Whimsy Stamps ~ My Halloween Poem!

Hey crafty friends, I am back today with a Bendy Card Design featuring the Halloween Poem I wrote and Deb Davis turned into a stamp for the latest Whimsy Stamps release! This is my first design published this way and I'm beyond excited. Right now, this poem is available as a limited free gift with purchases of $50 or more from Whimsy Stamps. It's a great time to be buying if you love crafting for Halloween as much as I do as the September 1st release was epic!

I had fun turning this poem into a story make. These brave Halloweeners are off on a spooky adventure. I've created a little pumpkin glade with the gleaming faces of the jack-o-lanterns to light their journey. I've used Whimsy's Kinetic Curved Hills Die Set to create the fence backdrop for this panel. I've used a lovely toning paper from Whimsy's BOOkeh Paper Pack which I cut a little grass trim into with the Grass and Cloud Edger Die Set from Whimsy. The Jack-o-lanterns I spritzed with Mica Spray Stains in Hocus Pocus, Fortune Teller and Ominous Twilight. I splashed a little water over the panel too. The yellow faces were spritzed with Mica Spray Stain in Harvest Moon. I added two little characters retreating and a kitty running behind them. The running characters are from the Running Scared Die Set and the kitty is from the new Witch Whispers Sister Die Set. 

The back panel of the design was covered with a lovely spiderweb paper from the BOOkeh Paper Pack. I shaped the back of this panel with the Stitched Border Die Trio. I used the undulating one in the set to give a rise and fall to the landscape creating a hill for the house to sit upon. I cut the BOOkeh paper to match. I measured and cut the slits in this panel for the first of the bendy fronts to be hooked into. I chose to do two flaps, for greater stability. I cut the slits in the back panel, then adhered the patterned paper, turned the design over so I could see the slits, and cut the patterned paper through those slits so it lined up perfectly. I turned it back over and ran my embossing stylus over the slits to give a little indentation that the flaps would find and slide into more easily. 

For the second bendy section, I cut a slit into the left hand section the same way as I did the back section. Measuring up where I'd cut the flap on the right hand panel, so the height of the flap and slit matched. I cut the slit the same way on this panel. Before adhering the sides to the back, I cut the slits, it's way too much real estate to be managing if you wait until the pieces are adhered. I cut the first slit into the black base layer, then adhered the patterned paper avoiding putting adhesive directly over the slit, but ensuring it was close to it for added strength. Then I flipped the panel and cut the slit into the patterned paper from the reverse side so it matched up perfectly and then flipping it back over, did the same embossing stylus trick as the first panel. I added another fleeing character to this panel with his little lantern. I diecut these characters twice, once from black, second time from silver. This was to help them pop against the background a little better by giving them an offset silver shadow. I also added a wee ghost to this panel flying in behind the lantern dude.

I added the poem as if it was a plaque at the main gate to the estate, a cautionary tale of the history of this house. I used several paler Distress Inks to add some smooshed colour to the white panel, including Old Paper, Tea Dye and Antique Linen to make it look a bit like old 'Bath Stone'. I just love what Deb Davis did with this poem, her graphic design with bats and bigger words is just so fun and really brings this poem to life! I couldn't be happier with how this turned out. I played on the bats theme in the poem, by adding a few on acetate arms around the poem. I may go back and add a couple more, because there's still room on those acetate arms! 

This shot shows the side panels fully open. You can see the extra trees I added inside the right hand panel to fill out that area out a bit. I also added a ghost on that panel for fun and one up on the ridge of the left hand panel too. I cut two of the haunted houses to add up on the hill. I glued the front one on with enough of the path to run down behind the right hand panel and added a little running lady with her lamp. The boys left her for dead, cowards! The path to the house was cut from the same Mica panel I did the pumpkins with. I like repeating colours and patterns where possible with such a busy piece, so it flows and the eyes can take things in without being overwhelmed. So all my papers were similar tones for this reason. The yellow windows of the house were done with recycled yellow tissue paper left over from a recent crafty delivery. Very handy at that moment! I glued a second house on the back so the tissue was sandwiched between the two layers. 

A few pics of the process. I wanted to show the adhesive on the house, because this was a bit tricky. There were lots of tiny little sections which needed to be adhered and when I turned the house over to do side two, I could see the windows as I could on the first side, so a little tip which helped, was to follow exactly the tape lines from the first side. This worked perfectly and ensured I didn't add tape over any of the windows which would have shown through. Another tip is to keep your acetate packaging. I reused some acetate to create the little arms for adhering the bats and other elements. I also used it to create a see-through hinge to adhere the strip of trees to the inside of the right hand panel. Useful stuff! You can pop up any of the pics above for a closer look. I added the little witch ghost on one of these acetate arms above the house. She is the main character of my poem, so of course had to find a cute lil' witch for this and the perfect size and style was in Whimsy's Roaming Monsters Die set.

If you've been following my Halloween crafting adventures, you'll know we've just had a really fun Halloween themed release on September 1st and we'll soon be sharing the next release on September 15th, which promises to be full of Halloween magic too! I am so excited to have my very own poem (written by me 10 years ago) turned into the fabulous sentiment set used for this make, by the very talented Deb Davis!! I could not be more thrilled with what Deb did to bring this poem to life as a sentiment stamp! For a limited time, you can get this poem stamp as a FREEBIE if you spend more than $50 on Whimsy Stamps physical products. It's not automatically added to your cart, you do need to add it, but it will be automatically discounted once your cart reaches over $50. Let me know if you get the stamp, I'd love to see what you create with it! You're also able to purchase it separately, so whatever suits your budget.

Thank you friends for popping in to check out my latest crafty adventure featuring my Halloween poem today. I appreciate not all of you are as crazy about Halloween crafting as I am, so thank you for indulging me if that's the case! There will be many more Halloween makes from me through September and October, but they'll be peppered with some other makes too, so I hope you'll still pop in even if Halloween isn't your thing. Hugs and happy crafting, Wends xoxo

My Halloween Poem

(I share thumbnails to the elements I design with in order to make your search for them easier, in case you like something I've used. I do use affiliate links where possible, which gives me a tiny commission but costs you no extra whatsoever. It helps the companies I design for to improve their marketing practice and track my contributions. I am deeply grateful if you use them for these reasons. I am proud to design for the companies I do and always feel happy to share where my inspiration and where my crafty stash comes from. I am occasionally gifted products to use, but I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.)

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