NOVEMBER SIMPLY CAS CHALLENGE - LEAVES

Well, fall is in full swing, with winter waiting in the wings. It's time for our November challenge at Simply Clean and Simple. And what is more iconic for fall than falling leaves?

Simply Clean & Simple: November 2026 - Leaves

Yes, I know that our theme is "leaves", but I chose to stamp a single leaf from an old PTI set of leaves. I started with some beige pastel drawing paper and stamped the background mesh pattern from Alexandra Renke's #KbASt-Ba0002 stamp set. I over-stamped the maple leaf in brown and orange inks and added the sentiment from Impression Obsession #WP684 "Leaf Set". I trimmed out the image with a stitched rectangular die and punched a couple of small holes at the stem of the leaf to thread some copper metallic thread through it. I matted this panel with dark brown and attached it to a medium brown A2 card base. 

FALL PHOTO

Today I'm just biding my time until the election returns start coming in tonight for the 2026 mid-term election here in the US. I hope all of my American friends cast a ballot!

Inkspirational Challenge has a visual prompt for us - a fall photo. This is my favorite season of the year!  

I bought some ivory A2 card bases and envelopes this week with the intention of using them for my Thanksgiving cards this year, so that's where I started on this card. I have a whole lot of wood-grained kraft cardstock in my stash, and I do want to use it up one of these days. I die cut a stamp border twice - once with an ivory stock and once with kraft wood grain and connected them. I die cut a Spellbinders leaf from my #S6-220 "Autumn Wonder" set from the center of the stamp and blended a bit of rust-toned ink along the edges. The sentiment was heat embossed with Zing! white powder onto a dark brown linen textured cardstock stitched edge rectangle. I glued the kraft, dark brown, and stamp rectangles together and mounted them to the face of the card base after tying on some baker's twine. The final step was to slightly bend the leaf for dimension and add a line of glue along the leaf stem and put it back into the leaf opening.

Here's a close-up of the leaf, showing the wood-grained and linen textures: 

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #379 - Visual Prompt - Fall Photo

GHOST OF HALLOWEENS PASSED

Well, Halloween 2026 has now passed and we're into November. I see some ghosts in our inspiration board, so I think I'll go with that. 

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: November 2026 Anything Goes Halloween

I used my favorite little Tim Holtz ghost die, coupled with one of his old rubber Halloween stamps. I started with a gray card stock and black heat embossed the sentiment on it and a scrap of white cardstock. I die cut the gray into a deckled rectangle and swiped the edges with black ink. I die cut the ghost image from the white scrap and laid it over the sentiment. I also black heat embossed a small scrap of yellow card stock, fussy cut the pumpkin, and glued it to the front panel. Before attaching everything to a white card base, I matted the gray deckled panel with yellow and black card stocks. 

GRATITUDE #2

Here's another Thanksgiving card this morning, following the sketch from my old friends at The Paper Players #PP809.

 I wanted to do a card with very subtle color changes, relying mostly on textures. I have in my stash some very nice warm gray pastel drawing paper with beautiful deckled edges. I cut off a piece from one of the edges and using an embossing folder edger, embossed a strip horizontally as in Christy's sketch and then trimmed the piece on three sides with a stitched-edge die. I added the sentiment (the same one I used in my previous card) and heat embossed it with Stampendous "Peridot" powder and adhered it to a watercolor paper card base. I die cut a couple of items from Spellbinders #S6-220 "Autumn Wonder " die set using the watercolor paper, a scrap of printed cardstock, and some warm gray metallic scraps. When I went to attach the die-cut gourd and pumpkin to the face of the card, I realized the peridot sentiment was warmer than the metallic cardstock, so I brushed some watermark ink and powder onto some of the edges to pull things together. After attaching the gourd, pumpkin, and sprig to the face of the card I added three tiny gems.

The Paper Players: PP809 - A Sketch Challenge from Christy

Added October 31, 2026:

GRATEFUL . . .

. . . that I can set aside Halloween for a couple of days to have a bit of fun with fall/Thanksgiving images! 

Today's card is brought to you by three challenges - AAA Cards Challenge #326, Tic, Tac Toe Challenge #304, and Color Hues #143 - Orange and Black. 

