Tricks and Treats Halloween Cards by October Guest Designer Bobbi Lemanski

Today we have our first post from our October Guest Designer, Bobbi from Soul Shine Joy! Her lovely creations on her blog and instagram have caught our eye and we are so excited to share what she creates this month as our guest! Keep reading to find out more about her today and to check out her first project below!

Hi there! My name is Bobbi Lemanski and I am the Newton’s Nook Guest Designer for October! I’m so excited to have this opportunity to work with Newton’s awesome products and to share my projects with you. I hope to inspire you in some way, perhaps it’s a new color combo, a technique or two, or simply an interesting combination of sets used together.  Whatever it is, I hope you enjoy my projects and learn something new each week.

A little about me…I live in Wisconsin with my husband, Kevin and our 16-year old twins, Tarek (TJ) and Olivia. We have a sweet Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Stella Mae. We love spending time at the lake in the summer, traveling to new places in the cooler months and spending time with our families.

When the weather turns cooler, I get busy in my studio, creating all sorts of things from papercrafts to canvas prints. I love using bold colors and looking for clever ways to use sets in new ways.  I get excited every time I start a new project because I just never know what the end result will be until it’s done. I like creating 5” X 7” cards because often my cards hold the gift in the form of a gift card or money inside, so a bigger card has a bigger presence plus it gives me more room to design!

You can find me on Instagram and Facebook as SoulShineJoy. My blog is at www.SoulShineJoy.com and includes even more cards featuring Newton’s Nook products including many ideas using my very favorite Newton’s Nook stamp set - Cocktail Mixer! Thank you so much, Jennifer and Samantha for this opportunity to share my ideas using your amazing sets!

Slider Trick or Treat card

Hello, October and fellow Newton’s Nook Lovers! It’s officially Fall and time to get our holiday cards in order. I’m starting out guest designing this month with some Halloween fun. My first card is a double slider interactive card with a little trick tucked inside. It’s called a double slider because as you pull the tab down at the bottom, a little something pops up above! It uses a plastic loop mechanism behind the scene that allows one side to move up as the other side of the loop is moving downward. I must admit, I experienced a learning curve on my first one, but after I made one, it became much easier to make again. Now these tricky, interactive cards are a cinch to make!

Figure 1 Halloween interactive card features Halloween Trio and Boo Hoo stamp sets.

Figure 2 As the tab is pulled down, the mini ghost from the Boo Hoo stamp set is revealed.

Figure 3 In its full height position, the ghost flies above the trick-or-treaters to say “Boo!”

For supplies, I used oxide inks in Black Soot, Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves to create the night sky background. I hand drew the center stony path and the tall trees flanking both sides of the card front using Copic Sketch Markers to create the scene. The cute trick-or-treaters from Halloween Trio (with coordinating dies) are the focal point along with the mini ghost and sentiment from the stamp set, Boo Hoo and matching dies set. If this card is too fussy and time-consuming for you, my next card may be more your style.

Boo took the treats?

Figure 1 Create a police lineup scene with some simple lines behind the image.

Not every card requires countless hours of engineering and multiple layers to be cute and clever. Sometimes it just takes looking at an image and seeing something different in it. When I saw Halloween Trio for the first time, I immediately saw a lineup of a cast of mischievous characters. I am positive one of these characters has stolen all the treats on Halloween night!  There’s evidence on the floor to prove it. 😊I went with this scene idea and created some simple lines in the background to create a police lineup. The candy and the word “boo” are from the set, Boo Crew (Savvy shoppers: This set is on sale right now, too!). When you use a set in a new way, sometimes you must handwrite a few words of your own like the words, “done it?” here. I cut them into separate pieces to mimic a ransom note to fit the theme.

For supplies, I used sets: Halloween Trio and Boo Crew. I embossed the words in white on black cardstock with white embossing powder. I created the black lines with a simple black marker, stamped the images and sentiment in black dye ink, and colored the images using various colors of Copics. I whited out the letters in the signs and hand wrote numbers instead. White and black cardstock were used to create the card body and front. This was a quick card to make and should get a smile out of someone. Check back next Monday for more ideas using Newton’s Nook stamp sets. 

Have a great week! 

Bobbi Lemanski