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.

CREEPY & KOOKY

As we start into June, it's time once again for a new inspiration board at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge! This month our board is all about June weddings and skeletons. 

https://twooldbatshalloweenchallenge.blogspot.com/2026/06/june-2026-anything-goes-halloween.html

But, I'm fresh out of ideas for Halloween weddings and decided to go with an unrelated theme in gray tones - no skeletons or pumpkins.

The background for this card is a circular graveyard die scene that I've had in my Halloween stash for quite a few years. I top-folded a piece of pale gray cardstock into a 5-1/2" square and die cut a circle in the center of the front that is slightly smaller than the graveyard scene - then I glued the scene to the back side of the front and added a pale gray-green liner inside the card, with an almost white full moon. I splattered some dark gray ink on the lower front of the card and added a two-layered LDRS Creative "Large Word Halloween" die sentiment. The final addition was a dark gray die-cut Dracula from Whimsy Stamps "Dracula Going Batty. The coordinating gray envelope is custom-made from skull and crossbones printed card stock.

Maybe in a couple of weeks I can "scare up" a wedding-themed card for the mid-June challenge! Check out what my fellow design team members have come up with - very creepy! 
 

FOR THE GUYS

Tomorrow will be June already, and I have birthdays and graduations to contend with. So, without further ado, I submit my first birthday card, following instructions over at Inkspirational Challenge #368 - Word Prompt - "For the Guys." This is for my son who is becoming decidedly middle aged. He'll be 52 on Thursday!

These quirky characters are from Whimsy Stamps "So Weird" CWSD473. I stamped the bull in brown on a scrap of white cardstock, then stamped just his face in black on tan paper and fussy-cut it and glued over the brown image. The bird was over-stamped in black and colored with yellow marker. The hog was stamped on tan with black ink, fussy-cut, nose colored, and attached over the bull with an additional thickness of card stock for a bit of dimension. I added the sentiments from Avery Elle's "Peek-a-Boo Pets", die cut the images with a deckle edge die, and attached it with a brown mat to a top-folded black card base.

For the inside, I stamped the sentiment from the "So Weird" stamp set onto a deckle-edged panel. The final step was a custom coordinating tan envelope lined with black and white polka dots.

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #368 - Word Prompt - For the Guys 

PINK PUMPKINS AND SKULLS AND GHOSTS, OH MY!

Continuing with our pink-themed May Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge...

This card is made almost entirely of Tim Holtz Halloween die cut images of pumpkins, skulls, and ghosts. I layered and attached them to a black A2 card base and die cut stitched rectangular panel. The sentiment is another old rubber sentiment stamp that I black heat embossed onto some layered Stampin' Up tags. That's it, and now it's your turn! You still have 2 weeks...

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: May 2026 Mid Month Reminder

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: