CONTINUING HOLLOWEEN COUNTDOWN

 Back again with another Halloween Card! The image and sentiment are from a new rubber stamp set from Unity - "Spooky Spirits". The two old printed papers are from my stash - probably from the last century.

I attached the 'Boo!' paper to an orange scrap and the face of a square black base. Then I cut another square of printed cobweb paper and white heat embossed the sentiment. (Speaking of the sentiment, I'm a bit OCD about the improper use of apostrophes, but for the sake of time I left this one alone.) I stamped the martini glass on a scrap of white stock, cut it out, and colored it. I also replaced the two eyeballs on the original image with a couple of crazy pumpkin heads. This card didn't quite turn out like I wanted, but here it is and it will continue my countdown for Halloween cards. I like the background paper because of the 'Boos!' and searched my stash for a coordinating paper for the center square, but kind of missed on this one.

I'm sharing this card over at Love Those Pretty Papers, where the optional challenge is to use fall papers. I don't know how 'pretty' these papers are but they are fall.

Love Those Pretty Papers Challenge: ATG Using Pretty Patterned Paper September Challenge

HAPPY FALL!

AHHH, my favorite time of the year! I was wanting a break from Halloween cards (although I still need a couple more), so the Freshly Made Sketches current challenge provided a nice respite. 

There's not much to say about this card, as it's so CAS. The vining pumpkin image is a really old stamp set - probably one of my first fall stamps. I stamped it with PTI "Ripe Avocado", repeating the image across the full width of the white card stock panel. Then I added the sentiment from Impression Obsessions #WP684 "Leaf Set" and colored the pumpkins with my Copic markers. The final steps were to trim out the image by die cutting a stitched rectangle, attaching it to the face of a white card base, and creating a custom envelope.

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #655 - A Sketch by Jen B

On a personal note:

I've been planning for some time to share our new pollinator garden with you. I've made mention several time of it since it's been a 2-year project in the making. We completely tore out the front lawn that went almost down to the street and have replaced it with a smaller lawn area and lots of bee and butterfly-loving native grasses, shrubs, and perennials. 

Here is the day in October 2022 where everything had been removed and the area to become lawn was being leveled and prepared for irrigation:

And here is a shot from the same angle showing the newly renovated garden yesterday morning:

The lawn and plants near the entry were installed in July 2023 and the plants here on the slope were just put in this past May. We're really pleased with the outcome, as are the bees and butterflies - then there's the cats... So far the playful kittens have only destroyed one plant. By next year I'm hoping they can find other forms of entertainment!

Did I mention we have a community of now 15 feral cats that call our property home? They're all spayed and neutered and have been named, so I doubt they're going anywhere else anytime soon.

HALLOWEEN #2

Well, I'm on a roll with Halloween cards today and having fun with TIME OUT Challenges #272 - "Snarky". Snark happens to be one of my favorite forms of expression - Halloween or otherwise! 

I used an image from Whimsy Stamps #CWSD388 "Zombie Party" and he's pretty disgusting! I stamped him in black on a white panel then masked him off and stamped a pale gray spider web background from Impression Obsession. Then while he was still masked off, I overprinted blood splats and green spatters. After coloring him with my Copic markers, I over-stamped the first line of the zombie sentiment from Tim Holtz and die cut the panel with a deckle rectangle. I smeared some light ink around the edges and mounted the panel to a green mat that was also smeared and smudged a bit. Once this was completed, I white heat embossed the second line of sentiment onto a black panel and trimmed it. I attached the black rectangular sentiment to the card with a strip of black foam dimensional tape.    

The envelope was a slightly off-white one from my stash that I lined with printed paper and stamped the 'BUUUURP' sentiment in green just below the edge of the flap. This is one of the sentiment lines from the Zombie Party stamp set.

That should do it for me today!

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge #272 - Snarky

Added October 3, 2024:

BECAUSE YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH HALLOWEEN CARDS...

Even though I am part of the Design Team at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, and I create 24 Halloween cards a year for the challenge, I'm still about 6 cards short for my total 2024 mail-out. So I decided to start working on some other challenges using Halloween themes. My first effort here is for Inkspirational: Challenge #325 - Word Prompt - "Headwear". 

This was so much fun - but then, aren't Halloween cards always?! I started with this cute black cat wearing a witches hat from some printed papers last year that I still have in my stash - Park Lane "Boo!". I fussy cut her from a larger sheet and then cut an additional hat and added a colored band, die cut purple bat, and black feather with bead. I stamped and black heat embossed the sentiment from Impression Obsession #CL553 "Is the Moon Out Tonight" on 3 different papers and pieced them together for strips of color. This I added to a black card base after matting it with red-orange dotted paper. I glued kitty to the face of the card and added her hat with black dimensional foam and bent the bat's wings a bit.

It wasn't until I copied the Inkspirational badge here that I realized it has a feather on it like my kitty's hat!

Inkspirational: Challenge #325 - Word Prompt - Headwear (inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com)

Added October 12, 2024:

SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAY CARD #3

Continuing with the run of September birthday cards, here's #3, my dear husband's card for his birthday tomorrow. I always do something that is specific to the interests or personalities of my loved ones when I create a card. In this case, my husband was a wine wholesaler before I met him and he has kept up with his active interest in wines over the years. We're fortunate that we live in a great wine-growing region here in southern Oregon.

As additional inspiration I went over to AAA Card Challenge #274: Sketch, where we are challenged to use overlapping images with a bit of transparency.

I used a new Unity Stamp Company rubber stamp collection: "Age gets Better with Wine" that I purchased a month or so ago. I find I can never have enough wine-related stamps in my stash!

On a 5x7 white card base I started with some red wine-colored spills and splotches and some PTI "Scarlet Jewel" ink. Then I stamped the left hand bottle and the spilling glass in black ink, masked the first bottle, and over-stamped a second bottle. I colored them with Copic markers so that they appear to be empty (as they would be, if they're anywhere near us!). Then I went in search online to find two of his favorite southern Oregon red wines, scaled the labels to fit these bottles, and fussy cut the labels to add to the bottles - he'll recognize them immediately. I wanted to add another scattered background in gold to match with the sentiment, but first I stamped it in Memento "Bamboo Leaves" so that it would look like the bottles were in front of it, and then later over-stamped and gold heat-embossed it.

The inside is made up of two other Unity Stamp Collection - "Let's get 'Sip' Faced" and "Drink & Cuss". 

AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenges #274: Sketch

I'm also participating over at Inkspirational - Designer's Choice, "Make Your Mark":

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #324 - Designer's Choice - Make Your Mark (inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com)

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)