Santa's Matchbox Suit

Technique:  Papercrafting

Papers:
Crimson Weave by American Crafts
black card

Other:
scrap of black ribbon
silver buckle
rhinestone brads
double sided adhesive
matchbox or matchbox die

A cute little treat box that can be whipped up in no time at all.  I recently purchased the Quickutz Matchbox Die because I was using so many matchboxes that I felt it was actually more environmentally friendly to cut my own out of card scraps and recycled boxes, than the buy the matchboxes when I don't really need the matches just the boxes.

So my box above was cut from red and black card using the die, but you could just as easily cover a matchbox with coloured card.  The buckle is the type used on wedding favours threaded through a little scrap of ribbon, and a few rhinestone brads popped in for buttons.  You could whip up a dozen or more in an hour I reckon.

Do you ever have too many ideas going around in your head?  So much so that you actually end up spending all your time thinking and none of your time creating?  I am hoping that this clean, quick little project is like a mini detox for my brain LOL

Coffin Treat Box

Technique:  Papercraft

Materials:
card stock
adhesive
white pastel chalk

Tools:
scissors
scoring tool
halloween embossing folder
Sizzix Big Shot

This project comes from Martha Stewart, the links to download the templates and the tutorial video are below:

Coffin lid template
Coffin base template
Coffin treat box tutorial video

For my personal touch, once I had the coffin constructed I embossed a piece of black card using a Halloween Texture Fade, which I sanded lightly and then brushed over with a white pastel chalk.  I also sanded all of the edges of the box to distress and ran the chalk over them as well, I really like the old, dusty look this gives the black card.

Witches Shoe Treat Holder

Materials:
shoe template from Skip To My Lou
FREE halloween digi paper from here
black card
adhesive

Tools:
scissors

This project has everything I love.  It's cheap as chips, no die cutting machine or dies necessary, just a printer, some card and a pair of scissors.  The template is free, as is the designer paper I used.  It's super simple to put together, making several would be fairly painless which makes them ideal party favors.

I printed the patterns onto the thickest card that my printer will take, and cut both out.  I then used this as a template to draw around to cut one shoe from black card and one shoe lining from the designer paper. Score on the lines indicated and glue to secure.  It really is as simple as that!  The longest part was creating the template, once that part is done I reckon you could whip up several of these in no time at all.

I've gone for a Halloween theme, but with some red glitter you would have a pair of shoes Dorothy would be envious of, or you could use white card for a bridal shower favor, or bling it up for a twenty first.  You could of course add a lot more embellishments than I have, a tag, some paper lace, rhinestones, buttons etc, but I love that these look great even with just a simple bow.

Mmmm candy corn!  so good, but hard to get here in Australia, and expensive!

Haunted Lantern

Materials:
black card stock
adhesive
corrugated card
white pastel chalk
acetate

Tools:
glue gun
cutting and scoring equipment
Sizzix Big Shot
halloween embossing folder

Ever since I stumbled across this tutorial by Norma to make a paper latern I have been itching to have a go.  Initially I intended to make one using traditional halloween colours, but this (like my last halloween box) had a mind of it's own.

The tutorial is very simple and easy to follow, with lots of photo's.  The only thing I did differently was to use Glossy Accents as my adhesive rather than double sided tape, as it grabs quickly and doesn't come apart.

I embossed plain black card using a Sizzix Halloween embossing folder and sanded it back to distress the pattern, then rubbed a white pastel chalk over the raised areas to highlight it even further.  You could use an ink pad, but the pastels are quite 'dusty' which gave a really nice effect when softened with a brush. 

The roof has corrugated card panels painted black, dusted up with white pastel chalk also.  The roof is the lid to the box, and this comes off so that you can fill the lantern with treats.  I 'spookiefied' the lantern by draping hot glue gun threads around the base and the roof seperately, so that when the lid comes off it's not going to take all the webbing off, although the great thing about this technique is the more broken and twisted the threads become the more authentic it will look.

Trick or Treat Mini Book Box

Technique: Papercraft

Materials:
over sized match box
patterned paper
Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Rock Candy Stickles

Tools:
Sizzix Big Shot
Sizzix Halloween #2 Textured Impressions
pin stripe embossing folder

This wasn't what I had in mind when I first sat down, I had originally intended to include a coloured image, but it took on a life of it's own!

I didn't take photos of every step I took, just of how I made the book jacket from the matchbox, as the remainder was simply just decorating which you could do any which way you choose.

First, split the box open along the seam.

Cut tabs from both flaps, this forms the front and back closure for the book.

From here the decorating commenced. The 'trick or treat' wording is one of the mini embossing folders from the halloween set #2 by Sizzix. I embossed this onto a strip of cream paper and then cut it to fit the book jacket. Once glued into position I distressed heavily over the embossing to highlight the words, and around the edges to age the book. I also distressed the inside of the book cover heavily

The 'pages' of the book are made from the matchbox drawer. Emboss plain white card with a pinstripe pattern, distress with ink to bring out the pattern and then cut into strips to cover the sides. You only need to cover 3 sides of the drawer, both short sides and one long side, as the final long side forms the spine. Glue the drawer into place.

The two panels inside of the book are made with the bat texture folder, distressed with vintage photo to bring out the details. The two little 'flaps' that form the book closure have had velcro attached so that it holds shut.  I used a stiff brush to scumble rock candy Stickles all over the exterior of the box, which has given it the lovely texture you see below, and a gorgeous sparkle, not too much though that's what I love about Stickles, it's a subtle sparkle.

I chose to stop adding anything at this point, as I wanted it to be a candy holder/treat box, but you could continue to embellish and add all manner of little halloween do-dads inside to make a spooky interior.