Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts

Monday, 5 October 2026

A Bewitching Banner with Eclectica³ Clare Lloyd {by Ann Barnes}


Hello everyone, Ann here with you today, and I am sharing a fun paper doll Halloween banner that I created using the fabulous PaperArtsy stamps and stencils by Clare Lloyd.




As soon as I saw the PaperArtsy Clare Lloyd Stamp Sets 07 and 08 (ECL07, ECL08) I knew they would be perfect for creating holiday themed paper dolls. I wanted to create something festive and fun; and while maybe a little spooky, not too scary.


I created five witch paper dolls, each one with her own unique look and personality. The five panels of my banner each contain a different witch. In order for the banner panels to be cohesive, I used PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic in Little Black Dress (FF119) as the base for all of the witch's dresses and then used brighter themed colors for accents.


I love the way that the dresses turned out. Using the stamps and changing the details gives so many possibilities. I could have even used one stamp but different color embossing and each would have looked vastly different.



To create the different dress patterns, I painted pieces of PaperArtsy Smoothy Cardstock (SCA4H) with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paint in Little Black Dress (FF119).


Once the paint was dry, I selected a few of the small detail stamps to use for dress patterns. For the bat dress, I wanted an ombre effect so I used two different colors of embossing powder.


You can use any small stamp. At first I wasn't sure about the words, but this "spooky" dress turned out to be one of my favorites.


For four of the dress patterns, I randomly stamped with embossing ink, then covered with embossing powder and heat set.


I loved the star pattern from PaperArtsy Stencil 173 by Clare Lloyd (PS173) and used the stars from it with embossing ink to create the fifth dress background pattern.





I wanted each witch to have their own unique look. To achieve this with only one or two head/face stamps is easier than you may think. First, stamp as many of the heads as you will need, plus a few extra.
 

Then, imagine some chic stylish haircuts that can be created using the lines of the stamped images. You can use a pencil and mark up the stamped image with your ideas, or you can simply modify the hair as you are fussy cutting out each head.


Another way to do this would be to mask off the hair portion of the stamp when you are inking it and then the possibilities would truly be endless. I wanted to stay as true to Clare's designs as possible, therefore I worked with the lines that were there as a base.


Voila! Achieving different personalities with limited stamps is fairly simple, once you give them different haircuts, and even more so when you add color. I used colored pencils and paint pens  to vary the skin tones, eye colors and hair.



Now that all of the heads are complete it's time to create some of the other pieces. The best part of making paper dolls is have a lot of pieces to play with. First, let's finish the dresses.


Stamp the dress outline onto a plain piece of card stock and cut it out. This will be used as a template. Trace the outline of the template onto the backside of each piece of painted and stamped/embossed patterned paper, then cut out the dress shape.


You can embellish each dress as much or as little as you want, have fun with it. I used pieces of ribbon, string and tiny trims to fancy up my dresses.


Stamp multiple images of the hat onto Smoothy and fussy cut. I wanted the hats to match the base of each dress, so I used PaperArtsy Chalk Acrylic Little Black Dress to color them.


Each witch has her own cat. Stamp multiple cat images and color each one with colored pencil, then fussy cut, being careful at the neck. If you have any trouble, you can always glue the head onto the neck. I intentionally angled the head on a couple of my cats.




Here are each of the completed individual banner panels, I love how each witch is unique.








Some of the cats have their heads angled to appear as if they are looking at something.


The black and orange dress bottom is trimmed and layered with black tulle.


The dress length can be adjusted by simply adding layers of deep trims.


Each of the cat's collars has small gemstone embellishments.


This witch, I call "Red", has her own pair of batwings.

I had so much fun playing paper dolls with these stamps. I am thinking about creating a version of my banner for the winter holidays. PaperArtsy Stamp set 08 by Clare Lloyd (ECL08) has wonderful wintery and angelic details that would be perfect. Thanks for stopping by, hopefully you are inspired you to pull out your stamps and get creative.
Ann x



Friday, 5 September 2025

Pop-Up Card with JoFY products Halloween {by Etsuko Noguchi}

Hi everyone, nice to be back with you again
Etsuko My favorite things here with you today.

This year on the blog, we have free rein to do a deep dive into a PaperArtsy product ranges of our choosing. For this post I have been exploring JOFY's products.

Today I'm looking forward to sharing with you what I figured out when working out how to combine her cute Halloween design using 'Pop-Up Card' techniques.



For this project, I decided to use Mattints for the characters, and I added highlights with coloured pencils.

I'm sure you're all looking forward to JOFY's wonderful Christmas stamps and stencils, which are released every year. However, this time I decided to use the Halloween stamp set that I had been interested in for a while, thinking that combining its cute characters, tools, and words with the recently released monster series would create a new kind of fun, so I used it for this project. Since this project focuses on characters,  These stamp set are JOFY stamp set 141 and 83 (JOFY141 and JOFY83). and PaperArtsy Stencil by JoFY (PS461, PS410 and PS309). I used Mattints for colouring. From the left edge of the photo - PaperArtsy Mattints- Ash, River Deep, Greenstone, Bellflower, Glow, Hight Viz and Ladybug. Also I used PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Turquoise (Seth Apter), Steel Grey (Seth Apter), Little Black Dress. For the papers Smoothy (Heavyweight) A4 white stamping card. And highlighted with coloured pencils. (I'm sorry that the lower part of JOFY83 is not visible. I will upload the entire image in the photo below.)



First, create the main pop-up base, prepare three pieces of paper as shown in the photo. The thick brown craft paper at the bottom is a 16 cm square. The second (white paper) and third (Black) papers  are the same 13 cm squares size, , with 2 cm left on the top, bottom, left and right sides, and cut out a 9 cm square in the centre of the paper.



Next, I will make a pop-up stand to display the doll and other items. First, cut out three pieces as shown on the white paper on the left. I painted mine Little Black Dress, but you can use any colour you like. An enlarged view of the white paper is shown in the figure below.


This is the zoomed photo of the pop-up stand dimensions, the red lines indicate cutting and the dotted lines indicate folding.

After cutting the red line, fold both ends as shown in this photo. I coloured the adhesive parts that in red and blue for clarity.

From here on, my explanation may not be sufficient, so I will provide the URL of the original site. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPIwatzqCyo Pop Up-Tutorial by Duncan Birmingham


Attach the pink part of the pop-up stand to the back of the 13 cm square white frame. (In this photo, there are two pop-up stands, but in reality, all three are glued together.)


Next, the white frame upside down and only glue the blue parts to the craft paper base. When doing so, place the white frame in the centre of the craft paper, leaving a 1.5 cm margin on all sides.


Seen from the side.


Align the base of each ornament with the base of the stand and glue them together. If the base protrudes, it will hit the craft paper and not stand up properly.

Pull the white paper forward and the ornament will rise up. Success!




The main characters of the ornament are three characters, one of whom is Dracula. I used the JM52 boy mini stamp for him and added hair and a cape. I used Mattints - Hight Viz, Ladybug, River Deep, and Ash for colouring and added coloured pencils for highlights.


When creating the latter two characters, I made some changes to their specifications. At this point, the pop-up panel was already complete and the photos had been taken. While editing, I noticed a mistake in the photos and was surprised to find that the two characters had become twins with the same face... Sorry, I'll continue as is.



I lightly painted the pages of the book with a mixture of Seth Apter's new colours, PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Pumice and Snowflake, to create a worn-out base, and then added two or three items.


I stamped images of JOFY83's large pot, the cross grave marker, and the gravestone behind the girl onto book pages, coloured them with Mattints Ash, Shadow and Glow, attached card stock to the back, and cut them out.


Pumpkins are essential, so I searched for JOFY stamps to see if there was anything good, and I found this JOFY37. What do you think? I think they're great! Apply Tango and Nougat to the Stamp Heavy Card and to create the face by a black gel pen. So I placed them around the large pot.


I doodled ghosts and bats and arranged all the ornaments on three stands each. I tried several times to create a cool layout when they were raised.


I stamped three kind of the stamps Seth Apter mini stamp - EM54 and EM40 and JOFY83 onto 16cm square the craft paper. Also I make two 3 cm wide strips of the craft paper, stamp them with the same stamp, glue them to the front and back of the white frame, and pull the stand.

As shown in the photo, glue the strips to the front and back of the white frame, and attach a slightly larger black piece of paper to the back of the 16 cm square craft card.


Finally, I made a decorative frame to hide the strips. At first, I planned to use a turquoise blue frame and made a few, but when I assembled the whole thing, it didn't quite fit. So, I created a pattern on the Little Black Dress using PaperArtsy Stencil by JoFY (PS410) star stencil in Steel Grey (Seth Apter), and added Turquoise (Seth Apter) to the outside of the frame. The result was very satisfying.



The first two photos show the finished product before and after pulling the strip. Even a pop-up card with just one character is sure to be enjoyed by families with small children, so please give it a try. I had so much fun using JOFY stamps that I decided to make tags using the same characters for Halloween. I hope you enjoy today's project.







I used PaperArtsy Stencil by JoFY - PS329 to gel-printed gradient dots in Turquoise, Purple Wine  (Tracy Scott), Cerise (Tracy Scott), and Lemon Meringue on black paper for the background of the cards and tags. I used JOFY83, JOFY141, Jofy Mini Stamp JM85, JM86, and PS461 stencils for each card and tag layer. I used the same Mattints as for the pop-up card to colours the characters.






Thank you so much for stopping by.
Etsuko xxx


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