Here we are in the final countdown to Halloween 2025! How did we get here so fast? We have a brand new mood board for our final month.
Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: October 2025 Anything Goes Halloween
Here we are in the final countdown to Halloween 2025! How did we get here so fast? We have a brand new mood board for our final month.
Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: October 2025 Anything Goes Halloween
It's mid-September, with Halloween bearing down on us! But, not to worry, you still have a couple of weeks to get your "Anything Halloween" project entered at Two Old Bats September Halloween Challenge.
Here's our September inspiration board for a kick-start if you haven't started working on your Halloween project yet - also, go and check out the great cards the other ladies have made for your inspiration:
Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: September 2025 Mid Month Reminder
Starting the day with a bit of humor is always therapeutic! Yesterday the Snarky Sisterhood announced their September theme - "F is for Finally Fall". That definitely has my vote! September is my favorite month, but that's most likely because practically everyone in my family has a September (or June) birthday. It starts on the 9th with my twin grands' birthdays, followed by my husband's, followed by mine, followed by our son and his wife's anniversary. My father also had a September birthday.
I recently purchased this very silly stamp set from Whimsey Stamps ("So Weird" #CWSD473) filled with barnyard animals and humorous sentiments. I really had no plans for how I would use it. Be prepared to see these great weird animals again off and on. But when I started on this card I used a couple of old stamp sets to complete my idea. The sentiment is from an old fall Impression Obsession set (#WP683 "Leaf Set").
I started with an ancient flurry of leaves (probably Inkadinkado) that I stamped in yellow, orange, and rust inks for a background. Then I cut the "EWE" off of one of the Whimsey Stamps sentiments and stamped it in black over the leaves. (I have a bad habit of cutting out individual words, and then sometimes they get lost.) Then I masked out the single word and over-stamped the old IO sentiment. It was a lucky stroke that they happened to match pretty much in font size. The ewe was stamped upside down over the leaves and the card stock was trimmed out with a stitched rectangular die. I matted the die-cut panel with a bit of brown card stock and attached the layers to the front on my white card base. Finally, I stamped my ewe a second time, fussy cut her body, and attached it to the face of the card with dimensional foam.
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #266 F is for Finally Fall
It's the beginning of September and we're starting the countdown toward Halloween - just 60 more shopping days left! If you've been following along with us all year, you have nearly all of your Halloween cards or projects completed.
Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: September 2025 Anything Goes Halloween
That's the theme this week over at the Shopping Our Stash Weekly Challenge. I was digging through my stash and came across this heat embossed and blended panel left over from a previous experiment long ago.
For this card, I just overprinted a couple of dolphins from a Hero Arts (#CM317) stamp set. Of course, the heat embossing repelled the ink, making the dolphins look like they're "in the water". I stamped a third one, fussy cut him, and attached him over the waves with tiny pieces of dimensional foam after stamping a tiny sentiment and adding the panel and matting to a white card base. A bit of touch up with a Copic marker and white gel pen was in order. So easy, and one more scrap cleaned out of the stash!
Also in my stash was a sheet of white wood-grained paper for a custom envelope - I think wood-grain often looks water-like - and scraps of a blue nautical-themed paper for lining.
Shopping Our Stash Weekly Challenge Blog: SOS555 - On or In The Water
I'm playing with challenges again today, and using the layout at Freshly Made Sketches #701 - A sketch by Jen and the colors by Seize the Birthday #312 - Black & White.
Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #701 - A Sketch by Jen B
Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #312-Black and White
Well, this was fun - I think I'm on a roll! This time I'm inspired by two challenges - Color Throwdown #839 and Inkspirational Challenge #349 - "Add a Tag".
The colors for Color Throwdown are obviously aqua, red, and white! I did add a tiny bit of silver on the sentiment and the center of the poinsettia. The tags are really old dies and I don't remember who manufactured them. I stacked two shapes together, punched a hole in the top, and tied some aqua bakers twine through the hole. I attached the tags to the face of a white card base that I had silver heat-embossed with a sentiment - I glued dimensional foam to the back of the tags so that I could slip small die cut leaves behind. The foliage and floral dies are from Spellbinders "Christmas Blooms". I believe I purchased these sometime last year, but I don't think I've used all of the images before.
