Whimsy Stamps Halloweeners Design Team ~ Pinch Me I'm Dreaming!

Hey crafty friends, we're kicking off the 2023 crafty adventures for the Whimsy Stamps Halloweeners Design Team and man oh man, does the team have some magic is store for you! I'm SO excited to be designing with these amazingly talented ladies this year. If this is a dream, DO NOT wake me up, I'm having the best fun! We are starting the fun all together with an Instagram Hop and there will be a couple of fabulous prizes up for grabs for two lucky commenters, so if you're able to join us over on Instagram, please do! My post will appear here.

If you've been following me for a while, you'll know I don't do 'scary' Halloween, I just don't have it in me, I'm definitely in the 'too cute to spook' camp but oh how I love all the cute and sweet Halloween fun! I also have a thing for creating Halloween décor, I really enjoy doing this, making my own decorations to deck out the house for Halloween. Most of the stores around us who stock Halloween fare, tend to stock the gory and macabre, which just isn't my thing, so I have fun creating Halloween décor that makes my heart happy and doesn't send me to bed with nightmares! Hehe. Designing for Whimsy Stamps I'm spoilt for choice when it comes to Halloween imagery, so you know I am going to be crafting my heart out with all their fabulous Halloween elements. I decided to kick off my Halloween prep with a Halloween Notepad that I can record all my ideas and 'to do' lists in. I freehanded all the dimensions to fit around the paper pad I wanted to cover. I used a 12 x 12 piece of kraft cardstock and made little pencil marks where I needed to score and cut to create a gatefold wrap around the notepad. I found a really cool kraft coloured notepad in my local grocery store which was perfect as the base of this make. It measures approximately 6 x 4 inches and is about an inch deep.

I trimmed down the paper panels for the front of the notepad cover to fit in the two gatefold sides with a little border all around and then distressed them with some Walnut Stain Distress Oxide to age the papers and give them a vintage feel. Speaking of vintage, the gorgeous halloween paper I chose for this creation is called Vintage Halloween and it has such a cool range of papers, I'm sure I'll use most of the pack before the season is over! I cut a stitched circle base for decorating the front of the gatefold wrap. Stamped the fantastic ATC Hiss Off Clear Stamps Halloween Word Art onto the circle with Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink and then heat embossed it with clear powder to give it shine and stop me from smudging it while I did the rest of the panel. I inked lightly a little Walnut Stain around the edge of the image and then backed the image with a diecut star frame. I added a second stitched circle over the star frame and kind of wedged it between the two to give the panel a nice finish, so when you open the notepad cover, it has a finished look and not a scratched 'backside' of the die look that can result when you've got well loved older die plates like I do. I wish I'd also wedged the ribbon and magnet between the two cardstock circles, but had this thought a little too late. It's fine, but I think would have looked nicer that way. The picot trimmed satin ribbon makes an easy way to open and close the notepad cover and gives a satisfying 'click' when the two magnets meet closing the cover nicely and keeping it secure.

I really am so delighted to be designing with this amazing team and we are going to bringing such fun and inspiration to crafty Halloween lovin' friends throughout the next three months. We are going to have some fun events happening in our Whimsy Stamps Facebook Group, so join us there if you're able. For today, we will be all debuting our first Whimsy Halloween makes of 2023 in our Instagram Hop and our Whimsy Stamps Instagram Page is the first stop in the hop. Hope you're able to join in our fun. If you'd like to take a closer look at Whimsy's amazing Halloween range you can click through on the banner above or on the thumbnails below for specific elements. I'll be back again soon with another crafty adventure and would love to know what you think of my first Halloween creation. Hugs and happy crafting, Wends xoxo

(I use affiliate links where possible, which helps the companies I design for to improve their marketing practice. I receive a small commission, which costs you no extra whatsoever, but helps these companies see where their marketing efforts are most effective and is a way they can say 'thank you' to their affiliates and design team members. I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own. If you're new to Whimsy please feel free to use the Whimsy Stamps discount code in my sidebar if you're doing some shopping and remember to check out their retiring section, the deals are phenomenal!)

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