Halloween cards with vintage elements

A trio of halloween cards plus two spiderweb bowls
My cards! And the cobweb bowls are from Lidl, if you're interested...

The Robot has been rather light on Halloween content this year, for which I apologise. But look, cards!


For the first time in absolutely ages I have nothing on my 'must do' list, so I decided that this weekend I'd knock up a few Halloween cards. I've got a goodish stash of cardmaking stuff (for a non-papercrafter) from my days on a knitting magazine; all the craft titles would have regular clear-outs of discontinued craft materials (no point telling your readers how to make something if they can't get the materials to make it – believe me, you'd be startled at how many people won't substitute materials/colours) and I'd hoover up the spooky stuff when it was on offer.

A vintage graphic of a pumpkin-headed child
Creepy child is creepy!
This year I wanted some more vintage elements, and Pinterest really was my friend there. There are all sorts of free Halloween printables online, and Pinterest makes it really easy to find the sort of thing you're after. I printed out a 'domino' sheet (originally from oneblankdream.blogspot.com) and used the images from that along with my existing papercraft materials for my cards. The dominoes printed out quite small, but were fine for turning into little elements on larger cards. This pumpkin-headed child is my favourite, it's so very strange. I'm guessing the original graphic would be 1920s/1930s, what do you think?

As you can see, I kept things simple - I'm not very good at papercraft, and the worst thing you can do when you're not good at a craft is try to do too much, as it just gives people are really good look at your ineptitude! The owls are probably the most elaborate as they've been mounted on charcoal grey felt then stuck onto some black velvet ribbon.

As far as the work cake and suchlike go, I have actually felt more organised than in previous years. (We're even getting organised for Christmas - Mr Robot made the mincemeat to go in mince pies today.) However, I haven't watched as many horror films as usual this October. I haven't watched as much anything as usual, because we've been spending our evenings in the dining room trying to befriend the urchins, who hide under a little side table behind all sorts of cases and DIY gubbins that we've never got round to putting in the shed. Pippin is skittish, but if we're sitting on the floor talking quietly she'll come over for a stroke. She has the LOUDEST purr! Ziggy, on the other hand, is still terrified of pretty much everything – if Pippin spends too long in another room he wails pitifully until she comes to find him because he just can't cope with the world on his own – so we're counting it as a success that he's now prepared to let us see him.

I've been listening to Halloween songs on my iPod, and last year's purchase 'These Ghoulish Things' is on heavy rotation. It really is good. Hopefully work will let me play it for everyone at some point. I think this year's cake is going to be fairly simple. They're never very complicated as I have to get them into the office in one piece, and I had been thinking of a werewolf but I've come up with something better and, hopefully, easier. You'll have to wait to see it...

Comments

  1. That is so organised making things for Christmas. I love your Halloween cards. Vintage graphics can be very disturbing indeed, that Pumpkin-child being a good case in point. Do you know "The Graphics Fairy" website? She has loads of cool ghoulish things. I like the sound of your CD, we have something similar but it came from Asda so it is not quite in the same league. :) Glad to hear that the kitties are coming out of their shells a bit. I can only imagine how hard and scary being a feral is for any cat never mind a kitten. It is fab that you are taking so much time with them. I am sure that they will be super-friendly when they have settled down to indoor life. They are lucky to have you and Mr Robot. Xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Christmas stuff is because I regularly make meat pies for tea, so I'm using up scraps of leftover pastry by making and freezing mince pies as we go. Hopefully by the time December rolls round I'll have a nice stack of frozen pies ready to bake.

      I need to look at that website, it sounds ace.

      The kitties are coming on really well for such little, frightened things. Pippin really loves being stroked, and we're hoping when Ziggy sees how much she enjoys it, he'll give it a go too.

      Delete
  2. Those are great looking cards-they look like you've spent a lot of time perfecting your papercraft skills (even if that's not the case). I'm looking forward to the cake.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm thinking of a mummy-head carrot cake this year...

      Delete
  3. Do people send cards at Halloween? I had no idea! But I do like Pumpkin-Headed Child!
    Ahh, it's good to know that Pippin is making progress, I'm sure Ziggy will follow suit eventually, poor scared little baby. xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mainly in America, but as a lapsed goth I like to send the cards.

      Ziggy is getting there. Last night Pippin came into the living room to fight the sofa, and he followed to fight her tail. He seems happy to be around us as long as we're not moving around. Little bits of progress seem like such big achievements with him.

      Delete
  4. How splendidly lovely!!! I didn't know that you were a fellow paper crafter, too. Love that!!! I've had virtually no time for crafting in recent years (a point that continually eats away at my soul, I promise you), but when I do, scrapbooking, card making, cross stitch, or beading are my main crafts of choice and I always adore it when I can create Halloween pieces in any of those disciplines.

    Happy crafting & countdown to Halloween!
    ♥ Jessica

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I mainly only make Halloween cards, though I have decorated small boxes to put gifts in in the past. I'm not very good at it, probably because I don't have nearly enough experience.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts