Halloween Tea Light Covers

I don't really do Halloween, but the kids enjoy it and so I thought that it would be nice for them to have some Halloween decorations this year.  Even though I've had the Enchanted Forest Bundle from CraftBundles.com for a while, I'm still working my way through it.   One of the collections within the big Bundle is Enchanted Spiders, which I had completely forgotten about.  But then my friend asked me to create a poster for her kid's school's Halloween disco and that's when I rediscovered it.

There are a few files that I thought would lend themselves perfectly to being made into tea light covers.  One of the designs worked straight out of the box so to speak, but the others needed some adjustments (which I did in Canvas Workspace) to make it easier for the panels to be stuck together.  I added vellum to the backs of each panel.

I resized this one so that it was about 10cm (4in) wide and then cut four. Then I folded the decorative elements over and glued each panel together at those points to create the tea light cover.

This one is similar, but I had to modify the spider and web so that there were no gaps between the elements and the panel could be lifted off the mat in one piece.  That was fairly easily done in Canvas.

For these I simply welded a rectangular strip to both the left and right sides of the panel in Canvas to act as the adhesion point.  I really like the way the branches stick out in the first set.

Unfortunately I couldn't find my LED tea lights :( so I couldn't photograph them in action, but I'm pretty sure that they'll look great.

As an added bonus, I was able to make use of the waste as well by sticking double-sided tape to card and using that to lift the waste off the cutting mat.  I then sprinkled silver and gold glitter over the surface. The results could be used as toppers on greetings cards or on bunting or garlands or for other decorations.

Lantern "waste".
(I just couldn't capture it here, but they really sparkle in real life.)

These are only a handful of the 46 images in the Enchanted Spiders collection, which means plenty more choice to play around with.  And with 280 images in the whole bundle covering birds, butterflies, bears, deer, foxes, fairies and unicorns there really are a multitude of options and possibilities.  At only $9 including a full commercial licence it's a crazy bargain! Get the bundle here.

*This post contains affiliate links.  If you click on the link and make a purchase later I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you.  However I bought and paid for this bundle myself and I'm recommending it because I really like it.

Crafting on the Go

We went camping a few weeks ago and I wanted to take something crafty with me; something portable that wouldn't take up too much space.  I found some old card that I had embossed using some Darice embossing folders, which were perfect for colouring in.  Along with my watercolour palette and a water brush I had enough to keep me entertained in a nice, compact package.  This roses image is so pretty and I love the end result.  It would look beautiful on the front of a card, or simply displayed in a frame as a piece of art.

Snowflake Christmas Card

Every year Christmas manages to sneak up on me! You'd think by now I'd have cottoned on, but come the beginning of December I'm always astounded by how close the big day is.  I have managed to make a few Christmas cards though.

This card is based on an old design that I made with white and Kraft card.  The snowflake is actually a doily (Couture Creations Cecily Doily), but I thought that it looked very much like a snowflake and would look great against a snowy background.

I cut the doily in half and placed each half at the top and bottom of the card.  I added a few pearls to some of the circles within the doily for a bit of extra prettiness.  The "Merry Christmas" sentiment is from another Couture Creations set - Merry Layered Stars.

This design, although simple does take a bit of time to complete because of adding small dots of glue to the doily die cut and sticking on the pearls, but could easily be modified to make it quickly reproducible.

• At first I created the background using paint splatters on blue card, but to save time I used a graphics program to create my snowy background. Download it here. 
• Use a double sided adhesive sheet with the doily die cut or a brayer to apply the glue to save time
• Use self-adhesive pearls or pearl enamel drops (much less fiddly than loose pearls).

I have an extra Cecily Doily and Merry Layered Stars set on eBay if you'd like to recreate this card:

Get the Cecily Doily Die
Get the Merry Layered Stars Die Set

Redbubble Holiday Card Design Challenge

A few weeks ago Redbubble hosted a series of design challenges and I decided to enter.  The brief for Week 1 was to create a vintage-inspired card or pattern artwork.  This was my submission:

"Eat, Drink & Get Hammered" Greetings Card

...and I was chosen as a runner-up!  You can read the post on the Redbubble blog here.  Or better yet, head over to my Redbubble listing and take a closer look.  Buy multiple greetings cards (they don't all have to be the same) and get a discount of up to 50%.

This post contains affiliate links.  If you click on a link and subsequently make a purchase I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Freebie Friday - So Special Card Front

This post contains affiliate links which means that if you follow the links and then make a purchase I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

I'm a bit of a craft supply junkie - whether it's physical or digital products my house and my hard drive are chock full with supplies that I love, but hardly ever use, but shopping for craft supplies is only half the fun.  There's joy to be found in the making too, so I'm making a concerted effort to use what I've got.

A little while ago I downloaded the graphics pack 'Herbaceous Greens'.   It is a set of watercolour greenery - branches, foliage and individual leaves - as well as 9 seamless patterns.  I used it to create this lovely A6 card front, which you can download for free from here (personal use only please):

You Are So Special A6 card front - Free Download

If you like the look of the set you can get the complete pack for just $1 (until the end of October) from The Hungry Jpeg.

DIY Decoupage

If you read this blog then you'll have noticed that I'm partial to downloading graphics and fonts.   Well, with all the weekly freebies available and the occasional purchase I've amassed a LOAD of digital images and graphics.  Rather than leave them to gather cyberdust I decided to try my hand at creating my own decoupage. 

Working from the base image of a floral corner I removed parts of the image in stages; the base layer had the flower arrangement with leaves, for the second layer I deleted the leaves, for the third layer I deleted more of the flowers and for the final layer only a single flower remained.  I looked at where the elements overlapped as a guide to creating the layers.  My Brother Scan N Cut made quick work of cutting out the layers.

It makes a really pretty card with the arrangements placed in opposite corners and finished off with a simple, stamped sentiment.  Preparing the images did take a little time, but now that it's done I can achieve the same result again easily as well as being able to resize the elements to suit different projects.  This is something I'd definitely try again with other images of floral arrangements.

Quick and Easy Hanging Heart

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My friend came to me a few days ago to ask for my help to make a last minute teacher gift.  She requested a hanging heart that said "Athrawes gorau" (Best Teacher in Welsh) and personalised with the teacher's name and her son's name and featuring the colour purple.  

To make the heart I cut five hearts from white 300gsm cardstock, and one from Kraft card.  I punched holes in each of the curves at the top of the heart then stuck all the layers together using PVA glue 

with the Kraft heart at the back.  (I used my ScanNCut to cut the hearts but a die would also work.  If you don't have a die cutter or cutting machine I recommend using a square or a rectangle.)  To prevent the stack from warping I put it under a heavy stack of books as it dried.  When dry it feels very sturdy - like chipboard.

Meanwhile I found some pretty digital background paper and in a graphics program I used the heart template as a guide to place the text before cutting it out with the ScanNCut and sticking it to the top of the heart stack.  Incidentally the fonts that I used for the teacher's name and the sentiment are Old Emma Decorative and King Basil (which I love).

To finish I printed out some flower and leaf graphics, cut them out and added them to the heart.  It's not very clear from the photograph, but I printed three of each flower, cut each one gradually smaller than the last and then layered them up to add some dimension and make them more interesting.  I threaded some thick string through the holes to create the hanger.

Download free floral graphics here and here.