Whether we are fortunate to ever have the opportunity to live in one of our dream homes or not, the interest and passion we have in the styles that appeal most to us often influence our worlds in myriad ways.

There are a number of different architectural styles of homes that resonate deeply with me. Chief amongst of which are most dwellings from the 18^th, 19^th, and early to mid-twentieth centuries.

I am also especially keen on rustic log cabins, elegant modern apartments + condos, just about anything with goth notes to it, and cottages of many types from around the world.

Long before terms such as #cottagecore, #darkcottagecore, #witchcore, and #fairycore had been invented (let alone turned into the social media darlings that they have become in recent years), I went weak in the knees for cottages – be they sweet and chipper or dark and broodingly mysterious.

To date, I have not had the pleasure of living in a cottage of any type myself. However, dear friends of mine – Lindsay and Jonas from the wonderful blog + YouTube channel + Instagram account, It’s a Charming Life – are blessed to reside in a cottage that sits alongside a yesteryear cemetery.

For a history-loving, cottage adoring, hardcore taphophile like myself, their abode is a dream home for me. And, I have no doubt, scores of others around the globe as well.

I have been greatly inspired by the cozy, whimsical, beautiful, and – as their online presence’s name implies – thoroughly charming world that these two sweet souls have lovingly created for several years now.

Also spanning multiple years is the wonderful snail mail correspondence that Lindsay and I have had the pleasure of sharing.

As 2021 started to wind down, but before we had become fully enmeshed into winter again, a mighty spark of creative inspiration struck me.

I knew instantly that I wanted to make a paper crafting project for Lindsay and her husband, Jonas, that celebrated not only the fact that they live in one of the most adorable cottages around but also their equally fantastic personal style which taps into many of my own favourite aesthetics.

Setting to work immediately, I went to my wee stash of chipboard and cardboard that I save from various types of packaging to use on craft projects.

A piece measuring roughly 9 7/8^th inches wide x 7 3/4^th inches tall felt like a terrific size for the hanging wall sign that I was envisioning in my mind.

Thinking not only about Linday and Jonas’s own passion for Halloween, but also the colour palette and vintage-meets-whimsical-meets-cottagecore style of their home décor, I set off on a creative flurry and scarcely moved from my office chair until this delightful All Hallows’ themed hanging wall sign was complete.

I then photographed it, securely wrapped it up for posting, and mailed it out to Lindsay and Jonas as a Yule / Christmas gift once December returned (along with the Gothic Haunted Christmas Tree Card that I shared here last month).

Cottage Spooky Cottage detailed Halloween Scene Hanging Wall Sign

Making cards and various other types of paper crafting gifts for friends, family members, neighbours, and others is one of my favourite elements of this awesome art form.

Naturally, I am far from alone on this front and creative folks of countless kinds likewise adore giving their finished projects away.

In fact, often the greater I love a completed project, the more eager and joyful I am to present it to someone else.

That was the case with this festive Halloween themed wall hanging (which is my latest contribution to the #MakeHalloween hashtag that I created and launched last year – and which I enthusiastically welcome you to use for any and all of your own Halloween / Samhain related creative projects, too.)

I began with a piece of plain (kraft coloured) cardboard for the base of this hanging sign. If you did not have any suitable cardboard to hand, very study chipboard, a lightweight canvas, or even a suitable piece of wood could be used instead.

If opting for wood (or any other material that is apt to be acidic), I would coat it with an archivally safe preservative spray, lacquer or similar product to help prevent the natural acids in the material of the project base from potentially damaging, over time, the materials you put on top of it.

Speaking of guarding things, I wanted to protect the side edges of this sign. As it was, after all, made with a cardboard base, not a canvas or wooden one.

To do so, I ran strips of orange sparkly adhesive craft tape (aka, adhesive ribbon) around all four sides.

I then set about creating layer after layer of Halloweeny goodness atop this versatile flat surface.

A surface which I looked at less like I would handmade card and more like a slightly scaled-down version of a scrapbook page (of the standard and widely used 12” x 12” or 8.5” x 11” sizes, that is).

As touched on above, Lindsay and Jonas are fellow Halloweenoholics and – much as at my and Tony’s home – they incorporate some elements of fall and October 31^st into their year-round décor.

I do not know whether they will opt to display this hanging wall sign all year or bring it out annually as summer starts to fade. Either way, I went with colours and themes that I felt would suit their fabulous cemetery adjacent cottage the whole year through.

A fair bit of die cutting went into this project, but there was nothing difficult about that aspect – nor any other – of this sign’s design.

The hours spent bringing it to life were amongst the most enjoyable of 2021 for me and when all was said and done, I was thrilled with the end result of this spookytastically charming hanging wall sign.

Since the start of 2021, I have been using a small (very basic/entry-level) lightbox to take photos of most of my paper crafting projects in.

The dimensions of this wall sign coupled with the size of both my lightbox and the lens on my camera, made photographing this project a bit tricky. This is why the background is white in some and woodgrain in others (I kept trying to find backgrounds to use in the lightbox that worked without showing their edges in these shots).

To showcase this handmade Halloween sign on the wall, I took down some of the art from a wall in my crafty space, placed the sign up, and nabbed a couple of (very low light) pics of it hanging there.

If you would like to create a similar project – or simply take some general notes of inspiration from this one – please read on for a complete list of materials used and detailed step-by-step project instructions.

Products used to make this wonderful festive Halloween hanging wall sign

-Sturdy piece of cardboard (Measuring approx. 9 7/8^th inches wide x 7 3/4^th inches tall)

-Black cardstock

-A slightly lighter shade of black cardstock (or use very dark grey charcoal cardstock instead)

-Medium brown cardstock

-Light to light-medium brown cardstock

-Dark orange (or terracotta coloured) cardstock

-Gold glitter cardstock – Glittersilk Cardstock from Darice

-Copper glitter cardstock – Glittersilk Cardstock from Darice

-White vellum

-Black and white spiderweb print paper – Haunted House Ghastly Words paper from Carta Bella

-Orange and black pat print paper – Halloweeny 12” x 12” paper pad from Recollections

-Good sized scalloped edge square or rectangle die

-Elegant decorative border die (or punch)

-Three small, slightly different sized flying bat dies

-Full and crescent moon dies (a basic circle die or punch can easily be used for the full moon shape)

-Haunted house die

-Spooky (haunted) tree die

-Rickety fence die

-Three small, slightly different sized jack-o-lantern dies

-Small witch’s hat die (you could also use a witch’s hat sticker or premade die cut shape here instead)

-Decorative edge scissors – Heartbeat Paper Edgers Scissors from Fiskars

-Good sized white or cream paper doily

-Dark orange ink – Memento Morocco Ink from Tsukineko

-Deep golden yellow/honey coloured ink – Distress Oxide Ink in Wild Honey from Tim Holtz (Note that anywhere Distress Oxide In is used on this project, you can sub in regular Distress Ink instead.)

