Dracula Carry-out Box

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I usually send my grandchildren Halloween cards but since I feel there is generally plenty of candy floating around I don't usually do candy. This year due to the pandemic restrictions I decided to send treat boxes containing candy. Many years ago I purchased some carry out boxes to use for gift packaging. I decided to use those and decorate them for Halloween. I really struggled with how to decorate them. I came up with a few ideas that I was not excited about but thought they would be OK. I had started to make the various pieces but had not glued anything to the boxes when I checked out Mary Fish's Wow Picks on the Sunday before last (October 18) and stumbled upon the perfect solution! Here is what I created.

I love punch art and there are lots of ideas online for using punches in ways you never dreamed of! For this project I CASED a design from fellow Stampin' Pretty Pal Kat Chancellor who in turn had gotten the idea from Graciela Valdez Vera a Stampin' Up! demonstrator in Mexico! Each of us made our Draculas a little different depending on what we had on hand. They both did videos that you can watch. Just click on their names. 

I will list some of the items I used but if you want to make one just look in your punches and see what you have on hand. This is how I made mine.

My box was shorter than a standard 4.25"X5.5" card so my Dracula needed to be shorter. That meant the Stampin' Up! Apple punch that they used would not work. For the head I just drew a similar shape on white cardstock, cut is out and used that for a template for the head. I used a 1 3/8" circle for the hair because that size worked best with my head and then ends from the classic label punch for the ears. I drew in the eyebrows and mouth. For the eyes I punched out red circles with a hole punch and used the retired Iridescent Pearls for the centers. You can't really tell in the picture but I used a black gel pen for his hair part (my chalk pen which they used is very old and it was not working). For the fangs I used the very tip of the retired Stampin' Up! Tree punch but next time I would free hand them and make them skinnier. Then I went over the fangs with Wink of Stella so they would stand out from his face. I used the retired owl punch for his vest and made the bow tie using two pieces from the tip of the Tree punch used earlier. Since the pieces were made from glimmer paper I adhered them together with glue dots. A hole punch created the knot which covered the seams of the bow tie which was again adhered with a glue dot. 

I used the owl punch to create the vest and added tiny black glimmer paper buttons. The pants were made with the same Tree punch but any narrow triangle would work. I drew a line down the center with the black gel pen to create the two halves of the pants. The shoes were made with the small feet from the retired elephant punch but a half circle would also work. 

I made the cape with the retired Oval Collection dies but you could also use the Stitched Shapes oval dies. I first gave the cardstock texture using the Tasteful Texture 3D embossing folder and then cut three ovals for each cape and cut them to the right length across the short axis. I then cut staggered sized ovals out of two of the three shapes to create the look of pleats in his cape. For his collar I used the wings of the large bats from the Halloween Magic dies. This is a great die set! In addition to two sizes of bats there are two really wonderful frames dies that can be used year around and a large spider that I put on the box lid. I attached the Dracula to the box with a Wobble. I purchased a pack of these years ago and still had some left. They are fun to have on hand. Here they are on Amazon. I am sorry I didn't think to record of video of the wobbling Draculas in action before I mailed them. 

I decorated the boxes with small bats and a spider from the retired Wicked die set and added the sentiment using an old wood mount stamp I purchased many years ago.   

Here are the three different colors of Draculas that I made. Look at your punches and see what can you come up with!

Hope these have made you smile and that you enjoy your Halloween. 🎃

I ♥ comments and would love to hear what you think.

Katie