Merry Halloween! A Fall Blog Hop with Creative Charms

Happy Friday and welcome to the Creative Charms Fall Blog Hop!  The hop officially begins at 9 a.m. so if you are reading this on the early morning email feed, please stop back a little later this morning to follow the hop.  The hop begins on the Creative Charms Blog and there are just ten stops so it won't take too long to get around and see all of the projects.

The grand prize giveaway is November's Kit of the Month and Deal of the Month from Creative Charms. Plus, throughout the weekend, Midori will go to one or another of the blogs on the hop, randomly pick a comment and that person will win a prize. She has tons of prize kits made up just for this weekend. So be sure to leave a post on every blog you visit. All prizes will be announced on Tuesday, November 1st. To win the grand prize, leave a comment on Midori's blog to be entered.

Here is the complete list of blogs in the hop - in case you get lost along the way.

• Creative Charms 
• Lisa
• Kristal
• Diane   (you are here)
• Arlene
• Laura
• Amy
• Ellen
• Angi
• Christine
• Midori 

 So, enough about the logistics, let's get on to my project for today!

Did you know that people used to say "Merry Halloween?"  It sounds funny to modern ears, but there are vintage images that use this greeting.  I love vintage images and it's been a while since I have used any for a project.  One of my "go-to" sources for great vintage images is Twisted Papers.  They have all sorts of wonderful things (over 7,000 images) and I could spend hours just looking through the categories.  While I was looking at Halloween images, I noticed several "Merry Halloween" cards.

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought I'd make a few simple cards and enhance them with some Creative Charms vintage items.  Using vintage images is fast and easy.  I just selected some images that I liked and downloaded them.  The images are jpegs so after downloading you can edit them in your favorite photo editing program and also make any adjustments to size that you need for your project.  Most individual images at Twisted Papers are 99 cents but they have a terrific deal on a monthly subscription which allows you to download up to 500 images in a month for only $24.95 - about a nickel an image!  The subscription does not renew automatically. 

I printed out three images on letter size matte photo paper.  I sized them at 5 1/4 inches tall and kept the aspect ratio locked so they would stay in the proper proportion.  The images were a little narrow for a standard A2 card.  To make things fit neatly I either added a strip of paper, matted the image or added trim along the side of the image.  For the first two cards, I wanted to add some velvet ric rac ribbon so I placed a piece of Scor-Tape in the center of the the contrasting strip of paper and then placed the ribbon on the adhesive.

On this card, I used a brown card base and black velvet ribbon on the orange pearl shimmer cardstock strip.  I aligned the ribbon and then trimmed it at the ends.  The Scor-Tape is a strong adhesive and holds the ribbon neatly with none of the marks that you might get with a liquid adhesive.

On the second card, I layered the printed image on a piece of 5 1/4 x 4 inch piece pf the same orange pearl cardstock.  This time I added brown velvet ric rac ribbon to the strip and used a black card base.

There is something about the zig zags in ric rac that seems "Halloweeny" and the velvet adds some fun texture to the cards. 

The finishing touch for each of these cards was the addition of three small gem stickers along the ric rac ribbon.

For the third card, I used a brown card base and aligned the image with the right side of the card front.   Then I added some vintage trim that I found at a rummage sale.  I think it is actually the edging strip that is used for upholstery.  I thought the curves in the trim worked well with the curves in the font used on the card.

The finishing touch is a vintage velvet poppy, another all-time favorite Creative Charms item.  I replaced the pearl brad in the center with a vintage marble brad in amber.

In no time at all I had three cards finished - they may even get delivered in time for Halloween!

If you are interested in vintage images, be sure to check out Twisted Papers - they have over 1,000 Christmas images and can be used with your Creative Charms items for easy and elegant cards.

My Giveaway -
Thanks for visiting - I have a small prize that I will give to one person who leaves a comment on this post.   I'll send some velvet ric rac, velvet poppies and a few other goodies to use for a vintage card.  All you have to do is tell me which card of the three is your favorite - easy peasy!

The next stop on the hop is Arlene's blog.

Have fun hopping!  Remember, to qualify for the prizes throughout the weekend you need to leave comments on each designer's blog hop posting.  Prizes will be announced on Tuesday, November 1st.

Oh, by the way....

...it did snow here last night!


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