so too did I want there to be little details to this greeting that take a moment to spot.

Vellum – a most apt and delightful material to use on Halloween cards – appears here three times. One of which creates a ghostly base for the “Happy Halloween” sentiment before extending on to the top of the design.

This card takes a little while to compose due to the volume of die cutting involved. However, the materials required are (aside from the dies) both relatively minimal in number and fairly budget-friendly to boot.

You could recreate this All Hallows’ Eve card in different colours – think, orange, black and green or an earthy harvest season combination, for example – if so desired and it would be no less festively fantastic.

If you are aiming to channel Halloween night itself, though, then I would suggest sticking with at least one or two intensely saturated shades and, likewise, one or two paler ones to help convey a sense that darkness is indeed falling across the land…

Products used to make this beautiful blue and black Halloween trick-or-treat card

-Black, light grey, navy blue, and white cardstock

-Pearlized white paper or cardstock – Cool Metallic Sheets from The Paper Company

-White vellum – Vellum from Core’dinations

-Dark blue night sky and tree silhouette print paper – Full Moon Night Sky Paper from Ella & Viv

-Leaf frame die with an oval aperture

-“Spooky” and “Trick-or-Treat” wavy word dies – Halloween Trimmings Dies from Studio Katia

-“Happy Halloween” oval shaped sentiment die

-Various small pumpkin, bat, spider, spiderweb, and cat-shaped dies

-Decorative edge scissors – Heartbeat Paper Edgers from Fiskars

-White gel pen – Signo White Gel Pen from Uniball

-Two sizes of dark grey/gunmetal coloured pearl embellishments (silver pearls could be used here, too)

-Liquid glue with a very fine tip nozzle (or use double-sided adhesive sheets with your die cut layers when cutting them out)

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

How to make a festively spooky multi-layered Halloween night themed card

To begin with, I suggest die cutting (and, where applicable adhering) each of the layers that you’ll be using for this handmade Halloween card in advance, as doing so will help speed up the process of putting your card together.

Cut two layers (one light grey, one black) of the leaf frame. Then, once adhere to each other, cut your layered frames in half vertically down the center, as you will be using half of this frame on each side of the middle of your card.

Cut two layers (one white, one black) of the “spooky” and “trick or treat” curved words

Cut two layers (one light grey, one blue) of the leaf frame.

Cut two layers (one pearlized white paper or cardstock, one black) of the “Happy Halloween” sentiment and cobweb-filled oval piece.

Cut two layers (one white, one black) of the bats, pumpkins, spiders, spiderweb, and cat.

Once you have die cut and adhered these layers together, it is time to start assembling your Halloween card.

Start your design with a card base made from white cardstock (pale grey would work well here, too).

Cut a piece of white vellum slightly smaller than your card base and then adhere it to the card base.

Position and adhere the light grey and black (die cut) leaf frame halves on the center of the vellum layer.

Use decorative edge scissors (or a suitable border punch) to cut a piece of dark blue (or navy blue) cardstock slightly smaller than the vellum layer.

Utilize a ruler and a white gel pen to hand draw stitching lines around the edges of this piece, then attach it to vellum + leaf frame layers.

Cut a large rectangle from black cardstock. Top it with a layer of vellum that is just a teeny bit smaller than the black cardstock itself. Adhere these two layers to one another, then to the previous card base layers.

Top those two layers with a piece of Ella & Viv nighttime sky and tree print paper, cutting the top and bottom edges with the same decorative edge scissors (or border punch) used previously on this project. Adhere this layer of paper to the latest vellum layer.

Next, take the second pair of leaf frames that you die cut earlier and back the oval opening with a piece of vellum. Top this vellum with the “Happy Halloween” sentiment pieces. Adhere across the center of the vellum oval.

Use the smaller of the two sizes of dark grey/gunmetal coloured pearl embellishments to create an oval ring around the border of the central oval opening (see photo immediately above).

Arrange and adhere your die cut “Spooky” and “Trick-or-Treat” wavy words across the top and bottom of the central card panel.

Place layered die cut Halloween critters and pumpkins around the card, as shown in the photos here (or, however you please).

Adhere the larger of the two dark grey/gunmetal coloured pearl embellishments on some of the central panel layers, also as shown.

And there you have it, one sweet, spooky, and thoroughly eye-catching Halloween evening themed card that is sure to bring howls of happiness to any lucky soul who receives it.

Joyful Halloween and Samhain wishes to one and all!

Fellow Thriller fans may have spotted that the quote which begins today’s post is from that wildly iconic Michael Jackson hit, which many of us make a point of listening to on Halloween.

While just a few words long, it does a stellar job of capturing the sense of anticipation and elation alike that October 31^st delivers.

Halloween is as much a day (and night) of possibility and promise as it is of mystery and hair-raising fun.

The card featured in this post, naturally, falls squarely under the header of a #MakeHalloween365 project.

A huge and incredibly heartfelt thank you to everyone who has used this hashtag not only throughout October, but since its launch back in March of this year.

So much of the driving force behind the creation of this hashtag was, and is, for oodles of people to embrace and derive inspiration from Halloween throughout the entirety of the year.

I plan to continue sharing at least one new Halloween themed project here with you every month for the foreseeable future.

This means that my fellow Halloweenoholics can join me in (quite literally) making Halloween an amazing part of our lives the whole year through.

And I enthusiastically encourage you to keep using #MakeHalloween365 long after Halloween 2021 has wrapped up, as this festively fun hashtag is fully intended for ongoing year-round use by one and all.

For many years now, I have opted to focus a lot of my Samhain related happenings in the early morning and late evening hours of October 31^st. The time that sits between these two points in the day is filled primarily with Halloween activities of all sorts.

Objectively though, for me personally, there is a lot of crossover between the two and each one helps to ensure that my undying love for All Hallows’ Eve grows stronger with each passing year.

With the pandemic still going strong, we are once again foregoing holding a Halloween party at our house (something that we did for several years running before Covid gripped the planet).

Instead, much like last year, Tony and I will celebrate the holiday here at our house with mom (who only lives an hour’s drive away from us).

Costumes will be donned, candy piled high in multiple bowls, ready to hand out to all who come knocking; beloved movies will be watched and songs listened to on repeat, a festively themed jigsaw puzzle will be done, and we will nosh on plenty of hauntingly delicious fare.

What does this Halloween/Samhain (or Beltane, for those in the Southern Hemisphere) look like for you?

Are you as excited as I am that October 31^st has returned again at long last?

However you spend this today – be it a time of sacred reverence, lighthearted fun, chilling suspense, or simply the final day of the year’s 10^th month – I am sending my unending wishes your way for a sweetly spooky October 31^st.

Have a safe, incredibly happy Halloween/Samhain, dear friends!

The post Sweetly Spooky Multi-Layer Halloween Card, and The Happiest of Samhain + Halloween Wishes Coming Your Way! appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Or at least it is for me.

And yet…

The card featured in this post might just be my favourite I’ve ever made.

Not just this year, not just in the past few years, but during the whole of my time as a paper crafter.

Definitely in the top five for sure and, again, very possibly my absolute favourite to date.

I had a vision of how I wanted this card to look in my mind’s eye and the end result exceeded my hopes and expectations. The whole project flowed beautifully and I am pleased as punch with how it turned out.

I have dubbed this gothic-inspired card “Summertime Sunrise Over the Cemetery”, as that is the scene it depicts. (Though a similar sight could be observed in the spring or very early fall around these Western Canadian parts as well.)

Passionate taphophile that I am, I’ve spent many an early morning (and late night and afternoon… basically all hours of the day ) witnessing breathtaking sunrises break in the heavens above various cemeteries and graveyards.

It was to these meaningful memories that I turned when creating this sunrise, weeping willow, and headstone filled greeting.

A card that just happens to suit Summerween to a tee. (And which I’m sharing here as my #MakeHalloween365 project share entry for July.)

That’s right, my dear friends, it’s time to delve into another fabulous Halloween-inspired take on a holiday or season. So grab an ice-cold drink (may I suggest black lemonade) and come along as we explore the ins and outs of Summerween.

What is Summerween?

If you’ve seen my Valoween or Springoween blog posts, you may be familiar with the fact that I’m wild about embracing each and every October 31^st inspired holiday and season possible.

You might also have deduced by now (based on its name) as to what Summerween entails.

In short, Summerween approaches summer and looks for ways to inject as much of the spooky spirit of Halloween as possible into the hottest chapter of the year (on this side of the equator).

Perhaps, however, of all the annual events and seasons that can “Halloweenifed”, so to speak, Summerween often remains the most lighthearted.

Summerween is the beach goth of the seasons.

It is a fun-loving way of merging the sizzling hot days of summer with the eerie, iconic, and wonderfully enjoyable elements of Halloween that many of us hold dear.

As with Valoween and Springoween, I did not invent #Summerween myself.

Much like those two spooky happenings, from what I can find, Summerween seems to have largely come about organically from multiple sources, fuelled greatly by those of us who proudly belong to the #EverdayisHalloween crowd.