I started this card with the layout from AAA Cards Challenge and the black and orange colors of  Color Hues. The Stitching/Embossing/Orange are from the first row across on Tic, Tac Toe. I made a top-folded A2 card base from black card stock and die cut a stitched rectangle from the same card stock. I laid the rectangular panel over the card base and white heat embossed a very old Inkadinkado image on both layers, plus a simple sentiment from PTI. The final step was to paper-piece the pumpkins on the top panel with 3 different papers and attach it to the card base with black dimensional foam. I made the coordinating envelope, using the printed side as the envelope lining. 

AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenge #326: Sketch Challenge

TTTC#304 - Featured Designer Cindy - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Color Hues: Color Hues #143 - Orange and Black

DOUBLE FRAMED BIRTHDAY CARD

Today's card is a birthday greeting, inspired by Seize the Birthday's "Double Frame" challenge. I'm running short on birthday cards and have several birthdays coming up this next week, so this was a good opportunity to catch up a bit.

I'm really fond of this rubber stamp sun image from Hero Arts, and have used it several times over the past couple of years. I decided I wanted to make a CAS card with the double frame from the same watercolor stock as the card base. I die cut a base frame and a frame from the same stitched rectangular die and then a 3rd stitch edged rectangle from a stripe cardstock scrap, and attached all but the top layer to the face of the card base. I stamped the sun twice with black ink - each time in different tones of gold card stock to coordinate with the stripe background. The sun rays were fussy cut as was the face. I touched up the face with white gel pen, pink Prismacolor, and red felt pen and glued the face over the sunray image. Finally I glued on the sun and top frame. I looked at it for a while to decide whether I needed to add anything else, but decided to keep it more plain.

Here's a photo of the image and frames up a little closer, plus the inside of the card with an old PTI sentiment that I've used before with this sun image.

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #336-Double Frame

Added October 22, 2026:

AUTUMNAL GHOSTLY GREETINGS

I'm still cranking out the Halloween cards, to make sure I have enough for everyone on my list. This one is a blended Halloween/Fall card inspired by Just Us Girls Callenge #845. I loved the textural tone of this JUG mood board!

As a part of the packet of Halloween papers gifted to me (Crafter's Companion 

"Vintage Halloween") this past week was this cable-knit printed paper, arriving with perfect timing! I started with my often-used Trinity Stamps "Boo Brew" #TMD-088 die set. I used pale blue cardstock and white watercolor paper to die cut the cup and ghost. A couple of Spellbinders "Winter Borders" dies provided an additional decorative accent at the opening side of the 5" x 5" square card base. The cable-knit background was matted with ochre card stock and attached to the front and the cup and ghost were clued on with some dimensional foam. I slipped in some fall leaves and tied on the sentiment.  

The above close-up shot shows the various textures of my card.

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls Challenge #845 - Moodboard

Added October 22, 2026:

IN HIS CUPS!

It's mid-October and we're in the final countdown to Halloween 2026! Our Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge closes on the 28th. 

I started this card with the idea of a skull in a large drink glass (inspired by the image in the left bottom quadrant of our inspiration board) and segued to a zombie (Whimsy Stamps "Monster Parade" die set) trying to drown his sorrows in a large glass of some horrible concoction, with a smaller skull floating in it. I had fun with this! The row of imbibing skeletons in the background is from a stamp set from Whimsy Stamps - #CWSD346a "Pick Your Poison". I cut a white cardstock panel slightly smaller than the black A2 card base and stamped the row of skeletons across the center, coloring their drinks with Copic markers. The sentiment from the same set was added with red-orange ink and a strip of printed paper added after gluing the panel to the card base. The large wine glass is from Tim Holtz, the zombie from Whimsy Stamps, and the small scull from Spellbinders.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: October 2026 Mid Month Reminder

Also, if you came here from the TOB blog, you know that the ladies have some supplies to give away! Your project makes you automatically qualified for the drawing:

  

PRIZE #1

PRIZE #2

I'm also sharing this card with the Whimsy Stamps October 2026 Challenge, for a chance at the drawing!

