Free Halloween Bingo Cards to Download - Part 3

Welcome to day three of posting some Halloween Bingo cards I've made recently. I'll start off with a sample using one of these cards, and further down this post, you'll find four of the cards that I debuted yesterday, in their single card formats.

*Dover Books*

Cat in Pumpkin

Above card's inside, finished a la Gloria Stengle

Here are the large size images of some of the HALLOWEEN BINGO cards that I used in projects on day one. (For bingo cards ranked up four and six to a page (easy printing if you want variety), see that post here.

Right click on the images below to save. All images are JPEG files. The credit for the images and fonts used are listed below each. 

The following four cards were built on a card found on CollageCandy.blogspot where you can find unaltered BINGO cards.

* Old Design Shop*
Spiderweb
* Cruickshank Font *
Numbers
* The Gingerbread House Font *
Word "Scary"

* Cruikshank Font *
Numbers

* Cats Alphabet Medium *
Word "Kitty"

*The Graphics Fairy*

Bat

*Batang Font*

Numbers

*Handy George Font*

Word "Treat" (bolded)

*Vintage Graphics Fairy*

Bat (altered)

*Dover Books*

Cat on Pumpkin

*Brair Press*

Jack-o-lantern

*Dover Books*

 Arched Cat

*The Graphics Fairy*

Bat

*Beyond Wonderland Font*

Word "Witch"

*Bolton Titling Font*

Numbers

If you would like to try your own hand at creating BINGO cards, here is the blank version I created and used for the four cards above.

For three more Bingo cards, see the previous post here.

Hope you enjoy using these as much as I enjoyed making them. Please leave a comment if you find these useful, and would like some more for Christmas or other holidays. As always, thanks for taking the time to visit.

Halloween Banner with a Vintage Touch

 One of my first love of blogs came from the visual feast of vintage images over at Karen's The Graphics Fairy. She is one of the most generous souls I've run across in blogdom, giving her readers one or two new vintage images a day......every day! It's never been easy for me to use vintage images in my crafts, but those images are invariably among my favorites - Halloween in particular. I have downloaded so many of her great images, that I finally screwed up my courage, and made a banner. (As it happens, only one of the images I used, a pretty witch, came from Karen's collection. Just search her blog for Halloween images though, and I bet you will have an instant need for all things Halloween.)

First, since the theme was an alphabet, of sorts, I went through my images looking for pics that could go with each letter, and then found adjectives that could alliterate with each. The letters I used were a no-brainer - the glorious alphabet was from Dover. (Sign up for Dover's great free images here.) The font is beautiful and is rendered in fall colors.

Next came the background patterned paper. Recollection Papers at Michaels provided a set of fall hued backgrounds of the same pattern, helping me create a cohesive look throughout when combined with the fonts. At this stage I started becoming overwhelmed with managing the elements. Then, inspiration hit!

I had used Microsoft's 'Publisher' for other kinds of projects, and I think it is the most intuitive and easily used of all their programs. It handles pictures, cropping, resizing, and text beautifully. Your layout can be tweaked until it is just perfect, and nothing has been 'glue-committed'. (You can even select your layered art and save it as a flat picture to use elsewhere.) This method has liberated the way I think about composing my collages.

 Once I had the banner fixed, I copied all the separate images needed, on to new pages in the same document. Just these pages were then printed, cut out, and assembled on 4.5"X 6.5" DCWV black chipboard. Buttons, glitter, ultra thick clear embossing powder on the letters, and scrapbook embellishments, finished the look. The panels are held together with two short lengths of ribbon hot glued at the top and bottom on the backs to act as hinges.

This new way of working has absolutely liberated me from my novice hangups. It has proved to be so much fun, that I am now working on an entire Halloween alphabet collage, and a Christmas banner much like this one. If you have any questions concerning about how to use this method, I would be happy to answer your questions.

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at this. I would love for you to leave a comment, especially so I will know if this is something that interests you too, and something I should share in the future.

Happy Halloween, or at least the thought of cooler weather!

Papertrey 5th Anniversary: Day 7 Hearts Challenge 3

This is my third post today. If you have seen all three posts, leave me a comment, and you may be my new best friend! This card is being posted as part of Papertrey's 5th Anniversary celebration - day 7 - hearts. This card does not look like any of my others.

For Christmas every year, there is a small group of us who love to create together, and we choose craft supplies for one another's gifts. We inevitably get given wonderful items that we would not have chosen for ourselves, and this leads to creating pieces outside our comfort zone. (Don't you just love it when you create something totally unexpected? It feels like uncovering a treasure.)

I found a tutorial for this brilliantly designed card format over at 'Graphic 45's beautiful blog. (Scroll down to the second item in the post for this card.) I love the look of a deep black background with vivid colors on top. At first Papertrey's cardstock seemed a bit too heavy for the folding in this card, but after trying lighter weight papers, they just didn't hold up well enough, to my mind.

I used the 7 Gypsies paper pad for the prints (except for the pattern behind "To a friend's house..") and the wonderful bird house frame with two birds behind, that my friend gave me, to make her a thank-you card. The coral heart on the front is die cut from the coasters sold by Papertrey for that purpose. I love the feel and heft of these coasters. I discovered however, when I tried to stamp a 'Heart Prints' image with a chalk ink, that the image completely bled out to a solid. (In the future I will only use dye inks with these if I want a crisp image.)

Judging by my dear friend's reaction to her card, the extra bit of effort to cut the card template, was well worth the work. Besides, it's great fun having all those different sized areas to work with.

Papertrey Supplies: coasters, black card stock, 'Mat Stack #3' stamp, and 'Button Boutique' stamp
Other Supplies: 7gypsies 'avignon' paper pad, Crafty Secrets-Clear Art Stamps 'Home Sweet Home', Spellbinders Nestibilities 'Heart Circles' dies, Nestibilies 'Heart' dies, free bookplate image from Dover Books, scaled down Graphic 45 paper 'Once Upon Springtime', Martha Stewart doily edge punch, 'Liquid Pearls', 'Circle Pop-Up Card Template' from Party Hearty, and miscellaneous stamps and embellishments.

Thank you for taking the time to visit and leave a comment.

A Woman of Letters

 One of my favorite kind of Christmas presents to give is a store bought item I know someone needs, adorned with a little something to make it personal. My very talented friend Linda, takes fabulous photographs, and bless her heart, shares them all with family and friends. She has albums that travel far and wide with her. When I found this pretty, yet o-so-plain album, I knew just what to put on it.

As I've mentioned before here, I love vintage images, especially those from Dover Books. I had found Floral Designs and Initials in a book store four years ago, and immediately fell in love with the designs. (If you click on the link above, you be able to see some of the beautiful pages in this book.) The motifs are from a old Spanish book of embroidery designs that were ordered by, and sold to, individuals. 

In the book's most recent incarnation, it comes on a CD allowing you to find and print out letters any size you want. I have used just a computer printed letter to adorn gift tags. They are fun to color with pencils or paint with 'Sparkling H2Os', as well. I had never tried embroidering an initial before, and it was considerablly easier than I thought. (Definitely needed the reading glasses though!)

I did the work on mid weight cotton, used a 'Big Shot' to die cut a piece of 'Timtex', and turned and sewed the cotton's perimeter down to the back of the Timtex. To finish the adornment, I die cut felt, backed with 'Heat and Bond', using the next size larger Nestibility die. Before adhering the felt to the back side, I sewed a strip of Velcro across it. This allows my friend to remove the initial if she desires.

Thank you for visiting and happy crafting!