VALENTINE'S KISSES

In December I won a challenge over at Time Out Challenges in which I was given a gift certificate for Birch Press Design and I couldn't pass on using it toward this charming "Folk Art Heart" layered die (among others!) and I've been wanting to play with it. The die is actually 3 layers, but I only used Layers A and C for this Valentine's Day card. I wanted to do a CAS card for AAA Cards Challenge #257: Anything CAS goes (Valentine's Day) and Tic Tac Toe Challenge #239. Sadly, I'm not sure I'm going to really get any Valentines mailed this year, but I will make a couple for family members.

This card was started with a 5-1/2" square white card base and a 4-3/4" square white panel. I die cut Layer C from the center of the smaller square panel and backed the opening with some PTI printed paper in "Blush". The tiny sentiment was stamped from "Hero Greetings" #CM351 with PTI "Hibiscus Burst" ink. Layer C of the die was cut from PTI patterned stripe in "Hibiscus Burst" and layered into the heart opening of the smaller panel and the final white cardstock layer went over that. I added a tiny die cut heart from PTI to accent the sentiment and pulled through some dark pink thread and a couple of clear crystal beads to embellish it.

When I opened the package from Birch Press Design, they had also included some beautiful bonus envelopes!  The one in these photos is a 5-3/4" square iridescent bright pink one.

AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenges #257: Anything CAS goes (Valentine's day)

For the Tic Tac Toe Challenge I am entering this card for the diagonal row: Punch or Die Cut/Patterned Paper/Pink.

TTTC239 - Featured Designer Jeanie - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

PAPER HUG

We lost a close friend this past week and I've struggled with sympathy cards for his daughter's family. I thought I would like to send a separate card to his young grandchildren because they were such loving troopers through a two-week hospice period. His youngest granddaughter (9) brought her sleeping bag to his bedroom and slept in his room every night, while the others (14 and 16) visited every day and played their musical instruments and sang to him and held his hand. Surrounded by such loving company he passed peacefully. 

I had wanted to participate in the Moodboard challenge at Just Us Girls #710 because I loved all of the comforting images. Honestly I hadn't intended to make this challenge into a sympathy card, but as I worked on it, it occurred to me that it would be very appropriate in this instance for our friend's grandchildren. 

I started with a dark gray textured card base on which I mounted a white textured and die-cut stitched rectangle. The little stuffed animals are from AALL & Create (#249 "Dog Toys") and I stamped them on gray patterned paper, colored over them with Copic markers, and fussy cut them to attach to a dark gray panel. I also stamped the body of the little guy in front with a stripe pattern and layered it over him and also stamped a stitched heart from the same stamp set. Then, there was the sentiment included with the set and I added it and a messy stitched Tim Holtz image with white embossing powder. I also added some Tim Holtz splatters in black behind the stuffed toys.

I finally bought some white card stock last week at Michael's and I'm not happy that it isn't really white. It looks like I'll have to go online and find some pure white 110 lb. stock. At any rate, here is a link to the challenge:

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #710 ~ Moodboard Week (justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com)   

TIME OUT CHALLENGE #255 - "INSPIRED BY WORDS"

Last month I won the Time Out Challenge #252 "Winter/Holiday" and today I'm Guest Designer for the new challenge! I was delighted when I was assigned "Inspired by Words" and it turned out to be this beautiful haiku poem by Basho Matsuo (1644-1694), the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan:

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge 255 - Inspired by Words

Britannica.com says this about haiku "...the haiku remained an art of expressing much and suggesting more in the fewest possible words".  I knew I had to do a CAS card!

I started this card with my last sheet of white cardstock! I folded a 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" piece to form an A2 card. I die cut a pale warm gray textured stitched rectangular panel and stamped a PTI "Fancy Flourish" with Memento "London Fog" ink and over-stamped a snow flurry and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. I added a bit of tone in the sky with some blended London Fog. The sentiment from PTI's "Winter Hills" was stamped with London Fog on white card stock. Two small panels of white stock were trimmed down and die cut at the top and layered onto the warm gray panel. Finally I die cut a couple of trees with white stock and a small cabin with gray - all three dies are part of Alexandra Renke's "Winter Village" die set. I finished by custom making a coordinating envelope and lining it with a pale gray-green paper.      