Whimsy Stamps ~ October Halloween Challenge - Whimsy Inspirations Blog

SPOOKY!

I have another Halloween card today - this time my inspiration is the current Freshly Made Sketches #758. I turned the layout 180 degrees.

I was gifted some Halloween papers that gave me an opportunity to expand my usual color palette from the usual red-orange/black/white. This somber ochre tone worked well with some mustard colored cardstock that I had on-hand. I trimmed the paper to fit an A2 card base, matted it with a deep purple stock, and attached it to the face of the card. I stamped the sentiment with deep purple ink on mustard cardstock, attached it to an orange drip-punched band, and strung orange raffia and purple twine through a punched opening. This was attached to the card with dimensional foam before adding the dark purple stalking wolf from Whimsy Stamp "Monster Parade" die set.

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #758 - A Sketch by Jen T

PLAID BAT AND BLACK CAT!

I have been gone from the scene since mid-September (hubby and I went on a 3-week road trip to the southwest), and today is my first foray back into card-making. I'm filling in the last couple of Halloween cards before I need to get them into the mail.

Here's my CAS card, combining two challenges - Inkspirational Challenge #378 - "CAS" with an optional word prompt "Plaid" and Shopping Our Stash #584 - "Black Cats".

This card was very simple to make. I die cut a panel of printed Halloween paper with a deckle-edged die and double-matted it with a narrow edge of black cardstock and plaid paper. I white heat-embossed the sentiment onto a black card base, attached the matted image and glued on a bat die cut from the plaid paper. The final addition was little dots in the eyes of all of the creatures with a white gel pen.

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #378 - Word Prompt - CAS - Optional Twist: Plaid

Shopping Our Stash Weekly Challenge Blog: SOS 584 - Black Cats

OCTOBER TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

Here we are in October, and if you've been following us all year, you probably have between 12 and 24 Halloween cards (or projects). Our new inspiration board has some great ideas to play with. I decided on the lower right quadrant.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge

I've been really wanting to use this mummy paper from my stash, and this month's board offers me the perfect opportunity! These are all coordinating papers from a 12x12 pad I purchased several years ago. I trimmed several of the papers, plus a red-orange solid square and layered all of them on a black square card base.

I had fun using a gift card envelope die that I cut from double-printed paper, and I tucked into it a die cut 3-piece word die from Whimsy Stamps. I attached it to the other layers of the card face, and the final step was to fussy-cut a couple of the mummies. The custom envelope features both sides of the mummy paper.

Go to the blog and take a look at the great inspiration provided by all of the Design Team, and let them know how much you appreciate them!

ONE OF MY PEEPS!

It's the first Friday of October, and you know what that means - a new challenge announced at Simply CAS Challenge! Diane has selected "Something TINY (Keep it Little)" as this month's theme.

Simply Clean & Simple

I dug through some of my stamp sets and came up with Simon Hurley's "Spring Chicken" to work with. I'm not sure why I didn't follow Diane's lead and make a Halloween card, except that I've been wanting to do a card with these cute little chicks.

I started with a 5-1/2" square watercolor paper card base and a slightly smaller square matching panel. I die cut a circle for a stencil and blended sky with clouds and over-stamped the three chicks with brown ink. I stamped them a second time on matching paper, colored them with Copic markers, and fussy cut their bodies. I stamped the sentiment and additional egg with a tan-toned ink. The little guy near the sentiment was pasted on first and the die-cut fence added. The final two chicks were glued over the fence and the panel attached to the card base with dimensional foam. I added a bit of fence under the panel to continue it to the edge.

Let's see what you come up with! Just remember to keep it clean and simple.

SEPTEMBER MID-MONTH TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

Here we are mid-point in September and crushing toward Halloween!

I liked the image of the 3 witch hats hanging on a door. I mounted 3 die-cut hats (from Spellbinders "Boos! Cocktails") with colorful hat bands and buckles on a scrap of old printed paper, edged it with a black marker, and matted the panel with an orange die-cut rectangle. I glued this to a black card base, tied it with a double baker's twine bow, and attached the double die-cut sentiment from LDRS Creative "Large Word Halloween".

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge