It’s the Karen Burniston design team challenge for October 2023with the theme of Jack-O-Lantern.

My inspiration for this card was drawn from a similar cart made by a crafting friend Jennifer Webster and the Mother’s Day flower cart I made previously.

Cart Drawer: The cart is based around the Slider Box. Watch the assembly video before die-cutting pieces. I used kraft brown 65 lb. cardstock for the box and drawer. A piece of striped satin ribbon was used as a drawer pull.

A Bam Box (see assembly video) is what pops up the green hands and message of “BOO!” which are from the Halloween Elements die set. There is space to place a special treat in the drawer over the pop-up. When the treat is picked-up the pop-up hands will make a grab at the gift recipient.

Cart Base: The cart’s frame made by die-cutting two of the Fancy Label Accordion panels and removing the center pivot panel and side tab to create a square frame. Fold in half. Glue the u-shape together. I took the two smallest of the off-cuts from the die cut to make the cart handles. (Glue the pieces back-to-back for stability.) Glue handles on to slider box at open end before adhering the u-shape frame to slider box.

Roof Frame: The striped roof awning is cut from some digital striped paper using the large scalloped edged rectangle in the Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch set. It is held up by a frame made by die-cutting two of the Fancy Label Accordion in white cardstock and cutting off the center pivot panel and side tab. Fold each of the frames at 2 3/4-inches. Glue the frames on to the sides of the cart base, lining up the bottom edge of the white frame to the inside edge of the blue cart frame.

Cut two strips of brown cardstock 1 1/2-inches long by 1/2-inch wide. Fold each strip in half. Pinch the top halves of the roof frames towards each other to form triangular frame. Glue the frame together with the two strips.

Pumpkins: The Halloween Border die set has a row of pumpkins that are the right size to layer onto the cart sides with glue and foam squares.

Jack-O-Lantern: The four-sided jack-o-lantern lights up with an EZ-Light. I created a cube from two strips of clear packaging each folded in half and creased with a bone folder and then folding each half to the middle and creasing so that each strip has four sections to it. Weave one strip over the other to form a cube. Snake the coil of wires of the EZ-Light into the center of the cube.

Position the lighted cube and control piece onto the cart and secure with double sided tape or foam tape. Cut a rectangle of 1 1/2 x 7/8 inches from kraft brown cardstock, center over the control piece and stamp “push here” on the end that has the button.

The large pumpkin die from the Autumn Elements was used to cut out four pumpkins for the jack-o-lantern. The face was cut out using the face insert die from the Halloween Elements set. The pumpkins were inked blended and the ridges outlined with a thin black pen. A green marker was used to color the stems. To lessen light leakage, an orange square was attached to the top of the clear plastic cube and the pumpkin faces attached with foam squares. As part of the final decorations. A small pumpkin from the Skeleton and Bat set was added to the top of the jack-o-lantern.

Roof and Sign: For the roof, the scalloped rectangle from the Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch set was used with orange and white striped cardstock. (I created my own digital paper.) The sign was created by cutting two of the sentiment oval from the Halloween Charms from black cardstock and glued them onto orange cardstock and fussy cut around the oval frame.

A strip of white cardstock 5-inches long by 1/2-inch wide was folded in half and then the folded end was sandwiched between the two ovals and the ovals glued together. (You now have the equivalent of a large paper brad with two legs.) A slit was cut in the roof fold center for the legs of the sign to slide through and be glued to the underside of the roof.

Cut two of each of the bird dies in the Halloween Elements from black cardstock. Glue the bodies together leaving the legs free. Use the legs as the tabs to glue the birds to the roof ridge on either end of the roof.

Wheels: For the wheels I made a template using middle plain and crosshatched circles from the Circles – Crosshatch set. Cut the plain circle from scrap paper and the place the crosshatch circle die in the middle of the paper circle. Trace around the center of crosshatch die. Fold the paper in half, then half again and once more in half to come up with eight sections of the circle. Using a see-through ruler, mark and draw 5mm wide spokes interesting in the middle of the circle.

Die-cut from dark brown cardstock two plain circles. (Because my cardstock was thin, I cut four circles and glue two together before cutting the spokes.) On the back side of the circles use the paper template to trace the triangles that need to be cute out using a craft knife and straight edge.

Die cut two 1/2 inch circles from black cardstock. (I used the burner dies from the Oven Pop-up set because it was handy. You could use other dies to cover the wheel axle.) Adhere half rounded pearls over the black circles, glue each gem circle to the center of the wheels to make the axle caps.

Glue wheels onto cart’s front posts. Add large pumpkins to hide the cart leg behind the wheel. Additional pumpkins cut from the Autumn Elements (large pumpkin) and Halloween Elements (medium pumpkin) and two black cats from the Skeleton and Bat set, were added to the cart legs.

Finished Measurements: This is a card/gift box is designed to be hand-delivered and measures approximately 8-inches high, 6 1/2-inches wide and 3-inches deep.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

For more Slider Box creations click here.

Materials Used:

Dies

• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Oven Pop-Up – 1250
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Halloween Borders – 1247
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch – 1233
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Slider Box – 1227
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Bam Box Pop-Up – 1222
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Skeleton and Bat – 1206
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Autumn Elements – 1059
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Halloween Charms – 1058
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Circles – Crosshatch – 1057
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Fancy Label Accordion – 1043
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Halloween Elements – 1013

Stamps

• Lawn Fawn – Photopolymer Clear Stamps – Push Here

Papers

• Kraft Brown and Dark Brown Cardstock
• Orange and White Striped Cardstock
• Black, Green and Orange Cardstock Scraps
• Ully Cat Designs – Digital 8.5×11 Cardstock – Blue Awning Stripes

Pens/Gels

• Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink- Vintage Photo
• Memento – Fad Resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
• Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Fine Point– Green
• Pigma – Mircon 03 Fine Tip Pen – Black
• White Gel Pen

Adhesives

• Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
• Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
• Foam Squares
• Double-Sided Tape – 1/4” wide

Tools

• Die Cutting Machine
• Bone Folder
• Quickstik Tool
• Scissors
• Tweezers
• Metal Ruler
• Craft Knife
• Pencil
• Sponge Dauber
• Craft Mat
• Stamping Block

Bling

• Pear Blossom Press – EZ-Light
• Studio 112 – Adhesive Gems
• Autumn Colors Striped Ribbon 3/8-Inch Wide