Snow for Halloween

If you are stopping by for the Creative Charms Fall Blog Hop, please click HERE to go to the blog hop post.  After you finish the hop come on back and have a look around!

The Northeast US is experiencing a terrific storm this weekend - the weather people are calling it "Snowtober" and there have been many power outages.  We have have a fair bit of snow already here in Massachusetts with more on the way. The storm is more extreme in the western part of the state.  My brother-in-law's parents have 18 inches and counting.  When I wrote about "Merry Halloween", a couple of days ago, I didn't really want Christmas weather to come so quickly!

We have five extra people at our house this weekend and I've been doing a lot of visiting and cooking.  My two nephews had a bread baking lesson and we made delicious some rolls to go with our "football stew" (another recipe for another day). 

I had promised to do a little crafting with the kids and the haunted house from the Happy Hauntings Cricut cartridge was the top choice for Thomas since Scott already made a 3D castle with me last summer.

This is the castle that Scott and I made from the Once Upon a Princess cartridge.  When we made this I thought it was a little complicated...it is a piece of cake compared to the Haunted Mansion!

I didn't take photos while we worked on the Haunted House so this will be a quick post.  I do have a few tips to share that might help you if you attempt to make your own spooky mansion.

1.  If you want to have a light shining inside the house, be sure to cut all of the window filler pieces from thin paper or parchment.  We used regular yellow cardstock, never thinking about putting a light inside and it is too thick to allow the light from a battery operated candle shine through,

2.  Be prepared for the project to take several hours - I think it was about three hours and we haven't done any embellishing yet.  There are a lot of pieces to cut out and score and the assembly is rather complicated.  You definitely should score the pieces to get the folds sharp and even and to help the parts fit together as designed.

3.  If you want to have the roof and some of the other pieces in different colors you will need to use Design Studio, the Gypsy or the Craftroom to hide images and conserve paper.  Otherwise, you will need to cut some of the feature keys multiple times in different colors to get the multicolored effect.  We decided to just use the purple (I had a lot of it) to make this model.   Now that we have done one, it will be easier to figure out how to cut the pieces for another in various colors.

4.  If you press "fit to page" for the first cut, watch the screen to see the size to cut the rest of the pieces.  To cut this entire house on 12 x 12 cardstock with no manipulation in any software, the size will be set at seven inches.  The assembled height of this house cut at seven inches is about eleven inches.

5.  The mechanism for holding some of the pieces together is an "arrow and slit" style connection.  If you use a heavy cardstock, it will help a lot to take a tool and loosen up the slits a bit before you attempt to slide the arrow tabs into them.

6.  Pay attention to the images in the book to be sure that you adhere the window linings to the correct side of the house cuts.  If you stick it down on the wrong side you'd have some extra cutting to do (don't ask me how I know this...).

7.  If you want to stamp or add other surface decoration to the house pieces, do it while they are still flat!

 

8.  The trickiest part of all was the roof.  There are two sections and you actually need to put the sections together and then add them to the top of the building.  By reaching in from the bottom you can help to secure the roof to flaps where you have placed the adhesive.

9.  We used Scor-Tape and a glue pen for the assembly.  Scor-tape will hold very well and you can avoid the potential mess of liquid glue.

10.  It took six pieces of 12 x 12 cardstock to cut out all of the pieces needed to build the house - so make sure you have enough paper when you start to avoid disappointment.

When we finished (past bedtime) I thought I would not want to make another one of these for a very long time.  As I look at these photos of our Test Model assembly, I can see lots of ways to add more interest and I may be back to cutting out another one tomorrow!

Be safe if you are in the path of this storm - it might be a good day to stay home and craft (with your fingers crossed that the power stays on!).  Do you like to make 3D objects from paper or do you prefer to make flat cards or pages?  Good luck with the last minute preparations if you are getting kids ready to trick or treat,  Have a wonderful Sunday!


Subscribe to Capadia Designs 

A Little bit of Halloween with Creative Charms

Happy Tuesday!  Today is my day to post on the Creative Charms blog and I have a few quick and simple projects to share.  This week may seem a bit full of Creative Charms - we also have a Fall Blog Hop on Friday.  The special breast cancer awareness fundraising kit that I posted about yesterday is available through the end of the month.

I am finally getting over that nasty cold and I do have some other projects that I should be able to get back to this week.  They are predicting snow (well at least flurries) for Thursday so I plan to stay home and craft!

The first card is an invitation for a pumpkin carving party.  The framed purple pumpkin is from the Vintage Halloween Metal Frames set. 

If you have this "Spooktacular" paper stack from K & Company, you will find that the Creative Charms Halloween items are a very good match for both the colors and designs.

The orange card base is A2 size, with the white layer cut at 5 1/4 x 4 inches and the pumpkin patterned paper cut at 5 1/8 x 3 7/8 inches.  The green strip on the left is 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches and the sentiment block is 1 x 2 3/8 inches.

I put all of the layers together and then pierced a couple of holes for the two flowers from the Orange Groovy Petal Medley.

I changed the center of the flower to a Purple Gem Brad and saved the original center for another project.

When you are working with a bold patterned paper you need to keep an open mind about your layout.  When I had the pumpkin from the Vintage Halloween Metal Frames set centered on the green stripe it blocked out some of the design and the bits that showed did not look very nice.

I moved the frame over to the right to completely hide the black face features in the right side of the pumpkin and expose them on the left side.  This was more pleasing to my eye and made a better frame for the cute pumpkin in the frame.

This card was made to send to my Dad with some Halloween treats.  It is a larger card (5 x 7 inches) in plain white cardstock and I framed the striped layer with a solid black border.  The ghost is an extra one that I cut for the Halloween Wall Display that I posted last week.  I thought about adding a bow but decided to keep it very simple since it was for a man.

I used tiny black Gradient Gem Stickers for eyes and hand cut the little oval for the mouth.  I put a bit of adhesive in the spot for the mouth and then dropped the oval on the adhesive when it turned clear.

Foam squares make the ghost "float" above the card.

 

This size of card sits perfectly in the small flat rate mailing box I was using to send the goodies to my Dad.  (If you want to know what is in the box, you'll have to wait a day or two - I don't want to spoil the surprise!).

The last card is actually a place card or a label for a buffet.  I designed this in the Silhouette Studio software using the spiderweb which is one of the free shapes.

The design is very similar to the place cards I made for our son's wedding.  The spiderweb pops up when the card is folded.  This was easy to design with the Silhouette software - I just eliminated the outer line of the lower section of the spiderweb and added some perforation lines to make the card easy to fold.

This is the card as it is removed from the mat.  If you look closely you can see that the right side is lifting up a bit.

Here you can see the perforation and the spiderweb starting to fold up from the card.

You could add the names of your guests or use the card as a label for a buffet - to keep the Halloween theme going.  I added one of the Vintage Halloween Metal Frames in the corner for a punch of color.

If you have a Silhouette and would like to try this file you can download it at the link below.

Spiderweb placecard (Silhouette Studio file)


Giveaway Results...

A week or so ago I shared a wonderful gift from a blog friend and gave you all a challenge (HERE) - all you needed to do was to make something using anything from Creative Charms and link it up to have a chance to win a bundle of Vintage Jewels.  I don't know if you all are super busy or if you didn't have any Creative Charms to use, but only two people linked up.  Please let me know if you like the idea of challenges or if you prefer to just visit and read about a project.
 
Debbie linked up five projects and Sarabug also added a project.  I asked for "a" photo of a project made with Creative Charms so it came down to a flip of the coin (by Random.org).

Number 2 came up which means that Sarabug is the winner of the Vintage Jewels bundle.  Debbie, I appreciate that you posted your projects so I will also be sending you a bundle of Creative Charms goodies.

I also had an option for people who had no Creative Charms to play along by guessing the total number of Creative Charms embellishments that Marilyn Mae used for the mini album she sent me.  The actual number was 62 (66 if you count the card) which means that Gramjak is the winner of the assortment of Creative Charms items from my stash (in other words - some of these may be partial packs or loose bits and pieces).

Finally, I also had a mini-giveaway on my post with the upcycled bottle tops (HERE).  The winner of the random draw was Dianne

 

Congratulations - I'll be sending you a pack of the Vintage Halloween Frames.

Could all four of you please contact me with your mailing information as soon as possible? I'll send out your packages as soon as I can after I get this information.  You can email me at capadiadesigns@gmail.com - thanks!

Don't forget that we will be having a Fall Blog Hop this Friday - the hop will start right here on the Creative Charms blog. It is a short hop - only ten stops so I hope you'll have a chance to see all of the projects.


Subscribe to Capadia Designs 

 

Halloween Wall Display

There are just a couple of weeks left before Halloween so I was glad to get this frame put together to hang until the holiday.  We don't do as many decorations now that our sons are adults but something like this is easy to do and adds a bit of fun for the season.

The collage frame was on sale at AC Moore for about ten dollars.  It has four vertical and three horizontal 4x6 spots for photos or decorations.  You can also turn it vertically if that suits your project or your wall space.  The dividing bars are all on the outside of the frame with a single sheet of glass below the bars.

This paper collection from Authentique called "Glowing" was the inspiration for the project.  My neighbor and I found it at our local stamp store and we loved the look and the vibrant oranges.  We both bought the same frame and got together to plan out the design and choose the images to use for each section.

We discovered something interesting while we were sorting out the papers.  Our two 6 x 6 stacks were different.  Most of the papers are overall designs with only slight variations on the page.  When we got to the spiders on the orange polka dots we found out that my two 6 x 6 sections were cut from the top of the page and hers were cut from the bottom of the page.  I had the two spiders hanging down and she had the swirls and a plain orange polka dot section.  We swapped pieces of paper to give her a spider web and me a plain polka dot piece.  I just wanted to mention this because you wouldn't be able to make exactly the same thing unless you have both pads of paper or one of the 12 x 12 sheets of this pattern.

 It was fun to work out which items to cut and where to place them.  We did all of the cuts on the E2 after reviewing the sizes with the Gypsy.

Here is the list of cuts from the Happy Hauntings cartridge:

Top left -  "eek" cut from the bloody font at one inch.

Bottom left - ghost cut at 4 inches on shift level (to get the cuts for the eyes and mouth

Top center - witch hat with spider cut at 3 1/2 inches, hat band also cut in orange (we skipped the buckle).

Center - "Boo" cut at 1 3/4 inches with shadow layer.

Bottom center - fence with a crow cut at 2 1/2 inches.

Top right - two bats, one at 2 1/4 inches and one at 1 3/4 inches (one bat flipped over after cutting)  the moon is a  2 1/2 inch circle - from any cartridge with a circle.

Bottom right - cat cut at 3 1/4 inches.

 Most of the items were cut from plain black cardstock.  The ghost, the moon and the shadow for the word "Boo" were cut from this light yellow cardstock.

 A little inking around the edges with Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink adds some depth to the cuts.

We didn't cut the blackout of the ghost and then realized that the bold paper would show through - which could be very "ghost-like"...

I just added a small scrap of black paper behind the head of the ghost so the face would be a bit clearer.

 Once the items were adhered to the 4 x 6 papers we were ready to put the whole piece together.

All of the pieces were cut to 4 x 6 inches, so they fit together neatly in the grid.

I used a piece of 12 x 12 cardstock to keep everything in position.  I just adhered the three center pieces and then added the side pieces, keeping the adhesive in the area that would overlap the cardstock.  The end result was one larger piece ready to place in the frame.

Balancing the elements for this sort of frame can be tricky.  We created a strong diagonal with the orange backgrounds and this is further emphasized by the pale yellow cardstock used in these three sections.  I noticed after I took these photos that the spiderweb on the witch's hat was tilted out to the left instead of hanging straight down as it does in the original design.  It echos the diagonal line (even if it was not meant to be that way!).

The construction of this frame will make it very easy for me to change things out for the next holiday.  I can keep the group of 4 x 6 pieces stored flat on the base cardstock and put them back in again next year.  I don't usually have a chance to link up to the challenges on the Cricut Circle so I am happy to be able to include this for the October Halloween Home Decor Challenge.  It is a random draw so wish me luck!

Are you still making Halloween projects or have you moved on to Christmas?  I hope you have time today to get crafty with your latest projects. Have a wonderful day!

Subscribe to Capadia Designs 

July New Cartridges and Updates

Yesterday was Hello Thursday and there are five more new cartridges that will be released soon - with the three Martha Stewart cartridges that makes eight new cartridges this week!  There are also updates for Design Studio and the Gypsy.

The new cartridges are Country Life, Happy Hauntings, Rock Princess, Simply Charmed and Winter Frolic.  These are all full cartridges.  Two more retiring cartridges were announced - Basketball and Baseball.

Here is the sample page for the Country Life cartridge.

You can download the full handbook HERE.

There are now many options for Halloween - here is the sample sheet for the Happy Hauntings cartridge.

You can download the full handbook HERE.

The Rock Princess cartridge is sure to be a hit with tween girls.

You can download the full handbook HERE.

Simply Charmed is a new take on the Doodlecharms cartridge (without a charm feature).

You can download the full handbook HERE.

If you want an early start on your holiday crafting Winter Frolic will give you lots of new images for your projects.

You can download the full cartridge handbook HERE.

I want to remind you again about the Cartridge Library on the Cricut.com site.  It is a great resource.  If you are not familiar with it, click HERE to go to the listing of all of the Cricut cartridges with PDFs of the sample sheets and cartridge handbooks.

Have fun looking through all of the new options and making your wish lists.  You can see some sample projects using these new cartridges at Obsessed with Scrapbooking,  Courtney Lane Designs,  Creative Critters Cricut Club and My Pink Stamper.

You can also explore these cartridges in depth with Design Studio or the Gypsy - I'll give some more info about the updates in another post.


Subscribe to Capadia Designs