PEACE ON EARTH CHALLENGE

Today I'm taking a break from Halloween to immerse myself in a bit of Christmas. At the May Peace on Earth Challenge they have a lovely pale aqua/pink inspiration board that I couldn't resist playing with. I used the tiny houses in the lower left quadrant for my inspiration.

I started with a die-cut rectangular stitched panel of warm gray mounted to a white card base. Over it I layered a scrap of warm gray printed paper to suggest snow and then added a die-cut snowflake border and two stitched undulating layers of white snow cardstock. I stamped the Impression Obsession "Holiday Words" sentiment in Hero Arts "Wet Cement" ink. The final layers were several tiny houses and trees from Nellie's Choice "Village" dies.

Peace On Earth Christmas : May 2026 Peace On Earth Challenge # 111

MAY TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

May Day! And yes, we at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge make Halloween cards year-round - that's just how we roll around here! Old Bat Diane has provided us with an all-pink inspiration board for the month of May:

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: May 2026 Anything Goes Halloween

The idea of making pink-themed Halloween cards has been a difficult one for me, but I think I'm starting to ease into it. If you look closely to the bottom left quadrant, you'll see a chandelier and bats - so that's where I started.

For this card I made a black card base that I added a Tim Holtz cobweb to with some Hero Arts "Unicorn" pigment die. Then I die cut a smaller black panel with a deckle edge, matted it with pink polka dot printed paper, and laid it over the front of the card and stamped the cobweb a second time. The pumpkin chandelier is an ancient Impression Obsession rubber stamp, long separated from its wooden block. I white heat-embossed it over the cobweb and filled in some of the open areas with white gel pen. For the pink pumpkins I stamped the image with black on white cardstock, colored them pink, and fussy cut them to glue over the top. I did the same with the bottom tassel, which I glued over the white sentiment tag. I added some pink tiny sequins to the base of the chandelier, tied off the tag with pink and white bakers twine and added a couple of pink bats for good measure. 

Check on what the other ladies have done with this inspiration board and try your hand at it - you have a full month. And remember that you don't have to make a card - any Halloween project is welcome! 

EVENTUALLY EVERYTHING CONNECTS

I have the honor over the next two weeks to be Guest Designer at Time Out Challenge #312 - "Photo Inspiration". As you can see below, the inspirational photo is a bridge over water.

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge #312

I won't pretend that this wasn't challenging for me. I scratched my head for a good two weeks before finally giving up on the idea of actually building or fabricating some sort of bridge similar to that in the photo. Nothing worked for me, so I started thinking about bridges as connections, and came across an old AALL & CREATE (#197) stamp set in my stash with a small image hiding out with the sentiment "eventually everything connects" and I decided to follow through on using it.

I wanted to at least make a nod toward the water and sky elements of our beautiful inspiration photo, so pulled out a Hero Arts Color Layering Waves stamp set. I knew that in order to do a similar evening tone on my card I wanted to start with some orange card stock. What I found in my orange bin was two scraps of an old script-printed paper, each from different areas of the old sheet. I trimmed the larger scrap with a stitched rectangular die and mounted it to a dark warm gray card base. Then I over-printed the bottom portion of the smaller scrap with the layered stamps in gray tones, blocked it off, and blended gray and pinks for the sky. I added some birds and die cut an Alexandra Renke floral stem out of the inked and blended water/sky scene and glued several layers to give it some dimension. I stamped the wreath and sentiment on the larger panel with warm gray ink and then layered the smaller rectangle over the panel, lining up the script, and again stamped the sentiment. 

I stared at this card for quite a while, trying to decide if it was completed! It's a bit odd. I could think of ways to improve it, but alas, I have no more pieces of the orange script paper! So I just made a coordinating dark warm gray envelope and left it as is.

Here's the good news! DoodlebugsWA is offering a $25 store credit for the winner of this challenge! 

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

Well, it's finally happening - I'm actually retiring this month! Yes, I know I said that six years ago, but I kept being called back into service, "Oh, Fran, just one more project for us." This time it's for keeps. I'm leaving behind a really nice project as my swansong. Everyone on the project was wonderful, from the client to the architect to all of the contractors. Most of the furniture arrived last week and is in place and I spent three hours yesterday with a framer to re-mat and frame a bunch of wonderful art pieces from the owner's collection. The space will be occupied formally the second week of May.

This is a view across the lounge from the espresso bar. The space is on the 4th floor of the building, so you can see that there's a wonderful view of the downtown. The darker area to the left is a glass wall with the board room beyond. The two small paintings  are now at the framer's being re-framed. When everything is completed, I'll share more photos.

