We are even closer to All Hallows’ Eve now and as a result, I have been massively in the mood for classic Halloween colours and imagery.

Whereas plenty of folks make winter holiday season cards all throughout the span of the calendar, as many of you know, I create Halloween cards and other spooky season themed crafting projects all year long.

They bring me bliss and further strengthen the bond I have with my favourite (and most sacred) day of the year: Halloween + Samhain.

Plus, come those knee-weakingly gorgeous days of early to mid-autumn, doing so means that I usually have numerous festive Halloween cards (et al) ready to give to friends and family.

And, they are also the ideal way for me to utilize the #MakeHalloween365 hashtag that I launched last year so that Halloween adoring creatives of all types could share their work and be inspired by that of other people.

As you might guess, this fun vintage themed Halloween card is my #MakeHalloween365 project for the month of May.

Creating it in the heart of Beltane season – which is the corresponding sabbat to Samhain on the opposite side of The Wheel of The Year – felt especially meaningful to me.

The Witching Hour adorable vintage image and classic fall colour Halloween card

Knowing that I wanted to go with a timeless fall + Halloween colour scheme for this delightful project, I selected a palette of pumpkin-y orange, aged cream, deep gold, and midnight black.

And how fitting the latter is when you consider the sentiment that appears on this card.  

It reads the “The Witching Hour”, which while some people place later in the night/early morning (in the range of 3 – 4 am, when the dark heart of the night is still beating strong and dawn has yet to crack the sky’s surface once again), many others view this time as occurring from midnight to 1 am.

The concept of the witching hour, while certainly intertwined with Halloween + Samhain, applies to every night of the year and is an extraordinarily powerful and poignant point in the day to carry out activities pertaining to one’s witchery, Paganism, or spirituality in general.

And if you can do so bathed in the moon’s silvery light, all the better (though that is by no means essential, of course).

When I was but a wee lass, my (very talented!) mom made me an adorable witch’s costume from Halloween print fabric. A sturdy orange trash bag was utilized as an attached cape – which is all kinds of clever in my books (especially given the very real possibility of rain or snow that we faced on October 31st).

I wore that handmade witch costume on at least two, possibly three, different Halloweens throughout my youth. A few years later, my little sister would go on to sport it as well.

While to the best of my knowledge, this costume was likely either given away to other youngsters or lost to the hands of time at some point, I still have a scanned photo (care of my sweet mama) from the 1980s of me wearing it.

It was this very costume that I was thinking about as I set out to make my latest handmade Halloween card.

And in a flash, I remembered a sheet of Authentique Twilight paper I had picked up a while back that stars some fantastic vintage Halloween images. One of which was a sweet little girl dressed as a witch herself.

The fact that this image tied in excellently with the colour palette I had already determined was the icing on the cake – or should I say, the caramel on the apple.

As, this far out still from October 31^st, I am not sure yet if this card will be mailed or delivered in person, I opted to keep its depth below the minute two centimetres that Canada Post permits letter mail to be before it crosses into parcel territory (regardless of the other dimensions and weigh involved).

Naturally though, true to form, I wasn’t about to sacrifice too many layers or embellishments.

Doing so came together by building up a base of numerous layers of cardstock and paper to which I added a piece of cream-hued crocheted trim, two felt bats (I gave them cute little gold rhinestones as eyes), a button + rhinestone topped selection of trims, and quartet of gold rhinestones around the outer corners of the central image.

And just about as fast a real pair of bats – or a darling little Halloween witch on her broom – could zip across the enchanting Halloween night sky, my card was complete.

This design is quite easy and all things considered, not too brutal on the ol’ pocketbook – especially if you already have most or all of the types of supplies used on this Halloween card project to hand.

Should you be keen to whip up one yourself or use it as an inspirational jumping-off point for your own festive Halloween cards, read on for a complete list of the materials used plus detailed step-by-step directions on how to make this super cute vintage-inspired All Hallows’ Eve greeting.

Products used to make this charming “Witching Hour” Halloween card

-Black cardstock

-Pumpkin/dark orange cardstock

-Dark cream or taupe cardstock

-Metallic gold cardstock

-Stitched edge (or any other type you wish) rectangular die

-Ornate edge rectangular (or square) die

-Pinking sheer decorative edge scissors – Mini Pinking Paper Edgers Scissors from Fiskars

-Flax/muted gold-hued plaid paper – Fall Breezy Stripes Paper from Photo Play

-Pumpkin print border strip paper – Spook Hill 8”x8” Paper Pad from Recollections

-Witch’s broom print paper – Haunted House Witching Hour Paper from Carta Bella

-Vintage witch girl image paper – Twilight Eight Paper from Authentique

-Golden brown ink – Peanut Brittle Memento Dew Drop Ink Pad from Tsukineko

-Black ink – Wicked Black Archival Die Ink Pad from Color Box

-“The Witching Hour” sentiment sticker – Halloween Town Element Stickers from Echo Park

-Flax/gold seam binding – Trophy Gold Seam Binding from Hug Snug

-Orange seam binding

-Black seam binding

-Cream or ivory crochet trim

-Black felt bats (I bought these on AliExpress a few years back; similar can often be found at craft and dollar stores come the fall or cut from a bat die and thin black felt with many modern die cutting machines.)

-Orange button

-Black button (That is large enough to be topped by the orange button and still have its sides remain visible.)

-Two sizes of coloured rhinestones/gems (ideally one should be quite small as it will be used as eyes on the felt bats)

-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 witch themed vintage-inspired Halloween card

Begin by making a card base from cream/taupe colour cardstock. Ink all four edges of the front (and for that matter, the back, too, if you would like ) with golden brown ink.

From the Spook Hill 8”x8” Paper Pad cut out a slender pumpkin print border strip and adhere it vertically to the left-hand side of the card base.

Using pinking sheer decorative edge scissors (or actual pinking sheers) cut a piece of black cardstock a little smaller than your card base. Adhere to card base.

Cut a piece of orange cardstock a wee bit smaller than the previous layer. Adhere to previous layer.

Using the same decorative edge pinking sheer scissors, cut a piece of gold metallic cardstock just a whisper tinier than the previous layer. Adhere to previous layer.

Cut a piece of Haunted House Witching Hour paper from Carta Bella the same width as the previous layer, but just under half of its. Adhere to previous layer.

Then, using the Fall Breezy Stripes flax coloured plaid paper from Photo Play, repeat the same process as above only this time the plaid paper will go on the bottom half of the card, as shown. Before adhering it down, ink the visible edges with golden brown ink.

Die cut an ornate rectangle piece from metallic gold cardstock. Run a piece of cream/ivory crochet trim across the middle of this piece, wrapping its ends underneath. Adhere to the back of the die cut gold cardstock rectangle and then adhere that to the centre of the existing card layers.

Use the pinking sheer decorative edge scissors to cut another piece of metallic gold cardstock, making it a bit smaller on all sides than the Carta Bella broom print paper.

