BOO!

We're at the mid-point for the month! That's the signal that you still have plenty of time to get your Halloween card or project completed and shared with us. The Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge closes on the 28th.

My card borrows from the general overall black and tan tones of our inspiration board, with a specific nod to the top left Haloween door wreath and bats on the right. I started with a black card base and die cut the elements from various die sets I own. The circular die is cut from kraft wood-embossed card stock using Tim Holtz's Christmas wreath ("Vault Festive Wreath" #666715); the branches in three colors of textured papers are from a couple of Spellbinders seasonal dies; and the bow is from "Christmas Cocktails" by Spellbinders. The ghost of course is my favorite Tim Holtz Halloween ghost that I've used hundreds of times.

Before assembling all of the parts I rough cut a circle from a bat printed paper scrap and white heat embossed the sentiment. I lined a kraft A2 envelope with the remaining black and tan circle printed paper to coordinate with the wreath's bow. Check out the great inspirational cards from my fellow designers:

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: August 2026 Mid Month Reminder

A NOTE OF THANKS

 It's August and time for a new Simply Clean & Simple Challenge! This month's theme is "Mother Nature", which brings to mind a lot of options for representative images. Our challenge is always "anything goes" as long as it's CAS, and I decided on a thank you card.

Simply Clean & Simple: SCAS August 2026 Challenge

I might have pushed the limit a bit on this card, as CAS is minimal layers. But it seemed that if the layers were the same color/texture as the background, that might be okay. I made this card with watercolor paper - the A2 base and slightly smaller front panel. I cut an opening in the front panel with a rectangular die (love the plate mark watercolor paper leaves) and stamped the sentiment in olive green ink. The image is a scrap of printed paper that I trimmed out with a deckle edged rectangular die and attached a narrow kraft mat. I die cut one of Tim Holtz's floral stocks and some tiny butterflies, added a panel of green behind the opening, and layered it all together.

Come and join us in our CAS challenge! You have until the 28th to enter your project. And check out the inspirational cards designed by the team! 

AUGUST 2026 TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

It's August and starting to close in on Halloween, so come and join us at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge! We have a brand new inspiration board with some great images - or you can create your own Halloween images. You also don't really need to make a card, because this is an 'anything goes' challenge - so, bring them on!

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: August 2026 Anything Goes Halloween

I'm CASing it for this 2-week period and using a favorite postage die and new-to-me Whimsey Stamps "October 31st" #CWSD457 stamp set (with black witch's hat). The sentiment is white heat embossed from Newton's Nook "Spooky Roundabout." The envelope is custom made from a sheet of double-sided paper in my stash.

I made this card quickly and early, because as our challenge goes live I'll be attending a 63rd high school reunion! 63rd, you say? My class of 1963 has reunions every year now because we're all in our 80s and losing a couple of members a year. Our class was a small one and started the first year of a brand new school. When there are only 142 in a class, all of the missing ones are noticed, so we pay tribute to them. Our gatherings are very casual, meeting for lunch in the banquet space of a pizza parlor that we all enjoyed in high school. Meeting every year is a nice way to keep contact with each other. The class is spread out over the state and country, so not everyone can attend each year, but for me it's only a 2-1/2 hour drive.

CHRISTMAS COCKTAIL

I'm back again with my second Christmas card of the day! This time I'm playing along with The Color Hues Challenge - #137 "Black and Red." I love making black Christmas cards - especially with metallics.

My card is made with a couple of brand new (to me) Spellbinders die sets. The martini glass was cut from some silver metallic stock with their "Olive Martinis" set and the remaining festive additions was with the coordinating "Christmas Cocktails." The silver heat embossed sentiment is an old one from my stash. I love the bow in this set and I cut it out from a scrap of black and red lace printed stock from one of the old cardmaking magazines - I don't remember who had the cardstock "quads" inserted into their magazines. That just shows how long I hang onto paper scraps!

The black envelope is from my envelope stash and I lined it with a lightweight candy cane printed paper.

Color Hues: Color Hues #137-Black and Red

Added August 1, 2026:

GRACE US WITH YOUR PRESENTS

Okay, time to start making Christmas cards so I don't get myself into a bind in December, having to scramble for enough cards for friends and family. I've gone to The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #112 to begin my cards. But Inkspirational Challenge also has a word prompt of "Christmas in July."

I've promised myself to start using up Christmas scraps and NO new papers this year! This card is made completely of scraps from some coordinating papers purchased quite a few years ago. The gift boxes had already been fussy-cut and languishing in my scrap bin, so this was very easy. I die cut a bit of the coordinating stripe with a stitched rectangular die and matted it with red cardstock. This was all glued to a white top-folded card base, the sentiment added in brown (Hero Arts "Messages for Cardmaking" #CM379), and the gift boxes attached with a bit of dimensional foam. The final step was to line a red envelope with coordinating print. That's it!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge: The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #112 Reminder - Grace Us with Your Presents

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #372 - Word Prompt - Christmas In July

IS THE MOON OUT TONIGHT?

It's mid-July and time to remind everyone that you still have two weeks for this month's challenge. I actually made this card some time ago, but it was never published, so I decided to use it this month because of the gray, black and burgundy colors and full moon of the lower left quadrant. Is that cheating? 

This Tim Holtz die set is so complex, with many layers, so it's not a quick card. I started by assembling all of the parts for the Count and then made a background from a couple of different stamp sets - the sentiment is white heat-embossed with Impression Obsession "Is the Moon Out Tonight?" and the graveyard scene from Unity "Toil and Trouble."

I made a black card base and added the dark gray background (die-cut with a stitched rectangular die), die cut moon, Count, and his bat. The envelope is a custom one made from light-weight black textured paper and lined with black/gray printed paper. 

Here's our July 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: July 2026 Mid Month Reminder

SEVENTEEN

I'm here today as the Surprise Party Guest for the next couple of weeks at Seize the Birthday, and the theme is "One or More Numbers". My grand-twins turn 17 in a couple of months, so I decided to get out ahead and make a card for Colin.

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #330-One or More Numbers

You might guess from this card that Colin's great passion is soccer, and I think this is the third year in a row I've made soccer-themed cards for him - mostly because a couple of years ago I bought several 12x12 printed soccer-themed papers (Authentique "Soccer Images") that I'm trying to use up! His younger sister, also a major soccer fan and player, has a 12th birthday coming up this fall, so there's another opportunity for these papers. 

This card was started with a black square card base onto which I attached a slightly smaller panel of green printed soccer turf. Then I trimmed a square of cardstock with black and white printed athletic numbers and a smaller square image with netting and player silhouette. I die cut the PTI numbers out of the front panel and touched up the edges with black marker before attaching the assembled and die cut panel to the face of the card base with black dimensional foam. I finished up with a custom square envelope in a coordinating paper. 

Here's a close-up image of the die cut numbers:

I used the same coordinating papers for the previous birthday cards from ages 15 and 16:

 

 

HAPPY 250th BIRTHDAY, USA!

Hello, all, I'm pleased to be officially at Simply CAS Challenge as a new Design Team member! CAS is really my favorite technique, so I'm looking forward to this.

Simply Clean & Simple: July 2026 - Birthday

Darlene has selected the optional theme for July as "Birthdays" and I wanted  to highlight July 4th as the 250th birthday for the US (hoping we can survive this year). 

 The only element of this card that is remotely current is the sentiment from Hero Greetings "Messages for cardmaking" - everything else is quite old because I haven't purchased any July 4th supplies for several years. The cupcake is from I don't know who. The sparkler is from an old PTI set. I started with a white card base and matching die cut stitched panel. I stamped the cupcake in dark blue on the card base and colored the flag with marker. I die cut a rectangular opening in the top panel, stamped the sparkler and sentiment, and lined the opening with dark blue cardstock. The top panel was attached with dimensional foam.

I do hope you will join us each month to play with CAS technique - and check out what the rest of the team has created to inspire you!

JULY 2026 TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

We've hit the mid-point of 2026 and if you've been following along with us you would be well on your way to creating all of your Halloween cards! Our July inspiration board is packed with red, white, and blue images.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: July 2026 Anything Goes Halloween

But I didn't pay one bit of attention this month to the red, white, and blue theme, because I am fresh out of ideas AND I was determined to use a couple of brand new die sets from Spellbinders - "Boos! Cocktails" and "Olive Martinis".  

Starting with a black 5-1/2" square card base and an additional 5" square panel, I stamped the Tim Holtz cobweb with white ink and heat embossed the sentiment from Whimsy Stamps "Pick Your Poison" #CWSD346a (I'm looking forward to using this stamp set in the future, as it has a lot of fun images and sentiments). I die cut the martini glass and liquid from the "Olive Martinis" set and the skeleton hand and skull from "Boos! Cocktails" and assembled all of the pieces to glue to the front of the top panel. I also stamped a centipede in black on white cardstock, colored and fussy cut it, and draped it over the skull for a truly disgusting drink. I matted the panel in red-orange and attached it to the card base.

