JUST WING IT!

It's been a while since I played over at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge. This is the current challenge #TTTC180 and I selected the middle row across - Splatters/Any Sentiment/Circle. 

This was a very simple card to make. I started with a yellow scrap that I white heat-embossed the sentiment (Impression Obsession) onto and die-cut it with a circle die. I then die-cut a gray rectangle and stamped the "Batty Background Splatter" #CYN5479 from Your Next Stamp in black, laid over the yellow circle, and stamped it again to get the bat splatter onto the circle. I double-matted the gray rectangle with yellow and black and attached it to the face of a side-folded black card. The bat in front is fussy cut from a piece of printed Halloween cardstock and mounted with some dimensional foam. Easy-peasy.

 TTTC180 - Featured Designer Vicky - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

DECK THE HALLS

One thing I always struggle with when trimming my Christmas tree is when to stop. No, just one more bird or star over there, but then it needs yet another one for balance. "Less is More" never really seems to apply to Christmas decorations! It's no less of a conundrum when trimming a tree for a card! So, that's where we start today.

I started this card with two challenges in mind - Time Out Challenge #223 "Photo Inspiration" and CAS September Christmas Card Challenge "Sparkle and/or Shine". I wasn't very far into the project before I had to abandon the idea of it being a CAS card!

This thing is definitely multiple layers. The Tim Holtz tree is die cut from two different green cardstocks and pieced together over a gray printed rectangle triple matted with gray and white stocks. Once all mounted together onto a white side-folded card base, I started sticking and gluing multiple silver stars and small silver sequins, not knowing when to stop! The final layer was a dark green tag silver heat embossed with an old PTI Christmas sentiment and tied with multiple fine silver threads. The rectangles and tag are all from the same Dare 2B Artzy die set.

   TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge 223 - Photo Inspiration + Important Announcement

HEARTS & HOME

Today is my birthday, and on birthdays the rule in our household is that we can do anything we want. So, I slept in until 10:00 and went straight to my craft room/office to play! Today's offering is inspired by the combination of two challenges: AAA Cards Game Challenge #222 - "Colour Scheme + Dots or Spots" and Christmas Kickstart #66 - "Home for the Holidays". 

I think this is all pretty self-explanatory. The house and tree dies are a combination of Nellie's Choice #SD214 "Village" and Alexandra Renke #D-XX-AR-W0128 "Winter City". The splotches in the sky are from my old standby, a Tim Holtz Halloween rubber stamp set and the sentiment is Impression Obsession #CL971 "Holiday Words" heat embossed with Zing! Red. I also custom-lined a matching white envelope with red vellum but the reflection of the red played poorly with my cellphone lens and the photos came out bright pink! As it is, the colors still didn't present themselves as true to my card - the red house is more of a true red and the "pink" one is actually magenta. 

Here are the inspirations for my card:

 AAA Cards: Game #224: Colour Scheme

Christmas Kickstart Challenge: Christmas Kickstart Challenge #66 - Home for the Holidays

Added October 11, 2022:

LACE & BURLAP

Over at the current Inkspirational Challenge blog is #274 "Photo Challenge" that I decided to use for inspiration for a birthday card for one of my cousins. 

As simple as this card is, I won't pretend that it was easy! I didn't have enough kraft paper in my stash to make a folded card base, so started with white and pasted the layers on the face of it. The die-cut edge is an old die that I think is from Hero Arts, but I won't swear to that. The French script paper used for the left side and envelope lining is from my stack of neutral light-weight stock and the tag is a Dare 2B Artzy stitched tag that I heat-embossed with white powder. That was tied around the face of the card with some burlap twine.

 Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #274 - Photo Challenge (inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com)

WHEN IT RAINS IT POES

We woke up to rain this morning - what a relief after months of drought. I came into my office, turned on my computer, and found a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches #554 - A Sketch by Karren. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out some brand-new stamps that arrived from Clearly Whimsey Stamps last week. I had promised myself NO MORE STAMPS the rest of this year, but how could I resist "Poe Boy" - CWSD427? My maiden name was Poe, and I want to send special Halloween greetings to all of my Poe relatives!

This E.A. Poe stamp didn't come with the raven on his head - I masked off the skull and candle part of the raven stamp and then layered the Poe image over the top. After stamping in Memento "Tuxedo Black" dye ink, I die-cut the combined images with a Dare 2B Artzy stitched rectangle and colored the Raven's eye and Poe's face with some Copic markers. I punched a double rectangle opening into the left bottom corner and tied some gray and white baker's twin through the openings. I stamped a Tim Holtz cobweb on the side of a top-folded card base, white heat-embossed the sentiment onto a black rectangular scrap and glued it to the face of the card. Finally, I attached the image rectangle to the face of the card with dimensional foam and it's ready to send to one of the "Poe Boys"! I think I love this card!

