Halloween Layouts by Chris

This year I wanted to capture my grandkids’ Halloween costumes not just in photos, but also in paper. I couldn’t resist the new Graphic 45 paper nor the two Halloween cricut carts that came out this year.

I used my Paper Doll Dress Up and Everyday Paper Dolls cartridges and cut 5 dolls--2 at 3.5, one at 3 inches, and 2 at 2.5 inches. I then used the costumes on the cart to make a cowgirl, cowboy, and a lion. To make “Mario” I used the clothes for the construction worker and the cap from the military man. Mario’s mushroom (don’t ask me why my grandson wanted to be Mario’s mushroom). I used the outfit 1-headwear on the Dress Up cart for the body and a blackout version of the race driver’s helmet on the Everyday cart (cut at 4inches even though the figure was only 3 inches). Then I rounded the edges of the helmet, slit the center, slipped the head in and colored using Faded Jeans Distress ink applied with a pencil eraser and inked the edges with Vintage Photo ink. Each doll then got a little Trick or Treat bag from the Dress Up cartridge and I hand cut a plunger for Mario. To finish the kids a bit of facial color was added using my copics RV10 and 11.


To make the background I used the October 31st cart and cut out the tree at 10 inches from Graphic 45 Halloween paper and the fence from Happy Hauntings cart at 4 inches. Just love one of my online friend’s ideas of using a pattern paper for the tree! I dabbed the fence posts with distress embossing pad and sprinkled on tea dye distress embossing powder (didn’t have vintage photo powder, so I was experimenting), heated it and when cooled rubbed off the big crystals—now I had a rusted fence. I used my silver American Craft glitter paper and George cart to cut a 5.5 circle for the moon. It was too shiny, so I dabbed a bit of black soot distress ink over it. I made the witch from Happy Hauntings at 3 inches. I glued all pieces down with a spray adhesive, but found the witch kept lifting, so I used my scor tape on her. On the other side of the layout I cut the 4 bats from Paper Doll Dress up at .5 (2 of them), 1, and 1.5 inches. Happy Hauntings was used for the title (2 inches), ghosts (1 inch; 1.5 inches, and the ghost from the round frame—row 2 last cut--was cut at 3 inches), and the cat (2 inches). The three purple squares are for pics of the kids. (I’ve got plenty of room on the backs of both LOS as the Graphic 45 is fantastic double sided paper.)

Look at the bottom of the house. I cut off the two front foundations and glued them to shipping tags cut down to 2inches wide and wrote Pull me on the tabs—Yea, hidden journaling! The trick was in my using scor tape under the house to create a rectangular pocket that the cards could slide in and out of and not gluing where the foundation sat under the windows. Final touches were added—googley eyes, outlines on the bats and one Halloween LO done ahead of time (a first for me)!

Cutters Creek Resources:
Cricut Cartridges: Everyday Paper Dolls, Paper Doll Dress Up, George & Basic Shapes, Happy Hauntings, & October 31st
Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Faded Jeans, Vintage Photo, Black Soot
Scor Tape
Copics: RV 10, RV11
Distress Embossing ink
Distress Embossing Powder: Tea Dye
AC Glitter Paper: silver
Graphic 45 Halloween Wonderland Paper