Halloween cards with vintage elements

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.

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...