HAHAHAHAHA… thought you would all get a laugh out of this and since I am well into my HALLOWEEN MODE… get ready cause it may be a bumpy or repetitive ride..lol
I spent last weekend with a bunch of calligraphy /card/ book/scrapper/ie PAPER FREAKS…lol.. we had demo’s on some of the paper equipment and then lots of us were busy making halloween cards… so here we go with one of my favorites… and I am so embarrassed to say that I have no idea where I got this idea… I don’t think it was mine I think I either saw a ready made card or something that triggered my decision to try this..
YOUR BASE CARD IS STANDARD 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 folded…
THEN YOU SIMPLY CUT OF THE TOP CORNERS TO CREATE A HOUSE LOOK.
THEN USING A PUNCH OF YOUR CHOICE I MAKE A HOLE IN THE FRONT OF THE CARD TO SERVE AS A WINDOW…YOU CAN MAKE A FRAME AROUND IT OR YOU CAN JUST LIGHTLY INK AROUND THE CUT . IT’S PRETTY SIMPLE AND WHILE I LIKE TO MAKE IT CROOKED BY CUTING ONE SIDE LONG AND ONE SIDE SHORT SO THAT IT LOOKS MORE HALLOWEENY…BUT IF YOU ARE USING IT as a birthday or my house to your house type of thing then you can make it straighter…you can also add a small rectangle to have a chimney if you wish…
THEN I USE AN XACTO to cut a door and a small brad to for a door know and I either stamp people or words on the inside of the card for when the door is opened..
Ok if a picture is worth a 1000 words here are a few thousand…
MY SPIDEY HOUSE CARD
INSIDE MY SPIDEY HOUSE
BOTH the outside and the inside of this one had charms fastened on with the use of the tacking tool ( the one you use to price things ) in the window at the top is a metal web/spider and the little witch behind the door is carring a tiny TRICK OR TREAT bag..
house with windowscreen and owl… kh
THEN I HAD TO TAKE A TRIP TO LOWE’S with my HUBBY…
house with owl/screen
NOW I hate going to Lowe’s about as much as my Hubby would hate going to a paper store with me… but It was necessary so after I picked out what I was supposed to I wandered off …. suddenly I was in the screen replacing section and I found a 6 ft by 36 inch roll of screening ( the plastic kind not metal) for only 8$….my brain went into over drive and the above was my first effort… ( well actually I spend about 30 minutes cutting the screen up into about 9×12 pieces so it would be easier to use.. ) next I went ohhhhh I could put screen in the window on the house card and then I went to my owl punch . Now if you think the owl looks like he has a copper vest …BINGO… years ago I bought pieces of copper to use to emboss on /with and I also got a cool little lighter so that if you flame the copper (USE TWEEZERS TO HOLD IT AND BE CAREFUL IT WILL GET QUITE HOT) it comes out kinda multicolored…so I thought lets give HOOTY a jazzy vest… so what do you think..the blue words above will link you to AMAZON in case you want to get a lighter. I liked this because there is a very tiny flame but very hot…its a wire and so with all the paper I have around me at all times….lol… I thought this might be safer than use a regular cigarette light but that will work also just watch that flame….my owl is from the STAMPIN UP punch that mentioned when I was talking about the tent cards and making it into a BAT….ps that little squirrel brad just jumped into the card and I didn’t have the heart to chase him away… lol…
HALLOWEEN LETTERS
OK I am kinda claiming ownership or actually developement of these letters… they are based on a single word that I saw on another exemplar years ago and I am again sorry to say I have no idea whose they are or if credit was even given…but the word was ANGST…and they did write it with a chisel ( calligraphy ) nib….but I decided to play with it and make up a complete alphabet…and at the time I was using a brush pen..more than likely a TOMBOW …but almost any brush will work… Like all the letter exemplars I share YOU SHOULD PRACTICE at least the words you want to write but ideally the whole alphabet so you get a feel for it before you attempt it on a card… you know its the old measure twice cut once principle… get you hand into the flow before you actually work on your card.
BRUSH EXEMPLAR OF HALLOWEEN LETTERS BY KATH
kath’s brush halloween letters
As you can see this was done with a smaller brush than the tombow I used a PITT ARTIST PEN by Faber Castell as it has a smaller brush tip… you can usually find them in open stock at Michaels, and maybe in sets at ARRON BROS. You can also find (sometimes) the ZIg MICRON BRUSHS…also smaller… or you can resort to ink and a small paintbrush …ok if you are shaking your head at all of these… option number two
kath’s halloween letters
These were done with my Zig Writer the small end… I can’t actually show you the stroke I use with either the brush or the pen…but its basically a FLICKING MOTION… I place the pen on the page and rather than draw a line down….I FLICK…this gets that streaky effect at the end of the stroke or the tail of the letter… again I highly recommend that you play with that a little before you start… but remember too that these are not perfect letters as they are supposed to look spooky…
Ok have fun and remember to Play… AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY…wire headed cyber toad….aka …..kath harney
