Casting a spell of delight is this Halloween card depicting a modern-day witch cooking up a green bubbling brew on her shiny new stove.

The card uses dies from Karen Burniston’s September 2023 release including Oven Extras, Oven Pop-Up, Witch and Cauldron, Halloween Borders and Small Script – Halloween, a word set. A few other die sets from Karen Burniston were also used.

Cardbase: I started with a rectangle of white cardstock 10×6.5 inches that was folded in half to form a 5-inch tall by 6.5-inch wide, top fold card. The outside two panels were covered with black and white night sky paper. The inside top panel with a pumpkin wallpaper and a green grid cardstock.

Card Front: I used the Swirl Pattern Plate to create green, wispy steam swirls that encircle a witch’s face and elements of a spell casting brew – all of which come from the Witch and Cauldron die set. (I cut the swirl pattern and then used pressed the piece onto Sticky Specks, an adhesive sheet that can be applied after die-cutting.) I used the stencil features of the witch’s face die to color in the eyes and mouth. The nose can be folded out to ink the edges with green ink. The bubbles, eyeball and frog legs also have stencil features. With the exceptions of the face, bone, eyeball and broom, all other elements have been brushed with a glitter gloss to give them some subtle sparkle.

Standing Witch: Using the Witch and Cauldron die set; I used all the witch dies except the hat dies to create this long-legged witch with bangs.  Because she is seen both the front and the back, I cut two sets of her dress and sleeves. Her legs are two strips of 3/8-inch by 1-inch that I drew stripes on with a black marker. After I glued her head to her hair, I used an ultra-fine tipped black marker to draw in her bangs. She is adhered to a piece of clear plastic packaging with doubled sided tape so that she appears to be standing on the large bam box. When positioning the bam box, make sure that in the closed position the witch is within the closed card. (An assembly video of the bam box is located at near the bottom of the linked bam box page.)

Oven/Stove: I was genuinely surprised at how easy the pop-up oven is assembled. It has just two pieces -the outer shell which I cut from black mirror cardstock and the inner platform which I cut from 100 lb. black cardstock.

The platform attaches much like the Little Labels Pop-Up with the front tabs gluing to the floor of the card and the back tab gluing to the wall of the card. Before I attached the outer shell, I added a 1 3/8-inch square of clear plastic packaging to the back of the oven door with double-sided tape.

Then I cut another oven door from black cardstock trimming the bottom 1/8-inch shy of the fold line. Using a black marker, I colored the space around the oven door fold on the back (to hide the white) and the edges of the mirrored cardstock. I also cut a 2-inch square of black cardstock and glued it to the back wall just above the pop-up platform. This will be the inside wall of the oven. It is easier to add the items inside the oven before the outer shell is attached, but you can still add the two pop-up cubes – one for the oven rack and then the other for the pan. The pan cube is adhered to the rack cube sandwiching the rack in place. (I ended up using a foam square between the two cubes to get a strong bond.)

To attach the oven shell, glue the bottom to the center of the platform and then fold the oven flat and add adhesive to the back of the stove knob panel. Close the card and the top panel will be positioned on the card wall so that it forms the stove. On the tabs that come off the sides of the stove top add glue. Now position the cabinet pieces’ small squares onto the tabs. Glue cabinet bottoms to the top edge of the platform, so that there is a toe kick below the cabinets.

Cabinets: Once the stove is attached; you can add the side cabinets of drawers. I cut the cabinets from some embossed wood grain cardstock and then inked them with brown ink to bring out the grain. The drawer panels and knobs are part of the Oven Pop-Up set. Decorative paper was used for the countertops. The upper cabinets are cut using the larger rectangles dies in the Oven Extras set. For the cabinet doors over the vent hood (also in the Oven Extras set) I turned the rectangle on its side and cut the smaller decorative panel in half. Setting these small doors slightly apart, creates the illusion of two doors with silver knobs. The three upper cabinets were joined together with a strip of cardstock glued to their backs. They then were adhered to the card with foam tape.

Decorations: Between the two oven sets are lots of fun pieces that add dimension and realism to the pop-up scene. The Oven Pop-Up set includes the stove burners and knobs, oven rack and handle. The Oven Extras set includes the pan in the oven and pot on the stove as well as three pop-up cube strips that I used to pop-up the oven rack, pan inside the oven and pot on the stove. For the green bubbles in the pot, I used the hearts in the Oven Pop-Up set glued to the back of the pot which has its lid cut off. The bubbles are covered with green Nuvo Drops for dimension and slime factor. The orange canisters are the pot cut narrower and the lid glued on. They are adhered with foam squares to the wall. The orange rugs are from the Rectangle Crosshatch set. The brooms are from the Witch and Cauldron set and attached to the wall with foam squares as is the woodgrain scrap with silver knobs. The cooking utensil in the witch’s hand is from the Oven Pop-Up set. From the Halloween Borders set, I used the skulls and bones on the back of the card as well as two skulls inside the oven in a pan.

Sentiments: The new Small Script Halloween word set has the “hocus pocus” used on the card front as well as the “happy halloween” used inside on the kitchen rugs. The larger rug has space to add a personal message.

Envelope: “Cast A Spell” and a bubbling cauldron are stamped in black on the back of the envelope to set the tone for the card inside.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Oven Extras – 1251
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Oven Pop-Up – 1250
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Witch and Cauldron – 1249
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Halloween Borders – 1247
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Small Script – Halloween – 1243
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Bam Box Pop-Up – 1222
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Pattern Plate – Swirls – 1124
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Rectangles – Crosshatch – 1054

Stamps

• Fun Stampers Journey – Rubber Stamps – Witches Brew – SS-0388

Papers

• Bazzill – 12×12 Raised Dot Cardstock – Berry Pretty
• Bazzill – 8.5×11 Textured Cardstock – Tiara -18-1002
• American Crafts – 12×12 Patterned Paper – Pumpkin Wallpaper – 320459
• American Crafts – 12×12 Patterned Paper – Night Sky – 320409
• American Crafts – 12×12 Embossed Wood Grain Cardstock – Dark Kraft
• The Paper Studio – 12×12 Textured Paper – Football – 5241435
• Keep It Simple – 12×12 Double-Sided Cardstock
• Silver and Black Mirror Cardstock
• Woodgrain Embossed 12
• White, Black, Kraft, Orange, Green and Yellow Cardstock
• Clear Plastic Packaging
• A7 envelope – White

Ink

• Memento – Fade-Resistant Dye ink – Tuxedo Black
• Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink- Gathered Twigs and Mowed Lawn
• Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Tip – Black and Red
• Sharpie – Permanent Marker –Fine Tip – Black
• Farber-Castell – Pitt Artist Pen – 1.5 Bullet Nib – White-101 Marker – Snow
• Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White
• Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer – Glitter Gloss

Adhesives

• Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
• Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
• Double-Sided Tape -1/4-inch wide
• Ecstasy Crafts – Sticky Specks – 36x
• Foam Squares
• Foam Tape

Tools

• Die Cutting Machine
• We R Memories – QuickStick
• Bone Folder
• Sponge Dauber
• Craft Mat
• Scissors
• Kat Scrappiness – Anti-Static Tool
• Tweezers
• Stamping Platform
• LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
• Stamping Cloth

Miscellaneous

• Nuvo Vintage Drops – Pioneer Green
• Rubber Bands – Size 8