THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT

It's February 2nd and time for a new challenge at Two Old Bats. The ladies have a fairly creepy mood board as inspiration for us!

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: February 2026 Anything Goes Halloween

When I saw the above board the first thing that caught my eye was the really creepy heart-shaped creature in the lower left quadrant. EEEK! With all of its little spidery legs I immediately thought about a Katzelkraft rubber stamp set of whimsical bugs in my supplies. 

I'm not sure what this Kratzelkraft character is supposed to be, with all of his eyes - something quite disgusting! I stamped him with black ink onto a deckle-edged light gray panel and colored him with Copic markers, Prismacolor pencil, and white gel pen. I masked him off and over-stamped the gray cobweb and splatters from Tim Holtz. I attached the panel to a black card base. I white heat embossed the sentiment from Impression Obsession "Is the Moon Out Tonight?" on printed cardstock, trimmed it down, punched the blood drips, and attached it with dimensional foam.  

Here's a close-up of my long-legged beastie:

Head over to the blog to see what our other creative designers have come up with to inspire you with hearts and skulls!

MID-WINTER NIGHT

This  morning when I opened my computer, the screen wallpaper was a beautiful evening photo of a snowy village in a valley of the Alps. It was predominately blue, and it inspired me to enter three of the current challenges, using my favorite tiny house dies from Alexandra Renke. I'm entering Time Out Challenges #305: Favorite Card Making Technique; Color Hues #125: Blue and White; and Inkspirational Challenge #359: Shades of Blue. WOW!

My favorite card making technique (besides CAS) is constructing tiny landscapes using layers of dies and paper scraps. I've done many of these miniature scenes over the years and I have a special fondness for tiny houses. The background of this scene is a last small scrap of a favorite Christmas paper that I've been hoarding to use for the perfect winter sky - when I say 'small' I really mean it! This scrap barely filled the opening of my 1-5/8" x 2-7/8" rectangular die. The layered trees are from a Tim Holtz "Forest Shadows" die that I cut and pieced.

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge #305

Color Hues: Color Hues Challenge #125 - Blue and White

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #359 - Visual Prompt - SHADES OF BLUE

VICTORIAN CHAIR VIGNETTE

It's been a minute! Sure, I've posted a couple of Halloween cards since Christmas, but those were done in advance, and I've been taking a bit of time off to get other things done. I haven't played over at Just Us Girls Challenge for quite a while and have been looking at their interesting mood board this week. I really enjoy mood boards because they can be so open to interpretation. It appears that this week's mood board is really more of a collage of winter/holiday images, but I went with the fashion magazine covers and changed them to shelter magazines by-passing the holidays - once a decorator...!

I'm not really sure that I like this card much, but I'm putting it out there. I die cut an ornate frame, cut an opening in it and inserted a montage that I cut from a magazine and inserted it for a background for the stamped, fussy cut, and Copic-colored Victorian chair (Stampendous "Damask Chair"). I white heat embossed the sentiment on black cardstock and die cut a small tag, which I then tied to the chair. I used dimensional foam to attach the chair and tag to the face of the card. 

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls Challenge #806 - Moodboard Week 

HAPPY HAUNTS

We're at the mid-point for our January Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge. If you haven't started a project yet, there's still plenty of time!

My second card this month is a continuation of the top right quadrant with the creepy house, trees, and pumpkins, but with the addition of a ghost, as in the lower left quadrant.

I had this idea to, instead of using a full background paper and making a scene to place the pumpkin and ghost against, that I would use the background paper to die cut a Tim Holtz haunted house and 2 trees. I placed them against a solid black panel to get the same feeling of a dark Halloween night. The sentiment is white heat embossed on a stitched die cut rectangular panel (Newton's Nook "Spooky Street") that I glued to a black card base. Then I layered the house, trees, pumpkin mug, and vellum ghost on the front of the card. You may recognize this mug that I used last month for a Christmas card! It's from Trinity Stamps "Boo Brew". 

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: January 2026 Mid Month Reminder

Now, your turn!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm not sure how 2026 came so quickly, but here we are nevertheless! As we come into the new year, Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge is offering up a new January challenge and here is the inspiration board prepared by our beloved blog owners, Diane and Darlene:

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: January 2026 Anything Goes Halloween 

Snow and pumpkins! So, here's my response to the rather creepy photo in the upper right hand corner. I'm not going to take you through all of the steps of this card - it got way too complicated with all of the layers, but the bulk of the images are from a fairly new-to-me stamp set from Newton's Nook Designs (Spooky Street), although it has a copyright date of 2014. Also included are several images from other old sets. I started it with a gray card base onto which I stamped the house, moon, trees, and snow. The tree in the foreground was stamped on the same gray card stock and fussy cut. The pumpkins were stamped in orange on yellow cardstock and fussy cut and the sentiment was stamped in orange and black.