Interestingly, the concept of Summerween being a specific holiday instead of a season-long theme got a helping hand from the animated cartoon series Gravity Falls.

In episode 12 of season 1, we see the townsfolk preparing for, and then celebrating, Summerween on June 22^nd.

Why are they doing so? Because, like many of us, the good people of Gravity Falls adore Halloween so much they feel the need to celebrate it twice each year.  

Hugely relatable, let me tell you!

In the real world, some people may prefer to celebrate Summerween as a single day (or weekend), whereas others are all about pumpkins, bats, and ghosts the whole season long. Rest assured that either, or anything in between, is A-okay.

Halloween-inspired takes on existing events and seasons do not come with any hard and fast rules, and can be embraced however one desires. Indeed, that’s part of their charm and fun!

How to get a Summerween aesthetic

A fa-boo-lous place to get inspiration and ideas when it comes to Summerween is the blog Spooky Little Halloween, where the author, Miranda, has shared numerous Summerween related posts over the years.

(I especially adore her Summerween recipe posts, including those for 11 Halloween S’mores Perfect for the Campfire and Easy 4 Layer Halloween Ice Scream Cake.)

Be sure to also check out Miranda’s social media accounts as she shares plenty of terrific Summerween inspiration there as well.

I love to do the same myself too and have a Pinterest board dedicated solely to Summerween, which you’ll want to visit for lots more hauntingly enjoyable sunny season inspiration and ideas.

Summerween is a delightful way to marry summer with notes of spookiness. You can, for example, pick a general theme such as a haunted road trip, a dreamy tropical beach, a hair-raising summer camping trip, or a gorgeous sunny weather garden and “Halloweenify” to your heart’s content.

Some of the ways that you can achieve a Summerween aesthetic for your home, a party, or most any other reason include the following:

-Carving various summertime fruits and vegetables into jack-o-lanterns. As demonstrated in these two posts, watermelons and pineapples lend themselves especially well to getting the jack-o-lantern treatment.

And speaking of pumpkins, why not decorate with a palette of summertime coloured options.

You could utilize vibrant, even neon, shades; take things in a soothing and relaxing direction with whites, light greys, mint green, and soft pink, or look to the seas and go with a nautical colour scheme of reds, whites, blues, and sandy beiges.

-Draw (or cut out and adhere) a jack-o-lantern face on a beachball or volleyball for a smile-inducing summertime take on fall pumpkins.

-Include summertime flowers amongst your more traditional fall décor. Why not use a plastic (or real) pumpkin as a vase for some of your favourite summertime blooms?

Or you could create a centrepiece of flowers and pumpkins, partner the season’s first sunflowers with pumpkins or other Halloween elements, or design a wreath that included summer blooms and iconic fall pieces (such as skeletons, witch’s brooms, ghost figures, headstones, bats, spiders, owls, or skulls).

-Decorate a Halloween witch’s hat with summer blooms and use it as a centrepiece or décor item elsewhere in your house.

-Serve summertime drinks in Halloween cups and mugs (or vice versa). Add cute paper umbrellas, swizzle sticks, and tropical fruits to each glass for a fabulous summer meets October vibe.

-Purchase or make some delightful Summerween themed art. Summerween is catching on, especially with diehard Halloween lovers and as a result more and more fantastic Summerween themed art (as well as other products, including enamel pins, clothing, and beach towels) is hitting the market.

Some Etsy artists who are currently selling art prints that either specifically focused on Summerween or which work splendidly for a Halloween take on summer include:

–Carrie Anne Hudson Art (who also sells Summerween perfect enamel pins, such as this awesome tropical drink cauldron pin.)

–Fred Lanthier

–Ghost Girl Greetings

–Mythical Studios

–Spooky Ghost Shop

–The Littlest Spook Shop

As well, Spooky Yeti Studio has adorable summer ghost postage stamp shaped stickers and Hannah of Fall Trades offers cute and cheerful Summerween bookmarks (which would be perfect for your favourite beach reads!).

Summerween décor can be just about anything you can dream up. The key is to inject a sense of October 31^st into the sun-kissed months in whatever way(s) you wish.

Let your imagination take flight and have a blast celebrating the awesomeness of All Hallows’ Eve all summer long.

Now, let’s take a gander look at how you too can make your own summer sunrise over the cemetery card like the one featured in this post.

