I have always loved Halloween since I was big enough to formulate the word “boo!”  I would spend the entire night with all the neighborhood kids and sashay from door to door with a pillow case until it was completely full of candy.  I loved looking at all the costumes and every year I was always mesmerized at the imagination and effort put into some of the costume details.  As I got older, it became a sort of circle-of-friends challenge to see who could come up with the best and most outrageous costumes.  

Needless to say there are photos that exist somewhere in the world of me dressed as Jamie Foxx’s character named “Wanda” from the television show In Living Color and a few others of me dressed as a stick-figure glow princess (think Tron).  As each year passed, my photos would get filed away into an unorganized photo box, to be enjoyed and viewed only by a family of dust bunnies on the top shelf of my closet.  I wish that I had made found the time and made an effort to preserve a few of the best Halloween photos from each year in a decorative album of some sort so that my kids (ages 9 and 6) could look at them.  Yet, I don’t have supplies on-hand to make fancy scrapbook pages, or an endless flow of money to buy the supplies, and I certainly don’t have any extra time to burn with two kids and a full-time job.  So what’s a girl to do? 

The solution is to shop around and find a craft kit.  Craft kits contain all of the supplies and laymen instructions that you need to create your own spook-tacularly detailed photo albums or scrapbooks.  ARC’s Spooky Chipboard Album Kit is, like the names suggests, made out of thick chipboard with detailed embellishments on each page. The kit uses various combinations of real wood grain paper, Stardream (shimmery) paper, diecut spiders, trees, candy pieces and other spooky diecut shapes cut from colored card stock.  The kit includes everything you need to create a keepsake photo album that everyone will want to look at even before you add your personal photos.  The kits are easy to assemble in one to two hours, and can even be a fun project to do with your kids over the weekend to help get them excited for the big night of fright.  Here’s a photo of all the pieces and embellishments included with this awesome spooky kit:

All of the Parts and Pieces that come with the Spooky Kit

Below I’ve attached the finished and assembled version of each of the five album pages for your viewing pleasure.  Check out “The Spooky Chipboard” album kit now available on our website along with many other easy-to-assemble kits for all occasions.  Take a minute to check them out to see if there’s a kit that fits your needs!

By definition, translucent (also referred to as vellum) paper is a type of paper that permits the passage of light.  That means that when you put a translucent piece of paper in front of something, you can still see what’s behind it.  Translucent paper has varying levels of opacity, meaning that some are easier to see through than others.  Additionally, translucent paper comes in all shades, including some metallic shades, making this the perfect paper to use as an embellishment for craft projects, special event invitations and scrapbook pages.

In order to demonstrate the added effect of using translucent paper to embellish an invitation or crafted item with a Halloween theme, I printed black text on a regular white sheet of paper, then I added a clear translucent overlay with a cloudy pattern to give the text a “spooky” feeling.

This is the result:

Translucent Overlay makes text look "spooooky"

Another great use of translucent (or vellum) paper is to adhere the translucent paper to the back of an image cut out from a sheet of solid card stock.  The result is colorful glowing feature using natural light.  In order to demonstrate this use, I printed an orange pumpkin on solid card stock and used an exacto blade to cut out holes for the eyes, nose and teeth.  Additionally, I cut the pumpkin out using the outer edge and I also left a rectangular tab along the bottom of the pumpkin for use in making a pop-up cutout.  Using spray adhesive, I then attached a piece of bright yellow translucent paper to the back of the pumpkin.  I folded the rectangular tab at the bottom of the pumpkin and glued it to a sheet of card stock (sturdy) paper.

Here is the result:

Yellow Translucent backing for "glowing" pumpkin

There are many other great uses for translucent/vellum papers.  With a little imagination, the uses are endless!

At ARC Crafts, our translucent papers are acid free, elemental chlorine free, recyclable, and biodegradable. Made from 100% pure cellulose fibers, it is naturally translucent, and free of the resins and other chemical agents that make some translucent paper brittle and hard to fold. This vellum offers outstanding formation and superior printability, and is even naturally grease resistant.  Click  HERE  to check out ARC Crafts assortment of translucent paper!

HAPPY CRAFT-O-WEEN!