Before adhering that layer down, tuck and adhere one of the black felt bats partially underneath of it on the upper left-hand side, as shown. Then adhere the orange cardstock rectangle to the previous layers.

With the stitched edge rectangle die, cut a rectangle from orange cardstock. Adhere to previous layer.

Next, cut the adorable vintage witch girl image from the Authentique Twilight Eight Paper.

Using the same cream/taupe cardstock as the card base, create a very slender mat for the vintage witch girl image. Ink the edges of this piece of cardstock with black ink (brown or dark orange ink would work nicely here as well).

Adhere vintage witch girl piece to the cream/taupe cardstock.

Cut a piece of black cardstock a tiny bit bigger than the cream/taupe cardstock. Adhere cream/taupe cardstock to the black layer and then adhere the black layer to the previous card layers.

Fussy cut two brooms from the Carta Bella Haunted House Witching Hour paper. Adhere one each to the left and right-hand sides of the central image panel, positioning them so that each one is at an angle, as shown.

Take the sentiment (“The Witching Hour”) sticker and lightly rub the lettering, which is white in its natural state, with golden brown ink to tint the letters so that they better match the colour palette of this card. (Alternatively, you could use a suitable marker or even a coloured pencil to do the same thing as well.)

Adhere sentiment to the bottom center of the vintage witch girl panel.

Take one relatively small piece each of flax/muted gold, orange, and black seam binding, layer them together, fold them in half, and adhere them on the left-hand side of the lower half of the card.

Take your black button, top it with an orange button, and then with a gold rhinestone. Adhere these elements together and then to the “fold” area of the seam binding.

Place one of the larger of the two sizes of gold rhinestone embellishments around each corner of the black cardstock central panel so that it sits partially on that layer and partially on the orange cardstock layer below it.

Adhere the second black felt back to the upper right-hand side of the card, as shown.

Lastly, adhere two teensy tiny gold rhinestone embellishments to each of the bats so as to give them eyes.

And just like that, you have one sweet, classic, and very versatile handmade Halloween card to give away or keep and use as wonderfully festive home décor.

The comfort and inspiration of nostalgia

Though not everyone – myself included – had a Cleaver family style childhood, I am tremendously grateful for the positives that my youth did house at times.

Few come close on that front than the Halloweens that I experienced while growing up.

They were earnest, cheerful events filled with handmade costumes and decorations, Unicef boxes, bracingly cold Canadian night air, and a sense of exhilaration that no special event – my birthday included – could top for me back then.

Nor to this very day. I continue to get no less giddy now at the prospect of another brand new All Hallows’ Eve than I did all those decades ago.

I think about Halloween, be it past, present (year), or future, just about every day of my life – often many times a day for that matter.

It is vital that we each have things in our lives that speak to our hearts, souls, and creativity alike.

Halloween is one of the biggest and most important of those for me.

The roots of this passion took hold back before that photo of me as a wee youngster with her classic plastic pumpkin pail of sweet treats was even snapped. And it is safe to say that they have only continued to grow further every day of my life since.

I adore using Halloween memories to inspire current craft projects (not to mention other things as well, such as October 31^st menus, costumes, and decorations) and when you swirl vintage – another lifelong passion of mine – into the mix as well, I am on cloud nine.

In the coming countdown to Halloween months, you can look forward to plenty of festive content including – all things willing – no shortage of additional brand new spooky season 2022 papercrafting projects from me.

Right here and now though, it is still Springoween and as eager as I am for Halloween’s return, I am grateful for the sunny side of the year and the time it grants me – and crafters everywhere – to make a slew of festive fall projects in the lead up to that bewitchingly awesome holiday.

When do you tend to start your October 31^st related crafting? Be it pertaining to Halloween or otherwise, do you like to use treasured memories as inspiration for some of your creative projects?

PS: Did you know that there is a paper crafting challenge group dedicated solely to making Halloween projects the whole year through? I caught wind of it a little while ago and have been meaning to take part, but so often seem to forget in the midst of creating, photographing, and blogging my projects.

I am head-over-heels with Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge Blog and am entering this project into it as my inaugural foray into that challenge site.

If you have not yet discovered them yourself and also adore making Halloween paper crafts, be sure to zip on over and give them a peek!

The post The Witching Hour Adorable Vintage Image and Classic Fall Colour Halloween Card appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

For example, birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Christmas – to name but a few.

However, for all the candy, cakes, pies, cookies and so forth both created at home and sold commercially for those events, perhaps no other day of the year is more connected to sugary eats than Halloween.

(In those countries and amongst those individuals who observe All Hallows’ Eve, that is.)

When you think of sweet foods and Halloween, what springs to mind first for you?

Miniature candy bars? Toffee apples? Lollipops? Marshmallows? Candy Corn? Festively shaped sugar cookies? Gummy sweets? Caramel Corn? Pumpkin spice cupcakes?

There are no right or wrong answers here. The foods – be they sweet or savoury – that you associate with October 31^st are apt to include certain widely popular choices as well as those that are more unique and personal to each of us, our families, and the culinary traditions that we hold dear.

While ice cream may not be the first sugary delight that leaps out at you when you think of Halloween (or perhaps it is – in which case, chances are we’ll be fast friends! ), there’s no saying this beloved dessert can’t be a part of your October 31^st feast.

Assuming, of course, that one enjoys and can safely eat ice cream (be it dairy, nut milk, coconut milk, soy milk, oat milk, rice milk, frozen banana, etc based).

Living in an area where snow on, or prior to, Halloween is by no means unheard of, ice-cold treats aren’t always my family’s first pick.

However, we have reached for this delicious dessert some years – especially those Halloweens that were a touch warmer.

The flavour commonly known as “Tiger Tail” – a mix of orange and black licorice flavoured ice creams swirled together in the same container – being one of our faves due to its festive colour palette.

The web abounds with tons of fun, creative, and lip-lickingly scrumptious fall and Halloween ice cream recipes.

If you are a fellow ice creamoholic (or are simply in the mood for some ice cream this month), I highly recommend seeking some of them out.

I enjoy a great dessert as much as the next person, but have never had the biggest sweet tooth. Instead, generally opting for the savour/salty option if presented with a food from each camp.

That said, I have a perpetual passion for ice cream that nothing – not even two decades and counting of extensive medically necessitated dietary restrictions – can diminish.   

As the long-standing fondness for ice cream across the globe clearly proves, I am by no means alone on this front.

A lovely online friend of mine has mentioned a time or two about how much she madly adores ice cream as well and that got me thinking…

Or, I should say, that got the hand crank on the old-fashion style ice cream maker that is my imagination churning.

Why not make and send her an ice cream themed Halloween card?

I have to say, I fell in love with this idea the moment it struck me and am delighted with how my vision for a Halloween ice cream card came to fruition.

Adorably Spooky “You’re Sweet” Halloween Ice Cream Cone Card

Presently, I can’t claim to have a lot of ice cream related products in my paper crafting stash.