-Aged golden-brown ink – Distress Oxide Ink in Antique Linen from Tim Holtz

-Golden-y brown ink – Memento Toffee Crunch Ink from Tsukineko

-Dark brown ink – Memento Rich Cocoa Ink from Tsukineko

-Medium brown ink – Distress Oxide Ink in Brushed Corduroy from Tim Holtz

-White gel pen – Uniball White Ink Gel Pen from Signo

-Black alpha stickers – Weekend Black Letter Stickers from American Crafts

-“Spooky” word sticker – Trick or Treat by Steven Duncan Element Stickers from Carta Bella

-Adhesive orange glitter ribbon/trim (Crafter’s Square brand from Dollar Tree)

-3/8^th inch wide black grosgrain ribbon (or another type of black ribbon or seam binding of your choice)

-Off-white or cream ribbon or seam binding

-Orange ribbon or seam binding

-(Optional) stapler and staples to adhere the ribbon “hanger” layers together

-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 Cottage Spooky Cottage hanging wall sign for fall / Halloween

Begin by sourcing or cutting down a piece of sturdy, but not too heavy, cardboard to use for the base of this project.

Next, cover the front of the sign with a piece of medium brown cardstock the same size as the cardboard piece itself and ink all four sides (edges) with dark brown ink. Adhere in place.

Cut (one at a time) pieces of sparkly orange adhesive trim and stick them down on all four sides of the cardboard base.

If you do not have a similar product to hand (I picked this up at Dollar Tree two or three autumns ago), you could use things such as very sturdy washi tape, orange duct tape, glittery ribbon, or even pieces of glitter cardstock.

Using a ruler and white gel pen, draw a border of stitches around the outermost edges of the brown piece of cardstock on the front of the sign.

Next, cut a piece of dark black cardstock a little bit smaller than the brown cardstock layer and adhere it to the brown cardstock.

Take a piece of spiderweb print paper and cut it a touch smaller than the previous layer using decorative edge scissors (or a suitable border punch, if you prefer).

Ink the edges of this piece of paper with Wild Honey Distress Oxide Ink (or a similar colour of ink or felt pen/marker). Then, using a ruler and white gel pen again, draw a line of stitches around the perimeter of this piece of cobweb print paper. Adhere to the previous layer.

Select a suitable premade doily or die cut one from white or cream coloured cardstock. Lightly ink the edges with the same Distress Oxide ink used in the previous step.

If it is not long enough to span the length of the center portion of the sign, cut it in half and adhere one half near the top and the other half of the doily near the bottom of the sign, as shown.

Die cut either a scalloped edge rectangle or square from light black (or charcoal grey) cardstock. Likewise, if it is not long enough to span the length of the center portion of the sign, cut it in half and adhere one half atop each half of the doily.

Using dark orange cardstock, die cut two decorative edge pieces or use a border punch to create something similar looking.

Position each orange decorative edge piece atop the black scalloped pieces that you created in the step above. Adhere in place.

Next, die cut a piece of vellum using the scape scalloped edge rectangle or square-shaped die. Adhere so that it overlaps part of the orange decorative edges (again, if needed, cut in half and adhere on half to the top and the other to the bottom central area of the sign).

Take a piece of dark black cardstock and using the same decorative edge scissors that you used on the spiderweb print paper, cut this piece a little bit smaller than the central layers that you’ve created so far. Adhere.

Cut and then rip, or simply rip to begin with, a piece of orange and black print paper. Back the top and bottom of this piece with a piece of vellum so that the edges of both pieces align at the top and bottom of the paper/vellum. Adhere together and then to the base layers.

Using the same medium brown coloured cardstock as the very beginning base layers (front and back), die cut a scalloped edge square or rectangle. Using a ruler and white gel pen, draw a line of stitches around the edge of this cardstock panel.

Back the panel with dimensional adhesive (foam square, pop dots, etc) and position it at an angle ever-so-slightly higher than the center of the sign, as shown.

Use the alphabet stickers and “Spooky” sticker to spell out the words “Cottage Spooky Cottage” (or the phrasing of your choice that is able to fit in the space of the brown cardstock panel).

Next, it is time to roll up our sleeves and get to work with (more) die cutting.

Using both light black (or charcoal grey) cardstock and copper glitter cardstock, die cut one layer apiece for three different-sized bats. Adhere together and position on the upper lefthand side of the sign.

Die cut a full moon (circle-shaped piece) from dark black cardstock and a slender crescent moon piece from gold glitter cardstock. Adhere together and position towards the upper right-hand corner of the sign.

Take light to medium brown hued cardstock (ideally a lighter shade than the medium brown cardstock used elsewhere on this project) and copper (or gold, as you wish) glitter cardstock and die cut a rickety fence shaped piece from both cardstocks.

Use Brushed Corduroy Distress Oxide Ink on the edges and grooves of the brown fence layer, then adhere both layers together and adhere this pair to the lower righthand side of the central portion of the sign, as shown.

Die cut two haunted houses and two spooky trees, one each from black and glittery copper cardstock, respectively.

Position the layers slightly off-centre so that both are visible. Adhere together and then to the lower portion of the sign (haunted house on the left side, spooky Halloween tree on the right).

Die cut three cute jack-o-lanterns from orange cardstock and three of the same sized pumpkins from black cardstock.

Use the dark orange coloured ink to highlight the edges and ridges of the orange pumpkin pieces. Position the two layers of pumpkins slightly off-center and adhere together.

Position and adhere small scrap pieces of gold glitter cardstock behind the faces of the jack-o-lanterns to give them the appearance of being lit from within.

Die cut a witch’s hat from black cardstock and likewise back it with a wee piece of gold glitter cardstock. Adhere together and then adhere the completed hat onto the head of the middle jack-o-lantern.

The front of this delightful Halloween hanging wall sign is now complete.

For the backside, cut three (or more, as you wish) pieces of ribbon, seam binding, lace or trim in similar colours as those used throughout this project.

Adhere these pieces together near their ends (a stapler actually works great for this, but a strong adhesive can just as easily be used) and position those ends at least 2 – 3 inches down the center of the sign on the backside.

Once you are happy with the length of the ribbon/trim layers and where they’re positioned on the back, adhere them in place to the cardboard base layer.

Lastly, cut and adhere a piece of brown or black cardstock to the entire back (minus the orange glitter tape edges) so that the ends of the ribbon/trim are concealed beneath the cardstock piece.

Alternatively, place the brown or black cardstock down first, then adhere the ribbon/trim as described above and either leave the ends visible on the back or die cut a suitably shaped piece (oval, rectangle, etc) from cardstock to place over the ends.

And there you have it, my dears, sweetly spooky, fabulously festive Halloween hanging wall sign to keep and use as part of your own fall (or year-round) décor or to give to someone special in your life so that they can do the same.

If you do not wish to make this project into a hanging wall sign, you could use a small painter’s canvas instead and hang the completed project from a nail or suitable hook on the wall instead.

And another idea would be to create this same sort of design so that it fits within the dimensions of a shadow box frame (which, assuming the frame had glass in it, would keep this project extra safe and protected from whatever life may through at it).

Sweet, spooky, and endlessly inspiring

As Lindsay and Jonas themselves discussed in their recent YouTube video, Ups and Downs of Cottage Life, residing in a modest-sized cottage – much like just about any type of home – is not always an endless parade of sunshine and roses.

However, it can be a wonderful, rewarding, creativity sparking and very meaningful experience that if one is blessed to have the opportunity to experience, may well be worth embarking on.

I have no idea if I will ever get to live in one of my dream homes (to date, the closest I have come is when, for a few years during my childhood, my family lived in a sweet little two-story Edwardian house that was built in 1909).

Whether that comes to fruition or not, I will continue to be inspired on countless fronts by the homes whose architectural and/or interior design styles speak most powerfully to my heart.

Unquestionably, that of Lindsay and Jonas’s house will continue to inspire and resonate with me for the rest of my days – no matter if they move on from it at some point or not, as everything they have shared online about their enchanting cemetery cottage will continue to resonate with me for ages.

These two lovely people embrace and embody not just things such as cottagecore, but also slow living, a deep love of and respect for the past, and the ability to decorate a home of any just about size in the ways that presently bring your soul abundant happiness.

Both they and their house epitomize the “Cottage Spooky Cottage” aesthetic and mindset, and it was my honour to be able to contribute a handmade piece of paper crafting home décor art to their super charming home.

Do you – or have you ever – lived(d) in one of your own dream homes? What kinds of wall hanging sign would most capture the spirit of your current abode?

The post Cottage Spooky Cottage Detailed Halloween Scene Hanging Wall Sign appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

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.

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.

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.

For many of us, however, autumn’s unofficial start took place earlier this week on September 1^st.

And for others still, fall commenced even earlier, at some point (such as Lammas) in August.

No matter when you opt to officially roll out the red (or would that be orange and black? ) carpet for fall, it’s a safe bet to say that many of us jump at the chance to celebrate and make the most of this gorgeous chapter of the year.

For my fellow paper crafters – and indeed, crafty and creative souls of all kinds – fall provides boundless inspiration for our projects.

I am the first person to not just jump, but pole vault when it comes to creating craft projects for special autumn events and holidays such as Thanksgiving (both Canadian and American, respectively), Mabon, Halloween, Samhain, Día de los Muertos, and Remembrance Day (November 11^th).

However, sometimes one wants to shake things up and make cards or other paper crafting projects that are fall-related, but not strictly for the major holidays.

You can, of course, bestow a fall theme onto nearly any type of paper crafting project – from birthday to get well cards, mini albums to tags. Goodness knows I do so with gusto!

It can be a lot of fun though to have a cool launching pad for your creativity that you might not have drawn inspiration from often, if ever before.

To that end, I have compiled a list of some of my favourite classic, unique, poignant, and just plain charming happenings and beloved events that can deliver big time on the fall paper crafting inspiration front.

Each entry is accompanied by a paper crafting item that corresponds to the topic at hand. Naturally, in many instances there are others on the theme to be had as well, so don’t be shy when it comes to Googling for what you’re after.

Whether you are making cards, scrapbook pages, mini albums, canvasses, art journal pages, traveller’s notebooks, pocket letters, MemoryDex cards, home décor item, or any other type of paper crafting project, I hope that the following list helps to stoke the (bon)fires of your creativity all the more this autumn – and for many more to come.

45 Special Occasions and Fun Reasons to Make Cards (and Other Paper Crafting Projects) For This Fall

1. The harvest season: A boundless treasure trove of inspiration lies in the autumn harvest season and the scrumptious bounty that it produces.

Apples, pears, grapes, figs, cranberries, corn, squash, parsnips, cabbage, beets, garlic, mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, brussels sprouts, pumpkins, wheat, barley, and honey are just some of the many delicious fall harvest foods that can serve as a fantastic source of inspiration not only for your meals and seasonal décor, but also for your paper crafting projects.

2. Spirit Day (October 15^th): This annual event draws attention to, and strives to provide support for victims of, the continued widespread abuse and bullying faced by many LGBTQ+ youth around the world.

Use Spirit Day (which is represented by the colour purple) as an ideal time to send cards of support or good cheer to the young LGBTQ+ people in your life.

3. Native American Day (USA; 4^th Friday in September in some states, 2^nd Monday of October in South Dakota and Wisconsin): The roots of this important celebration of Native American culture stretch back to 1939.

Native American Day deserves widespread recognition and observance. It serves as the perfect time of the year (though doing so should be an ongoing lifelong happening, especially for those who live in North America) to further educate oneself about, and celebrate, Native American history and culture both past and present.

(Note: For those in Canada, a similar observation, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, occurs annually on June 21^st.

4. Oktoberfest: Though the ongoing global pandemic has caused the cancellation of Oktoberfest again this year, the spirit that it embodies can still be celebrated all the same.

Whether one enjoys a hearty pint of lager or simply wishes to pay tribute to their German heritage (where applicable), Oktoberfest – which is a sixteen to eighteen-day event that begins in mid and runs until the first Sunday in October) is a time of merriment, hearty food, and plenty of beer.

One need not drink, however, to celebrate Oktoberfest, be it in real life or in paper crafting form. I myself do not drink (or more specifically, have been unable to drink alcohol of any kind for two decades now due to medical reasons), yet as someone with a hefty slice of German ancestry, I use Oktoberfest as a time to reflect on and honour this part of my family tree.

5. International Mountain Day (December 11^th): The world as we know it would be a radically different place if it was devoid of mountains and the ecosystems that these vital natural structures house.

Hailing from a part of Canada (the province of British Columbia) that is all but overflowing with mountains, I have quite the soft spot in my heart for these majestic marvels of nature and have frequently used them as a source of inspiration in my paper crafting.

Whether you live in the Rockies, Swiss Alps, or the flattest part of the globe, it can be a blast to incorporate mountains into our paper crafting both on International Mountain Day and all throughout the rest of the year.

6. Monthly birthstones: While, naturally, often thought of in the context of jewelry, birthstones can also be a marvellous source of creative inspiration (think birthstone colours, rhinestones, and sentiments such as “You’re a gem”) and a memorable way to help celebrate someone special’s birthday.

The following are the most common modern-day birthstones for each of the fall months:

-September birthstone: Sapphire

-October birthstones: Tourmaline and opal

-November birthstones: Citrine and topaz

-December birthstones: Turquoise, tanzanite, and blue zircon

7. Grandparents Day: When I was growing up, Grandparents’ Day seemed to be observed more often here in Canada and I fondly remember making cards and gifts for my grandparents throughout my youth. While, rather unjustifiably, if you ask me, not as well known or widely observed as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, respectively, Grandparents’ Day takes place on various dates in different countries around the world.

Here in Canada, as well as in the US, Grandparents’ Day takes place in the first half of September. Interestingly, officially, Canada did away with Grandparents’ Day in 2014. However, it is still observed by many, most of whom simply use the US date to mark this meaningful celebration.

This year, Grandparents’ Day falls on Sunday, September 12^th in the States. You need not wait though for this day to honour and celebrate the grandparents in your life. Why not send a heartfelt greeting to your nana, pawpaw, bubby, or granddad this autumn and let them know they’re in your thoughts all season long?

8. World Card Making Day (1^st Saturday in October): Really and truly, you could not find a more apt day to day to create cards on, or for, than World Card Making Day itself.

A beloved annual event amongst crafters around the world, this delightful celebration of all things card making related took root at least a decade ago now and continues to grow in popularity each year.

9. National Taco Day (USA; October 4^th): I don’t know about you, but personally I haven’t met too many people thus far who didn’t enjoy at least one or two types of tacos

If you flip your shell for a great taco or know someone else who does, use National Taco Day as a charming reason to serve up a taco themed card, tag, or other paper crafting project. It’s bound to house all of the fun of the real deal, with none of the risk of your taco shell breaking!

10. The Fall Equinox (September 22^nd): For many an autumn lover the world over, the Fall Equinox alone can power our creative engines all season long – and for good measure!

Fall is an exquisitely beautiful and highly meaningful chapter of the year that offers us a welcome respite between the extremes of summer and winter, and which can be translated in countless ways through our craft projects, be they be paper-based or otherwise.

11. World Post Day (October 9^th): Much as with World Card Making Day, World Post Day is ideally suited to paper crafters.

This annual fall time event was established in 1969 and aims to bring awareness of, and recognition to, the many important roles that the postal system plays in the lives of billions of people around the globe.

As a paper crafter, I see this as the epitome of a great reason to send out some “happy mail” to fellow crafters and plenty of “thinking of you” mail to friends and family around the globe.

12. Bonfire Night (UK and Ireland; November 5^th): Also commonly known, when observed on the 5^th of November, as Guy Fawkes Night, this post-Halloween celebration is a mainstay in parts of Europe, though less so elsewhere in the world.

If you live outside of a country that officially takes part in Bonfire Night, why not use the crisp, chilly days of early November as a wonderful time to celebrate bonfires (and heart fires, too) in general?

For example, in order to do so via paper crafting, you could make a card or tag for someone featuring an image of a fire, fireplace, or glowing candle with a sentiment such as, “You warm my heart” or “You light up my life”.

13. National Cat Day (USA; October 29^th): This meaningful day aims to raise awareness about the many thousands of cats that need rescuing across America. Though this issue is, of course, is a widespread global one as well.

Cats are closely associated with fall (in particular with Halloween and Samhain), so why not use this autumn as an excellent time to spread awareness about rescuing cats via your paper crafting (and/or by adopting a precious new fur baby yourself)?

14. A sense of balance: This one pertains to the Fall Equinox/Mabon in particular, but is also applicable to autumn as a whole.

As one of just two days of the year (the other being the Spring Equinox/Ostara) in which the hours of light and dark are roughly equal, the Autumn Equinox helps to remind us of the importance of seeking, creating, fostering, and celebrating various forms of balance and harmony in our lives.

Use the serenity of fall and the blessing of balance as a meaningful springboard for various creative projects this season. In addition, you may wish to utilize fall’s sense of balance in your self-care and wellness-focused activities, too.

15. International Bacon Day: If bacon is your jam (or if bacon jam is your jam ) then why not take a hearty bite of inspiration from one of the world’s most beloved pork products and celebrate International Bacon Day on September 4^th with a project that incorporated a crafting version this very moreish meat?

(Naturally, those who prefer non-pork bacon, such as beef, turkey, or chicken, as well as vegetarian and vegan bacon options can just as easily raise a fork to International Bacon Day, too.)

16. Canadian and American Labour Day (September 6^th): While not necessarily the first holiday that may spring to mind as an occasion to make cards for, Labour Day can in fact provide a wealth of paper crafting inspiration.

Use this annual event to create a scrapbook layout, mini album, card or other type of project that honours either your own career path or the profession of someone special in your life.

17. International Volunteer Day (December 5^th): This important annual event celebrates and raises awareness of the work that volunteers around the world contribute to society.

Utilize International Volunteer Day as an excellent opportunity to acknowledge and thank the hard working volunteers in your own life and/or community.

18. Fall leaves: I know that autumn flowers and foliage appear as an entry elsewhere on this list, but much as with pumpkins and the broader harvest season, so too do fall leaves deserve their own entry.

Synonymous with autumn in much of the Western Hemisphere, crispy, crunchy earth and jewel-toned leaves are a gorgeous element of fall and a poignant reminder of the cyclical nature both of the seasons and of life in general.

Awesomely, no shortage of leaf-themed products (from stamps to metal dies, stickers to stencils) exist in the paper crafting world, many of which suit the splendours of fall time foliage to an absolute tee.

19. World Kindness Day (November 13^th): On the list of things that there can never be too much of on this planet, kindness ranks extremely high up there in my books.

If you’re equally keen on kindness, I encourage you to use the middle of November as a fantastic time to acknowledge and thank some of the people in your life whose kindness and care have made a lasting impact on your days.

20. National Ampersand Day (USA; September 8^th): If you’ve ever looked at the humble, elegant, and very hardworking ampersand (aka, the “and symbol”) and thought that it deserved its own special day of recognition, then National Ampersand Day is for you!

Plenty of paper crafting products (particularly stamps and dies) feature ampersands, which means that should have no trouble coming up with lots & lots of charming craft project ideas that feature or include this beloved symbol.

21. Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October): As one of the most common cancers in the modern world, rare is the family that has not been touched in some way breast cancer.

If you have a cancer patient or survivor in your family, friend group, or elsewhere in your life, October can be an excellent time to let that person know you’re thinking of them as they’re battling this extremely challenging disease or that you are super proud of all they’ve accomplished in their fight with breast cancer.

As well, you may wish to look into if any of the oncology departments or clinics in your area accept handmade cards, and, if they do, create some supportive greetings for strangers who are battling not only breast cancer, but cancers of all types.

(On the cancer awareness front autumn is also home to both prostate cancer and ovarian cancer awareness in September, and stomach cancer and pancreatic cancer awareness in November.)

22. National Pumpkin Day (USA; October 26^th): I know, I know, pumpkins definitely fall under the first entry on this list, but as one of the most iconic and universally beloved symbols of fall, there’s no way I could deprive National Pumpkin Day of its own entry here.

Be they classic or cute, silly or spooky, pumpkins and the grinning jack-o-lanterns we carve from them are one of the best and most enjoyable ways to instantly convey fall time fun in your paper crafting projects.

23. World Tourism Day (September 27^th): In this time of serious ongoing global challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, most of us are not doing a great deal of international (or even national) travelling. That doesn’t mean, however, that we can’t still celebrate our passion for adventure via our paper crafting.

Whether you make a project pertaining to your own travels or a card for a wanderlust-filled loved one, this fall is a terrific time to acknowledge highly meaningful role travel plays not only in our own lives, but in those of countless others across the globe.

24. Fall time flowers and foliage: It is natural to associate spring and summer with lush, gorgeous gardens teeming with blooms as far as the eye can see. However, fall is not without its own wonderful crop of flowers and greenery as well – any and all of which can provide a host of inspiration to crafters everywhere.

Amongst the star players when it comes to autumn flowers you’ll find such beautiful offerings as chrysanthemums, sunflowers, flowering kale, dianthus, shrub roses, cosmos, autumn sedum, heuchera, goldenrod, croton, black-eyed Susan, hydrangeas, snapdragons, purple fountain grass, amaranthus, marigolds, beautyberry, helenium, cornflowers, pansies, violas, and plenty of hearty varieties of roses.

25. International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19^th): Ahoy, maties! If it’s the pirate’s life for you, then your timbers are apt to be shivered and your creativity fuelled by this thoroughly fun annual event, which provides no shortage of paper crafting inspiration.

26. The Northern Lights: While the Northern Lights (aka, the Aurora Borealis) can be seen throughout the year in various parts of the world, according to NASA, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you are twice as likely to spot this breathtaking natural event during the spring and fall months than you in the winter and summer.

Though many people do not live in areas that are northerly enough to witness the Aurora Borealis in person, happily, we can whip up our own dazzling Northern Lights displays via our paper crafting, particularly via ink blended and/or stamped skies.

27. National Beer Lover’s Day (USA; September 7^th): Raise a pint to one of the world’s most beloved and frequently consumed beverages by brewing up a card or other paper crafting project that pays homage to the sudsy tipple that is beer.

28. Fall fashion: Cozy sweaters, chunky knit scarves, fleece shirts, warm coats, opaque tights, and cute gloves are but a few of the fabulous fashion elements that call autumn home.

If, like me, you tend to (vastly) prefer dressing for the cooler half of the year or if you know someone who does, then fall is the ideal time to celebrate your passion for autumnal fashion via not only your wardrobe, but also your paper crafting.

Think cable knit patterned embossing folders and papers, adorable sweater-themed stamp sets, and super cute stickers depicting scarves, to name but a few creative possibilities on this fun and festive front.

29. World Teacher’s Day (October 5^th): Fall and the start of the school year have, in many parts of the world, gone hand in hand for centuries. Autumn is a wonderful and very fitting time to celebrate and honour the teachers in our lives and families, as well as to reflect back (such as in scrapbooking form) on those educators whose impact remains with us to this day.

30. Pumpkin spice everything: Though I’m the first to acknowledge that not everyone flips their lid for pumpkin spice flavoured foods and beverages (be they coffee-based or otherwise), for those of us who do, we’d gladly consume little else from the first day of September right on until the Winter Solstice.

If pumpkin spice makes your heart skip a beat, try whipping up some fun, festive fall themed paper crafting projects that embrace your – or a friend’s – passion for this thoroughly beautiful flavour melange.

31. National Women’s Friendship Day (USA; third Sunday in September): Yaaasss!!! As someone who is a massive proponent of women supporting women and the importance of friendship amongst women, I am 110% in favour of National Women’s Friendship Day.

I’ve quickly some to adore using this annual event as inspiration to make and send cards out to some of my cherished female friends around the globe.

You can easily do the same, too, and do not need any special supplies to create cards or other paper crafting projects for the gal pals in your own life.  

32. Fall time farmer’s markets and produce stands: Growing up, my family had a treasured annual tradition of visiting some of the beautiful and abundantly stocked farmer’s market produce stands in a tiny community less than an hour’s drive south of us. Later on, when as an adult I returned to the same town I spent much of my youth in, I continued this tradition with my husband.

Though we now live considerably further north in the same region and don’t make it that far south most falls, we continue to seek out, celebrate, and support local produce stands and farmer’s markets throughout the autumn months. And rare is the year that some, if not all, of the pumpkins, gourds, squashes, ears of corn, apples, and pears we purchase for Halloween/Samhain don’t hail from such sources.

Whether you are fortunate to have your own local sources for autumnal produce or not, you can easily celebrate this fall time mainstay via the plethora of seasonal paper crafting products that tap into autumn farmer’s markets and create projects that are no less invitingly gorgeous than the real deal.

33. International Rabbit Day (the 4^th Saturday in September): Did you know that, following cats and dogs, rabbits are the third most common pets in numerous countries?

And for good measure! These cute, clever, and charming long-eared animal friends are beautiful creatures that deserve our respect and love, whether we opt to keep one (or more) in our house or not.

The paper crafting world houses, rather fittingly, a proliferation of cotton tail related products, meaning that you can just as easily create rabbit-themed projects in the fall as you can come springtime (the season many of us associate most closely with bunnies).

34. Fall time weather: Just as rain showers can symbolize spring and sunshine is the epitome of a natural fit for summer, so too can we look to the weather for autumn paper crafting inspiration.

Blustery wind, golden rays of sun, vivid autumn sunsets, and even the first frost can all lend a helping hand on the creativity front when looking for themes this season.

35. National Pasta Day (USA; October 17^th): Much as with tacos, rare is the person who doesn’t like at least a few varieties of pasta!

Be it made with wheat, gluten-free alternatives (such as corn, rice, quinoa, buckwheat, or chickpeas), almond flour, shirataki, or other types of ingredients, pasta is a beloved staple in many cuisines and households around the world.

Let this versatile and thoroughly tasty food make for a delightful source of inspiration when dishing up a fall time paper crafting project.

36. The full moons of fall: Perhaps no other full moon is more famous than the breathtaking harvest moon of early autumn (technically the harvest moon is the full moon that occurs closest to the Fall Equinox). Yet each of autumn’s full moons is a gorgeous sight and occurrence that is worthy of being celebrated in paper form.

The year’s monthly full moons are all known by various names across the world. In English speaking countries, some of the most common names for the fall time full moons include:

-September: Harvest Moon, Autumn Moon, Corn Moon, Full Corn Moon, Barley Moon, Falling Leaves Moon (also used at times for October’s full moon), Rutting Moon, Child Moon, and Leaves Turning Moon

-October: Harvest Moon (if the full moon closest to the Fall Equinox transpires in October), Hunter’s Moon, Blood Moon, Sanguine Moon, Falling Leaves Moon, Frost Moon, Migrating Moon, and Dying Grass Moon

-November: Beaver Moon, Frosty Moon, Mourning Moon (this name is most commonly applied when November’s full moon is the last full moon before the Winter Solstice), Digging Moon, Freezing Moon, and the Oak Moon, though the latter is also given at times to December’s full moon.

-December (some years – including this one – the full moon falls during the fall time portion of December): Cold Moon, Oak Moon, Moon Before Yule, Long Night Moon, Snow Moon, Drift Clearing Moon, Midwinter Moon, and Hoar Frost Moon.

There are oodles of moon-related paper crafting products out there that can make celebrating the full moons of autumn all the more possible, though one can certainly do the same with some basic paper crafting supplies, such as circle punches, ink blended skies that include a moon, or moon themed stickers.

37. International Day of Sign Languages (September 23^rd): Globally, more than 300 different sign languages are spoken.

The meaningful annual observance of International Day of Sign Languages (the date of which was selected to coincide with the founding in 1951 of the World Federation of the Deaf) honours and celebrates sign language, and is an excellent motivator to learn more about this diverse, incredibly important form of communication.

38. Dictionary Day (October 16^th): And speaking of language-related entries, how about celebrating Dictionary Day via your paper crafting this fall?

This odd to lexicology takes place on October 16^th (the birth date of Noah Webster, the founder of Webster’s Dictionary) and is the ideal time to bust out your favourite dictionary related scrapbooking and card making supplies, or simply celebrate the important role that words play in our paper crafting projects the whole year through.

39. Candy Corn Day (October 30^th): In my experience, much as with raisins, people tend to either love or loath candy corn. Personally, I adore it – not just eating the real deal, but creating with craft versions of this sweet, adorable fall time staple as well.

Thankfully, one need not enjoy consuming candy to do the same. Plenty of paper crafting brands offer candy corn-themed goodies that are just the ticket for making some of the sweetest fall time cards, scrapbook pages, and other projects around.

40. International Daughter’s Day (September 26^th): This observance strives to acknowledge daughters around the world and, in doing so, to help raise awareness of the challenges, struggles, and plights experienced by many female children and adults globally.

It can also be an excellent time to honour one’s own daughters and/or, if applicable, the fact that you are a daughter yourself.

41. Vintage fall and Halloween: From campy, fabulous movies (see: Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, for example) to highly collectable yesteryear Halloween décor, looking to the past as inspiration for present-day autumn craft projects can be an awesome way to imbue a strong sense of nostalgia into one’s fall time creative makes.

42. National Cookie Day (USA; December 4^th): It’s only fitting, if you ask me, that National Cookie Day transpires in the same month as many of the best known and most beloved winter holidays (for which cookies are often an integral sweet treat for a lot of folks).

Falling on December 4^th, however, National Cookie Day is still squarely in the realm of autumn and can be a fantastic time to whip up some delectable cookies (aka, biscuits for those in various parts of the world, such as the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) – be they the real deal or those rendered in equally welcome paper crafting form.

43. Fall zodiac signs: This autumn begins on the last day of Virgo and spans, as each fall does, the signs of Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. If you or someone in your life has a birthday during the autumn months, why not look to the stars for some celestially guided paper crafting inspiration?

44. Button Day (November 16^th): Rare is the textile or paper crafter who hasn’t worked with buttons at least a time or two. For many of us creative folks, buttons are a beloved mainstay in our craft supply arsenal.

This November, embrace your love of this charming fastener by whipping up a project or two (or ten!) that includes buttons – be they the real, die cut versions, button themed stickers, stamped button images, or anything else your creative, button adoring heart can dream up!

45. International Coffee Day (October 1st): Feeling a bit knackered from all the exciting paper crafting you’ve been doing this fall? Then why not brew up a hefty cup of your favourite java and use this delightful event to celebrate your – or a fellow joe adoring friend’s – passion for the beloved pep-inducing drink that is coffee?

*Bonus 46^th reason* #MakeHalloween365: The super fun hashtag #MakeHalloween365 that I created and launched earlier this year.

I am all for using hashtags as inspiration for our crafting, as the projects we share with them can, in turn, help to delight and inspire others.

If you’re not doing so already, I welcome and encourage you to use the hashtag #MakeHalloween365 anytime you share any sort of creative project, blog post, or photo online that pertains to Halloween.

I check this hashtag regularly and love to feature posts that use it on my Instagram stories.

Let’s band together and help #MakeHalloween365 grow and become all the more of a thriving hub of spooky season creative inspiration for fellow All Hallows’ Eve fans around the globe.

Note: The dates listed here for national and international observances are for the year of 2021. Dates may differ in future years but are apt to still fall around the same general points on the calendar.

Please also note that images used in the above list are copyright of their respective sources. To learn more about a particular image and/or the product that it features, please click on the link in the caption directly below a given image.

Welcome September, welcome autumn!

Personally, my mind, spirituality, and heart begin attuning with fall come Lammas, at the beginning of August.

However, there is just something about the first day (and week) of September that instantly makes it feel like fall has begun, regardless of whether the temperature outside is still hot enough to fry pancakes on the sidewalk or chilly enough to make ice cubes out back once the sun has set.

Like many of us, I am elated that September has returned and am embracing fall’s resplendence with the most open of arms. Not only for its own marvellous merits, but also because this summer has been quite the doozy on multiple fronts and I am eager to soon file the current season away and move onward both with the year and with my/our life as well.

I will save going into further detail there for the next edition of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me (which should be appearing here shortly before the Fall Equinox). Suffice it to say though, that for a multitude of reasons, this will be a summer that I won’t soon forget!

I’m hoping that when all is said and done, I can make the same statement about fall 2021 – however, ideally, for considerably more positive reasons than those that made this summer quite the standout!

As many of you know, I am absolutely, hands down, no two ways about it madly obsessed with autumn!!!

This point is reflected in both my online and offline life all throughout the year, but I try to let it shine even more powerfully come the enchanting days of fall time itself.

With any luck, autumn 2021 will be no exception there. I’m all but bouncing off the (festively decorated) walls with excitement to share a slew of seasonally related blog content with all of you. Just as I am tremendously excited to see and be inspired by your own awesome fall shares.

Here’s to the hope for a safe, happy, relaxing, beautiful, and thoroughly inspiring autumn, dear friends – may it be amongst the loveliest that we have ever experienced!

Which of the fun and unique fall happenings mentioned above jumped out at you the most? What additional autumn time entries would you add to this list?

The post 45 Special Occasions and Fun Reasons to Make Cards (and Other Paper Crafting Projects) For This Fall appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

This fact makes me giddier than if I had a sugar rush from eating a dozen deluxe caramel apples.

And it means that as we embrace the t-minus six months point until All Hallows’ Eve, I’ll be ramping up my Halloween papercrafting all the more.

For today’s #MakeHalloween365 project, I’m sharing a set of five super cute, fun, and very easy to make Halloween gift tags that I created a bit earlier in the year.

This set of Halloween gift tags was included as part of some October 31^st related happy mail that I recently posted to a dear friend on the other side of the country.

We’re both die-hard Halloweenoholics, and I love knowing that just like myself, she adores receiving spooky season mail at any point in the year.

This sweet, festive Halloween tag set was intentionally left on the simple side, so that my friend could, if she so desires, use them as tags on presents for other people.

If one wanted, they could add some bling, enamel dots or other embellishments, (3D) bows, charms, or various other components here, too. Again though, I was aiming for eye-catching, but not overly complex.

As much as I adore an in-depth project with oodles of layers and details, sometimes it is both refreshing and enjoyable to put together quicker makes like these five tags.

The whole set took me less than 1.5 hours to whip up. Which, let me tell you, is mighty speedy in terms of how long it usually takes me to complete a papercrafting project.

Not everything we make needs to be uber elaborate or take scads of time. This is something I have to remind myself of a touch more often.

The jumping off point for this set was four cut apart squares on a 6”x6” piece of Recollections Halloween paper.

I knew that I wanted a set of five tags, however, but did not want to repeat any of the same images.