FROM SNOWY SCRAPS TO WINTER SCENE

Good morning, all! I've been looking at the inspiration board at the current Peace on Earth Challenge and wanting to do a card with a red barn in the snow, and finally followed through on it this morning.

This small image is from an old PTI acrylic stamp set, "Winter Hills." I stamped it in black on a white paper scrap, colored it with pencils and markers, and trimmed it. Then I went through my Christmas scraps and found a white stitched panel with stars already die cut with Tim Holtz "Snowy Stars." I used the last bit of blue-gray printed paper purchased many years ago to line envelopes and trimmed it with a stitched rectangular die and glued it to the face of a white card base. I stamped the Hero Arts Greeting sentiment on the front white panel and attached the layers to the face of the card. The old PTI snowflake, cut out twice, was the final addition, attached with a bit of foam tape.

 Peace On Earth Christmas : Peace on Earth Challenge #110

Added May 2, 2026:

HOW DOES MY GARDEN GROW?

At the Seize the Birthday Challenge #342 we've been called to "Make a Spring Garden", so I had an opportunity to use a Memory Box die that came free with an order sometime last year. It's a fairly ornate die and not really my style, but I didn't use the border and opted for the center circular garden gate, which had been already cut from white cardstock and languishing in my stash.

I made a square white card base and cut a circular opening from a slightly smaller card panel and attached it to the face of the card base. On a scrap of pale blue card stock, I stamped this wonderfully whimsical garden with PTI "Pinefeather" ink and colored it with Copic markers and white gel pen, trimmed it out with a circle die, and attached it to the center of the opening on the card. I added about a hundred tiny pieces of dimensional foam to the back of the circular gate, tied on a PTI "Tiny Tag" with white heat-embossed sentiment, and glued it over the pale blue garden I had created. Having done all of that, it's now time to go out into my real spring garden and do some weeding!

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #324-Make a Spring Garden

Added April 24, 2026:

I'm also entering this card in the current Tic, Tac Toe Challenge #290, using the center down row - Embellishment/Free/Circles:

TTTC290- Featured Designer Rosanne - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

SENDING LOVE

This morning I was inspired by the sketch at Inkspirational Challenge #365 - Visual Prompt. I have a new-to-me die set with the cutest tiny envelopes from Altenew ("Fun Little Envelopes") that I've been wanting to use. I used one of the envelope dies for a Halloween card back in the fall, but the whole set is wonderful and unused!

I started with a 5-1/2" square card base and two smaller square panels attached to the face of it. I die cut the 4 tiny square envelopes and attached all of them to the front of the card, lining one of them with black and white printed paper. The sentiment was white heat embossed on black cardstock and attached to the front panel, slipping it slightly under the flap of the lower left envelope. Finally I added a couple of hearts and a postage stamp from the die set. The smaller hearts were from another die set. All fairly easy!

 Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #365 - Visual Prompt - Sketch

Added May 2, 2026:

GHOSTLY GREETINGS

It's already mid-April, and there's still time to play along with us at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge! We love cards, but you can share any Halloween project that you wish.

This time around I was inspired by the lower right quadrant photo of our mood board, with the candelabra and pumpkins. As anyone who follows me knows, I love making little miniature scenes. I started with a die-cut rectangular panel of white cardstock and die cut an opening with a stamp outline die. The sentiment is from a set of small images and words from LDRS Creative "Wicked". The cobweb, spider, and candelabra are all from various stamp sets and the pumpkins were fussy cut from printed Halloween paper. I added a bit of white gel pen to the candles and yellow Prisma pencil for some glow. These were all stamped and glued to a warm gray scrap, and everything mounted to a white card base.

Check out the inspirational cards prepared for you by our design team - you still have 2 weeks left on our rainy April challenge!

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: April 2026 Mid Month Reminder

APRIL TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

It's April and time to get out the umbrellas - and your Halloween crafting supplies! Diane has a great 'stormy' mood board to inspire us. 

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: April 2026 Anything Goes Halloween

The minute I saw this inspiration board, I knew to go straight to my Tim Holtz trick-or-treaters stamp - the only one I have with an umbrella. I dug through my stash and found very old Halloween paper from the very first 12x12 paper stack I ever bought, and I don't have a clue who manufactured it oh so many years ago. I thought it looked like it was raining ghosts on these poor kids and their cat!

I started with a top-folded black card base and glued panels of the ghosts and bubbles paper, then over-stamped the trick-or-treaters with black ink. It didn't cover very well, so I had to go back in with a black marker to fill in everything. This very simple card was finished off  with a layered die cut sentiment from LDRS Creative "Large Word Halloween." The custom envelope has been knocking around in my envelope stash for a very long time, waiting for the perfect time to use it.

