Monday 21 October 2019

Christmas Is Coming - so I am hoping to add a couple more posts on a Thursday & Friday now & again 'till then.

Halloween Favour Bags

It seems like years since I have made any festive favours using Elizabeth Shaw mints, but decided Halloween would be the perfect opportunity to "revise the art" by making something for Bertie to give all his "Chestnut" staff before they broke up for half term. 
In doing so I discovered that my trusty scallop and plain Stampin Up punches are beginning to show their age, they do seems to punch as crisply as they used to do and are fussy about what papers I use with them.  
I have tried to "sharpen" them using aluminium foil and some metal sheet I had, but I am not convinced that they will last for that much longer. I have totally lost touch with Stampin Up but perhaps, after Christmas would be a good time to see what they are doing now and if possible replace these much used and loved punches.
I have also discovered that finding good Halloween (and Christmas) stickers, particularly of the 3D, puffy or bubble variety is getting harder and harder (when I think now of what the pound shops used to sell, I should have bought them by the box load!).  The ones above came from Morrisons (3 sheets for £1) Hobbycraft (a waterfall pack for £2, including puffy, foil and paper stickers, so excellent value, and Flying Tiger (£1 for 1 sheet of approximately 20 foiled stickers, five design packs available).
I simply punched out scalloped and plain circles in Halloween colours, putting a sticker in the middle and then added a little faux stitching round the inner circle and dots on each scallop, using a fine liner pen, before sandwiching a mint between two circles using double sided tape to secure them.  There are 24 chocolates in each box of Elizabeth Shaw mints, so I was able to make up twelve packs in all.
I put four chocolates in a small cello bag accompanied by a few plastic spiders to give the favours an extra creepy trick or treat twist.  I also added a matching scallop circle sentiment to the corner of each bag just to say they were from Bertie. 
I just love the colours of Halloween ...... I really must think of a way of incorporating them into one or two Christmas cards or tags this year if I get the time.