Go to our challenge page and you'll see that the other members of the team were a bit more successful at following the inspiration board!                     

WINTER WONDERS

It's time to break things up a bit with a Christmas/Winter card. I'm playing along with the Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #114. 

This card is a bit more traditional than my usual cards, but it was fun to do. I love cardinals, which we don't ever see on the west coast. I love seeing them when I visit my brother in West Virginia. I've had this old Stampendous rubber stamp for a very long time - I think I might have used it once in all these years. I stamped it with black ink on white card stock and then colored it with Copic markers. I trimmed it to a square panel to attach to a 5-1/2" square card base that was already sitting on my desk. Before matting it with red and attaching to the card base, I gold heat-embossed the sentiment and edge. After all of this, I wish I hadn't added the blue circle behind.  

Peace On Earth Christmas : Peace on Earth Challenge #114

'TIL DEATH US DO PART

The June Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge is clearly wedding-themed, so it seemed appropriate to bake a cake! I was taken by the eerie wedding cake in the left top quadrant and thought to copy the elements for my card.  

I started with a black card base, to which I glued a dark gray deckle-edged rectangular panel. I used a Simon Says Stamp die cut "Fancy Cake Set" #S731, but expanded the 2-layer cake to a 3-layer one. I stamped Tim Holtz spatters on a scrap of white cardstock,  cut the layers, and grunged them up a bit. I started building the cake by adding some Spellbinders die-cut drips and skulls from their "Boos! Cocktails" die set. I used a bit of warm metallic gray cardstock for the cake stand. The candle was stamped from Whimsy Stamps "Poe Boy" and fussy cut. The cake and top part of the stand was attached with foam dimensional tape and the black things tucked in behind the cake that look like tree branches are actually tree branches from one of Tim Holtz's Halloween die sets.   

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: June 2026 Mid Month Reminder

R IS FOR RAINBOW

While I have all of my aquatic dies out, I decided to play along with all of the ladies at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers and their current challenge - "R is for Rainbow." It's been a minute since I've entered one of their challenges!

So, my silliness got the best of me! What's more fun than anthropomorphizing animals? Before I added the computer-generated sentiment I showed the idea to my husband and he immediately said, "Oh, a rainbow trout". These fabulous dies are more from Birch Press Designs. I've had them a while, but this is the first I've used them. This card is all scraps, from the polka dot background to the kelp, to the warm silver layered fishes. 

 Here's the link to the challenge, plus a link to NBUS - Never-Before-Used-Schtuff: 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #275 - R is for Rainbow

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #87

BIRTHDAY JELLY-FISHES

It's been a few weeks since I've worked on cards. June is always a very busy month in our house, with lots of other things to take up my attention. I started this card yesterday and finally finished it this  morning, after many changes of the original idea. At Seize the Birthday the "topping" is to use vellum or acetate sheet. I started out with the idea of doing both, but it just didn't work out well, so vellum it is.

These wonderful jellyfish, kelp and mini-fishes dies are all from Birch Press Design. Last summer my husband and I spent a day at the aquarium in Newport Beach, Oregon and I fell madly in love with the jellyfish there - remarkable creatures! I thought vellum would be perfect for them, and I selected some vellum with silver and copper flecks that I've had in my stash for a number of years. I decided to show them off on sea-green textured cardstock. I blind embossed a square of the textured stock and it roughed the surface up a bit, but I like the textural effect. The lighter teal of the mat and die-cut kelp is an iridescent card stock. I silver heat-embossed the sentiment Penny Black's "Birthday Fishes" stamp set and cut out a square from the textured panel and layered everything on to a square deep sea-green card base. The mini fish were die cut from silver cardstock, and the final touches were clear rhinestones  and custom envelope lined with the same vellum as the jellyfish.

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #328-Use Vellum or Acetate

Added June 25, 2026:

I added the clear rhinestones so I could combine this challenge with the current Tic, Tac Toe Challenge. I chose the diagonal row of Vellum/Free/Gems, using dies for the "Free" square.

TTTC #294 - Featured Designer Cindy - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Added June 21, 2026:

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

I want to share a photo I took last summer of a huge jellyfish made entirely of ocean debris. I stood totally transfixed by this clever use of garbage collected from the Pacific Ocean. It's a sad state of affairs, but this piece of art is incredible.