BTW, I can't claim credit for the clever title for this blog entry - it's one of the sentiment lines from my new stamp set. I'm sure you'll be seeing more of these images and sentiments on my Halloween cards as the season progresses. Here's the sketch from Karren:  

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #554 - A Sketch by Karren

 

"K" IS FOR KRAFT

That's the prompt word at this week's Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #218, where I'm delighted to be guesting. I wasn't sure where to go with this, so decided on the most obvious direction - using kraft paper and envelope from my stash and because I've been thinking about Halloween cards. 

This is a new (to me) clear stamp set from Whimsey Stamps. I printed it on a piece of kraft cardstock with black ink and colored the jar and leaves with PrismaColor pencils. Then I punched the bottom with my very old drippy edge punch and grunged up the edges with more black ink. I re-stamped the image on both white and orange stock and cut out the skulls, pumpkin, and eyeball, touched them up with Copic markers, and glued them over the top of the kraft image. I used some dimensional foam on the skull and pumpkin. The final step was to white heat-emboss the sentiment and die-cut a Dare 2B Artzy #D148 stitched tag and tie it on with some green/black ribbon. The card and envelope are actually quite small (3-1/4" x 4-1/2"). And just for good measure, I added one of the Katzelkraft bugs to the back of the envelope!   

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #218 - Kraft

HALLOWEEN SEASON

This is the time of year that I start thinking about Halloween cards. I bought a couple of Park Lane cardstock pads that are printed on both sides, with the idea of making custom envelopes this year. Generally, I start each Halloween season with a card idea and build my envelopes around that, but this year I'm starting with a set of envelopes and utilizing the colors/patterns for use on the cards. This first one was inspired by the sketch provided by Cécile at Freshly Made Sketches #553.

Using one of the gray patterned papers, I stamped and black heat-embossed the sentiment in the center of a stitched rectangle and die cut three squares from the face. I layered the squares with red-orange cardstock and glued them on. I double-matted the gray patterned square with red-orange and black cardstock and mounted all of the layers onto a white side-folded card base. I then die cut some PTI leaves and a bat from black cardstock and glued them on the card, along with some orange and black sequins.

Here's a "teaser" photo of some of the envelopes I made that I'll be designing cards for as the season progresses:

 Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #553 - A Sketch by Cécile  

 

BOO!

Continuing with the September challenge at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, for this card I selected the bottom right quadrant, with the word "Boo" and a ghost. 

The primary images I used for this card come from Tim Holtz - the spider web in Memento "Tuxedo Black", the splatters in white heat-embossing, and the die-cut ghost. The letters were stick-on letters from an old Halloween Memory Keepers "Spookville" scrapbook pad. The final step was a die-cut bat from an old holiday die-cuts set. The background color came out a bit redder with my cellphone than it actually is - it's a red-orange light-weight paper from my stash.

Go on over to the Two Old Bats Halloween site for inspiration from the rest of the Design Team - you still have plenty of time!

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: SEPTEMBER Anything Halloween

MUSICAL THANKS IN EBONY & IVORY

I think I've mentioned here before that my husband sings with the Southern Oregon Repertory Singers, a local 65-voice semi-professional choral ensemble. He asked me to make a thank you note for their conductor, Dr. Paul French, as an appreciation for his commitment to the group. 

I wanted to make a card that was simple, masculine, and represented the theme of music. What better way to do that than to use one of the pieces the group is singing in the upcoming concert? 

I started with an ivory watercolor side-folded card and matching envelope by Strathmore. I selected and photocopied the page of music onto an ivory cardstock, trimmed a smaller rectangle, and adhered it to the face of the card. I also die-cut an Alexandra Renke flower from the same printed cardstock. I die-cut a Tim Holtz deckle-edge rectangle and stamped the sentiment from PTI "Embroidered Blooms" in black and kraft and attached it over the printed music rectangle. The final step was to mount the die-cut bloom to the card with dimensional foam and add three little tan pearls. I lined the coordinating envelope with a lighter-weight sheet of ivory paper that I had photocopied the sheet music onto.

I'm sharing this card over at the Less is More Colour Challenge #473 - "Black & White". I think this card is still CAS, although I may be pushing the boundaries a bit by making my card off-white and black and adding three tiny embellishments!

"Less is More": Challenge #473 - Black & White (simplylessismoore.blogspot.com)

 

TRY TO BE A RAINBOW...

 "Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."

-Maya Angelo-

A wonderful quote from a fabulous writer - and the current challenge at Time Out Challenges #222 "Inspired by Words". And I have the happy honor as this challenge's Guest Designer!

I have to admit to struggling a bit with this card. I knew what I wanted to do but wasn't quite sure how to go about doing it. The image and sentiment are from a small 2016 Hot Off the Press clear stamp. I stamped the image onto a piece of white cardstock with Memento "Tuxedo Black" ink and colored the sun with Copic markers. Then I used colored pencils to hand-color the rainbow. It didn't turn out as well as I wished but it's okay. The final step on the image before die-cutting it with a Stampin' Up "Framelits - Chalk Talk" tag, was to use a couple of gray Copic marker colors for shading on the cloud and rain droplets. I die-cut two stitched rectangles out of matching cardstock and stamped the sentiment on the smallest one. To balance the colors, I threaded 6 pieces of colored twine through a double rectangular punch and mounted both rectangles to a top-folded card. I did add an extra layer of cardstock behind the top layer to account for the thickness of the twine. (BTW, the 6 pieces of twine were not an easy thing to do to get them all pulled through in a rainbow's order of colors! The green twine I had in my stash was too thick to use, so I colored a piece of thinner white twine with a green Copic marker.) The final step was to mount the tag/image on the face with some dimensional foam.

Now it's your turn! Take an inspirational look at what the Design Team has done and go for it yourself! You have until September 21st to let your creativity shine.  

We are sponsored by Lawn Fawn. Winner gets a $25.00 gift certificate.

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge 222 - Inspired by Words

VELLUM

I love vellum and I've collected a lot of it over the years, but I never know quite how to use it - or I forget I have it. So, when Less Is More Challenge #472 - "Use Vellum" showed up recently it seemed like a perfect opportunity to use up a couple of vellum scraps. 

I used some wonderful LCI Paper ivory textured cardstock to make an A2 side-folded card and then die cut a stitched rectangle and a stitched circle opening from the other half of the sheet. I stamped and heat-embossed a sentiment from Hero Arts + Gina K. #PR101 with Recollections "Champagne" embossing powder onto a scrap of ivory-toned vellum that has a slight horizontal stripe in it and glued that to the back of the rectangle. This was all adhered to the face of the card with dimensional foam so the vellum would be pulled away from the back. Over this I glued a die cut flower from the same matching cardstock with a Sizzix/Tim Holtz #661808 flower. The final step was to add three tiny champagne sequins and line a matching ivory envelope with an old piece of printed iridescent vellum from my stash.

After I finished, I wished I had put a circle opening in the face of the card base as well so that the vellum would be completely translucent. Maybe I'll try that sometime.

"Less is More": Challenge #472 - Vellum (simplylessismoore.blogspot.com)

SEPTEMBER IS BIRTHDAY MONTH...

...in our family. This card is intended for my husband's birthday mid-month. I was inspired by a couple of challenge blogs: Inkspirational - Designers Choice - "Repetition", Shopping Our Stash #478 - "Animal Antics", and Just Us Girls #649 - Trend Week "Repetition, Repetition, Repetition" (Is that enough repetitions?). 

The creatures I used for this card are from an Avery Elle #ST-19-08 "Peek-A-Boo Pets" set, and the beer mugs (my repetitive image) are from a very old St. Patrick's Day stamp. I stenciled directly onto the face of a top-folding white card with some blue ink and glued the dogs and cats directly over that background, after coloring with Copic markers and fussy cutting them. I die cut a stitched opening into a white panel that was trimmed slightly smaller than the face of the card and mounted it over the background and animals with dimensional tape. I fussy cut the Copic-colored beer mugs and glued on left paws to the handles, attached them to the face of the top panel, and added the right paws. The sentiments were stamped and glued on last. 

Inkspirational: Challenge #273 - Designer's Choice - Repetition (inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com) 

Added September 24, 2022:

Shopping Our Stash Weekly Challenge Blog: SOS478 - Animal Antics

Added September 25, 2022:

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls Challenge #649 - Trend Week

HAPPY HA-LLAMA-WEEN

Today marks the beginning of my new Design Team tenure at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge. Halloween cards have been my favorite kinds of cards for quite some time now, so this is a great opportunity to be creating them year-round and using my extensive stash of Halloween supplies. The September Inspiration Board features one quadrant with a llama, which is the direction I decided on for this card.

This stamp set is several years old, and I have no idea who the manufacturer is. I started by stamping the mummy-llama with black ink on a stitched rectangle die cut white card stock piece and colored him with a Copic marker. Then I masked him and stamped a Tim Holtz spiderweb in PTI "Soft Stone" and a very old splotch stamp with Memento "Pear Tart". The final step on the white rectangle was to black heat emboss the sentiment. I stamped the 3-legged llama on a separate piece of cardstock, colored her and her pumpkins with Copics markers, and fussy cut her out. I attached her and the additional pumpkin to the face of the card with dimensional foam and matted the rectangle with orange cardstock to the face of a top-folded black card.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: SEPTEMBER Anything Halloween

There are plenty of image ideas in this Inspiration Board that I know you'll have fun with, and I look forward to seeing the cards that show up in the gallery! Also, take a look at the great cards my fellow DT members have created.