'TIL DEATH US DO PART

The June Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge is clearly wedding-themed, so it seemed appropriate to bake a cake! I was taken by the eerie wedding cake in the left top quadrant and thought to copy the elements for my card.  

I started with a black card base, to which I glued a dark gray deckle-edged rectangular panel. I used a Simon Says Stamp die cut "Fancy Cake Set" #S731, but expanded the 2-layer cake to a 3-layer one. I stamped Tim Holtz spatters on a scrap of white cardstock,  cut the layers, and grunged them up a bit. I started building the cake by adding some Spellbinders die-cut drips and skulls from their "Boos! Cocktails" die set. I used a bit of warm metallic gray cardstock for the cake stand. The candle was stamped from Whimsy Stamps "Poe Boy" and fussy cut. The cake and top part of the stand was attached with foam dimensional tape and the black things tucked in behind the cake that look like tree branches are actually tree branches from one of Tim Holtz's Halloween die sets.   

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: June 2026 Mid Month Reminder

R IS FOR RAINBOW

While I have all of my aquatic dies out, I decided to play along with all of the ladies at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers and their current challenge - "R is for Rainbow." It's been a minute since I've entered one of their challenges!

So, my silliness got the best of me! What's more fun than anthropomorphizing animals? Before I added the computer-generated sentiment I showed the idea to my husband and he immediately said, "Oh, a rainbow trout". These fabulous dies are more from Birch Press Designs. I've had them a while, but this is the first I've used them. This card is all scraps, from the polka dot background to the kelp, to the warm silver layered fishes. 

 Here's the link to the challenge, plus a link to NBUS - Never-Before-Used-Schtuff: 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #275 - R is for Rainbow

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #87

BIRTHDAY JELLY-FISHES

It's been a few weeks since I've worked on cards. June is always a very busy month in our house, with lots of other things to take up my attention. I started this card yesterday and finally finished it this  morning, after many changes of the original idea. At Seize the Birthday the "topping" is to use vellum or acetate sheet. I started out with the idea of doing both, but it just didn't work out well, so vellum it is.

These wonderful jellyfish, kelp and mini-fishes dies are all from Birch Press Design. Last summer my husband and I spent a day at the aquarium in Newport Beach, Oregon and I fell madly in love with the jellyfish there - remarkable creatures! I thought vellum would be perfect for them, and I selected some vellum with silver and copper flecks that I've had in my stash for a number of years. I decided to show them off on sea-green textured cardstock. I blind embossed a square of the textured stock and it roughed the surface up a bit, but I like the textural effect. The lighter teal of the mat and die-cut kelp is an iridescent card stock. I silver heat-embossed the sentiment Penny Black's "Birthday Fishes" stamp set and cut out a square from the textured panel and layered everything on to a square deep sea-green card base. The mini fish were die cut from silver cardstock, and the final touches were clear rhinestones  and custom envelope lined with the same vellum as the jellyfish.

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #328-Use Vellum or Acetate

I added the clear rhinestones so I could combine this challenge with the current Tic, Tac Toe Challenge. I chose the diagonal row of Vellum/Free/Gems, using dies for the "Free" square.

TTTC #294 - Featured Designer Cindy - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Added June 21, 2026:

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

I want to share a photo I took last summer of a huge jellyfish made entirely of ocean debris. I stood totally transfixed by this clever use of garbage collected from the Pacific Ocean. It's a sad state of affairs, but this piece of art is incredible.

CREEPY & KOOKY

As we start into June, it's time once again for a new inspiration board at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge! This month our board is all about June weddings and skeletons. 

https://twooldbatshalloweenchallenge.blogspot.com/2026/06/june-2026-anything-goes-halloween.html

But, I'm fresh out of ideas for Halloween weddings and decided to go with an unrelated theme in gray tones - no skeletons or pumpkins.

The background for this card is a circular graveyard die scene that I've had in my Halloween stash for quite a few years. I top-folded a piece of pale gray cardstock into a 5-1/2" square and die cut a circle in the center of the front that is slightly smaller than the graveyard scene - then I glued the scene to the back side of the front and added a pale gray-green liner inside the card, with an almost white full moon. I splattered some dark gray ink on the lower front of the card and added a two-layered LDRS Creative "Large Word Halloween" die sentiment. The final addition was a dark gray die-cut Dracula from Whimsy Stamps "Dracula Going Batty. The coordinating gray envelope is custom-made from skull and crossbones printed card stock.

Maybe in a couple of weeks I can "scare up" a wedding-themed card for the mid-June challenge! Check out what my fellow design team members have come up with - very creepy!