DECK THE HALLS

When I saw the current inspiration board over at Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge I knew I had to play along! All of these photos are beautiful, and I was particularly taken by the warm gray and silver/bronzy tones. 

 Peace On Earth Christmas : Peace on Earth Challenge #80

I chose to work with an old often-used die set from Penny Black (#51-561 "Snowflake Tag"), using it as a tree decoration. This card was made 100% from scraps and odds & ends. It's too bad that Diane and Darlene's newest challenge - The Neglected Stuff Challenge isn't due up until February 4th!

A couple of non-traditional materials included in the making of this card are the background metallic bronze paper - a paint draw-down (interior design parlance for submittals that a painter is required to provide for approval before proceeding with painting a space) and the middle snowflake piece is die cut from a sample of commercial vinyl wall covering. These are the types of things that end up in an interior designer's stash and linger there for years. 

I also used the very last sheet of one of the PTI small "Soft Stone" printed papers to make  my coordinating envelope (I used the printed side of the paper for the inside of the envelope) and a scrap for the top snowflake layer. Even the piece of iridescent satin ribbon was at the bottom of my ribbon scrap basket. The silver-embossed sentiment is from Hero Arts.  

PURR-FECT

Continuing in my CAS mode... I haven't played over at CAS Colours & Sketches for a bit and couldn't resist turning out another Valentine. Their Challenge #552 is a great layout for a CAS card and I'm all over that! 

You'll notice that I changed the format a bit to a vertical A4 because I thought my little kitty would work best vertically. I have this very old Inkadinkado stamp set that I've used so often, but have never used her image. I stamped her with black ink on white cardstock and fussy cut her out. I made a white side-folded card base and die cut a stitched panel from the same cardstock and tore the lower corner off. I then inserted some Valentine's Day card stock behind, attached both layers to the face of the card, and over-stamped the sentiment in black. I nipped off the top of a die cut heart and attached it to the kitty's mouth and glued her to the front of the panel with a bit of dimensional foam.

I liked this layout so much that I played with it some more with different papers, because I think I'll use this card as this year's Valentine for family and friends. Considering my reputation as "the crazy cat lady", it seems quite appropriate!

CAS Colours & Sketches: Challenge #552 - sketch 

YOU'VE GOT MAIL

And while I'm on a CAS kick, I popped over to The Paper Players Challenge #PP721, a Clean-and-Simple challenge from Jaydee - "Postman bring me a letter".

This is as CAS an it can get! I started with a white A2 card base and a slightly smaller matching white panel. I stamped the postage sentiment with dark gray ink and glued a die cut postage stamp from some white cardstock and printed paper over the top, after die cutting a small heart from the larger one and inserting a pink heart into the opening. I overprinted the postage cancellation stamp one more time and BAM! Done.

The Paper Players: PP721 - A Clean-and-Simple Challenge from Jaydee

Added January 25, 2025:

FOLLOW THE LEAD

The design team over at AAA Cards Challenge #282 has come up with a really fun challenge they're calling "Follow The Lead" that I couldn't resist! Marlies is this month's leader and she has produced this wonderful almost completely white layered die cuts card with a single red heart - how much fun is that? Our challenge is to create a card that in some way jumps off from her gorgeous card.

My approach to Marlies' card was to follow her idea with layered dies and a single red heart in the lower right corner:  

I started by die cutting a white cardstock stitched rectangle and then die cutting one of my favorite heart dies (Penny Black #51-182 "Fancy Heart") off the edge. I die cut the heart a second time and mounted it back onto the rectangular panel after adding the sentiment in red ink. I die cut one of the cute little birds and branches from My Favorite Things and added him, along with a tiny red heart, to the face of the top panel with some dimensional foam. The final step was to layer this panel over the face of a white card base with more dimensional foam.   

You really must go over to the link and check out all of the incredible cards that the design team has come up with, following Marlies' lead:

AAA Cards: AAA Cards Challenge #282: Follow the Leader

And while I'm sharing my card, I'm also dropping in at Diane and Darlene's Simply Clean & Simple January Challenge:

Simply Clean & Simple: Simply Clean & Simple January 2025 Challenge

WINTER WISHES

It's a three-day weekend here in the US and I'm easing into the weekend with a bit of cardmaking. There are a couple of  challenges with winter-like themes and it's quite cold here in my part of the country, although I doubt there will be any snow. My inspirational challenges for this card are Just Us Girls #758 - Mood Board and Inkspirational Challenge #333 - Word Prompt "Snow".

