A Spooky Tower Card!

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Aloha, all!

And welcome to another fun – but spooky! – edition of Island Hopping. I’ve been chatting about my Island Hopping friend, Cheryl Hamilton, in my last few articles. This time, we’re sharing projects for one of my favorite times for card-giving, Halloween! First I’m hoping you’ll enjoy my story of making this fun fold card. Then I’ll send you on over to Cheryl’s blog to see what she has in store for you this spooky season!

Going Around In Circles?

If you have to know, I began this project thinking that I was going to make what is a very popular design these days, a Pinwheel Tower Card. But I didn’t know that’s what it was called. I thought it was just a “Tower Card.” So off I went looking for same samples that I could figure out how to make and then go from there. But what I found was a lot different than what I went looking for. In fact, I’d actually made a few of these cards last year. I just forgot that’s what they were called!

Hmmm. While I really wanted to make a Pinwheel Tower Card, when I saw tower cards like this one in different places around the internet, I started seeing the possibility of a Fun Halloween Design. But never fear. I went ahead and made some Pinwheel Tower Cards, and you’ll be seeing them in my next two articles. So I’ll have come full circle by then.

How Do You Make a Tower Card

The basic concept of a tower card is that the sections in the middle of the card, as well as on the left and right edges, are solid cardstock. In between the middle and each of the sides, the cardstock is slit to create an uneven number of sections. In the case of this card, there are 5 sections; 4 are 1″ wide and one is 1-1/2″ wide. In the case of the cards that I made last year, there are eleven 1/2″ sections. So you can make as many sections as you want. The key to this design is that you want your card to be no higher that 5-1/2″ so that it will fit into an A2-sized envelope. You measurement can change if you’re using a larger or smaller envelope.

And there is a Tutorial that I made to go with the cards that I made last year. You can find it by clicking here. The base cardstock measures 8-1/2″ wide by 5-1/2″ high. Just adjust the vertical measurements of the cut sections to fit what you want to do.

Almost more important than knowing the measurements is knowing that this card folds flat and fits into a standard A2 or “Invitation” sized envelope!

Cute Images from the Cute Halloween Pattern Paper Set!

What makes today’s card really special is the fun patterned paper set, Cute Halloween.  There is a stamp set that coordinates with it and, yes, I do own it. But I can’t get over how darling the images in the paper set are. I could never do the kind of coloring that the Stampin’ Up! artists have accomplished  So I have taken to fussy cutting this paper to death (a good Halloween phrase, don’t you think?).

Samples of the paper are on the right, and on the left is a clip of the images I cut from two of the sheets for this project. My very favorite images from these papers are the skull with the bird perched on it and the ghost with the magic wand. The others aren’t too far behind.

To make the picture a little spookier, I stamped the small spider web from the Banner Year Stamp Set. Then I added in the “BOO” from the same set. To complete the background, I added some of the black star sequins from the Cute Stars Adhesive-Backed Sequins. 

The Rest of the Papers

The card base itself is Highland Heather Cardstock. There’s just enough Highland Heather accents throughout this paper set that it really is a go-to color for making cards with the patterns.

The other papers are all from the same Cute Halloween patterned paper set as the critters on the card front. The Old Olive pattern with the spooky houses is my favorite pattern in this set after the critters. Then of course I needed to use the “Boo” print. It goes perfectly with the “Boo” on the center square.

Where Do I Write a Note?

On the back!

For the note section on the back, I added an outline stamp of one of the skulls in the Cutest Halloween Stamp Set. And then, just for giggles, I added the spider from that set and just drew a line from the top of the card to make his web string. Take away the watermark I added to this picture, and you can see that there’s plenty of space to write a quick Halloween note.

One of the things that I like about sending Halloween Cards is that I’m just doing it to help make people smile. I don’t need to write a real update or chat about anything. Hey, it’s a fun holiday!

Don’t forget to hop on over to Cheryl Hamilton’s blog to see what she’s up to. My guess is that she’s using a fun die set that we played with when I visited her earlier in the month!

Happy Stamping! See you with more Halloween Cards – and real Pinwheel Tower Cards later!