Hugs in a Card

Hi friends! Before October ends, I’d like to share this interactive haunted house card I made for Halloween at Poppystamps challenge. I always had my eye on Winter House Pop Up Easel Die Set and sure enough, I enjoyed making cards from this.

I started by cutting out the die pieces in various colours of cardstock. The house itself was a light grey cardstock which turned into bluish gray after I inked it with Night of Navy (Stampin’ Up!) and Hickory Smoke (Distress Ink) using blending brushes. The roof was cut out from dark grey cardstock, same with the front door awning. Then I cut the doors and windows from black cardstock except for the three windows on the attic, which was from light grey cardstock too.

I glued an acetate sheet behind the house so that all doors and windows have a glass effect. Then I created a background for the house by ink blending as well. The outside was a smoky blue colour using Night of Navy and Hickory Smoke from the edges and then going light towards the house. I also used Pacific Point (Stampin’ Up!) for the eerie blue effect.

For the spaces behind the windows, I used Mango Melody (Stampin’ Up!), Real Red (Stampin’ Up!) and Tuxedo Black (Memento) ink. There was no particular pattern so that the glow looks really varied from each windows. For the 3 middle floor windows, I used just black cardstock so that the space appears black.

Using a strip of cardstock slightligh smaller than the 2nd floor windows, I stamped the sentiment in white embossing powder and then drew a small haunted lady with long hair and bloody dress. I guess I added too much blood that it looks like she’s just wearing a red dress hahaha. I attached this lady at the left end of the strip, and then cut it so that only a quarter inch is sticking out on the right hand side. I wrote the word pull in white gel pen.

Then, I propped the front panel using foam tape behind, leaving just enough space for the strip to slide in and out. At the end, I added small squares of foam tape right along the edges of the strip. Because the lady was wider than the strip, the foam tape blocks it so that the entire strip does not slide out of the card.

Then I added more details to make it look haunted and abandoned. I used a piece of black cardstock for the ground and leafless trees, I smudged the entire house here and there with copper metallic pens and white gel pens for a paint peel and rusty effect. Then I added some highlights on the trees and ground too. I decided to add some lightning on the sky with white gel pens and some blue alcohol inks. Then I broke some of the window frames and added a copper doorknob. I would have gone for broken glasses too but I am not sure how to make it look like that now.

And here is the final look! When you pull the tab, the lady appears to be floating behind the windows. Overall, I enjoyed adding in the details to this haunted house card. It’s very different from the other cards because you can just be messy with it. It’s therapeutic to be careless just for this cardmaking design hehehe. Hope you like this card and got inspired by it!