Trick or Treat!  No tricks, just treats for you here!  The first treat is a double on the Tattered Angels Blog Hop!  Design Team Member Lisa Rapp and our very own Eli Harlan are both showcasing some Tattered Angels love today, be sure to visit both of their blogs.  And don’t forget to see what Tattered Angel’s Blog has in store too.

Now on to Halloween.  Halloween is for kids, and kids of all ages dress in costumes!  Super Heros, Princesses, Monsters, Celebrities, Politicians, Ninjas, Ghosts and just about anything else goes when it comes to Halloween.  Some people even wear costumes to work! This picture is the Spellbindersâ„¢ crew in Phoenix!  I’m sure they had a lot of fun, and plenty of candy too!

For today’s post I put together a cute Halloween mini book.  I had a sheet of vintage images waiting for the perfefct project, and this is it!  I didn’t take a lot of step shots, but you will see it is a pretty straight forward book.

I started with the largest of the S4-227 Pumpkins and cut 4 chipboard pumpkin shapes as bases for the pages.  In my Wizard™ I cut/embossed 8 more from patterned paper, Fancy Pants Trick or Treat Collection and an orange piece from Daydreams, these covered both sides of the chipboard.  I spritzed the pumpkin die cuts with Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels, and when they were dry I sanded the edges.  I have several colors of Glimmer Mist and tried to match them with the colors of the papers.  Look at the results!

Ohhhhh, glimmery!

I cut a piece of Core’dinations Black Magic Cardstock with the S4-227 Pumpkins Nestabilities, to make pumpkin shaped frames by nesting the die templates.  See how I set them on my Magnetic Spacer Plate.  This gave me 2 frames and 3 full pumpkins.  I cut/embossed then sanded the black side to reveal the orange color underneath.

The rest of the book is just stacking, layering, inking, sanding and having fun.

The book includes a variety of Spellbinders™ die templates, including the following:
S4-227 Pumpkins; S7-014 Classic Lace Border Grand, S5-014 Deckled Mega Rectangles SM; S4-131 Classic Scalloped Rectangles SM; S4-235 Fancy Tags; S4-169 Small Labels; S4-200 Flower Bouquet; S4-161 Labels One; S4-190 Labels Four; S5-019 Labels Eight; S4-233 Labels Nine, S4-134 Classic Paisley.

Other supplies include: Fancy Pants, paper; Tattered Angels, Glimmer Mists; Crafty Secrets, Heartwarming Vintage images; Creative Impressions, Ribbons; Clearsnap, Colorbox Charcoal Fluid Chalk Ink; Copic, Atyou Spica Pitch Black; Cardstock; Alpha rub-ons; adhesives; hole punch; book ring.

Happy Halloween!
Beth

Today’s Savvy Saturday technique takes a look at a way to use Spellbindersâ„¢ Die Templates that you may not have thought of…embossing them only (from the top side). But let’s get right to it and soon you’ll be seeing these babies from all sides.

Sally Lynne MacDonald, a member of our 2008 Design Team, created a card that is perfect for this time of year (I know this because I watch the Weather Channel for fun sometimes and see those little snowflakes all over the US map.)

Sally Lynn

This elegant winter card has a lot of interesting elements going on, so let’s pull it apart and show off some of Sally Lynne’s techniques.

1) By layering her dies inside her sandwich in a different way, Sally Lynne created the look of swirling snow. She used S4-121 Doodle Parts to emboss into the card. If you want to create this look, layer the following:

• White Master Mat
• Die Templates in a pleasing pattern with cut edges face down
• White Core Paper with the side you want to show, face down
• Embossing Pad
• White Master Mat

Then sand the embossed paper to bring out the white core. Cool, hugh!

2) Sally Lynne’s added just a little something subtle to her snowflake. Can you see it? Look carefully at each layer to see which ones she placed with the embossed side facing up and which layers she placed with the embossed side facing down. As I said, it is subtle but it creates some interesting textural effects. So, just cut and emboss the S4-085 Snowflake Wonder normally out of Spellbinders Craft Foils or even a Coke Can. Then, stack the snowflake with some layers face up and some face down. Niiiice!

3) The last little element I want to draw your attention to is Sally Lynne’s tag/ribbon at the bottom. Cut/Emboss the S4-081 Tags Five from a shimmery white paper such as WorldWin Petallics. Fold it in half. Cut a length of swirly ribbon (by Creative Impressions) that will go around the card front with enough to tie a knot. No need to use adhesive on the tag, wrap it around the right edge of the card and thread the ribbon through the end holes on the top and bottom. What a fab look as it echoes the background of the card.

Assemble the card: Don’t forget to cut/emboss a S4-131 Scalloped Rectangle. Then using a glitter brad from Creative Impressions add the stacked snowflake to the scalloped mat. Adhere it to the embossed background. Add the entire piece to a card base and Voila!

Thanks Sally Lynne for inspiring us all in such a COOL way (lol). See you all soon, Eli