Simple Halloween Cards

These Halloween cards were inspired by Pinterest and SO easy to make! Just some strips of washi tape, a Halloween sticker, and 'Happy Halloween' stamped on the bottom.  Quick and simple if you need to make and get cards out before the 31st! 

Halloween Place Card Bats

When we needed some 'glam' place cards for last year's spooky dinner, I set out to Michael's to see what sparkly supplied would inspire me. As soon as I saw these glittery bats I knew they would make the perfect place cards!

Typically I'd buy some paper, get out my cricut and cut my own shapes but these bats were ready to go saving me a lot of work.  I picked up some glittery letter stickers for the name and that was it. Done.  More time to focus on decor and spooky effects!

Gothic Glam Halloween Dinner Party Invitation

We chose a 'Gothic Glam' theme for last year's Spooky Dinner, so I definitely wanted to incorporate the theme into the invitations to kick things off! 

Although they turned out fancier than most wedding invitations, they were actually pretty simple.  I found the glittery black cards at Michaels, printed the text on white cardstock, and added a gold vellum insert to make it more formal.

 

The Vellum Insert.

I used a Cuttlebug folder to create the textured Halloween Scene.

 

The Inside Wording

 

'Go Hog Wild' Pig Birthday Card

There are many things I love about craft club: seeing the girls each month, hearing what's new with everyone, Kathee's homemade dinners, DESSERT, working on my to-do list, seeing what everyone creates, the list goes on and on.   In addition to lending each other stamps and tools, we also bring supplies we no longer use to set out for grabs, which is how I came to acquire a stack of cut-out pigs!

I came up with this card to use-up the pink paper pigs that says, "It's your birthday....GO HOG WILD!"

Here's the inside:

Valentines Day Shadowbox Craft

Sometimes when we have guests I like to organize a craft for everyone to do to pass the time. When my family visited for Valentine's day last year, we made heart shadowboxes in honor of valentine's day!

Here is my Mom and then pregnant sister-in-law in my craft room working on their shadowboxes. 

I purchased a 3-pack of shadowboxes at Michael's and set out heart punches and a variety of paper so everyone could choose their colors.

Folding the hearts in half makes them 3-D when in the shadowbox.

Here are the finished products on display.  It was a fun 'girl's day in'!

Tea Tag Card

Am I the only person who saves every tea tag with a fun saying? Or am I like everyone else who has no idea what to do with them?

It's either one or the other because I couldn't find any ideas to work through the jar of tea tags that were collecting in my craft room. It was to the point where I needed them out of my craft room but wasn't able to throw them out, so I put them all on a card.  Yes, it's a bit overkill, but I thought it was neat having so many inspirational sayings on one card. 

Halloween Dinner Party Invitation

I always think that the invitation sets the tone for a party, and since Halloween parties are usually all-out it's hard to find an invitation that will do the party justice! Here are the invitations I made for our Spooky Dinner last year.  They are actually simple and easy to make, but some minor added details help make them a bit more spooky!

 I typed out the text and added some Halloween clip-art from Google Images, then printed on cardstock. 

I like to put googly eyes on everything I can (they just make everything more fun--especially our Roomba!).  Here googly eyes replace the 'O's in Spooky

The printed skeleton is holding an actual wine glass (well, an actual sticker from Jolee's)

The spider is 3-D, not printed. I cut them out using a punch.

To add a bit more spook factor, I made a sleeve for the invitation using bandages from Walgreens.

A giant spider sticker sealed the bandage around the invite, and I added a few more smaller punch-out spiders.

Here's what the final invitation looked like prior to sending!

Cuttlebug Folder Reference Ring

It's so hard to remember what Cuttlebug folders I own, so one night at Craft club I decided to make a reference ring with samples of each folder. 

I simply cut white paper to size and embossed a sheet for each folder.  I folded a piece of washi tape over the top and punched a hole through it so I could put the sheets together on a ring.  I used a ring so it would be easy to add more as I buy more folders.

The tape not only kept the hole from tearing, but I used different colors for different size folders (regular, extra large, tags, and borders).

I store the ring all of my folders and sometimes put it in my purse when I'm shopping so I don't buy duplicates!  There are some folders that I hardly ever grabbed, but when I saw how the patterned looked embossed they were some of my favorites!

COWgradulations Funny Graduation Card

Last year my cousin Zach graduated from high school.  Since he worked on a dairy farm I wanted to make him a card with cows.  I cut out the cow using my Animal Kingdom Cricut cartridge, added googly eyes and a graduation cap sticker.  I placed tape over the 'Con' on my 'congratulations' stamp, then used stickers to add 'COW' in place on 'Con'.  The background and border was his school colors, but you could use any color card stock.

Simple Scrap Cards

 

Sometimes the simplest cards can be the most elegant, so for card making I'm always looking for simple ideas that I can easily mass produce and if I can do it using scraps that's a bonus.  I had found a similar card on Pinterest that I really liked. Instead of reading the directions I eye-balled the size of the design and cut.  Well, it was not the right size so instead I came up with this design to use all of the 'pedals' that I had cut, which turned out even better! 

Here's how I did it:

-Cut colored card stock into 1" squares (4 of color #1, 3 of color #2, and 3 of color #3)

-Using a corner rounding punch, round two opposite corners of each square

-Starting in the upper right hand corner, glue the first pedal of color #1 (the one with 4).  Work your way down and across the paper.

-Stamp a sentiment and that's it!

Scrabble Letter Necklace Pendants

After seeing Scrabble Tile Necklaces at many gift shops, I wanted to try making some myself. Since I had leftover Scrabble pieces from my Scrabble Wall Art project and vintage atlas maps left over from my We Met, We Married, We Lived project, I knew I could easily make some cool, personalized pendants for next to nothing.

Start by brushing some Mod Podge to the back of a Scrabble letter (I chose to use the first initial of the person I was giving it to). This is just to glue the paper/map to the Scrabble piece, so it doesn't matter if its glossy or matte.

While the Mod Podge is wet, place the letter on the back side of the map (do not cut to size yet).  You may want to hold it up to a window while you do this so you can see what area of the map will show on your pendant.

I found it was easiest to trim the paper after it was glued to the Scrabble tile using a rotary cutter and a rubber mat.

After trimming the paper, sand the edges to the paper is flush with the Scrabble tile.

I used Mod Podge 'Dimensional Magic' to seal the maps and create that 'glassed over' look.

Do not shake the bottle as it will create bubbles that will dry into the pendant. Apply to the edges first, being careful to seal the edge of the paper to the tile without it dripping down the side.

When the tile is completely covered, it will appear milky as shown but will dry clear.

When the first coat has dried, you may need to glue down any corners that curled up as shown above.  Mod Podge and a Q-tip work well for this.

Apply a second coat the same way as the first.

When the Dimensional Magic has dried, use superglue to apply a flat bail to the back of the pendant.  The bails can be found at Michael's.  Use any chain you like, and the necklace is done!

Here are a few that I made using maps and collegiate scrap booking paper.  Photos would also work great!