Sympathy Card

I did not intend to make a sympathy card when I was inspired by Just Us Girls Challenge #814 to use an embossing technique on a card. But, as I was sitting down to do a card, I got one of those phone calls that are becoming more common in my advanced age - the tragic loss of a dear friend of more than 50 years. This card is for her family. 

I knew I wanted to keep this as simple and refined as I could, so chose simply to white heat emboss an old Impression Obsession rubber stamp image onto black textured paper. I prepared an ivory watercolor paper card base, folded to 4-3/4" x 7" to fit into an ivory textured envelope from my stash. I stamped the sentiment in black ink. I die cut the black/ivory image with a deckle-edged die to match the deckle edge of the envelope. I cut a second deckle-edged rectangle for a mat and attached the two layers to the card base. The final step was a black satin ribbon knotted and glued to the stems of the sprig of leaves.

The ribbon and texture of the embossing do not show well on the card - here's a close-up.

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #814 - Word Week

Added March 19, 2026:

MYSTERIOUS & SPOOKY

My goodness, it's already time for our Mid-month Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge! If you haven't done a project yet, there's still plenty of time in the month. It doesn't have to be a card, but can be anything 'Halloween' that catches your fancy.

I took it a bit easy this time around and used a panel of already printed paper with a witch on her broom. But the moon was a light color and I took my green Copic markers and re-colored it to work with this month's inspiration board. I die cut the image with a deckle-edge die, added a green mat, and attached it to a black card base. The sentiment was die cut from some green glitter paper and I added a couple of die cut black bats.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: March 2026 Mid Month Reminder

TRUCK LOAD FULL O' SHAMROCKS

I had this idea that I wanted to use a Whimsy pickup truck die for St. Patty's Day that I have hardly used (I bought it last year for my grandson's 16th birthday card here). 

Digging into my stash of green paper scraps I found this old green printed paper with tire tracks and it seemed like a great place to start. I remembered an old Irish proverb that I computer generated and printed it on the tire track paper. Also in my stash was a last remnant of printed map cardstock. I glued it and the tire track paper onto a square of black cardstock and matted it with a mat of the map paper. I glued everything to the face of a top-folded square white card base. I constructed the truck with scraps of green metallic cardstock and fussy cut a pile of shamrocks to fill the truck bed.

I continued the rest of the Irish saying on the interior of the card, with a stamped sentiment and more fussy-cut shamrocks. 

The current challenge at Inkspirational Challenge is a visual prompt that would suggest a St. Patrick's Day card:

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #363 - Visual Prompt

π = 3.14

Pi Day! Today is my husband's nephew's birthday and the family always gets together to celebrate with pie. This morning it's a pie brunch! And, as always, I do a pie/pi birthday card for him - and how fun that I can also enter it in the current Shopping Our Stash Challenge #569 - I'm Counting on You", in which we are challenged to use numbers on our card!

This is supposed to look like a freshly-baked pie, but I had to make do with whatever circle dies that I have available to me. The background came from the internet and is part of the numerical value of π that I copied and printed in gray tones on beige and die cut into a stitched rectangle. I glued the panel to the face of a kraft wood-grained card base. I cut the various circles in silver and beige, hand-cut a pi symbol into the center, wiped a bit of kraft-colored ink at the edges, and layered together.

 

The die cut sentiment is from PTI, as is the one on the interior of the card.

Shopping Our Stash Weekly Challenge Blog: SOS569 - I'm counting on you

GO GREEN!

Today I gave myself permission to play a bit, and play I did! This is my second card of the day. It's always fun when more than one challenge can be entered with a single card. I was inspired by Karren's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches to begin my card. Some years ago I made a similar card, but this one is more CAS and cleaned up than the old one.

I started this card with a 5-1/2" square card base I made of watercolor paper. I cut a second square slightly smaller and mounted each of the 3 units to it. The white pieces were die-cut along one edge with a stitch die. The vertical piece is patterned paper that I over-printed and gold heat-embossed with a very old shamrock stamp that I stamped in a vertical row. 

I die cut a tag and gold heat-embossed it with an old St. Patrick's Day sentiment. Using a wrap of white twine, I tied on the tag and a gold shamrock charm to finish off.

Freshly Made Sketches: Sketch #726 A Sketch by Karren 

Color Hues: Color Hues #128-Green and Gold

Added March 16, 2026:

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #813 - Die Week

WE COULD ALL USE A BIT OF PEACE ON EARTH...

Seeing the beautiful green mood board over at Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge has inspired  me to try my hand at the current challenge. But, where to start? All of the images are so gorgeous! Okay, I decided on green candles, gold, and stars. 

I started this card with scraps from my stash. The gold rectangular panel was in my metallic gold scraps drawer already die cut with the stitched circle. I die cut a scrap of dark green card stock with one of the dies from Tim Holtz's "Snowy Stars", backed it with a scrap of metallic gold, and attached it to the back of the gold panel. I die cut an Avery Elle star wreath from the same gold scraps and glued it to the face of the panel, matted the panel with dark green cardstock, and glued all to a white card base and stamped the sentiment with PTI "Pinefeather" ink.

The candles and evergreen  sprig were constructed from Tim Holtz's "Vault Festive Wreath" die set with a bit of help from colored pencils and white gel pen. The flat light today didn't assist in showing that this card is metallic.

Peace On Earth Christmas : March 2026 Peace On Earth Challenge #107

Added March 15, 2026:

MARCH TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

Here we are at the beginning of a new month! Our March challenge always features green, but I can never quite get the tone of green blue enough, and my card always looks like it's black and yellow. Looks like I need to invest in some new green cardstock!

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: March 2026 Anything Goes Halloween

While there are no zombies in this month's inspiration board, I used the black and green as inspiration - well, sort of!

My card started with a top-folded black card base. I white heat-embossed the Tim Holtz sentiment, masked it off, and added yellow-green heat embossed splatters (also Tim Holz). I die cut the "EEK!" layered dies with yellow-green glitter paper, black, and white. I stamped the zombie face and hand on pale gray card stock, fussy-cut it, and colored it with Copics. I glued the EEK, hand, and heat to the face of the card.

Inside the card I trimmed a piece of yellow-green printed paper to a square and black heat-embossed the second part of the sentiment and splatters. I had a black square envelope and I heat-embossed the "BUUUURP" (Whimsy Stamps) on the back flap.

You're not bound to just what is suggested by the inspiration board - in our challenge, you can share any Halloween project. March is a couple of days longer than February so, there's plenty of time to enter the challenge! Also, check what the other ladies have provided as additional inspiration.