However, I knew that I had a cute little ice cream cone die that would be the perfect fit for the card design that was brewing in my head.

I began by die cutting several scoops of ice cream from various papers in a 6”x6” paper pad from Pebbles called Thirty One, and went with some gorgeous coppery-brown coloured glitter paper for the cone itself.

Aside from how nicely it colour coordinates with the festive Halloween print papers, I specifically selected this colour of cardstock so that the die cut ice cream cone would better resemble a waffle cone.

At first, I thought I would top the cone with a traditional cherry. I quickly realized though, that I don’t appear to have a cherry die or punch in my stash. (Strange, really, as I adore cherries and items depicting them.)

No sooner had I discovered that point than the idea of placing a wee little jack-o-lantern pumpkin “cherry” atop the scoops hit me.

I used my tiniest jack-o-lantern die, cutting the shape from black cardstock and backing its facial features with the same copper coloured glitter cardstock (from which I also freehand cut the shape of a cherry stem).

The friend that I posted this card off to is a really kind, terrific person for whom the description “sweet” applies in spades.

As such, I dug around through my Halloween papers to find a sentiment that would convey both that message and tie into the inherent sweetness of ice cream itself.

Various layers of cardstock and paper, two different trims, and a quartet of pretty little pearlized white heart embellishments joined my All Hallows’ Eve themed ice cream cone to create the card featured in this post.

It was a ton – and I mean an absolute ton – of fun to create this delightfully spooky season greeting for my very sweet friend.

I hope that receiving it will be the cherry on her October – and likewise hope that you will give making your own Halloween ice cream card a go as well.

Products used to make this super cute Halloween ice cream card

-Black cardstock

-Grey kraft cardstock – Grey Kraft Cardstock from Recollections

-Dark orange/terracotta cardstock

-Cream/ivory coloured vellum – Ivory Vellum from Paper Reflections

-Copper coloured glitter cardstock – Heavyweight Glitter Cardstock from Darice

-Dangling spider print paper – Spook Hill 8”x8” paper pad from Recollections

-All other patterned papers used throughout this project – Thirty One 6”x6” paper pad from Pebbles

-“You’re Sweet” cut apart sentiment – Midnight Hauntings Midnight Sentiments paper from Pebbles

-Ice cream cone die

-Dotted edge oval die

-Elegant border edge die

-Flat (non-3D) bow die

-Tiny jack-o-lantern die (alternatively, you can die cut, punch out, or hand-cut a small circle shaped piece instead and draw or carefully cut out a jack-o-lantern face on it)

-Decorative edge scissors – Sunflower decorative edge scissors from Fiskars

-Black ink pad – Wicked Black Archival Dye Ink Pad from Color Box

-Orange and pale grey trim (from Michael’s unbranded line of budget-friendly products)

-Cream/ivory crochet trim – Cotton Lace Trim Ivory 2 from MultiCraft

-Small white pearlized plastic flatback embellishments

-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 this darling Halloween ice cream cone card

Begin by making a card base from black cardstock (charcoal grey would work really nicely here, too).

Top your card base with a slightly small sized piece of grey kraft (or any medium grey) cardstock, destressing the edges on all sides. Adhere to card base.

Using decorative edge scissors (in this case “Sunflower” from Fiskars), cut out a piece of copper coloured glitter cardstock slightly smaller than the grey cardstock layer. Attach to grey cardstock.

Die cut two elegant border/edge pieces from dark orange or terracotta cardstock. Adhere one die cut border near the top of the card and another near the bottom, as shown.

Slightly layer pieces of both cream and orange + grey trim on both the top and bottom die cut border pieces. Adhere in place with sturdy adhesive.

From the Pebbles Thirty One 6”x6” paper pad, cut a piece of swirling grey and black patterned paper and adhere it in the center of the card design so that the orange + grey trim just ever-so-slightly overlaps on this layer. Adhere to previous layers.

Cut a piece of black cardstock the length of your card base. Distress the edges and adhere over all previous layers.

Top this with a piece of dangling spider print paper from the Spook Hill 8”x8” paper pad.

Die cut an oval from cream/ivory vellum and adhere it slightly off-centre on the righthand side of the dangling spider print paper.

Next, die cut your ice cream cone from glittery copper cardstock and your scoops of ice cream from various Halloween print papers. Ink the edges of the scoop with black ink.

Assemble your ice cream cone so that the scoops are slightly, playfully crocked. Adhere layers together and then adhere your ice cream cone to the dangling spider print paper layer.

Create a tiny jack-o-lantern “cherry” from black cardstock, backing it with copper glitter cardstock. Use the same copper glitter cardstock to die cut or hand cut a stem for the cherry.

Cut out the “You’re Sweet” sentiment. Mat it with a layer of copper glitter cardstock and a layer of grey kraft cardstock. Distress the edges of the grey cardstock layer.  

Adhere layers together and attach your sentiment at an angle over top of the vellum oval piece.

Die cut a flat (aka, not 3D) bow out twice. Once from black cardstock and once from dark orange or terracotta cardstock.

Stack and slightly offset the die cut bows so that the black creates the sense of a shadow behind the orange bow.

Adhere both bows together and then to your card. Top the bow with a small white pearlized heart embellishment.

Place four more of the same tiny heart embellishments around the corners of the swirling black and grey patterned paper piece that you have previously attached.

And just like that, you’re wonderfully sweet Halloween ice cream cone card is complete.

Be forewarned, much as with the real dessert that inspired this festive greeting, you may be tempted to go back for (aka, make) seconds, thirds, and so forth of this darling spooky season greeting.

Don’t be afraid to outside of the box when making Halloween cards

No one loves the classic images, themes, and colours of Halloween more than this ghoul. Sometimes though, it can also be highly enjoyable to think beyond the usual ideas and come up with something really unique and cool (ice cream pun intended).

Have a look at your paper crafting stash. What products could you use for Halloween that are not typically (or overtly) associated with October 31^st?

Let your imagination run wild, try something new out, and embrace the fun of All Hallows’ Eve via your cards, tags, scrapbook pages, and more this autumn.

Just about any theme or idea is fair game when paper crafting and that certainly applies to your Halloween project as well.

There is a palpable excitement and heady, incredible energy to the final days of October.

I cherish this point in the year and feel more fortunate than ever (especially as the pandemic rages on) to experience another Halloween season.

A single week now stands between us and the 31^st.

You can bet your favourite Halloween decoration that I will be focusing as much of my time and energy as possible on all things sweetly spooky, spine-chillingly macabre, and nostalgically festive during these seven magnificent days.

Just as I know many of you will be as well.

Go, team #MakeHalloween365!!!

This Halloween, why not start a new tradition by including ice cream – be it the real deal or a cone whipped up in papercraft form – in your October 31^st happenings?

May your Halloween countdown week be sweeter than all the ice cream and festive candy in the world, dear friends – here’s to celebrating and delighting in the magic and marvellousness of this incredible point in the year!

PS: If you want to go all-in on celebrating with ice cream this October, you could always whip up a thoroughly delightful DIY Ice Cream Sunday Halloween costume.

The post Adorably Spooky “You’re Sweet” Halloween Ice Cream Cone Card appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Though young at the time (to paraphrase what Mary Sanderson says to her sister Winifred in the movie Hocus Pocus, I was a mere sping of a girl, clocking in at just 19 years old), I had already been involved in a couple of serious relationships and done some general dating by that point in my life.

One of those relationships was a horrific, abuse-filled multi-year nightmare from which I was genuinely lucky to escape with my life (and after which that ex stalked me for years).

I vowed that I would never allow anyone to treat me like that again – especially as I knew all along that what he was doing was stupendously wrong and that I did not deserve to be treated in such a deplorable manner.

No one, regardless of gender or any other factor, should ever be treated in any of the ways this person inflicted abuse and literal torture on me.

Thankfully, the ensuing relationships I would have were infinitely healthier, happier, and filled with respect. They did not pan out in the long run for various reasons, but even when I cared deeply for the other person, that didn’t phase me too much.

I saw so much of my life before me still, I was very focused on coping with the fact that in my late teens my health took a massive nosedive as I rapidly developed one severe chronic illness after another (I fully believe the abusive relationship I was in coupled with a severely traumatic, stressful, and also abusive childhood played a notable role in the swift decline of my health at such a young age), and honestly revelled in being single.

As a shy, extremely introverted person who had so much to heal to and move forward from before I’d even hit my 20^th birthday, finding Mr. Right – or even Mr. Right Now was lightyears away from the top of my priority list.

And yet…

Sometimes, no matter what we may think we do or do not need, the universe in its infinite wisdom has other plans.

In March 2004, as I was recovering at home mere days after a pretty substantial surgery for one of my medical conditions, my husband and I met online.

A lifelong fascination with and pull towards the Emerland Isle coupled with the fact I’m a passionate snail mail writer, led me to search for online pen pal websites in Ireland.

One such site was a combination pen pal and dating site (with members free to focus on one or both of those areas, as they desired).

Though a native son of Italy, the man who I would go on to marry (aka, Tony), had come to Ireland a few months prior to that point in time for a job in Dublin.

A naturally outgoing (he’s a total ambivert), friendly type and a huge romantic, Tony had joined the very same website as well and it wasn’t long before our paths crossed there.

As I like to say, it was pretty much love at first email.

We corresponded through online messages, which quickly progressed to phone calls and Skyping (this being long before services like Zoom entered the picture), and then to me boarding a plane to visit Tony in Ireland for nearly two months during the summer of 2004.

We hit it off all the more in person; our love deepening, our awareness and appreciation for one another expanding by the day, and our connection fusing with each beat of our young hearts. (Tony, I should note, was 23 at the time.)

Tony proposed to me during our visit and even though we knew that from an immigration standpoint things would be tricky for us once we wed, that did not deter us from setting our big date.

We were both broke as all get out, neither of us came from families with financial means, and we didn’t feel like we needed a big wedding at all. The latter point helped with the first two a good deal, let me tell you!

Given that we were living on opposite sides of the Atlantic, we planned to wed within a matter of months and to do so here on Canadian soil.

Come October 2004, we did just that when we tied the knot in a very small civil ceremony wedding that was held in the living room of the house my mom and (now) ex-step-dad were living at the time.

Blissfully in love and excited to start our lives together, and having determined that it would be vastly easier for us initially if I moved to Ireland (instead of Tony moving to Canada at the time) that is exactly what I did.

I sold or gave away nearly all of my worldly goods, taking just what could fit in two average-sized suitcases, my purse, and a camera bag.

We remained in Ireland for a couple of years before a true stroke-of-luck job offer led Tony to a position with one of the Canadian branches of an international IT company. The good fortune involved there is something that I still frequently think about and give immense thanks for to this day.

In the years that would follow, we went through the lengthy and, at times, very stressful immigration process that would eventually lead to Tony becoming a Canadian citizen in June 2012.

Now, you may be wondering why I’m telling you all of them at the start of a project share post.

The reason, dear friends, is that tomorrow is my and Tony’s 17^th wedding anniversary and the card featured herein is the one that I made for him to celebrate this joyful event.

Enchanting Blackbird, Full Moon, and Flower Wreath “I Thank My Lucky Stars For You” Anniversary Card

Tony, a fellow lover of autumn, and I both big fans of nighttime, just as we are birds (and animals) in general.

Partner that with the colour palette of dark blues and blacks that I’m vibing on big time this fall (as mentioned in my recent Chicly Spooky Multi-Window Halloween Ghost Shaker Card post), plus the fact that I had been champing at the bit to use this cute-than-cute bird die that came as a free gift with an issue of Cardmaking & Paper Craft magazine, and it wasn’t long before the design for this card materialized.

While we didn’t exchange wedding vows on the 31^st of this month, the fact that we were married little more than a couple of weeks before Halloween has always linked the two events closely in our minds.

I wanted to channel this point as well and opted for a card design that while not as overtly All Hallows’ Eve-ish as, say, a gaggle of ghosts or field of grinning jack-o-lanterns, could easily have been a Halloween card if the sentiment was changed to one that suited October 31^st.

Objectively, even as it stands now, this could be a Halloween card. There are numerous people that I would happily express this same sentiment to during the spookiest chapter of the year.

To highlight the card’s heart-touching sentiment, I used two different night sky print papers (one from Echo Park, the other from Ella & Viv), as well as a charming star flourish die that I madly adore.

A number of gorgeous, whip-smart ravens call the evergreen trees in our backyard home and we both delight in seeing these corvid friends all year round.

Thus, I went with a black-coloured bird for the sweet avian that I included on this greeting. It might look more like a blackbird, but I’m calling it a raven.

I used a pair of my beloved decorative edge scissors here to give some layers here the look of a postage stamp. This was a nod to the humble email and snail mail beginnings of my and Tony’s relationship.

(Even with all the awesome advancements over the years with paper punches and die cutting machines, I still adore and frequently used decorative edge scissors. Are you a fan as well?)

A wreath of pleated ribbon, tiny velvet flowers, and more star flourishes encircles the precious birdie as it branches on a slender grey branch.

This wreath symbolizes both the unity of our love and commitment to one another, as well as our wedding rings themselves.

I am elated with how this anniversary card for my darling husband turned out and hope that Tony will love it as well.

If you’d like to make a similar greeting for someone in your life that you are especially grateful for or if you wish to adapt the design for another reason/occasion, read on for the materials and how-to steps involved with this charming evening sky filled card.

