Northwest Stamper

Happy Halloween! Plus some tips for your Artist’s Tray

Halloween is finally here and while I didn’t get all of the projects I meant to get done for Halloween, I did have some fun this weekend getting ready with the kids. I love the fun crafts and activities that go with the holiday season. In this case, carving pumpkins, painting little pumpkins,

or in Caitlin’s case, trying to eat the paint for painting pumpkins! 🙂

But I also thought I would share my Halloween craft project, too. This is the Halloween Artist’s Tray project that Stampin’ Up! offered as part of a promotion when you joined Stampin’ Up! (or had someone join your group during the promo period). It was way cuter in person than I expected and I got some friends together to make it.

Artist Tray Tips:

I thought I would share some tips that I discovered while making the tray, in case you have this project at home still to make or you want to make something similar!

I adhered all of my inserts to my tray using slim velcro dots. This was to make it easier to pull out and replace the inserts with a different holiday or design so I can use this tray year round. Then I can reuse the inserts each year. In this picture, I took a slim velcro dot and cut it in half so it would hold the top and the bottom of the paper down. The easiest way to apply your velcro is to stick both sides of the velcro together and put them into the tray. You’ll have adhesive exposed, and then you can just press your paper into the space and know your velcro will be lined up.
Use a stamp-a-ma-jig and grid paper if you care about precision in lining up your images (like the gravestone images in the bottom left space). I positioned my paper in the center of the grid paper, so my paper was always lined up the same way and used the stamp-a-ma-jig to make sure I was stamping the same depth in each time.
When making your rosettes, use hot glue to hold them together. If you use the silicone mat, it is SUPER EASY and NO MESS!! I’m serious, I was a little afraid of my hot glue gun but the mat made it so easy and I LOVE it!
And one more rosette tip, if you have to make a half rosette (like the orange one in the bottom right), you will have to hold it in a half circle shape and add lots of glue. Make sure you squeeze the center together tightly! I didn’t and my rosette was too big. Oops!
The project called for a bow in the Striped Satin ribbon near the polka dot designer series paper. Normally I don’t have a problem with bows…. um, this time…. I couldn’t make a nice bow no matter what I did! So, if it doesn’t work for you, chuck it! You don’t need a bow for a cute project. 🙂
Ok, last tip – When you hang your banners from the top of the tray handle and adhere to the back of the tray, your banners may or may not hang how you like. I ended up using a glue dot to hold the middle banner in place on one of the tray lips so I knew it would hang how I like.

Alright, so those are my tips for now. I’ll be making more inserts and can’t wait to share them with you in the future. If there is interest, I’ll put together some kits for you to make your own as well!

But until, then, have a very Happy and Safe Halloween! From me and my monsters, to you. 🙂