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

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

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

WE COULD ALL USE A BIT OF PEACE ON EARTH...

Seeing the beautiful green mood board over at Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge has inspired  me to try my hand at the current challenge. But, where to start? All of the images are so gorgeous! Okay, I decided on green candles, gold, and stars. 

I started this card with scraps from my stash. The gold rectangular panel was in my metallic gold scraps drawer already die cut with the stitched circle. I die cut a scrap of dark green card stock with one of the dies from Tim Holtz's "Snowy Stars", backed it with a scrap of metallic gold, and attached it to the back of the gold panel. I die cut an Avery Elle star wreath from the same gold scraps and glued it to the face of the panel, matted the panel with dark green cardstock, and glued all to a white card base and stamped the sentiment with PTI "Pinefeather" ink.

The candles and evergreen  sprig were constructed from Tim Holtz's "Vault Festive Wreath" die set with a bit of help from colored pencils and white gel pen. The flat light today didn't assist in showing that this card is metallic.

Peace On Earth Christmas : March 2026 Peace On Earth Challenge #107

Added March 15, 2026:

MARCH TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

Here we are at the beginning of a new month! Our March challenge always features green, but I can never quite get the tone of green blue enough, and my card always looks like it's black and yellow. Looks like I need to invest in some new green cardstock!

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: March 2026 Anything Goes Halloween

While there are no zombies in this month's inspiration board, I used the black and green as inspiration - well, sort of!

My card started with a top-folded black card base. I white heat-embossed the Tim Holtz sentiment, masked it off, and added yellow-green heat embossed splatters (also Tim Holz). I die cut the "EEK!" layered dies with yellow-green glitter paper, black, and white. I stamped the zombie face and hand on pale gray card stock, fussy-cut it, and colored it with Copics. I glued the EEK, hand, and heat to the face of the card.

Inside the card I trimmed a piece of yellow-green printed paper to a square and black heat-embossed the second part of the sentiment and splatters. I had a black square envelope and I heat-embossed the "BUUUURP" (Whimsy Stamps) on the back flap.

You're not bound to just what is suggested by the inspiration board - in our challenge, you can share any Halloween project. March is a couple of days longer than February so, there's plenty of time to enter the challenge! Also, check what the other ladies have provided as additional inspiration.

TIME OUT CHALLENGE

 When I saw the current card challenge at Time Out Challenges: Challenge #307, I knew exactly what I wanted to use this great idea for. Kim Heggins of Running Stitch Designs has offered up one of her wonderful handmade bags for both inspiration and prize. 

I decided to take the challenge literally and make a coin purse from Spellbinders "Gorgeous You Makeup Bag" cutting die set. This one is hinged on the left to open, revealing slots for a gift card. At Christmas I made one of these for my granddaughter and included a Sephora gift card. It was a great hit!

I had some lavender polka dot cardstock and some scraps of a rainbow-striped paper. I started this card by die-cutting the polka dot cardstock 3 times - front and both sides of the inside. To make the stitched and scalloped edge for the stripe, I used Spellbinders "Winter Borders" detailed cutting dies and then used the purse outline die to trim out the bottom portion of the bag, which I glued over the front. The metal edge and tag were cut from silver metallic card stock, and the final step was to trim the bag with a bit of satin ribbon. After I finished the card and photographed it, I realized I had forgotten to add a label like Kim's bag - oh well!

This was fun and easy! I think I'll set this aside for my youngest granddaughter's 12th birthday in October.  

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge #307

Added March 12, 2026:

TWO OLD BATS MID-FEBRUARY CHALLENGE

My mid-month inspiration card for Two Old Bats Anything Halloween Challenge is a take-off from our mood board's lower right quadrant - a bouquet of  long-stemmed skulls tied with a red bow. The closest image I had in my stash was Whimsey Stamps "Happy Halloweeds".

I decided to do a monotone card with the emphasis on the red bow die from Tim Holtz's "Vault Festive Wreath". The original image of the stamp is the jar and 1 scull and 1 pumpkin. I stamped the image on white card stock and fussy-cut it, cutting off the pumpkin. I then stamped two more skulls on white, fussy-cut them, and layered them into the vase. I mounted the jar and sculls on the face of a gray die-cut rectangle that I had stamped with a spider web and sentiment and mounted to the face of a black card base with two additional mats. The final addition was a double red bow and red dots in the Os of the sentiment.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: February 2026 Mid Month Reminder

There's still plenty of time to re-erect your Halloween supplies and join the fun!