Let's start out the year with some fun Halloween projects, because to participate at Two Old Bats Challenge you can do anything Halloween and you have all month to do it! Check on the spooky cards from the other ladies, prepared for your inspiration.     

CUP OF HOLIDAY CHEER

Here's wishing you and your loved ones all the best during this Holiday Season, and peace in the New Year. 

For this final holiday card I was inspired by the challenge inspiration board at Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #102. 

This card was made almost exclusively with scraps from my stash. The cup and foam are both from a Halloween die set - I love when I can repurpose my supplies for uses that are un-intended! The snowflakes on the cup are cut from a piece of die-cut snowflake border and I layered it over black holly paper. The large candy cane and wrapped candies are fussy cut from a scrap of printed light weight paper. I layered all of the pieces onto a black A2 card base, using a bit of dimensional foam behind the cup for dimension. 

 Peace On Earth Christmas : Peace on Earth Challenge #102

Added January 3, 2026:

SANTA'S COMING!

Christmas cardmaking is finally coming to a close! After retrieving all of the cards I had made during the year, plus some stragglers from Christmases past, I find I'm down to a last 9 cards that I need. So I chose a very easy layout that could be produced in a multiple of 9 and still get in the mail in time for Christmas. I looked to Peace on Earth Christmas: December 2025 Challenge #101 for inspiration. I remembered I had a very old rubber Santa stamp that I've never used.

I stamped Santa on kraft paper with dark brown ink, colored him with Prismacolor pencils and Copic markers, and die cut him with a square die. I mounted him with a red mat onto a slightly larger die cut square, and glued the layered assembly to a card base on which I had red heat embossed the sentiment. The final embellishment was to add a die cut Tim Holtz bow and greenery. Very easy, so I should be finished by the afternoon!

Peace On Earth Christmas : December 2025 Peace On Earth Challenge #101 

December 20, 2025:

THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

It's that mid-month reminder that we have 2 weeks left on the Two Old Bats final challenge of the year. You can still squeeze out a Halloween project between Christmas parties and New Year's celebrations.

I had promised myself no more Halloween paper, and then I saw this and had to have it - pumpkins hanging like Christmas balls! Perfection! Because of the vertical design of the paper, I felt that a slim line card would be best. I made a pale gray card base and attached a vertical panel matted with the backside of the paper. I white heat embossed the sentiment on more gray card stock, die cut a circle, and matted it with the back of the pumpkin paper. I glued it to the face of the card and added a black die-cut bat. Easy-peasy! 

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: December 2025 Mid Month Reminder

Check out the great cards the other ladies have made to inspire you! 

CELEBRATE THE SEASON

I'm still rushing toward getting enough cards to send out - Christmas is closing in on me! I have to finish up this weekend and also get the decorations out. But first things first...

I had two CAS challenges to inspire me - CAS Colours & Sketches: Challenge #575 -  Seasonal Challenge and Simply Clean & Simple: December 2025 Reds and Greens. For the CAS Colours & Sketches we're challenged to produce a card picking any CC&S color or sketch challenge from 2025. I chose colors from last month with red, green, and gold.

I think this card definitely qualifies as CAS! Sometimes CAS cards are the hardest in that I have to really discipline myself to just stop and not add any frills or embellishments. I used my favorite heavy watercolor paper and an old PTI stamp set "Holiday Lights". I stamped the string of lights in dark green and red, gold heat-embossed a sentiment from Hero Arts #CM379, and trimmed out the images with a stitched die cut rectangle. This seemed a bit bare so I added some cute little holly sprigs from the same Hero Arts stamp set and added gold berries with my gold Pen-Touch pen. I attached the panel to an A2 card base and stopped with that.

                          CAS Colours & Sketches: Challenge #575 - Seasonal Challenge

Added January 3, 2026:

Simply Clean & Simple: December 2025 Reds and Greens

MORE SEASON'S GREETINGS

Continuing my push to get Christmas cards finished, I'm still using challenges to inspire me. Today, it's Freshly Made Sketches, although you'll see that I rotated the sketch ninety degrees counter-clockwise.