You should go over and check out the rest of the ladies' umbrella cards for further inspiration! Remember, you can create 'anything' Halloween.

Sympathy Card

I did not intend to make a sympathy card when I was inspired by Just Us Girls Challenge #814 to use an embossing technique on a card. But, as I was sitting down to do a card, I got one of those phone calls that are becoming more common in my advanced age - the tragic loss of a dear friend of more than 50 years. This card is for her family. 

I knew I wanted to keep this as simple and refined as I could, so chose simply to white heat emboss an old Impression Obsession rubber stamp image onto black textured paper. I prepared an ivory watercolor paper card base, folded to 4-3/4" x 7" to fit into an ivory textured envelope from my stash. I stamped the sentiment in black ink. I die cut the black/ivory image with a deckle-edged die to match the deckle edge of the envelope. I cut a second deckle-edged rectangle for a mat and attached the two layers to the card base. The final step was a black satin ribbon knotted and glued to the stems of the sprig of leaves.

The ribbon and texture of the embossing do not show well on the card - here's a close-up.

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #814 - Word Week

Added March 19, 2026:

MYSTERIOUS & SPOOKY

My goodness, it's already time for our Mid-month Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge! If you haven't done a project yet, there's still plenty of time in the month. It doesn't have to be a card, but can be anything 'Halloween' that catches your fancy.

I took it a bit easy this time around and used a panel of already printed paper with a witch on her broom. But the moon was a light color and I took my green Copic markers and re-colored it to work with this month's inspiration board. I die cut the image with a deckle-edge die, added a green mat, and attached it to a black card base. The sentiment was die cut from some green glitter paper and I added a couple of die cut black bats.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: March 2026 Mid Month Reminder

TRUCK LOAD FULL O' SHAMROCKS

I had this idea that I wanted to use a Whimsy pickup truck die for St. Patty's Day that I have hardly used (I bought it last year for my grandson's 16th birthday card here). 

Digging into my stash of green paper scraps I found this old green printed paper with tire tracks and it seemed like a great place to start. I remembered an old Irish proverb that I computer generated and printed it on the tire track paper. Also in my stash was a last remnant of printed map cardstock. I glued it and the tire track paper onto a square of black cardstock and matted it with a mat of the map paper. I glued everything to the face of a top-folded square white card base. I constructed the truck with scraps of green metallic cardstock and fussy cut a pile of shamrocks to fill the truck bed.

I continued the rest of the Irish saying on the interior of the card, with a stamped sentiment and more fussy-cut shamrocks. 

The current challenge at Inkspirational Challenge is a visual prompt that would suggest a St. Patrick's Day card:

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #363 - Visual Prompt

π = 3.14

Pi Day! Today is my husband's nephew's birthday and the family always gets together to celebrate with pie. This morning it's a pie brunch! And, as always, I do a pie/pi birthday card for him - and how fun that I can also enter it in the current Shopping Our Stash Challenge #569 - I'm Counting on You", in which we are challenged to use numbers on our card!

This is supposed to look like a freshly-baked pie, but I had to make do with whatever circle dies that I have available to me. The background came from the internet and is part of the numerical value of π that I copied and printed in gray tones on beige and die cut into a stitched rectangle. I glued the panel to the face of a kraft wood-grained card base. I cut the various circles in silver and beige, hand-cut a pi symbol into the center, wiped a bit of kraft-colored ink at the edges, and layered together.

 

The die cut sentiment is from PTI, as is the one on the interior of the card.

Shopping Our Stash Weekly Challenge Blog: SOS569 - I'm counting on you

Added April 11, 2026:

GO GREEN!

Today I gave myself permission to play a bit, and play I did! This is my second card of the day. It's always fun when more than one challenge can be entered with a single card. I was inspired by Karren's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches to begin my card. Some years ago I made a similar card, but this one is more CAS and cleaned up than the old one.

I started this card with a 5-1/2" square card base I made of watercolor paper. I cut a second square slightly smaller and mounted each of the 3 units to it. The white pieces were die-cut along one edge with a stitch die. The vertical piece is patterned paper that I over-printed and gold heat-embossed with a very old shamrock stamp that I stamped in a vertical row. 

I die cut a tag and gold heat-embossed it with an old St. Patrick's Day sentiment. Using a wrap of white twine, I tied on the tag and a gold shamrock charm to finish off.

Freshly Made Sketches: Sketch #726 A Sketch by Karren 

Color Hues: Color Hues #128-Green and Gold

Added March 16, 2026:

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #813 - Die Week