Links to the two challenges:
Color Throwdown: Color Throwdown Countdown #839
Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #349 - Designer's Choice - Add A Tag
I remembered that I had this old PTI "Songbirds" stamp and die set that I haven't used for quite some time, and that seemed appropriate as I play with a new-to-me Tim Holtz die set (#666715 "Vault Festive Wreath"). I wanted this card to have an old-fashioned and textural look to it and used some pieces of kraft wood-textured card stock for the background and wreath base. Rather that use bright green foliage, I opted for some green stripe printed stock. The candles and banner are die cut from heavy ivory watercolor paper scraps.
We're sitting here in record-breaking heat today - 107 degrees F yesterday and expecting the same for the next couple of days. I worry about our feral cats, but they always seem to manage to survive. I'll make sure they have plenty of cool water on the covered patio.
Today is my friend Donna's birthday, and for inspiration I went to a couple of challenges: AAA Cards Challenge Game #296 "Sketch" and Tic, Tac Toe Challenge #276.
I started this card with a white A2 card base. I die cut an oval out of a piece of tissue to provide a mask and taped it to the front of the card, stamping the Hero Arts sun image in black. Using my Copic markers, I colored the sun and sky. The PTI sentiment was over-stamped and black heat embossed. That's it! I'll just lay low for the rest of the day and stay inside.
Here are the challenges:
AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenge #296: Sketch Challenge
Added August 24, 2025:
For this challenge, my card will fit into a couple of these rows - right down, CAS/Sentiment/Embossing and middle down, Summer/Free/Single Layer.
TTTC276- Featured Designer Design Team X - Tic Tac Toe Challenge
It's always hot here in southern Oregon in August, so it's a good time to stay inside and make more Halloween cards. Our two favorite 'old bats' have provided some cute images this month to give us a kick-start. Of course you're not required to use the mood board, but I generally like using it for at least one of my cards each month. Let's see what you come up with:
Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: August 2025 Anything Goes Halloween
I honestly don't know where my time goes anymore, but many events have been slipping past me without acknowledgement. Last month it was graduation cards. I had two important graduations in June that I have basically missed - both for grandchildren of my brothers. I guess that would be grandnephews.
With both of these young men, I cut up their graduation invitations to personalize their cards. I don't know if they'll really appreciate this!
Card #1 is for my late oldest brother's grandson Broderick. I trimmed the inside panel of a printed image of his high school with a stitched rectangular die and die cut the year with large PTI numbers. I stacked 3 layers of white numbers with the ones die cut from the image and then overlaid them with a die cut "Congrats" (Hero Arts #DC274) from gold metallic cardstock and attached it over the numbers with some gold stars and matted that with red cardstock (school colors) and attached it to a white card base. I haven't finished with the inside yet because I want to attach a die cut gift card envelope and I loaned my die to a friend.
Can I brag on this young man for a minute? He was offered the Presidential Scholarship at Willamette University, a prestigious private college here in Oregon. The announcement came in the form of a Willamette University scarf and accompanying letter impressively packaged:
Card #2 is for my youngest brother's grandson Scott. He lives in Kentucky and I cut up one of his graduation photos with a star Die from PTI. I mounted it onto a larger metallic silver die cut star from the same set. The background die and balloons are from an older PTI "Birthday Bash" set. I die-cut the balloons from iridescent cardstock. The front panel was matted with metallic silver cardstock and attached to a turquoise card base. I heat embossed the "Congrats" onto dark blue cardstock, fussy cut around the letters and layered balloons, star, and sentiment to the die cut background. Again, waiting for my gift envelope die to finish up the inside.
I'll have to make sure the inside gift cards are generous so they'll overlook the lateness!