SEIZE THE BIRTHDAY!

I'm very pleased to announce that I was invited to be Surprise Party Guest over at Seize the Birthday Challenge for the months of October and November! This is my second guest appearance there this year, but this time I get to stick around for a while longer and I feel really honored.

So, I have on my party hat and I'm ready to go! Today's word is "Dots", and I decided to try out something that I do rarely - to create my own background card stock using repetitive images. I'm not sure why I do this so rarely, because it really is fun.

This card was created specifically for my daughter-in-law's niece - a lovely young woman who just happens to share a birthday with me! On white card stock, I stamped one of the images from Park Lane (#1967-8572) repeatedly with PTI "Fine Linen" and then added the dots with a single tiny dot stamp with PTI "Sweet Blush". Once the background panel was completed, I die cut it with a stitched rectangular die and added a stitched opening and glued this to a card base of pale pink. I stamped the sentiment from an old PTI stamp set "Friends to the End" with some slightly darker pink ink, die cut it, matted it with the same card stock, and glued it to the center of the opening. The second butterfly image is from the same stamp set by Park Lane, and I stamped her on the pink cardstock with the same ink as the sentiment and fussy cut her out. Before attaching her to the face of the card, I glued on a sequin and pulled silk thread through her body and the sequin, tying it off with a knot.

I created some more background paper on white with PTI dots, stamped in Sweet Blush, and cut it to fit inside a custom envelope.

I hope you'll have many occasions to join me during the next 2 months!

Seize the Birthday: Seize The Birthday #293-Dots

GRATEFUL

I've been mulling ideas for my Thanksgiving cards and kept going back to one I did last year and then never sent out. I just didn't get my act together, and anyway it would have been extra postage to send because of the square format, size, and extra layers and I didn't want to pay the extra. So this year I've been rethinking last year's version. I have a stack of old woodgrain kraft card stock from another year and I was thinking that I would use it this year and see what I could do to play around with texture, keeping the colors to a neutral minimum.

I started with a 5x7 top-folded card base and messed with that a while but realized that there was something about the square format that just worked better with these fabulous Spellbinders mushrooms. So I trimmed the card down to a 5x5 and it will now fit into kraft A7 envelopes that I already have on hand. I cut a smaller square and matted it with an ivory scrap. The PTI sentiment is white heat-embossed onto the front panel before adding the leaf swirl, which was over-stamped with VersaMark Watermark ink. Finally, the mushroom parts were die cut from the same woodgrain stock and off-white watercolor paper, assembled, and glued to the face.

I think I'll probably finish these off by binding a folded lightweight ivory paper leaf to the inside with a message. When I have them all finished, I'll put them into my gallery as the 2024 Thanksgiving card.

I thought to enter this in the current AAA Card Challenge #275 - "Anything CAS Goes/Autumn Colors". I think these are autumn colors.

 AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenge #275: Anything CAS Goes (Autumn)

H IS FOR HALLOWEEN

Okay, so I lied - another Halloween card! But how could I not play along over at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers where the challenge is "H is for Halloween"?

I started with a white panel on which I stamped a zombie background from Whimsy Stamps with black ink. Then I over-stamped some drippy blood from an old bloody stamp set from bygone years. I trimmed the panel by die cutting it with a deckle-edged rectangle and grunged up the edges a bit with some black ink and matted it with some red cardstock. I mounted both layers to the face of a black card base. I white heat embossed the sentiment from Tim Holtz on a black strip and glued it over the blood. The final step was to color one of the faces of the background paper, fussy cut it, and attached it over the black strip.  

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #255 H is for Halloween

FINAL HALLOWEEN CARD

Well not really, because there are still cards that have yet to show up as a result of my tenure at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge. But I now have enough cards for my mailing list. When I saw Lisa's color selections for Just Us Girls - Color Week #747 - Chartreuse/Light Blue/Gray I really wanted to try out these colors for a Halloween card.

Boy, was this hard to photograph! The brightness of the chartreuse seemed to unbalance the other colors on the card and the little ghost background didn't want to come across as blue.

