The house up on the hill beckons, but first you need to cross through the creepy village graveyard. The moans from a ghost can be heard through the trees. The graveyard’s been there a while, the headstones are tilting over. Or is that because the undead are trying to escape?
The third day in the Spooky Halloween 2017 series highlights the Village Graveyard Box Card. Originally I thought I would use the Graveyard Gate die from Stampin’ Up but that one is a full 5 inches wide and would overwhelm this card. Instead, the tiny and delicate fence pieces in the Tim Holtz Village Graveyard die set were the perfect height and perfect width.
I wanted the decorative paper to evoke a gloomy, spooky feeling. Most of the paper that I have is orange and black and not the right feel. I realized that the maroon paper from Bo Bunny’s 2016 Wonderfully Wicked collection worked perfectly. I could leverage one sheet of paper for both the exterior and interior of this card, and even had a little left over for the belly band. Alongside the Graphic 45 ‘An Eerie Tale’ collection, this paper collection is one of my all-time favorites. One might call the producers of Hoarders if they saw how much I have of both of those collections! (And do I use them? Well, that’s the subject for another post!)
Construction Considerations
In order to fit all the pieces I wanted, I had to alter the dimensions from a square box card to one that’s 3″ across and 2″ deep. It folds flat to a width of 5″. I also needed the card to be 7″ tall in order to accommodate the height of the haunted house. The flaps drop 4″ from the top, and the box base is 3″ tall. The diagram for the cutting list shows the cut lines and the score lines.
Because of all the stuff inside the card, I needed to add a belly band to hold it all together and keep the flaps from flopping open. I had an extra strip 11″ wide that I cut down to 1″ high and that was enough to wrap around and secure with a clear velcro adhesive dot.
There was one improvement that I would make to the card and would require adhering the front wavy hillside a little higher up. I would add a flap to the inside bottom of the card that could be pulled down to keep the box open. Ideally, you would have 2 1/2″ free on the inside of the front bottom panel (2″ for depth and 1/2″ for the fold). The flap would be mounted along the bottom edge and would be pulled down when the card is open to hold the shape.
Materials List
- Black cardstock, 2 sheets
- Decorative paper, 1 double-sided sheet, or 2 sheets,
- This paper is from 2016’s Bo Bunny Something Wicked collection
- Scraps of dark grey and light grey paper
- Tim Holtz Village Graveyard die set
- Tim Holtz Haunted House die
- Stampin’ Up Lots of Labels die set
- Impression Obsession stamp, Behind You by Kalani Allred
- Hampton Arts Stamp and Stencil set
- Distress Oxide Inks
- Wilted Violet
- Seedless Preserves
- Faded Jeans
- Black Soot
- Yellow ink pad, Stampin Up Crushed Curry
- Scrap of clear plastic
- Scrap of vellum
- Adhesive velcro dot
The solid lines are cut lines and the dotted lines are score lines. Note the horizontal score does not extend to Panel 1.
Watch How the Village Graveyard Box Card is Made
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
This project is part of my Spooky Halloween 2017 series. Check back this week for more spooky goodness!