Products used to make this Distress Oxide Ink blended sunrise over the cemetery card

-Black cardstock

-Four different shades of light to dark grey cardstock

-White cardstock (for the card base – or use a premade 5×7 inch white card base instead)

-Thicker white cardstock (that takes well to ink blending) – Ultra White Smooth Premium (100lb) Cardstock from Spectrum Noir

-Silver metallic cardstock

-Weeping willow tree frame die

-Tree lined hill die (or, alternatively, you could achieve a similar look by applying different shades of grey ink through a tree covered hill design stencil)

-Headstone lined hill die

-Headstone die

-Victorian frame inspired embossing folder – 3D E3D – 017 Oval Accent Embossing Folder from Spellbinders

-Various shades of Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink, as follows:

For the yellow sun: Wild Honey, Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, and Antique Linen

For the sunrise: Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Hickory Smoke, Weathered Wood, Milled Lavender, Tattered Rose, Pumice Stone, and Victorian Violet

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

Note: To create a mask for the sun portion of the ink blended sky, punch or die cut two small nested circles from cardstock or paper. I used the Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Large Circle Dies set to die cut the two circles I needed for this project.

How to make a gothic summertime graveyard card

Begin by making a 5×7 inch card base from white cardstock (or use a premade card blank/base of the same dimensions).

You can then make the other elements of this card in whatever order you prefer.

I created my Distress Oxide Ink blended sky – with a masked and then inked glowing sun – before proceeding on to the die cuts (including one weeping willow frame made from silver metallic cardstock and another from very light grey cardstock) and the embossed frame.

For the ink blended sky, aim to have a halo of lighter coloured ink around the sun, so as to heighten the realism of a sunrise filled sky.

Next, arrange and adhere the layers of hill die cut shapes starting from lightest to dark, as this mirrors how objects in the foreground and background, respectively, often appear – especially in low light settings such as the early morning sunrise depicted on this card.

Arrange the weeping willow frames so that their branches overlap and create a lovely arch of foliage. To do this, you will flip the light grey cardstock die cut weeping willow frame over and use the backside to create a mirror image with the same piece cut from silver metallic cardstock.

Once you’re happy with the placement of the weeping willow frames, adhere them in place and proceed to arrange and adhere the headstone die cut between the trucks of the two weeping willow trees.

Using black cardstock, emboss a Victorian inspired frame piece and attach it to the cardstock. I opted to distress my black frame in various spots to give it even more of an aged, gothic look. You can leave your pristine, if you prefer. Either way will look fantastic!

Adhere the frame to the cardstock and top it with the ink blended + die cut covered panel.

If you wish, you can die cut a third weeping willow frame and use it to adorn the interior of your card (as shown above).

And there you have it, with a bit of ink blending, die cutting, and embossing, you have one serene, spooky, and splendidly Summerween appropriate card ready to go.

Send it out now, or, if you prefer, wait to give this sunrise at the cemetery card to a fellow Halloween loving soul (or taphophile) come October.

Birthday celebrations, now with even more Summerween!

Tomorrow just happens to be my birthday (I’ll be 37, for those inquiring minds out there ).

Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to have a Halloween-themed b-day. Now, thanks in no small part to the advent of Summerween doing so is now all the more possible.

With the pandemic still going strong and the fact that not everyone in our circle (myself included) has received their second Covid vaccine yet, my b-day this year is going to be another very lowkey one without a big party or public gathering.

However, together Tony, my mom and I will happily make the best of it and are going all-in on the Summerween side of things.

Or should I say, the Birthdayween side of things!

After all, there are only 113 days separating July 10^th and October 31^st.

What Halloween lover amongst us wouldn’t want to have an All Hallows’ Eve related celebration little more than 3.5 months before the big day itself returns?

We’ll be doing a Halloween jigsaw puzzle (I’m an avid puzzler), playing Halloween themed board games (including the Disney Hocus Pocus boardgame, which my very thoughtful mama gifted me with last fall), watching some of our fave Halloween shows and movies, and eating delicious Halloween related foods.

Basically, my dream way to celebrate my birthday.

I’d love to share in the festivities with more of my friends and relatives, but the three of us (plus, our darling dog, Annie, of course) will have a blast all the same.

And with a bit of luck, hopefully, come this time next year, a larger group of our loved ones will be able to get together for birthdays, holidays, and everyday hangouts alike again.

As I blow out the candles on my GF pumpkin spice cake tomorrow, you can bet that a swift end to the pandemic will be one of the things I wish for most of all.

And, on a less somber note, an early autumn that lingers late into the year will be another.

No matter if that comes to pass or not, thanks to Summerween we can celebrate Halloween all sunny season long. An act that helps to ramp up one’s excitement for the actual return of October 31sts all the more, especially as summer is the last season before fall’s arrival.

Thus, Summerween becomes an extra fun and festive way to countdown to Halloween and is perfect for those amongst us who love to get our All Hallows’ Eve on year-round.

Have you heard of Summerween before? What are some of your favourite ways to inject spookiness into the summer months?

PS: Fun – and rather cool – fact, this year my birthday coincides with July’s new moon.

I am using this point to focus many of my current magickal workings on new starts, banishing, healing, serenity, and renewal – and invite you to do the same as well, if so desired.

The post Spooky Summertime Sunrise Over the Cemetery Card (Plus, What is Summerween?) appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

It is awesome to see the positive reaction that this Halloween crafting hashtag has already received. Thank you very much to everyone who has supported and engaged with this hashtag right out of the gate.

I am excited to watch #MakeHalloween365 blossom and grow, like the loveliest of autumn pumpkins, into a thriving hashtag community for Halloween crafters and creative folks the world over.

To that end, I’m delighted to share my own contributions to the tag and have decided that this year (and quite possibly beyond), I’m going to be posting at least one Halloween themed craft project per month here on the blog.

Some will have accompanying YouTube videos as well.

Not only will this help to generate more content for which to use and share the #MakeHalloween365 hashtag, but it will go a long way to ensuring I have plenty of Halloween paper crafting projects ready go when fall returns.

If you enjoy Halloween related crafting of any kind – be it paper crafting or otherwise – and would like to join me in sharing at least one Halloween craft project a month, I wholeheartedly welcome you to do so.

Of course, you do not have to do so in order to use #MakeHalloween365. Whether you create one, five, twenty, or a hundred Halloween craft projects throughout year, you are always welcome to use this hashtag.

One of my favourite elements of fall time is the gorgeous display of colours that the sky often takes on as the sun sets.

We live deep in the heart of a narrow valley, so we don’t get to see as many sunsets as in certain other parts of the world. Thankfully though, we still experience some, with those of October and November often being amongst the most breathtakingly beautiful.

Throughout the year, I often think fondly (and longingly) of those gorgeous displays of overhead autumnal colour.

Recently, I was in the mood to celebrate them in paper crafting form.

And so set to work creating this oversized tag that features a sunset tucked behind a classic four-pane window that comes complete with a dangling spider to up the spookiness factor all the more.

Products used to make this handmade oversized Halloween tag

-Black cardstock

-Grey cardstock

-White cardstock

-Orange and black bat print paper – Halloweeny 12”x12” Paper Pad from Recollections

-Peachy-orange embossed skull cardstock – Embossed Halloween 6”x6” Paper Pad from Recollections

-Black embossed bat cardstock – Embossed Halloween 6”x6” Paper Pad from Recollections

-Teal and peach print paper – Splendor Lovely Paper from My Mind’s Eve

-Black (or other colour) oversized tag – 4 1/8” x 8.5” Dylusions Black Journaling Tag from Ranger

-Window with dangling spider die

-Flourish die

-Polka dot border punch – Double Bubble Border Punch from Fiskars

-Black and cream journaling pieces – Narratives by Karen Russell from Creative Imaginations

-Black ink pad – Autumn Leaves Onyx Black Ink Pad from Stampology

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads in the following colours: Pumice Stone, Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade, and Stormy Sky

-Black enamel drops – Ebony Black Crystal Drops from Nuvo

-Pleated black satin ruffle trim

-Black lace

-Teal green seam binding

-Orange ribbon

-Blue and green ribbon

-Blue embroidery thread

-Peach embroidery thread

-Black buttons

-Teal buttons – Charm Pack G0R356102 from Santoro

-Small peach ribbon flower embellishments

-Blue paper flower

-Glue gun and glue sticks

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

Note: Following on what I said in my last project share post regarding the requests I received to give more in-depth project instructions, it struck me that it is logical to list the materials used in a given project and then proceed with the instructions themselves. Thus, I will be doing just that starting with this post.

How to create a beautiful peach and teal Halloween sunset window oversized tag

Start with a black (or other colour) oversized tag 4 1/8” x 8.5” Dylusions Black Journaling Tag from Ranger.

If you do not have a tag this size on hand, you could use a ruler to draw the same dimensions onto a piece of sturdy cardstock or chipboard, cut your handmade tag out, and use that instead.

As well, the general layout of this tag lends itself excellently to a card, so that is another alternative to making a tag that still works great with this particular Halloween window design.

Next, trim a piece of teal and peach print My Mind’s Eye paper slightly smaller than the tag front and punch two pieces of grey cardstock the same size as the top and bottom edges of the MME paper using a Fiskar’s Double Bubble border punch.

Attach the grey punched cardstock to the top and bottom of the teal and peach paper and adhere this to your tag base.

Cut two pieces of peachy-orange embossed skull cardstock and distress them with some fine sandpaper or a nail file to give them more of an aged, worn look.

Apply a small amount of Pumice Stone Distress Oxide Ink and a very light amount of black ink in various spots across both pieces of embossed cardstock to give even more of a distressed and aged appearance.

Back both of these pieces of embossed cardstock onto black cardstock, leaving a very narrow visible border of black cardstock on all sides.

Arrange one panel towards the bottom of the teal and peach print MME paper and another (horizontally) about halfway down the total length of the tag.

Select three cream and black journaling pieces, topping two of them with pieces of orange and black bat print paper. Arrange as desired slightly above and below the middle of the tag.

Die cut two flourish shapes from black cardstock, arranging them just below the middle of the tag.

Cut a piece of black embossed bat pattern cardstock that’s a little over half the length of the MME teal and peach paper, trimming it just slightly smaller than the width of that panel. Attach with either adhesive or foam dots, if added dimension is desired.

To create the fall sunset panel, begin with a piece of white cardstock. Use Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads in the following colours: Pumice Stone, Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade, and Stormy Sky to make an ink blended sky. Apply a light dusting of water to the ink once you’ve blended it.

Next, die cut the window (with spider) shape from grey cardstock. If you do not have a die like this (I picked mine up 2 – 3 years ago on Ali Express), you could use any suitable window shaped die of your choosing and (optionally) add a die cut spider, spider charm, spider sticker, or even a small black spider toy to the window instead.

Apply black enamel drops to the spider and allow to dry before attaching the grey cardstock window piece to your inked sunset background.

If you do not have black enamel drops, you could use black embossing powder, black glitter, black Stickles, or colour the spider with a black marker or pencil crayon instead (or simply leave it as is for a uniformed grey look).

Attach the window panel to the tag base. Thread the round black and heart shaped teal buttons with embroidery thread and arrange them as shown. Likewise place the peach ribbon flowers and blue paper flower as shown around the base and sides of the window panel.

Top the window panel with a piece of black lace to create the look of a valance.

Beneath the window panel, adhere a piece of black ruffle trim, a piece of teal green seam binding, and a piece of orange ribbon.

Tie a basic bow from a piece of the same black lace that you used for the window valance and attach it below the blue paper flower.

Lastly, cut one piece each of teal green seam binding, orange ribbon, and blue (with green edges) ribbon, or other ribbons and trims of your choosing, and tie them through the hole at the top of the tag.

Your Halloween sunset window tag is now complete and ready to be enjoyed as part of your festive décor or gifted to whomever your heart desires.

It’s never too soon to start counting down to – or crafting for – Halloween

From the get-go of this blog’s life, I have wanted to make fall/Halloween/Samhain relating crafting a big part of the projects that I share here.

Things got off to a decent start on that front in 2020, WCL’s first year of life.

However, I feel that thanks to #MakeHalloween365, I will be able to amp up my Halloween crafting all the more. And, in turn, help to make it a standout element of my blog, Instagram, and YouTube channel.

As of today’s date, March 28th, there are 217 days to go until Halloween.

While I do not want that time to vanish too quickly (after all, each day behind us is, objectively, one less in front of us), as a perpetual Halloween lover, it just comes naturally to me to countdown until All Hallows’ Eve the whole year through.

Whether you do the same or not, I hope that the Halloween projects I share here and those posted by others who use the #MakeHalloween365 hashtag will prove inspirational as you go about making your own fall and Halloween themed creations of all kinds.

Here’s to a year of fa-boo-lous Halloween fun and crafting! I can hardly wait to see what you all make!

The post Beautiful Halloween Sunset Window Oversized Tag appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

I’m one of those people for whom October 31^st is so much more than “just” a single day or brief chapter of the fall.

It is #Halloween365 year-round in my house, my heart, my wardrobe, my spiritual path, and most definitely my paper crafting!

To me, themes and imagery of Halloween, Samhain, and autumn time align with my deepest self, and I am often at my happiest when I get to connect with All Hallows’ Eve in ways that are personally meaningful.

If I’m able to share those with others – be they kindred #Halloweeneveryday team members or not – I’m on cloud nine.

Recently I created this fun shaker card which taps into some of the spookiness of Halloween, while still being appropriate at other times of the year – especially if the recipient is a fellow Samhain adoring witch.

Heartfelt Thanks Bat Sequins Shaker Card

While many people are busily whipping up cute, sweet and beautiful Valentine’s Day cards, I’m busily digging through a plastic storage tower for a little container of bat-shaped sequins.

I smile to myself as this point hits me, Halloween patterned papers sprawled across my desk as, outside, it snows for the umpteenth time this winter.