Anyway, I started with a dark gray 5-1/2" square card base that I glued a square chartreuse panel to, then the ghost background from some ancient scraps in my stash - in fact, all of the papers here are ancient scraps. I die cut the buildings from one of my favorite Tim Holtz sets from dark gray card stock and backed them with printed chartreuse paper. I heat embossed the sentiment with Zing! "Leaf" on some coordinating paper and die cut the top with a stitched curve and attached the buildings and curved panel to the face of the card with a bit of dimensional foam. The Whimsy bat die was the final addition and it looks a bit strange because the shadow is so dark. I custom made an envelope and stamped a sentiment and spider in black from a new stamp set - LDRS Creative #3486 "Wicked".  

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls ~ Color Week #747 (justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com)

I think I can finally move on and start thinking about my Thanksgiving cards!

BEWARE!

So here's another Halloween card, and I'm nearly finished with the 30 cards I need. I love that this month's Color Hues Challenge is purple and orange - perfect Halloween colors!

I started this card with a scrap of orange paper that already had a white moon on it. I trimmed it to fit to a 5x6-1/2 black card base, specifically to use a spare purple envelope from my stash. I stamped a graveyard scene (Unity "Toil and Trouble") twice with black - once at the bottom of the orange panel and a second time on purple card stock. Then I die cut a Whimsy Stamps Dracula (#WSD406 - "Dracula Going Batty") from black cardstock and glued him over the moon. The sentiment was stamped in purple (LDRS Creative #3486 "Wicked") and the purple graveyard was fussy cut and layered over Dracula. Before fussy cutting the scene, I touched it up a bit with a purple Copic marker. The two-toned bat is from Tim Holtz. I lined the purple envelope with a scrap of light-weight orange paper. 

I really like the simplicity of this card - much better than the one I posted a couple of days ago.

Here's the link to the challenge:   

 Color Hues: Color Hues #96-Purple and Orange (colorhuesthecolorchallenge.blogspot.com)

And because I used some new stuff, I am also entering the October challenge over at NBUS. The bat, sentiment, and graveyard scene are all NBUS:

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #67 (mynbus.blogspot.com)

OCTOBER TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

WOW! October has arrived, and here we are almost full-circle on our Halloween calendar for 2024! These are great new images for inspiration with some fun colors to play with.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: October 2024 Anything Goes Halloween

Having said that, I didn't use the colors - I picked up on the Halloween house and trick-or-treaters in the top-left quadrant of our inspiration board, using some more scraps from an old Halloween paper stack that is almost gone. I die-cut a circle from a gray cardstock stitched rectangle and inserted one of orange printed paper and then over-stamped the cobweb and white heat embossed it. I also added 3 Tim Holtz bats, stamped with Memento "Black Tuxedo" ink. The houses were fussy cut from the paper you see lining the envelope, and I layered them with a die cut Tim Holtz Halloween tree with some black foam dimensional tape. The final step was to place stepping stones and additional dots on the bottom of the card with a WG4 Copic marker. 

We had a HUGE showing of incredible cards last month and we're hoping to see the same this month! There will be two random number drawings for these great gifts when we reach 25 entrees:

CONTINUING HOLLOWEEN COUNTDOWN

 Back again with another Halloween Card! The image and sentiment are from a new rubber stamp set from Unity - "Spooky Spirits". The two old printed papers are from my stash - probably from the last century.

I attached the 'Boo!' paper to an orange scrap and the face of a square black base. Then I cut another square of printed cobweb paper and white heat embossed the sentiment. (Speaking of the sentiment, I'm a bit OCD about the improper use of apostrophes, but for the sake of time I left this one alone.) I stamped the martini glass on a scrap of white stock, cut it out, and colored it. I also replaced the two eyeballs on the original image with a couple of crazy pumpkin heads. This card didn't quite turn out like I wanted, but here it is and it will continue my countdown for Halloween cards. I like the background paper because of the 'Boos!' and searched my stash for a coordinating paper for the center square, but kind of missed on this one.

I'm sharing this card over at Love Those Pretty Papers, where the optional challenge is to use fall papers. I don't know how 'pretty' these papers are but they are fall.

Love Those Pretty Papers Challenge: ATG Using Pretty Patterned Paper September Challenge

HAPPY FALL!

AHHH, my favorite time of the year! I was wanting a break from Halloween cards (although I still need a couple more), so the Freshly Made Sketches current challenge provided a nice respite. 

