STAYIN' ALIVE!

I couldn't resist naming this post "Stayin' Alive" because the new challenge over at AAA Cards Challenge is #322: "Disco Inferno"!

How fortuitous that I have this Whimsy Stamps "Zombie Party" stamp set with the silhouette images of zombies partying! Starting with a square white card base, I orange and purple heat embossed the sentiment on a smaller white square. Then the splatter was over-stamped in green and the stars and confetti in orange. The final steps were to add the zombies, mat the square in purple cardstock, tie on some twine strips. and attach to the face of  the card base. The square envelope was custom-made to coordinate.  

AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenge #322: Disco Inferno

HAPPY SEVENTEEN

Next week our grandtwins will be celebrating their 17th birthdays! I used the opportunity of a couple of challenges to make my granddaughter's card - Seize the Birthday "No Stamps Dies Only" and Tic,Tac Toe Challenge. Her brother's card is HERE. 

I wanted to do a card that was dramatic color-wise and decided on black with white and bright pinks - I already had a 6" square bright pink irridescent vellum envelope in my stash that I wanted to use, so I started with that. I made a 5-1/2" square card base with black cardstock and a slightly smaller square panel. I used a 1" wide embossing strip on the top panel to add some dimension and to ground the numbers (PTI die set that I always use for the birthday numbers on my grandkids' cards). I attached this panel with a glitter cardstock mat to the card base. To make the numbers I selected a black and white printed lightweight paper that I glued to heavier stock, die cut, and ayyached them to the card. The Spellbinders bow was die cut twice with two colors of glitter bright cardstocks and layered over the numbers, along with a die cut "Happy" from my stash.

The final step was to line the existing pink vellum envelope with the black and white printed paper to tie everything together.

The glitter cardstock shows up a bit better with this enlarged photo above.

For the Seize the Birthday Challenge, there is no stamping on this card - only dies!

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #333-No Stamping Dies Only 

And for Rosanne's Tic, Tac Toe Challenge, I selected the top row across - Letters/Numbers, Dimension, and Sparkle/Shine.

TTTC300 - Featured Designer Rosanne - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

AND SPEAKING OF CATS (which we weren't), I just changed the number of cats listed in my Profile from six to seven. This is getting a bit insane and I think perhaps I've passed the threshhold for how many cats you can have to qualify as a "crazy old cat lady"!! Last fall one of our kitties, Tux, ran out of the house and joined the other 11 feral cats in the feral cat community that we feed. Once out of the house, he would have nothing to do with us and seemed perfectly happy to stay outside - even through some pretty extreme temperature changes during the winter. While he was lodging himself on our patio, another cute little black character showed up and boldly came into the house to disrupt everything. We named her Bon Bon and had her vaccinated and spayed and she is now a permanent part of the household. Fast forward to yesterday, and Tux has been taking more interest in looking into the house and letting us pet him. Last night he finally came back in and this morning worked his way back into the morning inside cat-feeding frenzy. He appears to be sticking around for a while - at least until the next time he decides to take a runner. So we are now officially living with seven cats - YIKES!

"A" IS FOR ANIMAL

Here's a bit of silliness for my friends over at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers. We're challenged with "A" is for Animal.

I used a freebie stamp set from My Favorite Things sent to me in August 2018. I've never used it. I think this is a donkey. I stamped him onto white cardstock and then masked him out and overstamped with a green field of flowers. After coloring him with Copic markers, I blended some green ink and glued on a strip of sentiment that I had computer generated (with apologies to whomever created the old Halloween witch meme). I cut his mouth and inserted some fragments of green baker's twines for grass, trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangular die, and attached it all to a white card base. Quick and dirty!

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: Challenge #277 - A is for Animals 

 

BOO!

We're at the mid-point for the month! That's the signal that you still have plenty of time to get your Halloween card or project completed and shared with us. The Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge closes on the 28th.

My card borrows from the general overall black and tan tones of our inspiration board, with a specific nod to the top left Haloween door wreath and bats on the right. I started with a black card base and die cut the elements from various die sets I own. The circular die is cut from kraft wood-embossed card stock using Tim Holtz's Christmas wreath ("Vault Festive Wreath" #666715); the branches in three colors of textured papers are from a couple of Spellbinders seasonal dies; and the bow is from "Christmas Cocktails" by Spellbinders. The ghost of course is my favorite Tim Holtz Halloween ghost that I've used hundreds of times.

Before assembling all of the parts I rough cut a circle from a bat printed paper scrap and white heat embossed the sentiment. I lined a kraft A2 envelope with the remaining black and tan circle printed paper to coordinate with the wreath's bow. Check out the great inspirational cards from my fellow designers:

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: August 2026 Mid Month Reminder

A NOTE OF THANKS

 It's August and time for a new Simply Clean & Simple Challenge! This month's theme is "Mother Nature", which brings to mind a lot of options for representative images. Our challenge is always "anything goes" as long as it's CAS, and I decided on a thank you card.

Simply Clean & Simple: SCAS August 2026 Challenge

I might have pushed the limit a bit on this card, as CAS is minimal layers. But it seemed that if the layers were the same color/texture as the background, that might be okay. I made this card with watercolor paper - the A2 base and slightly smaller front panel. I cut an opening in the front panel with a rectangular die (love the plate mark watercolor paper leaves) and stamped the sentiment in olive green ink. The image is a scrap of printed paper that I trimmed out with a deckle edged rectangular die and attached a narrow kraft mat. I die cut one of Tim Holtz's floral stocks and some tiny butterflies, added a panel of green behind the opening, and layered it all together.

Come and join us in our CAS challenge! You have until the 28th to enter your project. And check out the inspirational cards designed by the team! 

AUGUST 2026 TWO OLD BATS HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

It's August and starting to close in on Halloween, so come and join us at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge! We have a brand new inspiration board with some great images - or you can create your own Halloween images. You also don't really need to make a card, because this is an 'anything goes' challenge - so, bring them on!

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: August 2026 Anything Goes Halloween

I'm CASing it for this 2-week period and using a favorite postage die and new-to-me Whimsey Stamps "October 31st" #CWSD457 stamp set (with black witch's hat). The sentiment is white heat embossed from Newton's Nook "Spooky Roundabout." The envelope is custom made from a sheet of double-sided paper in my stash.

I made this card quickly and early, because as our challenge goes live I'll be attending a 63rd high school reunion! 63rd, you say? My class of 1963 has reunions every year now because we're all in our 80s and losing a couple of members a year. Our class was a small one and started the first year of a brand new school. When there are only 142 in a class, all of the missing ones are noticed, so we pay tribute to them. Our gatherings are very casual, meeting for lunch in the banquet space of a pizza parlor that we all enjoyed in high school. Meeting every year is a nice way to keep contact with each other. The class is spread out over the state and country, so not everyone can attend each year, but for me it's only a 2-1/2 hour drive.