Halloween Card 2023

The inspiration for this card came from a free online class offered by Kelly Klapstein of Kelly Creates last year. It features two images often connected with Halloween, a moon and a black cat. While they rarely occur on Halloween, full moons have long been linked with strange and insane behavior. Words like lunacy and lunatic come from the Latin for moon. I suppose it fits with the customs of Halloween where abnormal behavior, like disguising yourself, demanding candy, and pulling pranks, is acceptable. How black cats became connected with Halloween is unclear but in medieval Europe they were associated with witches. I live with a black cat who has a lot of “character” so I also associate them with craziness.

The card uses the same style of base as the Thanksgiving card described in my last post, with a window made using a Fiskars Everywhere Punch (scalloped circle). The picture was painted on Artist’s Loft watercolor paper from Michael’s, the stars made with Winsor & Newton silver-metallic aluminum ink, and the fence and words were done with a Sharpie.

If this card were a person, they would be a little zany but when they go out on a clear night, they always pause to look for the moon and say “Thanks moon, for reflecting the sun’s light at night, moderating the earth’s axial wobble, guiding navigators and migrating birds, and providing the rhythm of the tides.”

Happy Thanksgiving

It is always a good time to reflect on what we are thankful for.

I started this card at last week’s Edmonton Calligraphic Society meeting. After our calligraphy lesson on French Ronde (I need more practice), we worked on making cards. Brenda Foster had pre-prepared them using crumpled archival tissue adhered to 90 lb watercolour paper using white glue thinned with water. This made a wonderfully textured surface to work on. I can imagine this technique would work well with other tissue like old sewing patterns or single layers of printed paper napkins. On mine, I painted with watercolour, sprinkled brown Bister ink, and rubbed on some oil pastel crayon.

Yesterday was World Card Making Day so to celebrate I finished decorating the card. I wrote “Give Thanks” in an Art Deco style using a Speedball B 5½ nib with walnut ink on cardstock. I love pressed leaves but find they are very delicate and can crumble when I try to attach them. Instead, I used a couple of leaves punched from cardstock and affixed them using Stampin’ Up Dimensionals (little foam hexagons with double-sided adhesive).

Here are a couple other card bases I painted with different colours.

If this card were a person, they would have wrinkles but tell themselves it adds character to their face. Their philosophy is why waste time looking for faults when you can focus on the good.