Halloween Mini Folio

Making another Hallowe'en project was not in the plans when I received the June Kit from Alpha Stamps, I swear. How could spiders and pumpkins and witches come to mind when presented with the beautiful Butterfly Garden paper in the kit, not to mention those metal bees? Well, firstly, the Nightfall paper was still laying about on the craft table, taunting me. That paper is amazing. And B, I sat with the ends of the Wide Accordion Book in my hands, folding and unfolding it until something came to mind. That action led to the idea of hand cutting silhouettes in the Wide Accordion Book and then sticking them into the Tall Accordion Book Letter Folder. Somehow.

I wanted to have a magnet closure a little further down from the flap, so I painted a bit of heavy cardstock, glued a piece of teardrop shaped paper to it, then cut around the teardrop. The magnet is glued to the underside. Initially, it wasn't supposed to be an owl's beak but I had discovered the Wooden Christmas Advent Calendar Round Tags whilst digging in the chipboard and...hey! They could be eyeballs! Happy accident. I just sanded off the top bits of the ornaments. I added a BOO banner that sorta looks like feathers. 

Inside the folder is the accordion folded silhouettes at the top and a basic spinner card on the bottom. The entire project was kept simple and flat so it could be mailed easily.

The spinner card has a dial to change the message from eeek!, hiss!, scary, spooky, and mwor! The banner is raised so it can slide over the top of the card holder, which helps it stay in place. To make the holder, I cut out a collage sheet image and glued it to black cardstock then trimmed around the image. It is attached to the folder with thin double-sided tape along the bottom of the image, so the card can slide behind it.

 The silhouettes can be removed from the belly band and unfolded to reveal all manner of creepy! Yay! They are backed with Hallowe'en orange vellum so a tea light can be placed behind the silhouettes.

Neat! Here's how I made the accordion silhouettes (so easy):

1. Make a 1/4" border on each section of the accordion book. Draw simple images inside the border with a white pencil. Make sure parts of the image touch the border. It is exactly like pumpkin carving, which makes it especially fun. Cut out the negative space.

2. Cut out rectangles of orange vellum that are slightly smaller than each section of the accordion. Affix the vellum using double-sided tape. 

3. Optional: cut frames to cover the edges of the vellum. It looks nicer that way. Ta-da, you're done!

Happy Hallowe'en crafting (it is never too early)!

For a complete supply list, GO HERE.