There's not much to say about this card, as it's so CAS. The vining pumpkin image is a really old stamp set - probably one of my first fall stamps. I stamped it with PTI "Ripe Avocado", repeating the image across the full width of the white card stock panel. Then I added the sentiment from Impression Obsessions #WP684 "Leaf Set" and colored the pumpkins with my Copic markers. The final steps were to trim out the image by die cutting a stitched rectangle, attaching it to the face of a white card base, and creating a custom envelope.

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #655 - A Sketch by Jen B

On a personal note:

I've been planning for some time to share our new pollinator garden with you. I've made mention several time of it since it's been a 2-year project in the making. We completely tore out the front lawn that went almost down to the street and have replaced it with a smaller lawn area and lots of bee and butterfly-loving native grasses, shrubs, and perennials. 

Here is the day in October 2022 where everything had been removed and the area to become lawn was being leveled and prepared for irrigation:

And here is a shot from the same angle showing the newly renovated garden yesterday morning:

The lawn and plants near the entry were installed in July 2023 and the plants here on the slope were just put in this past May. We're really pleased with the outcome, as are the bees and butterflies - then there's the cats... So far the playful kittens have only destroyed one plant. By next year I'm hoping they can find other forms of entertainment!

Did I mention we have a community of now 15 feral cats that call our property home? They're all spayed and neutered and have been named, so I doubt they're going anywhere else anytime soon.

HALLOWEEN #2

Well, I'm on a roll with Halloween cards today and having fun with TIME OUT Challenges #272 - "Snarky". Snark happens to be one of my favorite forms of expression - Halloween or otherwise! 

I used an image from Whimsy Stamps #CWSD388 "Zombie Party" and he's pretty disgusting! I stamped him in black on a white panel then masked him off and stamped a pale gray spider web background from Impression Obsession. Then while he was still masked off, I overprinted blood splats and green spatters. After coloring him with my Copic markers, I over-stamped the first line of the zombie sentiment from Tim Holtz and die cut the panel with a deckle rectangle. I smeared some light ink around the edges and mounted the panel to a green mat that was also smeared and smudged a bit. Once this was completed, I white heat embossed the second line of sentiment onto a black panel and trimmed it. I attached the black rectangular sentiment to the card with a strip of black foam dimensional tape.    

The envelope was a slightly off-white one from my stash that I lined with printed paper and stamped the 'BUUUURP' sentiment in green just below the edge of the flap. This is one of the sentiment lines from the Zombie Party stamp set.

That should do it for me today!

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge #272 - Snarky

Added October 3, 2024:

BECAUSE YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH HALLOWEEN CARDS...

Even though I am part of the Design Team at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, and I create 24 Halloween cards a year for the challenge, I'm still about 6 cards short for my total 2024 mail-out. So I decided to start working on some other challenges using Halloween themes. My first effort here is for Inkspirational: Challenge #325 - Word Prompt - "Headwear". 

This was so much fun - but then, aren't Halloween cards always?! I started with this cute black cat wearing a witches hat from some printed papers last year that I still have in my stash - Park Lane "Boo!". I fussy cut her from a larger sheet and then cut an additional hat and added a colored band, die cut purple bat, and black feather with bead. I stamped and black heat embossed the sentiment from Impression Obsession #CL553 "Is the Moon Out Tonight" on 3 different papers and pieced them together for strips of color. This I added to a black card base after matting it with red-orange dotted paper. I glued kitty to the face of the card and added her hat with black dimensional foam and bent the bat's wings a bit.

It wasn't until I copied the Inkspirational badge here that I realized it has a feather on it like my kitty's hat!

Inkspirational: Challenge #325 - Word Prompt - Headwear (inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com)

Added October 12, 2024:

SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAY CARD #3

Continuing with the run of September birthday cards, here's #3, my dear husband's card for his birthday tomorrow. I always do something that is specific to the interests or personalities of my loved ones when I create a card. In this case, my husband was a wine wholesaler before I met him and he has kept up with his active interest in wines over the years. We're fortunate that we live in a great wine-growing region here in southern Oregon.

As additional inspiration I went over to AAA Card Challenge #274: Sketch, where we are challenged to use overlapping images with a bit of transparency.

I used a new Unity Stamp Company rubber stamp collection: "Age gets Better with Wine" that I purchased a month or so ago. I find I can never have enough wine-related stamps in my stash!

On a 5x7 white card base I started with some red wine-colored spills and splotches and some PTI "Scarlet Jewel" ink. Then I stamped the left hand bottle and the spilling glass in black ink, masked the first bottle, and over-stamped a second bottle. I colored them with Copic markers so that they appear to be empty (as they would be, if they're anywhere near us!). Then I went in search online to find two of his favorite southern Oregon red wines, scaled the labels to fit these bottles, and fussy cut the labels to add to the bottles - he'll recognize them immediately. I wanted to add another scattered background in gold to match with the sentiment, but first I stamped it in Memento "Bamboo Leaves" so that it would look like the bottles were in front of it, and then later over-stamped and gold heat-embossed it.

The inside is made up of two other Unity Stamp Collection - "Let's get 'Sip' Faced" and "Drink & Cuss". 

AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenges #274: Sketch

I'm also participating over at Inkspirational - Designer's Choice, "Make Your Mark":

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #324 - Designer's Choice - Make Your Mark (inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com)

SEPTEMBER MID-MONTH TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

Generally I follow the inspiration board our leaders have provided for us - but, in this case, I went off on my own because I have a brand new Tim Holtz die cut set that I wanted to try out. Plus, there's this lab beaker paper that I haven't used before and it seemed like a good choice with my "The Count" changed to a mad Dr. Frankenstein, as seen on Pinterest. I'll save the Count for another time. 

At any rate, I did use some of the same colors on this card as on the top right quadrant of our inspiration board. This Tim Holtz #665557 "The Count" die set is not for the faint-of-heart die cutters! There are so many layers, but I made it harder by changing him to a mad scientist. It seems like I either do my Halloween cards as CAS or very complex - very few in-betweens. 

Because of the vertical orientation of the die cut I chose to go with a slim-line card and coordinating envelope. After assembling the scientist I opted for using a turquoise background that looks like damask wallpaper and cutting a strip of the lab beakers paper, combined with a strip of "Fright Night" sentiment from some random scraps, which I glued to a strip of purple card stock that is trimmed out with a drippy border punch. This I placed over the turquoise background and matted with some diagonal coordinating paper. Before I attached this to the face of the black card base, I added a stamped spider dropping toward the shelf of poisonous beakers. I fussy cut some additional beakers and added them to the shelf with a bit of foam dimensional tape and glued Dr. Frankenstein to the face of the card.

The final step was to construct a slim-line envelope and add a strip of "Fright Night" sentiment to the flap. WHEW! Not an easy card to make and I think it's a candidate for a hand-delivered card, since I'm not sure it would survive the postal service.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: September 2024 Mid Month Reminder

 

SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAYS #2

In case anyone is interested, this is a follow-up post of the second twin birthday card. If it's not apparent by this card for my grandson, he's a HUGE soccer fan! He's currently playing on the varsity soccer team for his high school (not bad for a freshman) and next spring he'll continue on the local travel team where he's been playing for the last two years.

I knew I wanted to make a soccer-themed card for him, so had to go in search of a special stamp set or paper. I found this collection of  Authentique "Soccer Images" card stock with several coordinating 2-sided papers. I started with one of the images of the ball in the net, knowing I wanted to use it in the center of the card as the primary focus and the #15. I used PTI's numbers to die cut the numbers and stacked them with 4 layers of green paper and matted it with the same green (backside of one of the papers). Then I layered that a couple of more times with coordinating squares and attached it all to the face of a black square card base. Then I layered over die cut 'happy' (Hero Arts ) and 'th' and 'birthday' (PTI). The final step was a coordinating custom envelope.

The '15' doesn't show well on this photo, so here is a close-up:

Since this is all new 'schtuff' I'm sharing a second time at the September challenge for NBUS:

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #66 (mynbus.blogspot.com)

  

On a Personal Note:

It's hard to believe these two are twins - they're so different in appearance and personality. Colin was born 5 minutes after Alexis, and my son's joke is that it was the quietest 5 minutes of Colin's life! This is a photo of their "Moving Up" ceremony from 8th to 9th grades in June. Also present, their little sister.