For the image I started with the center photo of the JUGS mood board of pine cones, boughs, and snow. I cut out some dies I've never used before from both Spellbinders (#S4-1135 "Christmas Blooms") and Tim Holtz (#666715 "Vault Festive Wreath"), using a bit of woodgrain kraft cardstock, brown, and a couple of greens. I die cut a scrap of white and green printed paper with a stitched rectangular die, mooshed on some green ink at the top, and matted it with some green cardstock. After stamping the sentiment at the lower end in dark brown ink, I arranged the pine cones and boughs and glued them to the panel. I prepared a top-folded card base by blind embossing snow on the top portion of the card and cutting and embossing an additional stitched rectangle. I glued all of the layers together and set about trying to figure out how to get the snow and then remembered that I have a jar of molding paste that I've never opened yet, so I applied some of that with a Tim Holtz stencil and shook on some glitter before it dried.

I think this photo shows the molding paste and glitter a bit better than the one above. Also, the woodgrain of the kraft cardstock shows up really well with this close-up photo: 

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls Challenge #758 - Mood Board Week

Added January 23, 2025:

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #333 - Word Prompt - SNOW

MID-JANUARY TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

It's mid-January in the first month of our 2025 Halloween Challenge at Two Old Bats! It's snowing in the graveyard and the ghosts are venturing out of the graves to take in some of the winter scenery.

This card was made mostly from scraps in my Halloween bin. I started with a couple of gray pieces that I stamped the graveyard scene on with black ink (Unity Stamps "Toil and Trouble).I trimmed out one of the pieces with a stitched rectangular die. I used Tim Holtz splatters with Hero Arts "Unicorn" pigment die and matted it to a black and orange scrap. Then I attached that to a side-folded white card base. The two ghosts were lingering in my scrap drawer and I glued them to the face of the card and layered the second fussy cut graveyard scene over them with a bit of dimensional foam. I added a couple of  pumpkins from a printed cardstock and then took a white gel pen to them and the graveyard images. 

You probably remember that this is the mood board from the first of the month that we could use for inspiration (or not):

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: Two Old Bats January 2025 Mid Month Reminder

And if we can get 25 of you to wrap your brains around the idea of Halloween cards in January, you may be rewarded by winning the drawing for these cute little space aliens from Whimsy Stamps:

MASCULINE VALENTINE

A couple of the current challenges looked like they were perfect for making a valentine for my hubba - Color Throwdown #824 - "Black, White, and Gray" and Just Us Girls #757 Word Week, "Masculine".

I fumbled around a bit and finally settled on an old PTI stamp from their "Love & Marriage" set that I think I've used only once before - I love this image, but forget that I have it! I stamped it twice with black ink - once on white card stock and again on gray cardstock - and die cut a heart (also PTI) from both images. I overprinted the tiny sentiment with silver heat embossing. Then I layered the gray heart over the black and white image with some black dimensional foam. I trimmed out the image with stitched rectangle and matted it with some of the gray stock. Before adding the various layers to a black card base, I edged the gray mat with silver embossing and added a tiny heart to the gray heart.

I think you can see the dimensional heart and silver embossing a bit better with this close-up photo:

Color Throwdown: Color Throwdown Countdown #824 

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #757 - Word Week

 

NAUGHTY KITTY

I'm sharing my bit of morning fun with a couple of my favorite challenges - NBUS Challenge #79 and Color Hues Challenge #TCH1010 - Red and Kraft. 

This is my second outing this month with Color Hues Red & Kraft. I think I mentioned in a previous post that I had received a new die set - Tim Holtz #666290 "True Love, Colorize" that I hadn't broken into yet, but I thought I would play with it later this week. Well, here we are. This is a really complex set of dies, so I didn't do the full box of chocolates. I just played with putting together the bottom box and three of the chocolate variations. And I just could not resist doing something with one of my beloved Tim Holtz Snarky Cats! Especially since naughty kitties were on my mind this morning as one of mine was on the dining room table raiding small pebbles out of the bottom of one of my pillar candle holders.

As usual, I had problems with photographing this card - my cellphone does not like red. I tried adjusting the color in my photo editing application, but couldn't quite get to the colors on the card. Suffice it to say, they are variations of red and kraft with a bit of brown thrown in.   

I started with a dark red 5-1/2" top-folded card base. I added a band of bright red to the lower part of the card and started assembling the box and some chocolates. I stamped my naughty cat and the sentiment with dark brown ink on kraft, colored the kitty with Copic markers and white gel pen, and fussy cut him. I trimmed the sentiment into a strip and adhered it above the red strip and glued the box of tampered with chocolates over, trimming the left edge. I attached the cat with a bit of dimensional foam and added some splatters here and there. The final step was to create a coordinating envelope that I lined with a bit of dark red vellum.

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #70

Color Hues: Color Hues Color Challenge #101 - Red & Kraft

QUILT BLOCK

I'm taking a break this morning from putting away Christmas decorations (such a chore) to do a quick response to a challenge that caught my eye - Inkspirational Challenge #332 "Pretty Quilt".

I have a set of dies that actually make a quilt square, but I decided to take a different approach for this birthday card for a friend. I think I'll also get out the quilt dies and play with them a bit for a Valentine's card later in the week.

In the meantime, the idea was to piece together several papers, stamp on some hand-stitching, and emboss the square to make it look quilted. I started by stamping an old PTI set ("Stitches and Swirls") on the lower corner of a 5-1/2" square card base with PTI "Enchanted Evening" ink. Then I die-cut a square out of the a slightly smaller white square, inserted a gray-green square, and stamped the stitched image again. I colored the leaves and flower centers with colored pencil and embossed the entire panel with a large Cuttlebug embossing folder ("Decorative Tile"). I attached this to the face of the card base. The final step was to heat emboss the sentiment with navy, trim it out with a square die and mat that with navy paper. This square also got a bit of blind embossing, using a smaller square die. I lined a white square envelope with a coordinating gray-green printed paper.

I came across an old card recently that is similar to this one. I made it some years ago, but wasn't really pleased because it didn't look clean. I liked the idea, but didn't like the execution. So this is a re-do of that old card. 

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #332 - Designer's Choice - Pretty Quilt 

 Added January 25, 2025:

SISTERHOOD OF SNARKY STAMPERS CHALLENGE #258

As the reigning Queen of Snark since December 10th, I'm guest designing on their first challenge of the year - an auspicious beginning, just saying! This challenge's theme is "NBUS". We all know what that means - Never Been Used Sh*t.

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #258 - N is for NBUS (Never Been Used Stuff)

There's a bit of a back story on this card. Four old colleagues (3 interior designers and an architect) started meeting last year on the 4th Tuesday of each month to taste wine and swap stories. I call our group the "4th Tuesday Whiners Club". One of our members is my former business partner of several years until she retired, and she has a birthday coming up in less than a month so I'm taking this opportunity to use this card for her birthday.

The NBUS things are, 1) sentiment from Unity Stamps, 2) background paper from Alexandra Renke, and 3) a technique I haven't tried before. I started with a square panel of Alexandra Renke printed paper that has a copyright date of 2017 (have I really been hoarding it that long?). The technique I started with was to stamp the wine bottle outline (Unity Stamps "Age Gets Better with Wine") directly onto the printed panel and color it in with my Copic markers. I was very surprised that I could get such good coverage because it seems like sometimes the inks on printed papers interfere with marker coverage. The wine label is from a local vineyard that is one of our favorites - Cliff Creek Cellars. I printed it from their website. This particular grape (Syrah) is one of my friend's favorite wines from this vineyard and my plan is to accompany this card with a bottle of the wine.

Once the wine bottle was completed, I masked it off and stamped the wine glass twice - once in place and a second time on white cardstock. I colored and pieced the wine glass over the image after coloring in the glass part with white Prismacolor pencil. Before gluing the glass in place, I stamped wine splatters over the area where the sentiment would be stamped. Even though I used black heat embossing on the sentiment, I'm wondering if I should have used white on it instead of black. I'm a bit disappointed with the lack of clarity of the sentiment. 

On a Personal Note: As I worked on this card today, I just couldn't resist photographing our two kitty brothers while they cuddled and slept in a chair by the living room window. This is Tux and Tiger and they are Chloe's boys.

FIRST VALENTINE OF 2025

Inspired by two challenges - Freshly Made Sketches #667 and Color Hues Challenge #101 - Red & Kraft, I set out this morning to make my first Valentine of the year. I love making Valentines almost as much as I love making Halloween cards! 

I started by creating a 5-1/2" square card base and cut two additional smaller square panels in white and kraft cardstock. I die-cut the top layer of Birch Press Design "Folk Art Heart" from the center of the white square and matted it with the kraft square, slipping a piece of red cardstock between the layers as the background for the layered heart. Then I die cut two additional layers of the pattern in kraft and a lighter color of red and glued them all in place, adding the final layer - the white top layer I had originally cut from the white square. I attached the layers to the face of the card and added a white heat-embossed sentiment on a strip of black cardstock and a double bow from Tim Holtz "Vault Festive Wreath". The final step was a tiny bit of bling with some small rhinestones. I'll make a coordinating envelope at a later date. 

I don't think I'll use this design for this year's edition for a couple of reasons - 1) it's too complex for an edition of 30, and 2) it's square and too expensive to mail out. I'll save it for someone special and hand deliver it. 

Here are the links to the two challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #667 - A Sketch by Cécile

Color Hues: Color Hues Color Challenge #101 - Red & Kraft

JANUARY 2025 TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

Oh my goodness, how did we ever make it into 2025 - and is everyone as happy as I am to see the end of 2024? 

And so the Halloween cards continue...

We have a new inspiration board! The obvious imagery for this month is snow - and oh, pumpkins. Generally by this time each year we would have had a bit of snow here in the Rogue Valley, but not this year. It has rained non-stop since Christmas and I would really welcome a respite from the damp.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: January 2025 Anything Goes Halloween

The main image on my card - the snow and tree outline - is a Christmas die with a snowman. I thought to just add a die-cut pumpkin head on top, but the scale was wrong, so I cut the snowman off and placed two ghost pumpkins (Tim Holtz) to the right corner. I blind-embossed snow from a Darice folder and glued it to the face of a black card base after slipping in a printed paper with eerie pairs of eyes in the night. I also cut out some of the eyes to use in the pumpkin's eye openings. The sentiment is cut from a piece of vintage Halloween paper. 

Let's get this year started!! Let's see what you can do with the new inspiration board - or whatever Halloween project you would like to share with us. Last month was understandably quiet, but if we can get to 25 entries this month, the random drawing will bring someone these really cute Whimsy alien dies:

  

2025 ARRIVES

And it's noisy and chaotic and I'm feeling the need to spend a couple of moments in reflection.

My husband gifted me a smart watch for Christmas. I had wanted one primarily to track my physical activity, but it does so much more than that. I'm not accustomed to paying a lot of attention to my heartbeat, so this is a bit of a change. One really interesting thing I've noticed is that my heartbeat drops by at least 10 beats per minute while I'm here in my craft room making cards! 

I don't have to think very deeply to come to the realization that for me making cards is truly an act of love. It calms me and keeps me in the moment - it's a very small thing, but it ripples outward in ways that I can only begin to sense.

From the beginning of this little blog (March 22, 2019), I've made a conscious decision to leave politics out of my posts and make this place one of peace and creativity and I will continue to do so - however, it's hard to think about leaving 2024 without some mention of our global chaos and how it tumbles out into our atmosphere in erratic and destructive patterns. If a small moment of calm and loving activity can break some of these patterns, that has to be huge.

So, for anyone who may find his/her way to my little blog, I wish the best for you in what will no doubt be a very challenging year. I hope you'll join me in setting aside time each day to perform or create a small calming act of love. It sounds silly to suggest that handmaking cards can solve the world's problems, but hey, we have to start somewhere, using the gifts we have!