So early it's scary!
Holidays have a way of sneaking up on me. I love them in theory, but in practice I am all too often caught unawares by the calendar. But last year I actually planned ahead for Halloween and began sewing my son's costume in September. Good thing--I finished appliqueing the stripes on his tiger costume at about 2 AM the morning before he needed to wear it.
Photo © 2008 David Mandel / Ampersand Industries
(He looks in this picture the way I felt at the end of that project.)
In a funny way, that costume was the catalyst for me starting this blog. I had spent so much time imagining and testing and crafting the costume that I wanted some way to document it for posterity. Of course, I didn't get around to starting the blog until November, so that impulse only got me so far, and I never posted about the costume. My excuse is that all the fuzz from that *&@#! fleece was clogging my brain. Plus I was still really tired from sewing all those things that weren't rectangles together.
But back to the present and this Halloween. I never really cared much about Halloween until I had a child, but now it's something I really look forward to--and actually have the presence of mind to see coming on the horizon...sort of. By coming on the horizon, I mean that when I sewed the costume last year, I made it 3 inches too long so he could wear it again this year. Brilliant, no?
A few weeks ago I was jolted into the holiday season by a custom design order for a CHRISTMAS card. People? It is still 80 degrees here! Christmas? And yet, this is apparently what normal people do. It is called planning ahead. Weird.
The order came from my new blog friend, Kate. She and her husband are spending a year in Paris while he apprentices in several restaurants. Dreamy, no? You really should check her blog out--if Paris isn't enough for you, she also has written this sentence: "I have of course found interesting ways to avoid the actual business of packing, not least among them a renewed love of the sartorial arts." Done. Anyhoo, Kate wanted to send a special Christmas card from Paris this year to all of her friends and family back home in the states. We came up with a twist on old-fashioned striped air mail envelopes, and a snappy little Eiffel Tower Christmas tree. Wanna See?
Fast-forward. I am lately having insomnia on a nightly basis, which is a good time to think about spooky things. One 3AM last week, I was rifling through the eleventy billion open Illustrator windows on my computer, and I landed back on Kate's Christmas postcard; I was inspired by the darkness all around to whip up a little Halloween printable postcard/invitation based on the air mail idea--scare mail! Get it? Air mail, scare mail? I kill me. Anyway, at this point I've probably maxed out my capacity for planning ahead, and I don't think I'm going to have the wherewithall to throw a Halloween party myself, so I did a plain postcard version, too. Both are linked below.
;)
Illustration and design © 2009 Cameron Blazer / Cottage Industrialist
Download the card front here.
Download the invitation back here.
Download the plain back here.
A couple of printing notes: First, I know that's a lot of black ink, so I made it a dark grey, rather than a full black to try to conserve--just plan accordingly. Second, I broke with my usual practice of leaving .25 inch margins on everything, and instead I designed this to print to the edge of an 8.5x11" page. If your printer can't do borderless printing, you can reduce the size (for most printers 92% is the magic number), and you'll just have to trim the edges off. Be sure if you do it this way, that you tell your printer to center the image, or else your fronts might not line up with your backs!
As usual, these freebies are for personal use only, and if linking, please provide a link to the post, not just the downloads.
P.S. In the meantime, le kid has informed me that he is not going to be a tiger this year, but a fireman. Expect the sleepless nights to continue.
Cameron Blazer
I just had a thought--if you are one of those plan-ahead types who has already made/assembled/purchased your kid's Halloween costume, instead of my design, you could print a cute picture of your kid in the costume on the front of the postcard and send to friends and family with the "scare mail" back.
Reader Comments (8)
Wow! A mention on a blog other than my own! You have no idea how much you just made my LIFE, Cameron!! Thanks for the props, and for the Halloween fun-- I just might have to send some of those too.
I have no desire to think about Halloween. I will so stay-puft that one it's not even funny. 2 costumes? 2?
I'm screwed. And thanks for reminding me.
Other than that...
As usual you are amazing!
Can Molly be a tiger, since le kid thinks it is passe' now? I am going to get a new HP ARTISAN printer so that I can get the best of your printables. jam
Oh he is just so cute!!! He'd have so much fun trick-or-treat-ing :) I'm sure people wouldn't be able to resist his cuteness! I wish he chose the same costume this year, but a fireman sounds cool too!
My little cousin, he's 4, is super excited whenever Halloween comes. The excitement really rubs off on you. Looking forward to the spooky season this year!
Wow, you think of everything! The gray ink...the extra three inches on the tiger suit...the kid's costume photo on the back... Super creative and detail oriented. I'm in awe of your skills! And I love the joyueax Christmas card. Nice job! I'll be linking to this.
I have been looking for a Halloween invitation and absolutely love this design. Great work!!! I have a question for you though.....on the scare mail front, half of the image is upside down, keeping the orange fence sides together. But on the invite portion they are all facing the same direction. Won't this cause the bottom two to print odd? Any tips would be appreciated :)
I love these invitations, cute and simple
So cute! thanks for sharing.