Thus, for the fifth gift tag, I opted for a dimensional Halloween word sticker from Jolee’s Boutique, which I feel fits in well with the general colours and themes of this gift tag set.

You could easily skip making the 5^th tag and stick with four tags instead, if so desired. Or, conversely, you could keep going and create additional gift tag designs as well.

Projects like this are tons of fun and a perfect way to put our stashes of Halloween papercrafting supplies to good use!

Products used to make these cute Halloween gift tags

-Black cardstock

-White cardstock

-Vibrant orange cardstock

-Gold metallic cardstock

-Assorted Halloween papers – Halloween Party 6”x6” Paper Pad from Recollections

-Stitched edge tag nesting die set

-“Scary” Halloween word sticker – Large Doily Medallions from Jolee’s Boutique

-Intricate design crescent moon die (or other crescent moon die of your choosing)

-Flat bow die

-Bare branch wreath die

-White gel pen – Uni-Ball White Gel Ink Pen from Signo

-Black pen – Uni-Ball Air Black Pen from Signo

-Pleated black ruffle trim

-Black lace

-Black and white baker’s twine

-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 create this charming 5-piece set of Halloween gift tags

As each of these tags are very similar to one another, I’m not going to bore you all by repeating what would essentially be the same instructions multiple times.

Instead, I’ll outline the general steps involved with each and refer you to the numerous project photos peppered throughout this post for precise specifics on each individual tag.

To begin with, die cut five matching stitched edge tags. Two from white cardstock, two from black cardstock, and one from orange cardstock.

Next, using a slightly smaller sized stitched edge tag die, die cut four tag shapes from (four) different pieces of Halloween paper from the 6”x6” paper pad, along with one tag from metallic gold cardstock.

Adhere the one patterned paper, or gold cardstock, tag shape to each tag base.

Die cut five tags of the same (smaller of the two dies) size from white cardstock. Adhere a blank white tag to the back of each tag. This then enables you, or your recipient, to write a message on the back of each of these gift tags, if they wish to do so.

On the gift tag with the gold metallic cardstock tag layer, adhere a strip of pleated black ruffle trim.

Die cut a crescent moon from metallic gold cardstock, a bow from black cardstock, a bare branch wreath from white cardstock. Attach these die cut pieces to their respective gift tags.

Cut out the Halloween image pieces from the same 6”x6” Recollections Halloween paper pad.

Using either a black ink or white gel ink pen (and, optionally, a ruler to help keep your lines straight) hand draw stitching around the edges of each of the four Halloween paper pieces.

Using foam dots, adhere each of the four Halloween images to its own respective tag.

For the fifth tag, die cut a smaller sized (third) stitched tag using black cardstock.

Attach a piece of black lace to the tag base, top with the small black tag, and top that piece with the Jolee’s Boutique “Scary” sticker.

Note: this is the only tag out of the five that calls for a third size of tag to be die cut.

Attach a loop of black and white baker’s twine through the small hole at the top of each of the gift tags.

And just like that, your fast, easy, and frighteningly cute five-piece Halloween gift tag set is done.

The versatility of handmade gift tag sets

Handmade tag sets like these have a multitude of uses. Naturally, using them as part of your gift wrapping is a great way to put them to good work, but it’s not the only one.

You could skip adding the white cardstock layer on the back and instead adhere one or more of these tags to a scrapbook layout, Project Life page, card, larger tag, mini album, Memorydex card, tag flip, pocket letter, or other paper crafting project.

Or why not attach all five tags to a length of trim or sturdy string and hang them as an adorable mini garland?

You could also include them in a Halloween paper crafting swap or some happy mail, gift them to your child’s teacher, or pen a note on the back of each and slip into your little one’s (or significant other’s) lunches throughout the month of October.

And, of course, they make for delightful pieces of festive Halloween décor sprinkled throughout your house or clustered together, such as on a Halloween tiered tray or a lovely dish.

Plus, if you needed to make a larger number of tags like this, they are quick and easy, so whipping up ten, twenty, thirty-one – you name it – shouldn’t take an immense amount of time.

I really enjoyed making this fun set of Halloween gift tags and hope that you do as well, if you give a similar project a go.

Be sure to tag your own creations with #MakeHalloween365 when you share them online so that we can all be inspired by your fa-boo-lous Halloween crafts.

Here’s to less than half a year to go until All Hallows’ Eve returns. I can scarcely wait! How about you?

The post Cute, Fun, and Very Easy to Make Halloween Gift Tag Set 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.

Yet, if you have known me for at least a little while, chances are you’re aware of the fact that I am, unquestionably, one of those people who eats, breathes, sleeps, and lives for Halloween!

Rare is that day that goes by when I don’t think about October 31^st.

Sometimes multiple thoughts and plans, musings and happenings pertaining to All Hallows’ Eve unfold in a single day.

I like those days a lot.

By far one of my favourite – and, most readily accessible – ways to keep Halloween going strong all year long is through crafting.

It can be -25C during the heart of a blizzard, +40C while we’re melting in the dog days of summer, or raining to the point of almost needing to build an ark in April, and in my wee craft room, the creation of a festive project instantly makes it feel like Halloween is here again.

Not literally, of course, but rather in spirit and heart.

I know that I am far from alone in my penchant for fall time and Halloween/Samhain. Both online and off, I’ve had the pleasure of connecting with oodles of fellow Halloweenoholics over the years.

Many of my closest friends share my love for the spooky season and counting down to the big day together has become a cherished aspect of fall for me.

As such, please allow me to introduce an original hashtag that I’m launching and which I invite all of you to use anywhere, and as often, as you’d like.

#MakeHalloween365

Use the hashtag #MakeHalloween365 at any point in the year when you create and publicly share a post, photo, craft project, or other creative work that pertains to Halloween.

Lest anyone thinks this is hashtag relates to (or was inspired by) MAGA, let me emphatically state that it does not (and as an interesting side note, Trump was not the first politician to use that now-famous expression, others such as Reagan had done so decades prior).

In this instance, the word “make” is used to convey the fact that this is a hashtag for makers and crafters, artists, creative folks, and anyone who whips up something handmade.

Be that project a quilt, scrapbook page, Halloween pet costume, handmade card, or a batch of skeleton gingerbread cookies – you name it!

The popular hashtag #Halloween365 has been around for years now.

This new hashtag – #MakeHallowen365 – is a spin on that existing hashtag and is aimed at crafters and makers the world over.

You can use this hashtag anytime, anywhere, no matter the month or season.

And one need not be utterly and completely obsessed with Halloween to utilize this hashtag.

#MakeHalloween365 is for anyone who makes a Halloween related project and shares it publicly.

By using the hashtag #MakeHalloeween365, it is my great hope that we can create a thriving, frequently added-to pool of inspiration for all those who enjoy Halloween, are looking for creative Halloween ideas, or just need a solid fix of their favourite holiday months before October 31^st returns.

If you’re a fellow crafter, artist, or other creative type and share your Halloween related projects/posts online, I encourage you to use this hashtag.

