Bonnie's Halloween Lanterns
July 28, 2011
My phone was dinging last night and I grabbed it to find several awesome photos, texted from Bonnie with the note that she was having technical issues with her computer and was unable to upload them on her blog.
Bonnie has used my new Paper Lantern die to make some spooky decor for Halloween. I LOVE THESE LANTERNS!
First let me explain the die. It is a Bigz XL size die and cuts a big and a mini-lantern on the same die by cutting lantern halves. The holes in the bands serve as both ribbon-threading holes AND line-up holes, making construction desperately simple and quick.
The die does not have any crease rule, meaning you can stack up about four sheets of paper over the die and cut two big and two small lanterns with one pass through the Big Shot (or Big Kick, or Vagabond) Bonus!!!
You can use ribbon, yarn, twine, etc. to put them together. For Bonnie's "Jack-o" Lantern (see what she did there?) she used orange cardstock (four lantern halves instead of two, to make it even bigger!), twine to cinch/hang, and added hand-cut black cardstock pieces (with sequin eyes) to make a face. What a quick and easy decor item for Halloween!
Next, she made a Fall-ish Bird Lantern from Kraft-colored cardstock, a ropier twine for cinching/hanging, and embellished the top of the lantern with my retired Bird die.
The Spider lantern set may be my favorite (but it's hard to choose!). She used both sizes of lanterns, cut from a flocked spider paper and cinched/hung with black ribbon. She embellished the lanterns with die cut spiders and hung the Pop-up Spider/Web die from the bottom of the set.
Here is a closer look at the bigger lantern and the web/spider decorations:
Bonnie will be back up and blogging soon, so you'll want to bookmark her blog here: Bonnie Bruns
You also may have noticed that the Paper Lanterns are out of stock on Sizzix.com. Another batch is expected in three weeks, but you may be able to find the lanterns in stock right now at your local scrapbook store. For online options, here are some direct links to the Paper Lanterns (in stock as of today's date):
Thanks for sharing your spooky lanterns, Bonnie!
PS Bonnie and her youngest son, Tyler, came to visit us in Texas last month. It was only for a few days, but we had such fun! Bonnie is a wizard with thrift-store finds, repurposing jewelry and furniture into one-of-a-kind pieces that she sells in her craft booth in Colorado Springs. We went thrifting, did a little crafting, drank amaretto sours by the pool, and just enjoyed each others' company. I sent her home with a box full of dies and, no surprise, she made magic with them! Love ya, Bon!