SANTA'S COMING!

Christmas cardmaking is finally coming to a close! After retrieving all of the cards I had made during the year, plus some stragglers from Christmases past, I find I'm down to a last 9 cards that I need. So I chose a very easy layout that could be produced in a multiple of 9 and still get in the mail in time for Christmas. I looked to Peace on Earth Christmas: December 2025 Challenge #101 for inspiration. I remembered I had a very old rubber Santa stamp that I've never used.

I stamped Santa on kraft paper with dark brown ink, colored him with Prismacolor pencils and Copic markers, and die cut him with a square die. I mounted him with a red mat onto a slightly larger die cut square, and glued the layered assembly to a card base on which I had red heat embossed the sentiment. The final embellishment was to add a die cut Tim Holtz bow and greenery. Very easy, so I should be finished by the afternoon!

Peace On Earth Christmas : December 2025 Peace On Earth Challenge #101 

December 20, 2025:

THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

It's that mid-month reminder that we have 2 weeks left on the Two Old Bats final challenge of the year. You can still squeeze out a Halloween project between Christmas parties and New Year's celebrations.

I had promised myself no more Halloween paper, and then I saw this and had to have it - pumpkins hanging like Christmas balls! Perfection! Because of the vertical design of the paper, I felt that a slim line card would be best. I made a pale gray card base and attached a vertical panel matted with the backside of the paper. I white heat embossed the sentiment on more gray card stock, die cut a circle, and matted it with the back of the pumpkin paper. I glued it to the face of the card and added a black die-cut bat. Easy-peasy! 

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: December 2025 Mid Month Reminder

Check out the great cards the other ladies have made to inspire you! 

CELEBRATE THE SEASON

I'm still rushing toward getting enough cards to send out - Christmas is closing in on me! I have to finish up this weekend and also get the decorations out. But first things first...

I had two CAS challenges to inspire me - CAS Colours & Sketches: Challenge #575 -  Seasonal Challenge and Simply Clean & Simple: December 2025 Reds and Greens. For the CAS Colours & Sketches we're challenged to produce a card picking any CC&S color or sketch challenge from 2025. I chose colors from last month with red, green, and gold.

I think this card definitely qualifies as CAS! Sometimes CAS cards are the hardest in that I have to really discipline myself to just stop and not add any frills or embellishments. I used my favorite heavy watercolor paper and an old PTI stamp set "Holiday Lights". I stamped the string of lights in dark green and red, gold heat-embossed a sentiment from Hero Arts #CM379, and trimmed out the images with a stitched die cut rectangle. This seemed a bit bare so I added some cute little holly sprigs from the same Hero Arts stamp set and added gold berries with my gold Pen-Touch pen. I attached the panel to an A2 card base and stopped with that.

                          CAS Colours & Sketches: Challenge #575 - Seasonal Challenge

Simply Clean & Simple: December 2025 Reds and Greens

MORE SEASON'S GREETINGS

Continuing my push to get Christmas cards finished, I'm still using challenges to inspire me. Today, it's Freshly Made Sketches, although you'll see that I rotated the sketch ninety degrees counter-clockwise.

I used a couple of different manufacturers' snowflake dies (PTI for the larger one and Penny Black for the top layer) for this card, die cutting them from heavy-weight watercolor paper. The background is an iridescent blue vellum matted with navy blue cardstock and glued to an A2 card base. The sentiment was silver heat-embossed on dark blue iridescent card stock and die cut with a tag die from Stampin' Up. The final step was to add a silver stick-on snowflake with rhinestone.

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #716 - A Sketch by Michele F.

 

A FASHIONABLE CHRISTMAS

A couple of months ago, while in my favorite art supplies store, I spotted a couple of die sets that I just could not pass up. They were Spellbinders "Gorgeous You Makeup Bag" and "Gorgeous You Makeup". I was thinking about some of the females in my family, so decided to splurge for Christmas gift card holders. This week I see that The Paper Players' Challenge #PP767 has a theme from Jaydee of "Gifting", giving me the opportunity to play with my new dies! I made one makeup bag for my 16-year-old granddaughter and plan another one for her mom.

I won't pretend that this die set was easy. There were lots of small complex pieces. For this card I started with some heavy red iridescent card stock for the main part of the bag. The set features a main shape that can be hinged to open for a cardholder. Also provided is a very intricately patterned die as an overlay. I chose to use black because of the Sephora black and white gift card. Other elements were die cut with silver metallic card stock and black shiny paper. I punched a hole at the  left top edge and tied on a red satin double bow.

For the inside, I added a silver heat embossed PTI sentiment and die cut the two semi-circle openings to slip in the card.

I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do to hold this card and opted for a custom envelope of brushed silver card stock that I lined with coordinating iridescent red lighter weight paper. Then to provide a tie, I silver heat-embossed an old sentiment from my stash onto more iridescent red stock, die cut a tag, and attached it to a larger Stampin' Up tag. I slipped in a lipstick from the 2nd die set and tied it off with a silver metallic ribbon. My granddaughter has quite an eye for detail, so I know she'll appreciate the extra effort I took for the presentation of her gift card. Now I need to get busy and get the second gift card holder made! 

The Paper Players: PP767 - A Theme Challenge from Jaydee

I also want to share this with NBUS - Never-Before-Used-Schtuff:

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #81

WHITE ON WHITE

I'm trying to up my game on Christmas cards so that I have enough to send out this year. I like using the challenges to get my brain oiled! AAA Card Challenge #305 - "White on White - White only" and Tic, Tac Toe #285 - Featured Designer Karren both looked like good candidates today.

I started my card with a 5-1/2" square top-folded card of my favorite watercolor paper. After die cutting a large circle from the same paper, I used an Anna Griffin Cuttlebug embossing folder ("Foundry") to emboss it for a circular background. I love that when embossed, watercolor paper becomes smooth. I die cut the leafy/flowery elements from PTI's "Lovely Layers" die set. This stamp set and matching dies has been one of favorites over the years. I've used it many times and never tire of it. I stamped the center medallion and heat-embossed it with Satin Pearl embossing powder and used a bone folder to crease the leaves and petals of the flower. 

After attaching the layered flower to the embossed background circle, I die cut an additional thin circle and tied a piece of thread to it. Finally, the small sentiment tag was heat embossed with the same Satin Pearl powder as the medallion and glued to the face of the card. I'm showing this card with a square white vellum envelope from my stash. I won't mail this card, but hand it out personally.  

AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenge #305: Anything CAS Goes, optional twist: white on white

For Tic, Tac Toe, I used the center horizontal - White/Free/Square:

 TTTC285- Featured Designer Karren - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

SECOND VERY DIFFERENT APPROACH

This is my second entry at the Time Out Challenges #303 photo inspiration - this time from scraps left over from the first card. After creating the earlier thank you card, I loved the color combination and thought it would make an interesting Christmas card. 

I had a strip of the deckled edge of the ecru pastel paper and a small edge piece of the filigree die cuts of gold vellum and sage paper. At one point I had thought to add some gold spatters to the earlier mauve panel, but then didn't like the clutter. I die cut a small stitched rectangle from it and glued on the filigree scrap. I added a couple of tiny Alexandra Renke village houses that I die cut from maroon card stock and a shiny gold die cut star. I glued the small panel to a slightly larger stitched rectangular panel of heavy watercolor paper. I stamped the sentiment with brown ink on the ecru paper scrap and glued everything to a 5"x 6-1/2" card base from watercolor paper laying here on my desk. I added dimensional foam behind the Christmas scene for a bit of pop.

I think I like this unusual little Christmas scene more than the first card. I wouldn't have thought to combine these colors for Christmas if they hadn't already been laying on my table. Sometimes we have these happy little surprises!

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge #303  

   

SO GRATEFUL

I've had so much fun interpreting the beautiful inspiration photograph at Time Out Challenges #303! These beautiful young women in their festive dress just really make my eyes happy! So, where to start? I selected the young woman on the left with the incredibly beautiful mauve silk embroidered dress and coordinating sage-toned shawl. Then I started digging through my dies and papers to see if I could match up the colors and style of the embroidery with my supplies. For this card I was looking at the embroidered edge of her sleeves. I was also drawn to the beautiful henna patterns on all of their hands - well, maybe another time!

