SEPTEMBER MID-MONTH TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

Generally I follow the inspiration board our leaders have provided for us - but, in this case, I went off on my own because I have a brand new Tim Holtz die cut set that I wanted to try out. Plus, there's this lab beaker paper that I haven't used before and it seemed like a good choice with my "The Count" changed to a mad Dr. Frankenstein, as seen on Pinterest. I'll save the Count for another time. 

At any rate, I did use some of the same colors on this card as on the top right quadrant of our inspiration board. This Tim Holtz #665557 "The Count" die set is not for the faint-of-heart die cutters! There are so many layers, but I made it harder by changing him to a mad scientist. It seems like I either do my Halloween cards as CAS or very complex - very few in-betweens. 

Because of the vertical orientation of the die cut I chose to go with a slim-line card and coordinating envelope. After assembling the scientist I opted for using a turquoise background that looks like damask wallpaper and cutting a strip of the lab beakers paper, combined with a strip of "Fright Night" sentiment from some random scraps, which I glued to a strip of purple card stock that is trimmed out with a drippy border punch. This I placed over the turquoise background and matted with some diagonal coordinating paper. Before I attached this to the face of the black card base, I added a stamped spider dropping toward the shelf of poisonous beakers. I fussy cut some additional beakers and added them to the shelf with a bit of foam dimensional tape and glued Dr. Frankenstein to the face of the card.

The final step was to construct a slim-line envelope and add a strip of "Fright Night" sentiment to the flap. WHEW! Not an easy card to make and I think it's a candidate for a hand-delivered card, since I'm not sure it would survive the postal service.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: September 2024 Mid Month Reminder

 

SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAYS #2

In case anyone is interested, this is a follow-up post of the second twin birthday card. If it's not apparent by this card for my grandson, he's a HUGE soccer fan! He's currently playing on the varsity soccer team for his high school (not bad for a freshman) and next spring he'll continue on the local travel team where he's been playing for the last two years.

I knew I wanted to make a soccer-themed card for him, so had to go in search of a special stamp set or paper. I found this collection of  Authentique "Soccer Images" card stock with several coordinating 2-sided papers. I started with one of the images of the ball in the net, knowing I wanted to use it in the center of the card as the primary focus and the #15. I used PTI's numbers to die cut the numbers and stacked them with 4 layers of green paper and matted it with the same green (backside of one of the papers). Then I layered that a couple of more times with coordinating squares and attached it all to the face of a black square card base. Then I layered over die cut 'happy' (Hero Arts ) and 'th' and 'birthday' (PTI). The final step was a coordinating custom envelope.

The '15' doesn't show well on this photo, so here is a close-up:

Since this is all new 'schtuff' I'm sharing a second time at the September challenge for NBUS:

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #66 (mynbus.blogspot.com)

  

On a Personal Note:

It's hard to believe these two are twins - they're so different in appearance and personality. Colin was born 5 minutes after Alexis, and my son's joke is that it was the quietest 5 minutes of Colin's life! This is a photo of their "Moving Up" ceremony from 8th to 9th grades in June. Also present, their little sister.

SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAYS

This is birthday month in our family and I'm scrambling to catch up with all of the cards I need to turn out by the end of the month. I need all of the help I can get, so I turned to the challenges for a jump-start on the first card. Using the current Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #255, I selected the center down - Birthday/Rectangle/Die Cuts. I'm also playing over at The Paper Players #705 "A Theme Challenge from Joanne" - Spots or Stripes and combining the two challenges, which I always enjoy doing.

On Monday my grand-twins will turn 15, a fact that has me really scratching my head - how did this happen so fast? I was thinking about how my granddaughter is really emerging into a lovely person and I thought to use butterfly images and bright colors on her card. 

I started by constructing the butterfly by stamping my Kaiser Craft "Butterfly" three times - twice with Memento Tuxedo Black and once with black heat embossing. Then I colored all three versions with my Copic markers, fussy cut them and layered them together for dimension. On a white card base I layered a bright pink polka dot paper. Using a rectangular stitch die for the top layer of the card base, I die cut a smaller plain rectangular opening and stamped the sentiment from Hero Greetings "Mini Messages" #CM351 - I love these tiny sentiments! I inserted the butterfly and attached everything to the card base, folding up the wings and antennae for dimension. I added a teal rhinestone because my granddaughter likes a bit of bling, finished the inside, and lined an envelope.

Now I have to get busy with her brother's card. Later in the month the family is heading off to Europe to meet up with their grandfather, who's celebrating his 80th birthday. This birthday will be travel-themed, so I'm tucking Euros into their cards and buying them a couple of travel necessities that they may or may not really appreciate, although they will enjoy the Euros!

Here are the links to the challenges I'm entering with this card:

TTTC255 - Featured Designer Karren - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

The Paper Players: PP705 - A Theme Challenge from Joanne

Added 9/07/2024:

SEPTEMBER TWO OLD BATS HOLLOWEEN CHALLENGE

We've arrived at September, my favorite month of the year (many family birthdays and anniversaries)! Just look at the images for our Two Old Bats inspiration board - lots of bright colors.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: September 2024 Anything Goes Halloween

I particularly like the top right quadrant with the three trick-or-treaters and the moon, so that's where I decided to go.

Often, easiest is best. For this brand new September challenge, I opted for easiest since I have SO MANY birthday cards to make this month. I trimmed down some red-orange paper with printed moon crescent and bats and matted it with a coordinating diagonal striped paper from the remains of my Park Lane "Boo!" 12x12 stack (I still have quite a few bits and pieces left in my stash but very little large ones). I die cut 3 witches from black card stock (Whimsey Stamps #WSD488 "Monster Parade") and laid them over the paper after I had white heat-embossed the sentiment and attached all to a black card base. 

The fun part (for me) was finding appropriate jack-o-lanterns to fussy cut from other paper scraps for the witches to carry their candy home in. The final touch was to fussy cut one of the bats from a coordinating paper, glue him to the card, and bend his wings for dimension.

We had a great showing last month, so let's keep up the good work! We have two new fabulous prizes for the drawing if we reach 25 entries - and there's no reason why we won't, since we're drawing nigh to our favorite holiday. 

GO GET 'EM!

 

And because I've never used this witch die before, I'm sharing my card this  month with NBUS Challenge #66:

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #66 (mynbus.blogspot.com)