Toadstool Curio Blog
The home of an ecclectic range of paper, digital, fabric and yarn crafts, plus a few mixed media projects to spice things up a bit!

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Spooky Goings On



This week, my children (well, two of them, my 7 year old son and 5 year old daughter) have been in a frenzy of Halloween excitement. I've never really paid it much attention myself, but their excitement is quite infectious. My daughter asks me about 5 times a day how many days left until 31st! I am not keen on them 'Trick or Treating' though as I know that many people do not 'support' Halloween for a variety of reasons and would feel uncomfortable opening their door to hoards of unfamiliar children on the trail of chocolate and sweets.

I am happy for them to carve a pumpkin - in a happy face though as we also have a 2 year old son and I am trying to keep the event as 'unscary' as possible. Our pumpkin is usually more about the autumn harvest than celebrating anything spooky. We'll let them dress up too, but in fairly benign costumes (most likely as a princess and Batman, rather than gore or horror - they are only little!), but instead of Trick or Treating, I have suggested that they visit the neighbours we know to deliver an edible gift. I'll warn the neighbours to expect them though. Our son has Asperger's syndrome and I know that he will not cope very well if every door he knocks goes unanswered!

My parents usually host a small gathering for all of their grandchildren at Halloween, complete with apple bobbing and eating doughnuts off of a string. This year, they are unable to host it as my Gran is very ill and they are visiting the hospital every day. Instead, I think my Mum is buying up half the confectionery aisle at the supermarket for the Grandchildren to share. I think my children will have enough sweets from them that they certainly won't need to Trick or Treat!

As we'll will be delivering little treats to our neighbours, my daughter told me firmly that I needed to make cards as well. I've made a few as I would never hear the end of it otherwise! I have to say that I have enjoyed it though, even if I am a bit of a Halloween humbug! In my defense, it comes from being at a birthday party on Halloween when I was 6 years old and the outside of the house was pelted with eggs and flour bombs as we left the party to go home. I know now that it was just mindless yobs who attacked a party of little children, but I was terrified at the time.

Anyway, on to the important bit of my rambling post - the card! It is made using the cute L'il Spook digi stamp from Pollycraft. Instead of my usual Promarkers, coloured this one with Aquamarkers and Stampin' Up! watercolour pens. I added doodling with a Letraset fineliner in black and a white gel pen. I layered the image on to textured yellow card cut using my lovely new Grand Nestabilities (I know I keep saying it, but I love large cards and large dies!). Again, I doodled stitching around the edge of the die cut. I made an A5 base card from purple card and covered the front in strips of patterned papers. I punched a star border along one edge of each strip and overlaid each one on the layer below so that the 'holes' revealed the colour below. I ruffled the edges of each strip a little bit to add texture too. The card was finished of with a double cross-over wrap of yellow elastic, a little green tag and a trio of yellow buttons.

Unusually for me, I would like to enter my card into a few challenges this week. Pollycraft's 'Spooky Goings On', Crafty Boots 'Autumn or Halloween', Daisy Doodles 'Halloween', Crafty Cardmakers 'Cute with a dark twist', Paper Creations Ink 'Halloween' and Top Tip Tuesday 'Trick or treat'. I only usually enter one at a time, but thought I would go mad today!

12 comments:

J said...

What a cute little monster! Thank you for sharing him with Crafty Cardmakers this time.

Jackie

Anonymous said...

I love this image I have seen him a few times love those mini buttons too! Thanks for coming to play with us at Top Tip Tuesday for our Trick or Treat challenge I hope you can come play again soon you can enter up to 3 times per challenge, hugs Samantha :0)

Dee's Craft Room said...

I love this image, such a fun card.

Thanks for playing along with us at Crafty Boots Challenge.

Dionne

Pat said...

This is a wonderful image and so cute too!!! You did a wonderful job coloring and I really like all the papers you used. Bright, colorful, fun. Thank you for joining us at Paper Creations Ink - Pat

Mary J said...

Totally sweet, I love him Charmayne! Thx for joining us at Pollycrafts Monday!

Mary J x

Cazza said...

I love the layered DP's and what a perfectly coloured Lil Spook he is! Have fun on Halloween!
Thanks for joining us at Pollycraft this week too :o)
Hugs,
Cazza
xxx

Annette said...

I like cute for halloween, I scare too easily. Love this cute little laddie. Thanks for joining us at Top Tip Tuesday for our Trick or Treat challenge this week. Annette xx

Sheena said...

Love the bright halloween colours you've used! Thanks for joining us at Pollycraft this week, Sheena xx

Anonymous said...

nice frankey
Thanks for Joining us at Paper Creations Ink

Scrapcat 1 said...

Hope your Halloween adventure goes well, we have carved three pumpkins today and they are now on display in the window.
Love the way you have used the Pollycraft image.
Thanks for joining us at Crafty Cardmakers this time and we hope to see you again soon.

Margaret said...

Wonderful card! Your little guy is colored wonderfully and goes so well with the papers. The stars border and the buttons were a wonderful touch! As a preschool teacher, I tend to keep things pretty simple and cute as well. My youngest has a sensitivity to chocolate and it just seems cruel to do too much trick or treating when she can't eat most of it!

Caroljenks said...

What a gorgeous card and a gorgeous post too - I do hope your children enjoy taking their gifts to your neighbours - what a lovely idea.

Thanks for joining us this week at Top Tip Tuesday for our 'Trick or Treat' Challenge :)

Carol x

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