Products used to make an enchantingly elegant blackbird, starry sky, and full moon card

-White and yellow cardstock

-Medium and medium-dark grey cardstock

-Pale greyish-aqua and dark grey cardstock – Cool Neutrals 12”x12” cardstock pack from Craft Smith (Michael’s brand)

-Matte black mirror cardstock – Black Velvet Mirror Cardstock from Tonic Studio

-Multi-colour star print paper – Summer Adventure Count The Stars paper from Echo Park

-Full moon print paper – Full Moon Night Sky paper from Ella & Viv

-Circle die

-Star flourish/shooting star die

-Small-sized bow die

-Bird die and branch die (both from) – Little Birdies stamp and die set (gift) from Issue 216 of Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine

-Decorative edge scissor – Mini Pinking Paper Edgers Scissors from Fiskars

-“I Thank My Lucky Stars For You” sentiment stamp – Stargazing Stamp Set from Stampin’ Up!

-Black ink pad – Jet Black Archival Ink from Ranger

-White gel pen – Uniball White Gel Pen from Signo

-Black pen – Pigma Micron 0.35mm Black Pen from Sakura

-Mini black and grey velvet ribbon flowers with white pearl centers (I got these quite a while ago; possibly on Etsy)

-Mini red ribbon flowers with clear rhinestone centers (from Ali Express)

-Ruffled black ribbon trim

-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)

How to make a cute blackbird and night sky themed card

Begin by making a white card base. Cut a piece of medium-dark grey cardstock slightly smaller than the card base. Trim all edges of this piece with the Mini Pinking decorative edge scissors (or any pinking scissors/shears of your choice) and adhere to the card base.

Cut a piece of pale greyish-aqua coloured cardstock slightly smaller than the previous layer and adhere to the medium-dark grey layer.

Next, cut a piece of Summer Adventure Count The Stars paper from Echo Park slightly smaller than the previous layer and adhere it to the greyish-aqua cardstock.

Using a basic circle die (or a circle stencil; you could also trace a circle around the bottom of an object, such as a small plate or a vase) cut out the portion of the Full Moon Night Sky paper from Ella & Viv that includes the glowing full moon.

Using black ink, stamp the -“I Thank My Lucky Stars For You” sentiment stamp from Stampin’ Up!’s Stargazing stamp set on top of the full moon portion of the Ella and Viv paper.

Die cut a circle of greyish-aqua paper and a slightly larger circle of dark grey cardstock. Adhere these two layers together, then top with (adhere) the full moon print circle of paper on top of these layers.

Adhere a border of black ruffled trim on the back of the dark grey cardstock base layer.

Next, adhere this sentiment layer stack to your card base using foam/dimensional adhesive (or hot glue).

Die cut four yellow star flourishes, two black mirror cardstock star flourishes, and two dark grey star flourishes.

Layer and adhere two yellow and two black star flourishes together in pairs, as shown. Adhere diagonally in the upper left and lower righthand sides of the card.

Layer and adhere two yellow and dark grey star flourishes together. Arrange and adhere on the “wreath” of black ruffled ribbon surrounding the sentiment piece.

Adhere (using hot glue or another suitable strong adhesive) two grey, two black, and one red mini ribbon flower to the same wreath area of the design.

Die cut two bows from black mirror card, using grey-ish aqua cardstock for the knot-shaped portion of the bows.

Assemble the bows and adhere them on the top and bottom of the wreath, as shown in the photos.

Die cut a branch-shaped piece from light grey cardstock. Adhere on the righthand side of the wreath, as shown.

Die cut a bird from black mirror cardstock, using yellow cardstock for its beak and light or medium grey cardstock for its legs. Assemble and adhere the bird together. Back the bird’s eye area with white or light grey cardstock

Use a white gel pen to add highlights here and there on the blackbird, if desired. Use a tiny tipped black pen or marker to make a tiny pupil on the bird’s eye.

Adhere the bird atop the die cut branch using foam/dimensional adhesive.

And there you have it, one seriously cute blackbird and night sky-themed card is now ready to give to anyone in your life that you thank your own lucky stars for.

Two radically different anniversaries

Twelve years into our life together, on the literal eve of our 12^th wedding anniversary (October 13, 2016), Tony and I experienced the biggest challenge we have ever come up against as a couple: The loss of our home, belongings, and beloved cat (Stella) in an arson house fire.

(If you would like to read more about that profoundly challenging event, you can do so in this Get to Know Me post and in a recent entry here about some of My Favourite Pre-fire Halloween Scrapbook Pages and Cards.)

I did not know back in early 2004 that before the year was over, I would not only met the man I was destined to spend my life with, but marry him a few short months later.

Who could have imagined that a combination of the universe and the internet would bring us together? (Especially since online dating was still something of a new and even eyebrow-raising topic at the time.)

This point and the gratitude that I hold in my heart for the elements that led our paths to cross is what inspired me to use the sentiment that I did on this year’s wedding anniversary card for Tony.  

Likewise, not a single day has passed since the fire when I (we) have not been immeasurably grateful to, and for, everyone who has supported, helped, encouraged, loved, cared about, grieved with, and otherwise been there for us since that fateful night exactly five years ago.

Words could never fully do justice to the gratitude that we have for each person who expressed kindness to us in any form.

It was, really and truly, the bedrock upon which we were able to begin piecing our world together again.

Tony and I grew even closer, our relationship strengthened all the more, and we became each other’s rocks in greater ways than ever in the face of this life-changing tragedy.

When we had virtually nothing material left in the world, when we were homeless, when we went through a series of stressful short-term housing arrangements, when we cried and mourned, and when we began to heal, we were there for each other.

Something like this could have easily torn some couples asunder. Mercifully, that was not the case for us.

There were brutally tough times, of course, and very little in our world was sunshine and roses in the first couple of years post-fire. We were committed though both to one another and to rebuilding our lives again from the ground up.

It wasn’t easy, but the job was made lighter by sharing the work and emotions involved between two people.

These days, while we continue to feel the ramifications of the fire in various ways and are still recovering + rebuilding on certain fronts, we have come an incredibly long way from where we were half a decade ago.

No one has the ability to know what tomorrow holds in store. I never imagined I would find true love at 19 or that, at age 32, I would stand there and watch as the home we had worked so hard to achieve and thrive in burnt to the ground.

I cannot predict tomorrow or what other challenges we may face, but I know – I absolutely know in the furthest reaches of my soul – that so long as Tony and I are each drawing breath, we will tackle them together.

Hand in hand, heart in heart.

And for that, and so much more, I thank my lucky stars every day.

The post Enchanting Blackbird, Full Moon, and Flower Wreath “I Thank My Lucky Stars For You” Anniversary Card appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

To say that I’m doing backflips of joy would be the understatement of the century.

No other month fills my heart, spirit, mind, and days alike with as much happiness, meaning, and witchy goodness as October.

I have several exciting seasonally-themed posts coming down the pipeline this month to help us all celebrate October together.

We are going to have a festive blast here, so please be sure to follow Witchcrafted Life using your favourite feed reader or signup on the righthand sidebar here to receive new posts delivered right to your email inbox.

To kick off the most hair-raisingly spooky of months, I’ve got a super fun triple window ghost-themed shaker card to share with you that I recently made.

Why a ghost card you may ask? Aside from the longstanding connection between ghosts and Halloween, I went with some cuter-than-cute ghosties because it’s downright scary how much I adore October!

Chicly Spooky Multi-Window Halloween Ghost Shaker Card

Oodles of you feel the same way and (whether you’ve used this hashtag yet or not – and you totally should use it! ) are proud members of team #MakeHalloween365.

It is wonderful that we are able to connect and share in our passion for All Hallows’ Eve, including by posting seasonal craft projects that are not only hair-raisingly fantastic, but which provide a wealth of inspiration to fellow creatives around the globe.

Ghosts are a popular and beloved symbol of both Halloween and Samhain, as well as October in general.

As someone who believes in ghosts, has had multiple spectral sightings/encounters throughout my life, and who works with those on the other side of the veil as an important year-round element of my spiritual practice, I feel a very close connection to the spirit world.

On the paper crafting front, I find that on top of my perpetual favourites, I am drawn to certain colour combinations as each season returns.

This autumn, I am totally feeling a colour scheme comprised of dark, inky blues, jet black, grey, and gold.

Silver and copper, too, are also setting my fall colour adoring heart aflutter.

That isn’t to say that every Halloween project I make this month will star these colours and these colours alone, simply that I can already tell this selection will be in heavy rotation on my craft desk for the next few weeks.

Sooo looking forward to that!

I leaned into this autumnal colour palette big time for my elegant meets adorable “Boo” shaker window card project highlighted here.

I used a basic triple window die for the central panel, turning each of the three windows into its own shaker box (all three windows house the same shaker mix, which I created myself).

This sheet of charming ghost print paper from Carta Bella’s Haunted House line has been beckoning me to use it since the moment it landed in my stash, so with fall finally here, I knew the time had come to cut into it.

The colours of this Halloween patterned paper were my guide for the rest of the card, which includes a mix of cream, grey, dark blue, and metallic gold cardstock.

No other patterned papers were used on this project, so as to let the adorable ghosties take centerstage.

To up the visual interest of this design, I die cut a fun border strip featuring a Halloween hill scene (complete with tombstones, bare-branched trees, and a haunted house) and stamped my sentiment onto a narrow banner strip, which I paired and layered with two additional banner die cuts.

Then, I added a lovely double-layered dark blue seam binding bow, placed gold letter stickers atop each of the three shaker windows to spell out the word “boo”, and a fussy cut a trio of precious little ghosties from the same patterned paper used behind the shaker panel.

I adore how this card came out and am all the more smitten with it because its relative flatness means that it should come in under 2 centimetres when placed in an envelope.

This in turn means that I will be able to pop it in the post and mail it off as letter (not $$$ parcel) mail to a Halloween adoring friend or relative.

If you are keen to try your hand at making a similar looking multi-window Halloween shaker card (or adapting this general design to another holiday, event, etc), read on for a list of supplies and step-by-step instructions on how to do just that.

Products used to make this fun ghost themed Halloween shaker card

-Cream (or ivory), dark or navy blue, and medium grey cardstock

-Gold metallic cardstock

-Ghost print paper – Haunted House Multi-Journaling Cards from Carta Bella (here we are using the backside, not the journaling card side, of this paper)

-Clear acetate sheet

-Rectangular shaped triple window/opening die

-Spooky Halloween hill scene die

-Skinny stitched edge banner die

-Decorative edge scissors – Heartbeat Paper Edgers Scissors from Fiskars

-Golden brown coloured ink pad – Toffee Crunch Dew Drop Ink from Memento

-Dark blue ink pad – Cobalt Letter It Stamping Ink from Ranger

-“Have a Haunted Halloween” sentiment stamp – Graveyard Gate stamp set from Stampin’ Up!

-Metallic gold chipboard (or other type of) letter stickers

-Large-sized gold and orange glitter – Halloween Jumbo Glitter from Creatology (sold at Michael’s)

-Assorted shades of medium and dark blue sequins – Rhythms n’ Blues Cup Sequins from Craft Medley (sold at various dollar stores, including Dollarama here in Canada)

-Medium, dark, or navy blue coloured seam binding or ribbon (I used “Texas Teal” coloured seam binding from Hug Snug on this Halloween card)

-(Optional) Glue gun and glue sticks (used to adhere the seam binding bow)

-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 “Boo” triple window Halloween shaker card

Begin by making a card base from cream cardstock. If you do not have cream cardstock, white, ivory, or pale grey would each work really nicely here as well.

Next, cut a piece of medium grey cardstock that’s a little bit smaller than your card base. Adhere that piece to the card base.

Cut a piece of dark blue cardstock slightly smaller than the grey piece and use decorative edge scissors (or a suitable border punch) on all four sides.

Ink all sides of the blue cardstock with Ranger Cobalt ink, then adhere that piece of cardstock to your first two layers.

Cut a piece of gold metallic cardstock (you could swap in grey, silver, or mustard yellow cardstock, if you didn’t have – or don’t want to use – gold cardstock) and adhere it to the other layers.

Cut a piece of Carta Bella ghost print paper, ink all of the edges with Memento Toffee Crunch ink, and adhere it to the gold metallic cardstock.

Next, create your shaker panel by die cutting a triple window panel from dark blue cardstock (if you don’t have a triple window die, you could use one or more small square-shaped dies on a panel of cardstock to create the same sort of multi-window look). Ink the edges of this cardstock panel with Ranger Cobalt ink.

Adhere a piece of clear acetate to the back of the blue cardstock panel to create the transparent “glass” for your shaker windows.

Place the blue cardstock on an open frame-shaped piece of the same cream cardstock that you used for your card base. Ink the edges of this cream piece with Toffee Crunch Ink.

(This layer is simply to add a border to the blue cardstock, it does not come into play in terms of the shaker windows themselves.)

For the shaker windows, line the perimeter of each of the three windows with suitable dimensional foam tape, squares, etc, as this is what stops the shaker mix from going anywhere when the card is complete.

Create a shaker mix in shades of blue, orange, and gold and place a roughly equal amount of it into each of the three windows.

Carefully bring the card base layers up to the shaker window panel, ensuring the backing has been removed from all of your foam adhesive first. Sandwich the two card parts together and make sure that no shaker mix is able to escape.

Top each of the three shaker windows with a gold chipboard letter sticker (or make die cut letters from gold metallic cardstock instead and adhere them in the same manner as you would the letter stickers) to spell out the word “boo”.

Die cut a Halloween hill panel from medium grey cardstock, backing the window portions of the haunted house with gold or dark yellow cardstock so that the house looks like it is lit from within.

Adhere this hill piece immediately below the shaker windows on that panel of the card.

Die cut three ghost figures from the Carta Bella paper and adhere one ghost just off to the side of each of the shaker windows.

Next, die cut three matching sized banner strips. One from medium grey cardstock, the other two from gold metallic cardstock.

Using dark blue or navy blue ink (or black, if you don’t have a suitable blue ink to hand), stamp “Have a Haunted Halloween” on the medium grey coloured cardstock banner (I used the same Cobalt ink from Ranger that appears elsewhere in this project).

Layer and adhere the three banners towards the upper right side of the card, as shown.

Create a double layer bow from blue seam binding or another trim/ribbon of your choosing and adhere it to the upper left-hand corner of the card.

And just like that, faster than you can say “boo”, your elegant meets adorable multi-window Halloween shaker card is complete.

Trust me when I say that this card is scarily fun to create and that it is bound to bring a welcome hit of spooky season cheer to anyone you bestow it upon.

31 days of unbridled Halloween awesomeness

That’s what October is to me and many others across the globe, too – and for good measure.

The enchantment, thrills, mystery, happiness, fun, and creativity inherent to the year’s 10^th month are unlike any other.

Halloween and Samhain are integral parts of not only October, but the whole year for me (a point which, again, I am far from alone in).

However, I am the first to acknowledge that not everyone observes or is OTT obsessed with these spookily wonderful events.

October is greatly influenced by Halloween in many parts of the world. Yet there is more to this month as well and each element – be they autumnal north of the equator or filled with springtime goodness for those in the Southern Hemisphere – deserves to be celebrated as well.

Crunchy leaves, vast fields and produce stands full of beautiful pumpkins, cozy attire, pumpkin spice everything, various holidays (including Canadian Thanksgiving), walks taken on crisp autumn days and nights, a stunning colour palette that is in a league all its own, and so much more combine to make October an unforgettable, easy to love month.

As touched on above, I will be bringing you a slew of seasonal content this month.

This selection will house additional fall/Halloween craft project shares and various other posts as well – including one pertaining to taphophilia that I am especially excited about.

Whether October is a 744-hour long, non-stop celebration of Halloween (that being the number of hours in this month), you prefer to keep Halloween contained to the 31^st, or you do not personally engage with either All Hallows’ Eve or the Pagan sabbat of Samhain, I hope that you will be able to enjoy and find inspiration in the posts that I share here this month.

Personally, my inspiration cup runneth over right now care of the creative, festive, sweet, spooky, beautiful, and spiritually focused content that many of you are posting this season as well.

I extend the most spirited (pun intended, sentiment fully meant) of thanks out to everyone whose October content informs, entertains, inspires, or influences me in any way.

You are awesomely creative individuals and it is an honour to learn from and be inspired by each of you.

In whatever ways you embrace and live your best October, sweet souls, may it be a fa-boo-lously safe, happy, and memorably enjoyable month for all of us!

The post Chicly Spooky Multi-Window Halloween Ghost Shaker Card appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

I knew at once that this was what I wanted to share here for the second week of September.

As you may be aware, in the fall of 2016, my husband and I lost our home, very nearly everything we owned, and infinitely most devastating, our beloved cat (Stella) in an arson fire.

This is a subject I discussed in greater depth here and which, while it does surface from time to time on this site, I generally do not wish to put at the forefront of most of my Witchcrafted Life posts.

However, the fifth anniversary of the life-changing date is fast approaching.

It will arrive on October 13^th, bringing with it half a decade of existence since our world was turned on its head faster than you can dial 9-1-1.

If I lived until the last flicker of light in the universe burned out, I will never forget that fateful day, nor the extraordinary challenges, changes, redirections, and outpouring of kindness that followed in the aftermath.

In the house that we lived in at the time of the fire, my crafting space was in the basement in a room that served both as a craft corner, photo studio, packaging centre for the items I was selling via my (then) Etsy vintage shop, and sundry other uses.

On top of the flames that tore through the entire structure, our home was further damaged by the substantial volume of water that pumped onto/into it to keep the fire from quickly spreading to other closely situated homes.

Of course, that was a smart move and did a lot to help prevent the fire from leaping to additional houses.

However, multiple feet of water sat in the basement of our burned-out house for weeks on end (as the fire department, police, and insurance companies each did their own thorough investigations of the structure), quickly causing mould to grow and rodents to set up camp.

Even if that hadn’t been the case though, the flames alone would have caused nearly as much damage and virtually everything in my craft room – as with the rest of the house – would have been obliterated.

When people find out that we experienced an arson house fire and that I’m a paper crafter, they often ask me how I decided if I wanted to keep crafting or not.

There was never a shadow of doubt in my mind that as soon as I possibly could, I would begin paper crafting again.

Far from deterring me from picking up this beloved part of my life, the fire drove home all the more how phenomenally important it is (for me) to document and celebrate our life together, my childhood and family, trips we take, holidays we celebrate and so much more.

Just as the staggering outpouring of compassion, support, and generosity we received from friends, relatives, and complete strangers alike served as a reminder of how vital it is for me to create and give handmade cards (and other projects) to a wide range of people in my life.

As a naturally tenacious and highly driven person, even when the chips were down and I had quite literally nothing but the clothes on my back, I knew I would paper craft again.

And so, awesomely, joyfully, and blessedly, I have. My current craft space is a lot smaller – as is the stash of products it houses.

It wasn’t economically possible for us to replace most of what was lost and, by and large, I have not tried to do so. The goal is not to replicate what was, but rather to create a safe, happy here and now that is conducive to who we are and what we love doing in the present.

With the fifth anniversary of the fire just over a month away, I wanted to take a little while to stop and reconnect with some of the pre-fire Halloween projects I made that I most adored.

The blaze destroyed not only all of my completed projects (save, of course, for those that had been given to others as gifts over the years), but all of my craft supplies, as well as our computers and external hard drives.

This means that, in terms of my pre-fire craft projects, I only have photos of those makes that had been shared online pre-fire (and which were still online at the time of the fire).

As a result, without photos of some of my creations, numerous projects will forever exist simply in memory form for me.

Thankfully, however, care of various internet sources, I’ve been able to gather up images of some of the paper crafting projects that I made between 2010 (when I began scrapbooking and card making) and 2016, the year of the fire.

Join me then, won’t you, as we revisit some of the pre-fire Halloween projects that I adored the most and which continue to inspire my current makes to this day.

A handful of my very favourite pre-fire Halloween scrapbook page and cards

Note: As the lists of supplies used to make these projects were kept in notebooks and lost in the fire, I cannot detail all of the items used to create them. Many of which are, objectively, long out of stock/production at this point anyhow.

That said, if you have any questions about the materials or techniques used on this Halloween makes, please don’t hesitate to ask and I will gladly do my very best to deliver a helpful reply your way.

As well, please bear in mind that these photos, while digital, are several years old and that they are downloaded copies of the originals (thus the image quality may have been compressed or otherwise altered by whatever site/platform they were/are hosted on).