Photo Credit: Ishani. Dharamsala, India. Date 16 Apr 2024 

I die cut a filigree decorative edge die twice - once in gold vellum and a second time in sage and layered them with a slight off-set. The original packaging is long-gone for this die, so I don't know whose design this is. I had some ecru pastel paper that provided the card base and framed panel. I slipped a scrap of mauve textured paper behind the frame that I had gold heat-embossed the sentiment from PTI "Lovely Layers". I have to confess that I didn't set out to make a thank you card, but selected the sentiment for the type style and scale of the opening. I glued all of the layers together and used a bit of gold Pen-Touch as accent on a couple of places of the gold filigree die. 

Thank you, Ishani, for the gorgeous photo inspiration - the possibilities seem endless!  

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge #303

MERRY & BRIGHT

Continuing with my new Recollections dies with all of the bows, here's my next foray into the land of bows! My original inspiration is over at The Paper Players and Claire's TicTacToe Challenge. I decided on the left down - White/Christmas/Die Cuts.

I'm really pleased with this card. I recently bought a 12 x 16 pad of heavy (140 lb) watercolor paper. I love working with it for cards because the texture is so nice - it's really great for mostly white cards like this. I made an A2 side-folded card base and then die cut a stitched panel for the front. I stamped the Tim Holtz Halloween splatter and the "& BRGHT" sentiment with PTI "Ocean Tides" ink. I die cut PTI's Christmas words from the same watercolor paper, but added a second layer behind to have them pop slightly. The bow was die cut from textured red card stock. The die is in two pieces, but I added another layer to the lower loop and knot of the bow for a bit more dimension and added the spray of pine and branch die cut from small scraps of PTI "Ocean Tides" card stock.

Here's the link to Claire's TicTacToe Challenge:

The Paper Players: PP766 - A Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge from Claire

Added December 6, 2025:

While I'm at it, I thought to also add this card to the following challenges:

Christmas Kickstart Challenge: Challenge #105 - If It's Christmassy, Link It Up!

Word Power: Word Power December 2025 Challenge

DECEMBER TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

As the sign in our new December inspiration board says, "It's the most spooktacular time of the year"! Hopefully you'll be able to squeeze out some time in this busy season to turn out  a Halloween project or two. 

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: December 2025 Anything Goes Halloween

I looked at the porch decorations above in the top right quadrant of our board and decided to try my hand at a Halloween wreath. I started with an orange card base and added some printed paper for background. I die cut a couple of bare Tim Holtz Christmas wreath forms from black cardstock and glued them down to the face of the card and started building the wreath with fussy-cut pumpkins and skulls, and die cut bats. Finally, I added a strip of cream paper with the sentiment.

If you look at this close-up, you'll see that I also glued on a bunch of googly eyes in lieu of sequins or enamel dots.

It's your turn! Check out what the other ladies have come up with to inspire you. Remember, you don't have to stick with a card - you can make anything Halloween. 

BOWS, BOWS, BOWS

I think I mentioned in one of yesterday's posts that I'm currently going through an obsession with layered bows, and have been playing with a new die set from Recollections with several different bow types. I'm having great fun with it!

So, as inspiration, I played with AAA Card Challenge #304 - A Sketch Challenge. I was looking for an excuse to line up three Christmas packages with large bows.

Last year I bought some fun 2-sided printed card stock in a close-out at my favorite art supply store. It's printed by Dare 2B Artzy (North Pole Holidays). I made an A2 top-folded card base from watercolor paper and die cut a slightly smaller stitched edge rectangle and stamped a sentiment from my stash with red ink and glued the panel to the face of the card. Then I fussy cut three packages from one side of the paper, lined them up in a row, and added matching layered bows. CAS, CAS, CAS! I used the same printed paper to make a matching custom envelope. 

 AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenge #304: Sketch Challenge