Halloween Pumpkin Party

It's become a "thing" between my grandson and myself that I give him "silly" cards for holidays/events. It's getting harder and harder to give him something he hasn't already received. This is my most recent card, a pumpkin Halloween card. The pattern for this card is from SVG Cuts' Barn Party SVG Kit.

This is a box card, so is about 2-3/4" from front to back, but it folds down flat for mailing.

The little treat bag on the front is from SVG Cuts' The Candy Gang SVG Kit. The pattern size is about about 4.5" tall, but I made it at 1" tall for the card. All cuts were made with my Sizzix Eclips2 electronic cutting machine.

I designed the back in Photoshop and did a print-2-cut, with a little Wink of Stella added to the flying pumpkin bats and the spider for some sparkle.

The thing that makes this one a bit fun and special is that I've added a sound chip into the back section of the box card. I took the instrumental portion of Teddy Bear's Picnic, changed a few of the words around to make it a pumpkin theme, then recorded myself singing the new lyrics. I then transferred the audio onto the chip (instructions to do so come with the chip that I purchased from Invite by Voice) Here's how it worked:

The tricky part about adding this audio chip was that the music is activated by a light sensitive sensor. And, box cards don't close up like traditional greeting cards so too much light was filtering through. It would just start playing arbitrarily, and not necessarily when I opened the card as in the video. Took a bit of sitting around, mulling my predicament. When working properly, the song plays one time and then stops. When the card is closed it won't play the music, but when you reopen it, it will play again.

It finally came to me that I somehow needed to shade the top of the sensor. I devised this very simple fix. I took a piece of scrap paper about an inch wide and 1.5" tall. I didn't measure it, so I'm guessing that's about what it was. I folded about a quarter inch on the top/short side three times, rolling then gluing the top most portion to the large area.

I glued it to the back of the second insert so that when the box card closes, the little overhang ends up just above the light sensor. Success! So glad it worked. 

When closed you can see how the insert is covering the area of the sensor.

And, that pretty much does it. Except one thing. I couldn't just put the card in an envelope without possibly smashing the electronics and the mini treat bag. I finally decided I needed a sturdy box in which to mail it. I couldn't find anything that would work, so I made a box to fit it perfectly from chipboard. The top fits on snugly, so there's no chance of it coming off.

Lastly, I need to find one very small piece of candy for the little treat bag on the front of the card.

Happy Halloween and Have Fun

Trick or Treating with Your Favorite Lil' Pumpkin!