Halloween Tricks and Treats

I've done a few Halloween posts already, but I am digging the holiday stuff and since my house is not decorated I might as well continue to decorate the blog with holiday themed stuff, right? Right.

PLUS...and this is exciting. I did my very first home party last week! I looked like Mary Poppins carrying around all of my stamp stuff in ginormous bags, but I had everything I needed and it went really well. The only person who had stamped before was the hostess, so I wanted to show how easy it was to make some really good looking stuff. I planned the following card and treat bag:

First, the card. The base is just white card stock, with a few layers of the AWESOME Witches Brew Designer Series Paper. I love the burlap ribbon, it just adds such an earthy but simple texture to anything you put it on! We used the handy dandy Hexagonal Punch for that nice flagging on the bottom. The only stamp on it is from the Halloween Bash set, and we did a a second layer for "Halloween" in orange to make it pop a bit. I always encourage people to take "artistic liberties" with my inspiration designs, I think it really helps people to see how easy designing a card can be. The paper is printed on both sides so it gives people lots of options. And this group NAILED IT! Look at all the different ways they put this card together:

I was so glad they had fun with it. It's always really great to see what other people create, especially when they mold it into their vision! Great job for a group of newbies.

The treat bag was simple but makes a bit of candy (or, almonds for those avoiding sugar) look much fancier and fun.

 Again, we just used some of that same Witches Brew DSP for the base and made use of three different punches for the layers. The "trick of treat" tag is from the Tags 4 You set in the holiday catalog and has options for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentines Day. It also has that lovely corresponding punch, which makes it super easy to use for whatever holiday you choose. Hah that rhymed! (PS - You can get that whole bundle for $26.96 in clear and $30.95 in wood. Worth it!) I finished it off with a little twine tied around the top (Life lesson: attached the twine BEFORE you staple the tag to the bag. Lesson learned.)