This challenge is sponsored by Stamp Simply and a $25 gift certificate for their products will be awarded to the winner of this challenge!

JANUARY MID-MONTH REMINDER - TWO OLD BATS

January 16th already, which means it's time to remind our followers of the "snowy" January Two Old Bats Anything Halloween Challenge!

I decided to combine several of the images from our Mood Board - pumpkin, skull, bat, and snow. I started with a black side-folded card base and a gray stitched rectangular panel that I used a flurry embossing folder on. On a smaller stitched gray panel I stamped Tim Holtz's "Happy Halloween" with Memento "Black Tuxedo ink. Then I stamped it a second time on white and a third time on white with orange ink. I fussy cut the orange pumpkin (and colored in his features with a yellow Copic marker) and the white skull and candle and glued them each over the image. The final step was to white heat emboss some snow from Tim Holtz's Halloween splatter, add some snow to the "Halloween" with white gel pen, and glue this with a black mat over the flurry embossed panel. I did add some white gel dots over the snow on the flurry panel and created a coordinating envelope that I took a yellow Copic marker to for the pumpkins and cat eyes.

I admit to being stumped by what I would create for the reminder post, but I'm happy with this card. 

Here's the mood board and link to our challenge so you can join us:

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: January 2024 Mid Month Reminder

You still have a couple of weeks left in the month, so get crafting! Remember that you can choose not to follow the mood board and can do anything Halloween - and you can enter more than once. If we get to 25 or more entries there is a drawing for a special gift. Check in with our Design Team members to see their very creative inspirational cards.

HELLO

Well, I finally replenished my white cardstock supply! Today I thought I would like to play around with a new butterfly stamp set that I picked up at Joanne's on sale right after Christmas. The Paper Players and Anne Marie have a new color challenge using the colors black, white, and a bold pop of color. It seemed like a good excuse to say hi to my friends over at TPP!

This little fussy-cut butterfly is from Park Lane and I stamped her with Memento "Tuxedo Black" ink and colored her heart with a Copic marker. I die cut a square from a stitched rectangular white card panel, black heat embossed the sentiment, and layered it over a black panel with a smaller square die cut in black cardstock. The pattern in the background is a die-cut filigree heart attached from the back and I laid the entire panel over a piece of bright turquoise vellum. The final step was to attached the butterfly with dimensional foam. 

The Paper Players: PP672 - A Color Challenge from Anne Marie

SNARK NEWS

The Sisterhood of the Snarky Stampers is back after a respite, and their new challenge is #246 - "N is for New", in which we're challenged to use something new that we haven't used yet. I opted to also play with the word a bit to say how I feel about the New Year. Also, my card is using pieces cut from The New York Times.

Some months back I won a challenge (don't remember which one) and I was gifted with a certificate from AALL & Create, and one of the stamp sets I ordered was  #771 "DEE Quips" designed by Janet Klein. This is the first time I've used it. I started with a black card base that I attached a die cut rectangle of textured craft card stock. Then I used newsprint from the front page of  a New York Times. I didn't find newsprint to be a particularly good medium for die cutting - there was some wrinkling involved, but hey! I used PTI's number dies and stacked them to fit onto an A2 card. The sentiment was white heat embossed on black and glued to the face. The photo and envelope lining are both from the opinion page of The New York Times.

I have to admit to being a bit of a news junkie, but I generally tend to keep my political opinions out of my blog. I think I can make an exception here because it seems that the "Sisters" don't really concern themselves with offending anyone! 

So, I submit "N is for New": New Year, new stamp set, The New York Times, and newsprint.

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #246 - N is for New

Added February 6, 2024:

NEW POST, NEW YEAR, AND NEW DIES

"New" is the catch phrase this week at two different blogs: Time Out Challenges #254 - "New" and NBUS #58 - "Never Before Used Schtuff". In that vein I set out this morning to make a birthday card for my former business partner/good friend that I recently visited with in Las Vegas. This week is her 81st - I can hardly believe it. It seems like it was just last year that we took off to Kauai with two other designer friends for a week to celebrate her 75th. 

Last month I won first place in Time Out Challenge #252 and my prize was a gift certificate for Birch Press where I ordered a couple of their fabulous dies and they sent along a couple of additional surprise dies from Memory Box and this "Ruffled Poppy Stem" #94667 was one of them - this is the first time I've used it. Anyone who has been following me lately knows I ran out of white cardstock over Christmas and still haven't replenished my stock. Besides which, I've been on a black cardstock binge and thought this simple image would look great against a dark background.

Thinking that solid black would just be too plain, I decided to use an old filigree background  rubber stamp and black heat emboss it on a black stitched die-cut panel. I love this effect and I'm going to have to do it again soon! I matted the panel with gold and red cardstock and attached it to a top-folded black card base. After die cutting the poppy's petals I used a white Prismacolor pencil and added an extra layer of gold stamens behind the center black ones. Finally, I die cut a stitched tag, stamped the birthday sentiment from PTI, and tied on a small piece of gold ribbon.   

These are the links to the two challenges I'm entering:

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge 254 - New + Introducing New Design Team Members

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #58 (mynbus.blogspot.com)

BRAND NEW CHALLENGE!

From our intrepid challenge blog owners, Darlene and Diane, comes a brand new challenge! You have to check this one out - what a great idea!

https://wordpowerchallenge.blogspot.com/

This challenge will be a month-long one starting on the 1st Thursday, ending on the last Thursday of every month. This is a chance to make use of your sentiments that might be languishing in your stash. The idea is to feature the sentiment in a prominent position so that when the recipient opens their envelope it will be the first thing they see. No tiny one-word sentiments allowed! Follow the link above and check out all of the rules.   

I'm dedicating this first card to Darlene and Diane for all of their hard work and as a Happy New Year message to the beginning of the blog.

I started this card with a 5-1/2" square top-folded black card base (I ran out of white card stock over the holidays and haven't replenished it yet - but that's okay because I love black cards!). I cut a smaller square of the same stock and stamped and gold heat embossed some confetti from an old stamp set. Using PTI's large numbers, I die cut 24 and matted the square with gold card stock and attached it to the card base. I popped up the numbers with 4 layers of black stock and before gluing them to the face, I heat embossed the sentiment onto gold stock (Hero Greetings #CM495), die cut a tag (Dare 2B Artzy "Rectangle Framelits #D148), and tied it to the #2 with some gold thread. It sounds easy enough, but it took me ages to pull this all together because I couldn't settle on whether I wanted to add 20 above the 24, but in the end decided against it.

So, come and join all of us at Word Power Challenge Blog and support Darlene and Diane's new venture!

JANUARY 2024 TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

WOW! How is it possible that we're into the beginning of 2024? I just completed an entire year of Design Team activities here at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, and I want to say how much I've enjoyed my time here! This challenge always gives me a chance to exercise the quirky side of my personality, and I love that by the time I get to Halloween I have all of my cards done and ready to be mailed out. 

To start the New Year, Diane and Darlene have a great mood board for us full of snow and cats and skulls, oh my:

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: January 2024 - Anything Goes Halloween

I chose the bat portion of the top right quadrant and lazed out with just a panel of printed Halloween paper that I stamped the Impression Obsession sentiment onto and black heat embossed it. I added a mauve mat and attached everything to a black card base. That's it!  

Come and join the rest of the Design Team on our first outing of 2024! We still have a gift to give away if we get to 25 cards. The team has some great ideas for you to get you moving!