MID-DECEMBER REMINDER - TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

We're now nearing the end of 2024 and this is a reminder to get your projects finished up for the December Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge. Halloween, you say? Yup, we're crazy about Halloween at this challenge and make Halloween projects or cards all year long - even during other holiday celebrations!

I'm continuing with my second parody of Christmas sayings, as promised. This aligns with the lower right-hand quadrant of our December mood board. I used the second sentiment from my creepy Park Lane "Haunted Hollow" stack, coordinating it with one of the pages with large coiled snakes and spider webs. Depending on how you feel about snakes, this one is actually creepier than the one I made for the first card of the month.

I started by cutting a 12x12 sheet in half and then folding it into a 6x6 top-folded card. I cut out the sentiment and layered it over a filigreed rectangular die, using the backside of the paper, then matting the two layers with a scrap of taupe-toned paper. I fussy cut a coiled snake from a coordinating paper in the stack and slipped it between the layers with some black foam dimensional tape. The final step was to line an existing black square envelope with the same side of the paper as the card base.

  

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: December 2024 Mid Month Reminder

We still have these cute Whimsey alien dies to give out if we reach 25 cards or more.

BEAR-Y CHRISTMAS!

This is the next card made with the small images from my Hero Arts #CM386 "From the Vault - Winter Joy" stamp set. I still have one more image left, but I'm running out of time! I'm sharing this with the current Peace on Earth Anything Christmas Challenge.

I was really pleased with this card until I photographed it! I obviously used a different white card stock for the top sentiment layer. I swear that the color difference between the layers is only visible in the photo. Starting with a top-folded white card base, I die cut a stitched rectangle, embossed it with my snow embosser, and cut an oval from the center. I stamped the image twice - once on white that I colored with my Copic markers and a second time on iridescent blue vellum with white heat embossing for the sky and snowflakes. I fussy-cut the little guys and layered them over the blue panel. Then I added another layer of snow that I had stamped the sentiment on and all layers were die cut with a stitched oval die and mounted in the center. Beware the yellow snow!

Over at Peace on Earth the vehicle images are all gas-powered, but my little guys prefer a bear-powered sled to move through the snow. 

Peace On Earth Christmas : Peace on Earth Challenge #78

PERSONAL CHRISTMAS CARD

If this looks familiar, it's a simplification of the card in the previous post - cut down to an A2 size and fewer layers so that it would be easier to duplicate. I added a silver heat embossed edge around the coral printed paper.

The interior is equally simple, using an old sentiment from my stash and Tim Holtz splatters.

I'm sharing this with Christmas Kickstart before the current challenge ends:

Christmas Kickstart Challenge: Challenge #93 - Reminder

JOYOUS HOLIDAY

I'm sure I'm not alone in starting out with an idea for a card and ending up with something completely different! I've been mulling several ideas around in my head for our 2024 personal holiday cards. After several tries I ran this one past my husband and he likes it enough to request it as the main one we'll send out. I started by wanting to participate in the Tic Tac Toe Challenge that just posted today. My first choice was to do a White on White/Frame/Metallic (top across), but as I played with it I felt compelled to add a bit of one of my favorite colors. This threw me into one of the diagonal choices - Metallic/Embossing/Die Cuts - where I landed. 

I used a pre-made Strathmore card base with matching A7 envelopes. I haven't designed the inside yet but will work on that this week. By the time I work with this a bit there may be some changes to make it a bit more simple for a production of 25 or so cards. I'll post the completed card in my Christmas Gallery when it's ready.

I can hardly resist using my Alexandra Renke "Winter Village" dies each year for at least a couple of my cards. I die cut several of the buildings and trees from the same paper as the card base and mounted them onto a printed rectangle of dark coral card stock (the other side of this paper is rows of gifts with bows - I love both sides, but especially the coral side) that I had added some Tim Holtz spatters in silver heat embossing. I matted it with a couple of layers of additional rectangles and attached it to the face of the card. The sentiment was also silver heat embossed and the final layer was an old star cluster die that I have used many, many times.

TTTC262- Featured Designer Betty - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Our very busy and productive friends Diane and Darlene have a challenge that I wasn't aware of (who can keep up with them?!) specifically for CAS projects. I am SO there! This will be my first entry into their challenge - Thank you, Darlene, for calling it to my attention.