Also, both cell phone and DSLR image quality have improved considerably since then – as have my skills behind the lens . Plus, at the time these pics were taken, I was really into somewhat overexposing my project share photos – something that is generally not my approach at present.

Halloween (1985) scrapbook page: In this distressed, shabby chic orange and black page we hop back to the mid-1980s with a glimpse of me and my mama enjoying All Hallows’ Eve together (check out this recent project share post for a layout featuring the two of us on my very first October 31st).

My talented mom made the adorable ghost costume that I’m sporting here. Aww!

To date, this layout stands as one of my favourites that I have ever created.

Double, Double, Cuteness & Trouble scrapbook page: I wish the image quality was better for this page, as it was such a cute, fun one. Hopefully, you can still get a sense of it here all the same.

In this layout, we progress ahead another year or two as this was me on either my 3rd or 4th Halloween – naturally, I went as a witch.

Again, my sweet mom made my festive outfit. A few years on (as we will see in a later scrapbook layout detailed below), my little sister would sport the same darling witch costume.

When Witches Go Riding Halloween card: An eye-catching and somewhat unexpected colour palette of classic orange, black and white partner with shades such as pale lavender, teal, and turquoise in this chic bow bedecked Halloween greeting.

Halloween Princesses scrapbook page: This sweetly spooky page celebrated the fact that, a few years apart, my sister and I wore the same pretty pink (store-bought) princess costume.

I adore the pre-made die cut jack-o-lantern paper that played a starring role on this layout and would love to see a company release something similar again today.

Pumpkins (Bear’s Fruit Stand) scrapbook page: Growing up, my family had a wonderful tradition of vising some of the local produce stands and farmer’s markets in our area each autumn.

In this circa 1993 photo, my siblings and I are sitting on a mountain of beautiful pumpkins at our family’s very favourite fruit stand, called Bear’s, located in the tiny South Okanagan community of Keremeos.

Hope Your Halloween is Crawling with Fun Halloween card: A classic colour palette and Halloween critter – the spooky spider – take the lead on this rhinestone and glittery black arachnid-filled card.

Halloween Helper Kitty scrapbook page: Two photos – one in black and white, the other in colour – accompany journaling about the fact that our beloved late cat, Stella, who usually left our spooky season decor in peace, had a real penchant for playing with this particular pumpkin decoration.

All Hallows’ Eve Costumed Kids scrapbook page: Another layout that I really wish I had a better quality image of. Still, anything is certainly better than nothing when it comes to documenting lost paper crafting projects.

This fun Halloween layout shines the spotlight on what my brother, sister, and I wore for a fun-filled night of trick-or-treating in the mid-1990s (note, as mentioned above, my sister is rocking the same adorable witch costume that I had worn around the same age).

I madly adore the 3D beaded bats peppered around this layout. If memory serves me right they *may* have been from either Prima or the Michael’s house brand, Recollections.

If anyone ever sees similar bat embellishments for sale online at a site that ships to Canada or in person here on Canadian soil, please do not hesitate to let me know (TY!).

Wishing You a Very Happy Halloween card: Border punched layers, pretty flourishes, and glitter-adorned pumpkins galore call this teal and earth-toned card home.

Swap out the sentiment and this lovely greeting could easily work for other fall time happenings as well, such as Mabon and Thanksgiving.

She’s Got Halloween Spirit scrapbook page: While my sister’s favourite holiday is Christmas, much as with my mom and me, she adores October 31st as well.

This sweet photo of my sis as a toddler shows her helping to scoop the guts out of a pumpkin that would soon be carved in our family’s grinning jack-o-lantern that year.

Trick or Treat scrapbook page: A bevy of embellishments, cheesecloth (that I hand-dyed), and spiders collide on this shabby chic Halloween layout that shows what my siblings and I wore for Halloween 1991.

The inspiration for this layout’s colour palette stems directly from the costumes that the three of us sported that night (note the Unicef box – who else remembers collecting for this important charity on Halloween night as a youngster?).

This scrapbook page is another that rests firmly amongst the ranks of my all-time favourite that I have ever made.

Have a Bewitching Halloween card: Distressed and border punched edges, elegant rhinestone trim, harlequin print paper, and an eye-catching black coloured witch silhouette sticker add up to a fun meets classic Halloween card that I’d happily replicate again today, if I still had the same supplies.

I might give it a go with similar, but different items, for a 2020s take on this greeting that was made close to a decade ago now.

Which of these festively fun, spookily sweet, and marvellously macabre paper crafting projects is your favourite?

Looking back, looking ahead

Far from causing me pain or tearing open wounds that have, mercifully, done a pretty good job of healing, looking back at these projects brings me a lot of joy.

I love being reminded of my past creative makes, what elements of my paper crafting style have stayed the same and which have changed/evolved/improved since then, the stories these projects tell, and the happiness – both in myself and, when applicable, in others – that the end results delivered.

As we head towards the official start of fall and all throughout my favourite chapter of the year, I will be sharing numerous freshly made autumn, Thanksgiving, and Halloween/Samhain related paper crafting projects here with you.

This point also delivers a bevy of joy my way and I can hardly wait to unveil my fall 2021 crop of crafty makes.

Each project that a creative soul brings into being is shaped in some way – be it tiny or large – by what they’ve previously created.

As crafters and artists, we don’t need to stand on the shoulders of giants, we are our own giants and muses.

The projects highlighted in this post each helped to hone and further develop my skills and style, the very things that I love to share here with you via my project posts all year round.

For September 2021, the pre-fire projects shared here are my latest entry for #MakeHalloween365.

Save for some of the cards and other items that were given as gifts, all of these projects are long gone in corporal form, living on instead in spirit and digital photos.

They did not get a chance to appear in the moment as part of #MakeHalloween365, as I just created this fun Halloween project share hashtag earlier this year.

They get the opportunity to do so now, however, and I hope that while they are not the newest of makes, they are able to inspire you and embody the heart of this hashtag all the same.

I may not make the fire the centre of many of my blog posts, but when I do, I generally want there to be a positive element to the end message of such entries.

In this instance, for me, that is one of hope and perseverance, of not letting the unthinkable rob you of your passions, and of finding a way back to the light of positivity even on the darkest of nights.

Thank you, cherished friends, for being here with me on this site and on social media, and for experiencing the poignant journey that is my post-fire paper crafting and life in general.

There will never, not in all the languages of the universe, be enough words for me to convey just how much that means to – and motivates – me.

If I could, I would make fall and Halloween themed cards for each of you, but as that isn’t possible, I hope that you will look upon the projects I post online as a way of conveying my heartfelt gratitude to each of you.

Here’s to the magnificence, inspiration, nostalgia, and, in turn, present-day happiness of pumpkin spice, crunchy leaf, and grinning ghost season – may it be as kind to you as you, sweet souls, are to me.

The post A Handful of My Very Favourite Pre-fire Halloween Scrapbook Pages and Cards appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.