AUGUST TOB MID-MONTH REMINDER

Mid-August and time for the reminder that we are half-way through our current Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge. If you aren't already working on your Halloween project, there's still plenty of time.  

For my entry, I once again selected the lower left turquoise quadrant as my inspiration - I love this color, although it's a bit unexpected on a Halloween card. 

I die cut an old circular graveyard die (don't remember whose die this is) with black cardstock and laid it over a turquoise circle that I had stamped Hero Arts clouds onto and blended white ink along the edges. Then this circle was matted with a larger white circle and glued to a black top-folded card base that I had white heat-embossed with a sentiment from Impression Obsession #CL553 "Is the Moon Out Tonight?" The white border around the sentiment was added with a white gel pen. Finally, I attached one of Tim Holtz's ghosts die cut from white cardstock. The coordinated envelope was custom-made from some of my favorite two-sided printed card stock.

Here's the link to our challenge:

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: August 2024 Mid Month Reminder

There's so much to be inspired by with this month's challenge mood board. But remember that you can enter anything Halloween!

We've had a good turnout this month, so it looks like the ladies will be able to have a drawing for those great gifts - watch this space!

 

'S' IS FOR SUMMER

WOW, two days in a row with new cards to share! Today I'm inspired by the ladies over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers. A lot of the challenges are featuring summer and summer travel right now, but I'll just stay with the snarky ladies because I'm not sure the other challenges would appreciate my sailor's mouth on the inside of my card!

I was thinking about a couple of years ago when three other lady friends and I went off to a week in Kauai, leaving our spouses behind. I would have loved to have this card at that time to send to my husband back home holding down the fort.

I used a new sun stamp I found in a sale when I went searching for tropical images for the cards from yesterday. I masked off a horizontal line on a piece of white cardstock and stamped the image (Hero Arts #H6356 "From the Vault Etched Serene Sun") with PTI "Orange Zest" ink and colored the image with yellow and orange Copic markers. The next step was to create the water with Hero Arts #CM316 layers, using several gray and blue tones. Then I went over the waves with a bit of blended yellow and a bit more blue and blended a sky. I over-stamped the sentiment with some dark gray and glued my creation to the face of a top-folded square card base. I die cut a frame from the same card stock and attached it over the image with dimensional foam.

Inside, I generated the sentiment on my computer, die cut it with a square die, blended a bit of blue for sky, and added birds from the same stamp set as the waves. I double-matted the square with a bit of lighter orange scrap and white cardstock and attached it to the inside. Finally, I fussy cut a couple of empty Adirondack chairs and glued them to the inside.  

So, here's where this card is headed:

  Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #253 - S is for Summer

TROPICAL THANK YOU

It's been a while since I made a card that isn't a Halloween one! 

The organization that I volunteer for regularly had its annual luau last week and I agreed to make some thank you cards for the groups that performed for us - a hula dance group, Samoan dancers, and a Hawaiian ukulele player. The entertainment was terrific! I had absolutely nothing in my stash that was remotely tropical or Hawaiian so I had to hit a sale at my local crafts store to come up with appropriate images. 

I started with this lovely American Crafts printed paper ("Tropical Garden") that I die cut with a stitched rectangular die and attached to the face of a top-folded white A2 card base. Then I die cut a Hero Arts #D1649 "Leaves & Vines Fancy Die" from the same white card stock and attached it over the face of the printed paper. The sentiment was white heat-embossed on a turquoise scrap and die cut with a stitched tag and tied with orange raffia. I glued the tag to the face and fussy cut and layered on an orange hibiscus blossom from the printed paper. I'm pleased with the outcome.

I think there are a couple of different places I can share my project:

All of the above is using completely new-to-me and never before used, so I'm sending it over to the NBUS Challenge #65 for August.

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #65 (mynbus.blogspot.com)

And since I used some pretty printed paper, I'll add this to Diane and Darlene's new challenge blog:

Love Those Pretty Papers Challenge: Love Those Pretty Papers August Challenge  

 

AUGUST TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

Well, it's August and we have a brand new challenge at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge! I know I say this every month at this time, but how did it get to be August? The ladies have a great inspiration board for us, but you can do anything Halloween if the board doesn't inspire you. Generally I stick with something on the board, and this time is no different - I love the turquoise colors of the lower left quadrant and the upper left quadrant with the skeleton sitting on a pumpkin. The only thing missing here is a cat, unless you count the two that tried to photobomb while I was shooting my pics! 

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: August 2024 Anything Goes Halloween

I started this card with a side-folding black A7 card base. On a turquoise spider damask printed paper I stamped and black heat-embossed the tail of an Inkadinkado witch to make it look like steam coming out of the die-cut pumpkin cup, adding a black sentiment. I also heat- embossed the swirl with white and orange on the same background paper and fussy cut stars, pumpkins, and skulls from it to paste over the black swirl. The skeleton is one of my favorite often-used images, stamped with black on white, fussy-cut, and tucked behind the cup.

I added a couple of Whimsey Stamps bats and black twine. Finally I added some candies, fussy-cut from the printed paper I used for the coordinating envelope.

Last month's challenge entries didn't get quite up to 25, so we still have these great goodies for a drawing: