ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER CARD!

I'm playing with challenges again today, and using the layout at Freshly Made Sketches #701 - A sketch by Jen and the colors by Seize the Birthday #312 - Black & White. 

For the layout, I rotated the sketch 90 degrees and used an old PTI birthday die as the columns on the FMS sketch. Starting with a white card base, I attached a die cut stitched rectangular panel. The birthday dies were cut twice and layered in black, silver, and gray card stock and attached to the face. The final "greetings" sentiment was heat embossed in silver, cut in a strip, and attached with black dimensional foam to stand out from the face a bit.

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #701 - A Sketch by Jen B

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #312-Black and White

2ND POST OF THE DAY!

Well, this was fun - I think I'm on a roll! This time I'm inspired by two challenges -  Color Throwdown #839 and Inkspirational Challenge #349 - "Add a Tag".

The colors for Color Throwdown are obviously aqua, red, and white! I did add a tiny bit of silver on the sentiment and the center of the poinsettia. The tags are really old dies and I don't remember who manufactured them. I stacked two shapes together, punched a hole in the top, and tied some aqua bakers twine through the hole. I attached the tags to the face of a white card base that I had silver heat-embossed with a sentiment - I glued dimensional foam to the back of the tags so that I could slip small die cut leaves behind. The foliage and floral dies are from Spellbinders "Christmas Blooms". I believe I purchased these sometime last year, but I don't think I've used all of the images before.

Links to the two challenges:

Color Throwdown: Color Throwdown Countdown #839

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #349 - Designer's Choice - Add A Tag

HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

I've been pretty much MIA for the past couple of weeks. It's been crazy busy, with the ending of summer and the beginning of the school year. My husband teaches at a local private college prep high school - he's going into his 40th year at the school and he'll be retiring at the end of this school year, in June 2026. It feels like this summer has been socially busier than in the past and we've also been working in the garden and preparing for retirement. I'm hoping things will return to some sort of normalcy after this long holiday weekend. It was great to take my coffee into the craft room/office and actually work on a fun challenge. 

I'm slipping in to the end of the August Peace on Earth Challenge #94. Each of the quadrants of the ladies' inspiration board features Christmas sheet music and that caught my eye.

I remembered that I had this old PTI "Songbirds" stamp and die set that I haven't used for quite some time, and that seemed appropriate as I play with a new-to-me Tim Holtz die set (#666715 "Vault Festive Wreath"). I wanted this card to have an old-fashioned and textural look to it and used some pieces of kraft wood-textured card stock for the background and wreath base. Rather that use bright green foliage, I opted for some green stripe printed stock. The candles and banner are die cut from heavy ivory watercolor paper scraps. 

Here's the great inspiration board:

Peace On Earth Christmas : Peace on Earth Challenge #94

HAPPY HALLOWEEN - EEEK!!

Hello, all of you ghoul lovers! This is our reminder that we still have 2 weeks left on our current August Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge. 

For this card, I had some bits and pieces from a previous attempt that I never used and they've been languishing in my stash for a couple of years. I love it when I can use up old scraps and reorganize them! I started with a printed image that I had fussy-cut from some really old printed cardstock. It seemed appropriate for this month's challenge, although it is a bit creepier than the skull and flowers our leaders have included in the mood board.  I thought it would be fun to stamp the sentiment onto a band of red-orange paper and thread it through the eye socket - YUCK, creepy! I prepared a side-folded pale gray card base and then picked up some of the colors of the bird/skull image - mauve textured die cut stitched rectangle, aubergine die-cut filigree frame, and red-orange mat. The skull, raven, and sentiment were attached to the card front with dimensional foam.    

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: August 2025 Mid Month Reminder

We're still hoping to get 25+ challenge entries so the ladies can have a drawing for these Whimsy Stamps alien dies, and the last time I checked it seemed quite possible:

DONNA'S BIRTHDAY

We're sitting here in record-breaking heat today - 107 degrees F yesterday and expecting the same for the next couple of days. I worry about our feral cats, but they always seem to manage to survive. I'll make sure they have plenty of cool water on the covered patio.

Today is my friend Donna's birthday, and for inspiration I went to a couple of challenges:  AAA Cards Challenge Game #296 "Sketch" and Tic, Tac Toe Challenge #276.

I started this card with a white A2 card base. I die cut an oval out of a piece of tissue to provide a mask and taped it to the front of the card, stamping the Hero Arts sun image in black. Using my Copic markers, I colored the sun and sky. The PTI sentiment was over-stamped and black heat embossed. That's it! I'll just lay low for the rest of the day and stay inside.

Here are the challenges:

   AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenge #296: Sketch Challenge  

Added August 24, 2025:

For this challenge, my card will fit into a couple of these rows - right down, CAS/Sentiment/Embossing and middle down, Summer/Free/Single Layer.

TTTC276- Featured Designer Design Team X - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

AUGUST TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

It's always hot here in southern Oregon in August, so it's a good time to stay inside and make more Halloween cards. Our two favorite 'old bats' have provided some cute images this month to give us a kick-start. Of course you're not required to use the mood board, but I generally like using it for at least one of my cards each month. Let's see what you come up with:

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: August 2025 Anything Goes Halloween 

I was drawn to the haunted house in the lower left corner and loved all of the green, pink, and purple tones. 

My card has so many layers - I started with a green card base and a matching panel from the same card stock. I stamped a Newton's Nook tree, a couple of Tim Holtz bats, and the sentiment with black ink on the green panel. Then I started layering moon, die-cut stitched clouds, and foreground, continuing to over-stamp the tree and bats with black ink. Once all of these layers were completed, I trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangular die, matted it with black cardstock, and mounted all of the layers to the face of the card base.

The haunted house (Tim Holtz) was die cut from some aubergine card stock and backed with a scrap of bright pink paper that I stamped a couple of partying zombies on in purple. My last step was to fussy cut a couple of tiny ghosts to join the zombie party.

If you've come here first, go over to the TOB blog and see the wonderful cards our Design Team is offering up for your inspiration. 

AND...we still have these cute alien dies from Whimsy Stamps to give out if we reach 25 entries: