Halloween Card Tutorial

The Card Challenge at my other site Tiffany Doodles for this month is Stitching!  I l-o-v-e stitching on my cards so I had a lot of fun with this project!  I used the brand new Spooky Pumpkins Digital Stamp set for this tic tac toe card!

To start this project, I layed out my design in Photoshop in a 4"x4" document (300dpi)  I filled the background with a very dark gray.  I then created nine 1" boxes and filled them with a lighter gray.  Then I opened each pumpkin digi and insert them into the document.  I used the Transform tool to resize them to fit into each box.  Since there are only 8 digis in the set, I duplicated 1 of them and flipped it horizontally.  Do you see which pumpkin has a twin?  (my printer was acting up and put a dark line through a few of the boxes so I didn't mean for that to be there.)

Next I cut out a 4" square piece of cardstock - I used Coordinations "spellcaster" textured cardstock.

I turned my cardstock over and need to draw my guides for cutting out the 1" square holes in the cardstock.  So to be precise I lined up my cardstock even with the image and used a ruler as my guide.

Then I cut out my 1" square with my exacto blade.... be careful!

Got everything cut out for my windows!

Next I used my little doodlebug hole maker and ran it down all rows of my cardstock.  It doesn't actually pierce the paper but it makes a little indention so that I can use it as a guide for making good holes.  I used my paper piercer and a little hammer to tap all the holes.

Next I used a piece of orange paper and my scallop edger to make pretty sides.  I made it just a smidge bigger than my 4" cardstock window.

Then I used my autumn leaves ink pad and inked the edges of my actual card backing, all 4 sides.

I then glued down my orange paper onto the kraft card b/c I'm going to need to sew through both pieces at the same time!

But first I punched all my holes!

I also colored all the pumpkins with my colored pencils!  After I colored them in I took my black fine tip pen and went around and over all the lines of each pumpkin.  Makes them stand out much more!

Here is a close up of the colored pencils I used.

Next comes the stitching!  I used 3 strands of orange embroidery thread and did the back stitch on every row!

I thought my pumpkins needed a little more dimension so I took a almost black marker (N7) and made a little shadow below each pumpkin.

Then I sewed french knots on each scallop of the orange paper! I love making french knots!!  I used 4 strands of embroidery black thread and 3 loops for the french knots! =)

I then glued down the black cardstock window onto the pumpkin digi paper and assemble the card!! I hope you like this tutorial!!  I would love to hear your thoughts!