I used a couple of different manufacturers' snowflake dies (PTI for the larger one and Penny Black for the top layer) for this card, die cutting them from heavy-weight watercolor paper. The background is an iridescent blue vellum matted with navy blue cardstock and glued to an A2 card base. The sentiment was silver heat-embossed on dark blue iridescent card stock and die cut with a tag die from Stampin' Up. The final step was to add a silver stick-on snowflake with rhinestone.

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #716 - A Sketch by Michele F.

 

A FASHIONABLE CHRISTMAS

A couple of months ago, while in my favorite art supplies store, I spotted a couple of die sets that I just could not pass up. They were Spellbinders "Gorgeous You Makeup Bag" and "Gorgeous You Makeup". I was thinking about some of the females in my family, so decided to splurge for Christmas gift card holders. This week I see that The Paper Players' Challenge #PP767 has a theme from Jaydee of "Gifting", giving me the opportunity to play with my new dies! I made one makeup bag for my 16-year-old granddaughter and plan another one for her mom.

I won't pretend that this die set was easy. There were lots of small complex pieces. For this card I started with some heavy red iridescent card stock for the main part of the bag. The set features a main shape that can be hinged to open for a cardholder. Also provided is a very intricately patterned die as an overlay. I chose to use black because of the Sephora black and white gift card. Other elements were die cut with silver metallic card stock and black shiny paper. I punched a hole at the  left top edge and tied on a red satin double bow.

For the inside, I added a silver heat embossed PTI sentiment and die cut the two semi-circle openings to slip in the card.

I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do to hold this card and opted for a custom envelope of brushed silver card stock that I lined with coordinating iridescent red lighter weight paper. Then to provide a tie, I silver heat-embossed an old sentiment from my stash onto more iridescent red stock, die cut a tag, and attached it to a larger Stampin' Up tag. I slipped in a lipstick from the 2nd die set and tied it off with a silver metallic ribbon. My granddaughter has quite an eye for detail, so I know she'll appreciate the extra effort I took for the presentation of her gift card. Now I need to get busy and get the second gift card holder made! 

The Paper Players: PP767 - A Theme Challenge from Jaydee

I also want to share this with NBUS - Never-Before-Used-Schtuff:

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #81

WHITE ON WHITE

I'm trying to up my game on Christmas cards so that I have enough to send out this year. I like using the challenges to get my brain oiled! AAA Card Challenge #305 - "White on White - White only" and Tic, Tac Toe #285 - Featured Designer Karren both looked like good candidates today.

I started my card with a 5-1/2" square top-folded card of my favorite watercolor paper. After die cutting a large circle from the same paper, I used an Anna Griffin Cuttlebug embossing folder ("Foundry") to emboss it for a circular background. I love that when embossed, watercolor paper becomes smooth. I die cut the leafy/flowery elements from PTI's "Lovely Layers" die set. This stamp set and matching dies has been one of favorites over the years. I've used it many times and never tire of it. I stamped the center medallion and heat-embossed it with Satin Pearl embossing powder and used a bone folder to crease the leaves and petals of the flower. 

After attaching the layered flower to the embossed background circle, I die cut an additional thin circle and tied a piece of thread to it. Finally, the small sentiment tag was heat embossed with the same Satin Pearl powder as the medallion and glued to the face of the card. I'm showing this card with a square white vellum envelope from my stash. I won't mail this card, but hand it out personally.  

AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenge #305: Anything CAS Goes, optional twist: white on white

For Tic, Tac Toe, I used the center horizontal - White/Free/Square:

 TTTC285- Featured Designer Karren - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

SECOND VERY DIFFERENT APPROACH

This is my second entry at the Time Out Challenges #303 photo inspiration - this time from scraps left over from the first card. After creating the earlier thank you card, I loved the color combination and thought it would make an interesting Christmas card. 

I had a strip of the deckled edge of the ecru pastel paper and a small edge piece of the filigree die cuts of gold vellum and sage paper. At one point I had thought to add some gold spatters to the earlier mauve panel, but then didn't like the clutter. I die cut a small stitched rectangle from it and glued on the filigree scrap. I added a couple of tiny Alexandra Renke village houses that I die cut from maroon card stock and a shiny gold die cut star. I glued the small panel to a slightly larger stitched rectangular panel of heavy watercolor paper. I stamped the sentiment with brown ink on the ecru paper scrap and glued everything to a 5"x 6-1/2" card base from watercolor paper laying here on my desk. I added dimensional foam behind the Christmas scene for a bit of pop.

I think I like this unusual little Christmas scene more than the first card. I wouldn't have thought to combine these colors for Christmas if they hadn't already been laying on my table. Sometimes we have these happy little surprises!

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge #303