Time for the April mid-month reminder at Two Old Bats Anything Halloween Challenge.
FranmadeInOregon
Monday, April 15, 2024
APRIL MID-MONTH TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE
Thursday, April 11, 2024
LIVE/LOVE/CRAFT
Today's offering is a combination of two challenges: Time Out Challenge #261 "Inspired by Words" and Inkspirational Challenge #313 "Fold".
The sentiment and image are from Hero Arts #CM366 "Handmade Happiness" stamp set. I started with a black top-folded card base. Using a two-sided printed stock from American Crafts, I die cut a stitched rectangle, cut a slit across it, and folded it back to show the backside of the paper. Once I knew the location of the opening against the black card, I white heat-embossed the sentiment and attached the printed rectangular panel to the face of the card. I stamped the hand/scissors image on a piece of white cardstock and colored it with Prisma pencil and Copic markers and fussy cut it. You can't really tell from the photo, but I also fussy cut the blades of the scissors from silver metallic stock and glued them over the colored image. After attaching the hand and scissors, the final step was to punch a hole in the face of the card and tie on orange and purple twine.
Here are the two challenges - yes, the fold is a bit simple, but a fold never-the-less!
Sunday, April 7, 2024
NAUGHTY KITTY
I felt like dabbling a bit this morning in my craft room and I had two inspirations: AAA Cards Challenge #262: Sketch and our loveable but naughty lynx-point kitty Tiger.
I created this card in a horizontal format because of the size of the Tim Holtz Snarky Cats images. I started by computer-generating the sentiment directly on a piece of white cardstock, followed by stamping the ball of yarn with blue ink. I masked off the yarn and stamped the orange cat and colored him in with Copic markers. I then trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangular die and attached it to a very narrow black mat and the face of a white card base. The final step was to stamp the naughty kitty on a separate piece of white cardstock and fussy cut him out before attaching him with dimensional foam.
This is the AAA Cards sketch that inspired the layout:
AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenges #262: Sketch
Saturday, April 6, 2024
F IS FOR "FOLD IT"
Here I am at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers for a repeat Guest Designer slot! This month Challenge #249 is "F is for Fold It". You can see that Edna has made herself a hat to wear for this challenge. Do you suppose it's lined with tin foil?
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #249 - F is for Fold It
I'm not sure what this fold is called, but I've played with it a couple of times - maybe a standing accordion fold? When compressed it's approximately 5" square. It took 3 sheets of chocolate paper trimmed to 5" strips to complete all of the folds. The sentiment is from AALL & Create (#771 "DEE Quips"). The envelope is a custom one.
The card I made initially for my husband is a much simpler fold. I folded an 8-1/2" x 5-1/2" card base in half with the fold on the right, then turned back the right side. I added tan panels to both layers and glued on the figures so that they slightly overlapped.
When opened, the second part of the sentiment (AALL & Create #771 "DEE Quips") appears with a pile of wine bottles (Unity Stamp Co.). This card was so hard to photograph. Showing the fold really distorted the image.
Monday, April 1, 2024
APRIL TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE
April Fools Day and a new challenge from Two Old Bats! We have a new mood board for your inspiration - or you can submit anything Halloween.
Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: April 2024 Anything Goes Halloween
I came across a couple of new 12x12 pads of double-sided Halloween paper at Michael's just shortly after Christmas and it was love at first sight! The images are all contemporary and the colors are intense. My Halloween cards are generally more somber, but with these new papers I can see a whole new movement of brightly-colored cards and envelopes starting up! This card and envelope are using the papers at American Crafts "Happy Halloween".
I was drawn to the lower left quadrant with the giant moon and turquoise sky with bats and stars, and then I diverged to other scary images. I had intended to do a "witchy" card, but the card had other ideas! I started with a black card base and attached a slightly smaller rectangle of orange dotted paper. I black heat embossed the sentiment (Impression Obsession's "When Life" #CL306) onto a gray die-cut circle and smudged up the edges and interior a bit with some gray ink, then attached it to the turquoise and black bats and stars paper and die cut both layers with a deckle-edge rectangle. This I glued over the orange panel and dug out an old Tim Holtz haunted house that was in my stash and attached that. I fussy cut some little ghosts from one of the papers and glued them to the windows of the house. The final "topper" was a die cut bat from Whimsey Stamps ("Dracula Going Batty" Die Set #WSD406). I really like this card - what do you think?
We would love to have you join us on this challenge! We still have a really cool die to give away if we get 25 entries:
Friday, March 15, 2024
MID-MARCH REMINDER - TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE
It's mid-March and it's a perfect night for Two Bats Halloween Challenge! My cell phone camera didn't like the bright green I used on this card and to line the envelope - they came through decidedly yellow.
HOME SWEET HOME
Today looks like the first day of spring - the sky is absolutely clear and the plum tree blossoms are ready to pop! I haven't worked in my craft room for more than a week. I looked in on Tic Tac Toe Challenge #243 and see a perfect opportunity for a bright spring-like card! I decided on the center down choices - Yellow/CAS Design/Pearls or Sequins.
This is also a new design for my son's real estate business - he gives out my handmade cards to his clients when they close on their new homes. I've spoken about this previously here and here.
This card started as a white 5-1/2" square card base. I trimmed a piece of yellow cardstock down to 5x5 and die cut a square out of the center. The sentiment is from a small Hero Arts stamp set #DC225 and I stamped it with Memento "Tuxedo Black before attaching the yellow square to the face of the card. Then I die cut Birch Press Design's "Honeycomb Mini Tile Later Set" #56125 from several yellow and ochre scraps, glued them together, and centered them in the opening of the yellow square. The final step was to stamp, color, and fussy cut a bee from Hackney & Co. "Tell the Bees" set and mount her to the card with a bit of dimensional tape. I dug through all of my stash and found three honey-colored sequins to complete the challenge.
The coordinating envelope is from a pack of square vellum envelopes I picked up a couple of months ago at Michael's. I decided to line it with some bee printed paper I have in my New Home stash.
I realize that everything on this card - the honeycomb die, the sentiment, and the queen bee are all elements that I've never used before, so I hear NBUS Challenge #60 beckoning to me!
TTTC243 - Featured Designer Silke - Tic Tac Toe Challenge
Friday, March 8, 2024
MASCULINE BIRTHDAY
I'm really proud of this card, so if Alex doesn't make a big deal out of it, I'll be very disappointed!
Monday, March 4, 2024
ST. PATTY'S DAY
As I write this on Monday morning, it's been snowing off and on since Friday night/Sunday morning - just as it was starting to seem like spring was around the corner. I pretty much stayed in all weekend and worked in my craft room. One of the results is this card that hits a couple of challenges - Shopping Our Stash #SOS516 - "It's Not Easy Being Green" and NBUS #60 (Never-Before-Used-Schtuff). This is the very beginning of thinking about St. Patrick's Day cards. I'm not sure I'll put in the effort this year - we'll see. At the very least, I'll make cards for the immediate family.
I picked up this little dragon a couple of years ago and this is the first time I've used him. He's from Whimsy Stamps ("Bart on St. Paddy's Day" #C1106). I stamped him with black onto white cardstock, colored him with Copic markers, and fussy cut him. I colored an additional shamrock and glued it over the top of the others for dimension. I know I wanted to use this ancient sentiment in my 3/17 stash and I white heat embossed it onto a scrap of green cardstock. Then I just played with both images for a while until I hit on the idea that Bart and the sentiment would work best in this case on a square card. So I prepared a 5-1/2" square card base and added two additional square panels. Rifling through my dies, I came across a filigree-edged rectangle that I've never used (I have used a smaller version of this rectangle, but not this particular one). I trimmed the sentiment and attached it to the die cut rectangle as a frame and attached them to the card front. I attached Bart with some dimensional foam, overlapping the sentiment. That's it! I found the bright green square envelope in with my St. Patty's Day papers.
Shopping Our Stash Weekly Challenge Blog: SOS516 - It's Not Easy Being Green
Friday, March 1, 2024
MARCH TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE - EEK!
The beginning of March (how did we get here so fast?), and it's a new Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge! I love this month's green mood board - lots of inspiration for you! I went with a combination of the upper right and lower left quadrants for this card - a Venus flytrap in a jar of spiders. My Venus flytrap is eating a spider right out of her web!
BIRTHDAY FISHES . . .
. . . FOR MY FAVORITE PISCES!
My brother's 76th birthday has caught me a bit off-guard this year - I've been really busy planning a surprise 40th birthday for the guy who runs the non-profit organization where I volunteer weekly. His birthday is the 8th and my brother's is the 7th. So I decided to cheat a bit by restyling an old card from July of last year. I've had this card from a previous challenge and I thought to CASE my own card, but laziness got the best of me! I just added a new sentiment over the old one. Is it cheating to offer up an old card with a new sentiment at the current AAA Cards Challenge #259 CAS "Anything Goes - Optional Twist Birthday"? I guess I'll find out!
The new sentiment is a Penny Black set - #30-846 "Birthday Fishes". I white heat embossed it on black card stock, trimmed it, and rounded two of the corners with a Fiskars quarter-round punch. I attached it to the card with black dimensional foam. The original top-half description is HERE. The custom envelope is stamped with a silly rubber stamp "Sealed with a Fish"
Monday, February 19, 2024
W IS FOR WINTER
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #247 - W is for Winter
Thursday, February 15, 2024
MID-MONTH FEBRUARY TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE
Here it is mid-month already and this is our reminder that there are two weeks left to enter your projects for February. I showed this card to my husband and he just rolled his eyes - he thinks we at Two Old Bats are mostly nuts! Halloween is not his favorite holiday. He better be careful - he may get this in October when we celebrate our 39th wedding anniversary!
I was looking at the heart-shaped wreath with two skeletons in the top left quadrant when I started this, but I don't have any large heart dies in my stash, so opted for a round wreath.