I enjoy a good Feb. 14^th project, too, please don’t get me wrong. At the moment though, my mind is delightfully focused – as per usual – on the end of October.

Like a lot of my paper crafting projects, the idea behind this card came about quite organically. I often pull out various supplies and let them speak to me, if you will, playing around with combinations and ideas until I hit upon one that seals the deal.

I knew that I wanted to create a thank you card with strong components of both gothic and Halloween styling and that a shaker card was the order of the day.

As is usual for me, I started by making a good-sized card base. In this instance, I used that beloved favourite of paper crafters everywhere – kraft cardstock.

The card base for this project measures just over 7 inches tall and 5.75 inches wide (excluding the portions of the design that extend beyond the card base itself.

Layers upon layers upon layers

I love layers. Seriously love them. I genuinely struggle most of the time if I have to make a project with just one or two layers.

That doesn’t mean that everything I create is twelve layers deep, but chances are, there are at least a few layers to give the project a sense of depth, dimension and increased visual interest.

This bat filled shaker card was no exception.

Putting this Halloween Thank You Card Together

After creating my card base from kraft cardstock, I die cut two deckle-edged squares. One in dark rusty orange, the other in a fabulous Halloween floral print piece of paper from DCWV that features teeny skulls in the center of each bloom.

I then used two smaller dies from the same nested die set to cut out the middle layers here. These are the green and glossy black cardstocks you see here (if I could buy stock in Tonic’s glossy black mirror card, I happily would!).

Using the same sized die and a smaller sized die from that set, I created the kraft cardstock frame for the shaker element of this card.

Before I layered the middle layers onto the orange cardstock, I used pinking shear scissors (a nod to the deckle edging of the die cut pieces) to trim a strip of green cardstock. I topped this piece with a strip of the same skull flower paper used in the background.

Once the middle layers were in place (elevated with foam squares), I created the shaker element of this card.

The background orange and black bat print paper that I used for my shaker is from the same DCWV Curiosities 6×6 inch mat stack.

I love using mesh, lace and tulle for shaker cards, so I opted for some finely woven black mesh as the “window” part of my spooky shaker.

Into the shaker card went a mix that I created of olive green, terracotta red, and classic gold sequins, to which I added the star of the show, black bat-shaped sequins.

I attached the shakers window to the middle layers with foam dots. I then embellished the frame of the shaker with bat-shaped black sequins and small black rhinestones (gems), as well as a sentiment strip that was capped off on each end with an ambery gold hued rhinestone.

To give the sentiment strip a greater sense of dimension, I gently curved it in the middle before applying it to my project.

Next, I repeated the skull flower paper with a thin band at the bottom of the card. Immediately above this, I placed an even smaller band of the same dark orange cardstock I used earlier.

After that, I die cut leaves in two different colours of green cardstock along with a stitched heart die cut from the same orange cardstock I’d already used.

I ever-so-lightly inked my leaves in shades of ink just a whisper darker than their respective cardstock colours. I then clustered the leaves and hearts, topped each heart with an ambery gold heart-shaped rhinestone, tucked round rhinestones in the same colour around the horizontal strips of paper in the middle of the card, and set about die cutting the “thank you” part sentiment.

To do this, I used a “heartfelt thanks” word die and cut out two matching sentiments. One in glossy black mirror cardstock, the other in the same olive green used elsewhere on my card. I intentionally offset the two colours to create a layered shadow effect.

I also die cut a stitched heart from the same green paper, which I placed between the two words and topped with one final bat sequins.

For one final hit of sequins, I placed individual orange and gold coloured sequins on four of the green leaves, alternating (diagonally) the colours on the top and bottom sets of leaves (which, I had arranged in the same way, with alternating colours on both sets).

I created my message space inside the card and with that, this festively fall time inspired make was complete, ready and waiting to fly like a bat in the night to its recipient.

Card making tips and ideas from this project

-Use glossy (and/or metallic) papers and cardstock in selective areas to add sheen and really help a project pop.

-Ink or otherwise colour, such as with pencil crayons or markers, your die cuts for greater depth and, in some cases, to help them look more lifelike.

-Repeat the same sequins that you used in your shaker elsewhere on your card.

-When working with bold, eye-catching colours, ground them with a neutral shade. In this case, I used kraft, but white, cream, light brown, or even black could have worked here as well (had I gone with black, I likely would have swapped the glossy black cardstock for a different paper or cardstock).

-Turn square-shaped dies into diamond-shaped ones by rotating the angle of the square when you adhere it to your project.

-Not all leaves need flowers and vice versa. While we often associate the two as going together like peanut butter and jelly, either can look spectacular in its own right – especially if you use two or more colours to help them stand out all the more.

-Curve your sentiment strips. Whether they’re premade or handmade, cardstock, paper, vellum, cork or another type of pliable material, curving your sentiments lends a great sense of dimension to your make.

-Use a patterned paper as the background for your shaker – especially if you’ve primarily, or solely, used solid colours elsewhere on your project.

Patterned paper from smaller sized pads, such as 6×6 inch and 8×8 inch pads, with their inherently smaller sized prints often work especially well for the relatively modest sized amount of space available behind your sequins or other shaker elements (this background are is also a fun spot to place part, or all, of your sentiment – provided it can be read when the card is at rest).

-If you don’t have glossy paper or cardstock, but want the look for your sentiments or other elements of your project, top them with clear embossing powder (Wow Clear Embossing Powder is a good option), Glossy Accents, or a similar clear glaze product that dries to a translucent finish.

Products to help you recreate this Bat Sequins Shaker Thank You Card

-Cardstock in kraft (you could use taupe or light brown instead), dark orange, olive green, and medium green.

-Glossy black cardstock – I used Tonic Studio Glossy Black Mirror Cardstock

-Bat and skull flower print papers – I used two prints from the 6×6 inch DCWV Curiosities Mat Stack

-Sentiment strip – I used a die cut piece from Gracious Elements Die Cuts by Authentique

-Corresponding ink in a shade just slightly darker than that of your cardstock leaves – I used Morocco and Pistachio from Tsukineko’s Memento line of ink pads

-Ink to edge some of the paper and cardstock layers – I used Cottage Ivy and Toffee Crunch from Tsukineko’s Memento line of ink pads

-Pinking shears or pinking edge decorative scissors – I used Fiskars Paper Edgers in Mini Pinking

-Set of deckle-edged square shaped nesting dies

-Thank you sentiment mental die (or use stamps, stickers, rub-ons, or sentiment die cut pieces instead)

-Leaf-shaped metal dies

-Stitched heart-shaped metal die

-Round and heart-shaped dark golden yellow rhinestones (gems) – mine are from the “Crafts” brand sold at Dollarama stores

-Small black rhinestones (gems)

-Black tulle

-Green, orange, and gold round sequins

-Black bat shaped sequins

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

Halloween cards, not just for Halloween

Naturally, there are some recipients who would be more welcoming of an October 31^st themed card in the final weeks of winter than others.

I personally feel it is important to be respectful of peoples’ taste, beliefs and interests (if such information is already known to you) when creating projects that you’ll be giving away.

Many individuals live for Halloween and if you fall into that camp, chances are some of your nearest and dearest already know this about you and may quickly understand why there’s holding a bat themed card before the Easter Bunny has come calling yet.

If you have people in your life who adore fall, Halloween and/or Samhain, consider adding a fabulous touch of autumn to their day outside of October by creating a sweet, spooky, silly, or otherwise sensational All Hallows’ Eve related make for them at this point in the year.

Naturally, you can replicate or take inspiration from this design and use other types of materials here as well. This same general design could be used for a ton of different occasions – Valentine’s Day included.

All cards are card maps unto themselves.

And if you didn’t want to go this overtly Halloweeny, you could use a small dose of October perfect products instead. Say pumpkins, a scarecrow, a black cat, bats flying across a full moon, bare-branched trees, a Victorian-style gate, or a pair of pointy-toed witches boots, for example.

If you prefer to make and give Halloween cards when jewel-toned leaves are falling, that is completely okay, too. You could either put together a card like this now and tuck it away for later or save the project idea in your inspiration file or on Pinterest to create come autumn.

Crafting is a year-round activity that grants us the ability to connect with any holiday or special occasion that we desire whenever the urge strikes.

If you want to make Christmas or Yule cards in June, go for it! Canada Day or Independence Day cards in November, why not?

Or, as in this case, Halloween paper crafting projects in February. Have at it!

Life is too short and the giving of cards to those we care about too important not to create what we want, when we want – no matter the current season.

Show me your paper crafting makes!

If you make a project based on or inspired by this card – or want to share any of your other handmade crafts with me – please use the hashtags #WitchcraftedLife and #WitchcraftedLifeMakes on social media so that I see your beautiful creations.

Project share

Pin the image below – or any other in this post – to Pinterest, pop it into your Instagram Stories, post in on Twitter or Facebook, or share it anywhere else you wish to help yourself find it again and to inspire others at the same time.

The post Heartfelt Thanks Bat Sequins Shaker Card appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.