I plan to routinely check out new posts that use the hashtag #MakeHalloween365 on social media and to share plenty of them in my IG stories.

As such, using this hashtag can also be a great way to help your account and its content get further exposure on Instagram.

Help spread the word about #MakeHalloween365

Please feel free to share this post or any of the images in it wherever you please online.

Start using #MakeHalloween365 today, tomorrow, anytime you desire. And don’t be shy about letting me know in the comments here or on social media if you use this hashtag.

Use #MakeHalloween365 anytime you share a relevant post on social media, YouTube, or your blog (if you use hashtags with your blog, that is).

And use it as often as you wish! I’d really love to see this hashtag flourish and for it to be a wonderful way for others to share and be inspired by fellow Halloween fans the whole year through.

As well, I have created some super fun #MakeHalloween365 sidebar graphics (below) that you can post on your blog or website’s sidebar as a way to continually share your own passion for Halloween. While, at the same time, letting others know about this festive-meets-creativity related hashtag in the process.

To display these graphics, copy and paste the HTML code below the image you wish to use into an HTML-compatible widget on your blog’s sidebar.

(Note: These graphics are currently sized to 200 pixels wide x 300 pixels tall, as many sidebars accommodate a width of at least 200 pixels. If you need a smaller or larger version, please shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to help.)

Let’s #MakeHalloween365 together!

By sharing this post, using the images it houses, and most of all, by utilizing #MakeHalloween365 throughout the year, we can create a wonderful new hub of Halloween-related posts to help inspire one another.

All the while, ensuring that the spirit of Halloween carries on stronger than ever, no matter what life throws our way or how a given autumn (or spring, south of the equator) unfolds.

Halloween is within us all and is fostered ever more by the passion and creativity we inject into our love of October 31^st.

Indeed, you can just as easily share and support this hashtag, even if you’re not a crafter. If Halloween is your cup of tea in any way, then this hashtag is for you as well!

Thank you SO much in advance to everyone who connects with this new hashtag.

I know that together we can #MakeHalloween365 a thriving, awesome way to share and be inspired by each other’s creative Halloween projects and ideas.

So let’s all raise a collective PSL to that point and then get crafting so that we can start putting #MakeHalloween365 to good use!

The post Introducing #MakeHalloween365 – The Craft Project Hashtag for Halloween Fans appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

As I recently said to my lovely friend Sue from The Witch at One and Seventy, I honestly feel in my heart of hearts that one of the reasons why I was put on this earth was to be an ASMR creator.

There are not a lot of things in my 36 years of life that I would make such a bold declaration about.

As such, it really drives home all the more just how much this matters to me and why I must give creating ASMR videos a fighting chance.

Now, on with the show for today!

Now truth be told, I debated whether or not to pen this post, as it is centred around the latest video that I put up on my YouTube channel prior to announcing that I will be changing my YT focus.

However, these mini brooms are oodles of fun to make and I know plenty of my readers are fellow fans of Halloween (and/or witchy) crafting. Plus the video is already up on YouTube, so I figured, why not?

5 DIY Ways to Make Quick and Cute Mini Brooms

Unlike most project shares that I’ve posted here to date, I am not going to provide you with detailed written instructions on how to make these adorable little mini brooms, as they are shared in my video.

Nor have I taken styled/polished shots of my finished examples.

That said, I do have the following iPhone images, which detail the exact materials involved with each of these five different mini broom projects. (That info is provided in the video as well, but I thought it would be handy to have a quick visual reference to it in photo form as well. )

Reasons to make your own DIY mini brooms and besoms

There are many reasons and occasions to make sweet little brooms like the five highlighted in this video. Some of which include:

-Fall time

-Thanksgiving

-Halloween

-The autumn sabbats of Lammas, Mabon, and Samhain (or any of the sabbats or monthly esbats)

-Thank you and thinking of you gifts

-Weddings and handfastings (especially if a traditional broom jumping is involved)

-As gifts for witchy and/or Halloween adoring friends and relatives (not to mention, if applicable, one’s coven members)

-For use one one’s altar, as part of a ritual and/or spell, or to otherwise adorn your magickal environment with

-As adornments for wreaths (I’d keep them indoors or otherwise fully protected from the elements though, as these mini brooms are not water or weatherproof, though you could certainly create them with different materials that would make them more weather resistant)

-Hung as decorations on a seasonal tree, be it for Halloween, Yule, Christmas, Valoween, etc

-As some, or all, of the dangling decorations on a home décor mobile or wall hanging

-Multiple mini brooms attached to a string/chord/ribbon/etc and used as a garland

-As placeholders or otherwise utilized as table décor

-Included in a tiered décor tray

-Sent in happy mail (especially around Halloween time)

-As part of gift wrapping (for example, you could attach a small tag to your DIY mini broom with a message for your recipient on it)

Other materials you can use to make handmade mini brooms

Likewise, the sky is the limit when it comes to different and/or additional materials you can use when making your own mini brooms.

The following is but a handful of possible options to use when creating mini brooms and besoms:

-Actual broom straw or broomcorn

-Suitable dried grasses and/or herbs (such as sturdy sprigs of rosemary, lavender, or heather)

-Dried corn husks

-Gift wrapping ribbon

-Crepe paper

-Tissue paper

-Cardstock

-Paper (including scrapbooking paper, mulberry paper, and wrapping paper)

-Embroidery floss

-Ribbon, lace, and trims of all sorts (pieces of sequins trim used for the “straw” of a mini broom looks gorgeous!)

-Strips of fabric (including muslin), burlap, or thin cork

-Larger feathers (to use as the “straw” of the broom)

-Suitable found (aka, wild crafted) sticks and small branches

-Crystals, seashells, acorns, small pinecones, dried flowers, artificial flowers, wax seals, beads, charms, cabochons, die cuts, stickers, chipboard pieces, mini sized Halloween decorations, and small bells all make for delightful ways to embellish your mini brooms

Let your imagination run wild when designing mini brooms.

By following the general techniques used in this how-to craft video, you can utilize a wide range of different materials to create small, versatile brooms that work great for many occasions.

Keeping my existing YouTube content up as I move forward on the ASMR front

Following my previous blog post, I received some email and DM questions regarding my existing YouTube channel. One of which was if I was/am planning to keep my existing video content up.

As things stand at the moment, the answer there is a resounding “yes”.

I can’t promise that I will leave those videos up on an ASMR channel forever, but for the time being they are staying put.

Once I start publishing ASMR content a little later on this year, I will likely just add wording such as “Non-ASMR video” to the titles of my existing YT content.

Delightfully, a video such as the one shared in this post could easily be filmed as an ASMR video, too.

This ties into what I was saying in my last post about how it is likely that some of the content I would have put up on a non-ASMR channel may very well appear on an ASMR one all the same.

I’m really happy about that fact and plan to weave both witchery and paper crafting alike into the larger body of ASMR videos I create.

Thank you again, everyone. I really cannot stress just how much your support and kindness mean to me and this powerful, long-held dream of mine.

The post 5 Ways to Make Cute and Easy DIY Mini Brooms appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.