Simply Clean & Simple: Simply Clean & Simple December 2024 Challenge

PEACE ON EARTH

Hello, all! Today I'm offering up a big wish for Peace on Earth. I know that's a big ask, but it starts with the individual and ripples from there. Diane and Darlene have the right idea with their Peace on Earth Challenge, and I'm joining them today. They gave us a great mood board for inspiration, but I'm taken by their lovely blue and white mast head and wanted to follow that with my entry.

I'm also continuing with playing around with my Hero Arts  #CM386 "From the Vault - Winter Joy" and the tiny images on this set. I think I have now used three of them and have a couple more left. I particularly like the one I used today with it's 1-1/4" square postage stamp. I stamped it with PTI "Enchanted Evening" ink and cut it out with a square die. Then on a 5-1/2" white card base I mounted a series of white die cut frames with the matching card stock and placed the postage stamp in the center opening. The final step was to layer a silver metallic star from Tim Holtz to the face. 

Peace On Earth Christmas : Peace On Earth Challenge #77

And I'm continuing to share these little images with the group at NBUS because they are all never before used:

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #69

DECEMBER TOB HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

It's December and we have a new Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge up! While everyone is rushing to finish up their Holiday cards, here we are at TOB continuing with our Halloween images. 

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: December 2024 Anything Goes Halloween

The ladies have posted some creepy images for your inspiration! My theme this month is to use sentiments that are parodies of old Christmas sayings, like the lower right quadrant. For the past couple of years I've been using card stock from this really creepy Park Lane "Haunted Hollow" 12x12 stack. It's filled with bats and spiders and snakes and skulls and the colors are very somber. But I love it! One of the pages has a bunch of sentiments, two of which have ones that mimic Christmas and I started there (you'll see the second one on our mid-month reminder).

These paper selections have a vaguely mauve undertone so I dug through all of my scraps and came up with a mucky mauve stock to mat the sentiment with, after punching drips along the bottom of it. Then to set it out against the skull paper, I matted it a second time with a drippy black panel. I attached the square skull panel to a side-folded square black card base and added the sentiment over the top and off-center. Then I fussy cut one of the bats from a coordinating paper, folded his right wing for dimension, and attached him to the front for balance. EEK!! The skull cardstock is backed by a mostly black background with skulls and leaves, so I made an envelope to match.

I look forward to seeing what kinds of clever ideas you come up with to mix the holidays with Halloween! Remember - if we get 25 entries in our challenge, these great Whimsy dies are available for a drawing!

BE A DEER

My old friends over at The Paper Players are playing with a theme challenge from LeAnne - "Be a Deer" and I thought I would like to join them in the fun. I have only one item in my stash with a deer and I dragged him out for the first time this season, although he has been a mainstay of my collection of winter/holiday creatures for several years. I love deer and it's actually quite an amazement that I don't have any others in my stash anywhere.

I'm really partial to square format cards, so square it is! Since my little deer is whimsical I wanted to use papers and shapes that were less realistic than LeAnne's lovely blue and white image. I opted for a very old light blue polka dot paper from my stash, die cut it, and attached it to a white 5-1/2" square card base. I selected a darkish blue and turquoise polka dot card stocks to die cut with Tim Holtz's "Forest Shadows". I layered these on the lighter blue and then added a couple of layers of white edge-stitched snow drifts and an Impression Obsession sentiment and attached my little deer.

The Paper Players: PP718 - A Theme Challenge from LeAnne 

WARM HUGS

BTW, how the heck did we get to December so soon? Last week I commented on a stamp set that I have that has several small holiday images - this is the second one from the set from Hero Arts (#CM386 "From the Vault - Winter Joy"). I'm joining Inkspirational's Mood Board, where at the bottom right part of the board is a little village of houses with a black sky and stars. There are so many appealing images in this mood board that I may have to enter this challenge more than once! 

This card is a bit more complex than it appears at first glance. I started it by stamping the image twice - once on black with white heat embossing and once on white with black ink. I colored the white image with Copics, fussy cut it, and glued it over the black sky and tree. Then I die cut a small scrap of white cardstock with a stitched "cloud" outline and stamped the sentiment with PTI "Fresh Linen", glued it to the black stock, and die cut all of the layers with a small stitched rectangular die. I die cut a white cardstock panel with a larger stitched rectangle and then die cut a stitched opening in it. I used an embossing folder to emboss the snow and assembled all of the layers onto a black card base. I wanted a bit of sparkle, so added three rhinestones to the stars in the sky.

Inkspirational: Challenge #330 - Mood Board

Added December 21, 2024:

 And because I haven't used this particular stamped image before, I'm also sharing it with NBUS:

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #69