A BIT OF BARNYARD H-EWE-MOR

Starting the day with a bit of humor is always therapeutic! Yesterday the Snarky Sisterhood announced their September theme - "F is for Finally Fall". That definitely has my vote! September is my favorite month, but that's most likely because practically everyone in my family has a September (or June) birthday. It starts on the 9th with my twin grands' birthdays, followed by my husband's, followed by mine, followed by our son and his wife's anniversary. My father also had a September birthday.

I recently purchased this very silly stamp set from Whimsey Stamps ("So Weird" #CWSD473) filled with barnyard animals and humorous sentiments. I really had no plans for how I would use it. Be prepared to see these great weird animals again off and on. But when I started on this card I used a couple of old stamp sets to complete my idea. The sentiment is from an old fall Impression Obsession set (#WP683 "Leaf Set").

I started with an ancient flurry of leaves (probably Inkadinkado) that I stamped in yellow, orange, and rust inks for a background. Then I cut the "EWE" off of one of the Whimsey Stamps sentiments and stamped it in black over the leaves. (I have a bad habit of cutting out individual words, and then sometimes they get lost.) Then I masked out the single word and over-stamped the old IO sentiment. It was a lucky stroke that they happened to match pretty much in font size. The ewe was stamped upside down over the leaves and the card stock was trimmed out with a stitched rectangular die. I matted the die-cut panel with a bit of brown card stock and attached the layers to the front on my white card base. Finally, I stamped my ewe a second time, fussy cut her body, and attached it to the face of the card with dimensional foam.

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #266 F is for Finally Fall

NAUGHTY KITTY

I'm sharing my bit of morning fun with a couple of my favorite challenges - NBUS Challenge #79 and Color Hues Challenge #TCH1010 - Red and Kraft. 

This is my second outing this month with Color Hues Red & Kraft. I think I mentioned in a previous post that I had received a new die set - Tim Holtz #666290 "True Love, Colorize" that I hadn't broken into yet, but I thought I would play with it later this week. Well, here we are. This is a really complex set of dies, so I didn't do the full box of chocolates. I just played with putting together the bottom box and three of the chocolate variations. And I just could not resist doing something with one of my beloved Tim Holtz Snarky Cats! Especially since naughty kitties were on my mind this morning as one of mine was on the dining room table raiding small pebbles out of the bottom of one of my pillar candle holders.

As usual, I had problems with photographing this card - my cellphone does not like red. I tried adjusting the color in my photo editing application, but couldn't quite get to the colors on the card. Suffice it to say, they are variations of red and kraft with a bit of brown thrown in.   

I started with a dark red 5-1/2" top-folded card base. I added a band of bright red to the lower part of the card and started assembling the box and some chocolates. I stamped my naughty cat and the sentiment with dark brown ink on kraft, colored the kitty with Copic markers and white gel pen, and fussy cut him. I trimmed the sentiment into a strip and adhered it above the red strip and glued the box of tampered with chocolates over, trimming the left edge. I attached the cat with a bit of dimensional foam and added some splatters here and there. The final step was to create a coordinating envelope that I lined with a bit of dark red vellum.

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #70

Color Hues: Color Hues Color Challenge #101 - Red & Kraft

SISTERHOOD OF SNARKY STAMPERS CHALLENGE #258

As the reigning Queen of Snark since December 10th, I'm guest designing on their first challenge of the year - an auspicious beginning, just saying! This challenge's theme is "NBUS". We all know what that means - Never Been Used Sh*t.

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #258 - N is for NBUS (Never Been Used Stuff)

There's a bit of a back story on this card. Four old colleagues (3 interior designers and an architect) started meeting last year on the 4th Tuesday of each month to taste wine and swap stories. I call our group the "4th Tuesday Whiners Club". One of our members is my former business partner of several years until she retired, and she has a birthday coming up in less than a month so I'm taking this opportunity to use this card for her birthday.

The NBUS things are, 1) sentiment from Unity Stamps, 2) background paper from Alexandra Renke, and 3) a technique I haven't tried before. I started with a square panel of Alexandra Renke printed paper that has a copyright date of 2017 (have I really been hoarding it that long?). The technique I started with was to stamp the wine bottle outline (Unity Stamps "Age Gets Better with Wine") directly onto the printed panel and color it in with my Copic markers. I was very surprised that I could get such good coverage because it seems like sometimes the inks on printed papers interfere with marker coverage. The wine label is from a local vineyard that is one of our favorites - Cliff Creek Cellars. I printed it from their website. This particular grape (Syrah) is one of my friend's favorite wines from this vineyard and my plan is to accompany this card with a bottle of the wine.

Once the wine bottle was completed, I masked it off and stamped the wine glass twice - once in place and a second time on white cardstock. I colored and pieced the wine glass over the image after coloring in the glass part with white Prismacolor pencil. Before gluing the glass in place, I stamped wine splatters over the area where the sentiment would be stamped. Even though I used black heat embossing on the sentiment, I'm wondering if I should have used white on it instead of black. I'm a bit disappointed with the lack of clarity of the sentiment. 

On a Personal Note: As I worked on this card today, I just couldn't resist photographing our two kitty brothers while they cuddled and slept in a chair by the living room window. This is Tux and Tiger and they are Chloe's boys.

DEAD HEADING THE FLOWERS

September at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge! We have a new mood board with the emphasis on fall colors. When I saw the lower left quadrant, I knew I had to make a card that my friend, a master gardener, would appreciate. We're all dead heading our summer perennials right now, so my mind has been on that! 

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: September Anything Halloween

 

This was actually a pretty complex design, so where to start? I did start by preparing a slim line card base from black card stock. On this I mounted a slightly smaller panel of printed paper from a 12x12 Halloween pad from Park Lane - "Haunted Hollow". When PTI produced their "Friends to the End" stamp set and coordinating die I doubt that they imagined it being used for a Halloween card! I stamped and die-cut the large flowers from white card stock and colored them with my Copic markers. Then I glued on some fussy cut skulls from the same paper pack and attached the flower heads and skulls to the card front. To add some dimension to the card, I also fussy cut a bit of the foliage out from the printed beige paper and attached it to the face of the card with some dimensional foam and added the sentiment that I had created with my computer and a small tag with raffia tied on.

 

You can see that I also created a coordinating envelope with the same papers and tied it off with an additional flower/skull. I won't be mailing this but will present it directly to my friend at one of our coffee klatches. 

You're going to love what our other team members have done with this mood board! We're just under 2 months now until Halloween, but there's still time to get busy and try your hand at the latest challenge. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

AND, when we hit 25 cards entered, we have these great Halloween stickers for a lucky random winner!

CREEPY MUSIC LYRICS

It's been a while since I visited over at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers, so I looked in on them this morning. The new challenge is "M is for Music" and I decided to wade into those waters. I have so few supplies that suggest music, but I did remember this Impression Obsession Halloween stamp set - #CL553 "Is the Moon Out Tonight?" and I immediately went to, "I don't care if it's cloudy or bright, 'cuz I only have eyes for you, dear." I'm sure that Harry Warren and Al Dubin (yes, I actually looked up the writers) would roll over in their graves if they saw what I've done with their old classic lyrics!

I started by stamping the moon sentiment on pale gray card stock with pale gray ink. By the time I was finished with this card the gray ink had faded out considerably, but it was too late to turn back. I die-cut the moon and die cut a circle out of a panel of printed Halloween paper, fitted the moon image into the background paper, and over-stamped the 3 Tim Holtz bats. After letting all of the inks dry for a couple of hours, I stamped the Katzelkraft bug (I already had the set out from an earlier post this morning) with VersaMark watermark ink and black heat embossed him. I colored him with white gel pen and Prismacolor pencils and glued on some googley eyes. The sentiment was computer generated, printed onto some pale gray paper, die cut, and trimmed to fit around his face. I attached the panel to the face of a black card base and tied on some black trim.

You should come over and join me at the current SOSS Challenge!

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SOSS #241 - M for Music

Added September 5, 2023:

A LITTLE INSECT HUMOR

"Don't Bug Me!" That's our beloved Ann's Clean-and-Simple theme for The Paper Players PP654 Challenge this week - CAS projects featuring any type of insect. What a great opportunity for a bit of insect humor!

The Paper Players: PP654 - A Clean-and-Simple Challenge from Ann

And what a great excuse for me to pull out my favorite Katzelkraft rubber bug stamp set. These bugs are so whimsical, and I've used them for several cards over the past years. It's anyone's guess which insect each of these little characters actually is, so that got my mind jumping around to come up with some sort of silly sentiment. My first thought was "Jack's biggest disappointment in life was that he was not born as a bee." But that was way too wordy for the area I had planned to place the sentiment (also, you'll notice that Jack actually has more than six legs, so I guess he's not technically an insect)!

I started this card with a white card panel that I die cut with a stitched rectangular die. I stamped my little creature with black ink and colored him with Copic markers. Then I masked him and overprinted the flowers and bee in green. I masked off the area around the little bee and restamped him in black and filled in with a bit of yellow and pale blue. The final step was to generate the sentiment with my computer, trim, and glue over the face of the card. I put a couple of white gel pen dots at the right margin of the sentiment banner.

Come and join us in the fun! Just make sure to keep it CAS - and you have my permission to be as silly as you want!

Our Team Designers have some great inspirational cards for you, so visit their blogs and check them all out.
 

CHICKEN LITTLE

When I saw the challenge at Time Out Challenges #242 - "Inspired by Words" I knew I wanted to participate and to use a new stamp set I just received from Simon Hurley/Ranger "Spring Chicken" #HUR83351. I didn't know where I wanted to start so I used the latest sketch at Freshly Made Sketches as inspiration - but, bummer, by the time I got my card finished and photographed, the challenge at FMS was closed! 

The Time Out Challenge is to use a fairy tale or fable, or something read to us from our childhood as inspiration. I chose the folk tale of Chicken Little, who when hit in the head by an acorn, ran around yelling, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" It seems a pretty relevant story in today's world. 

I started this card with a white stitched rectangular panel that I stamped a cloud directly on from Hero Arts #CM357 set. Then I masked it and blended a light blue circle around it. I then stamped Chicken Little, colored her, and die cut her with an oval die. I blended some green ink on the bottom of the oval and then added a blended green circle below the blue one and over-stamped it with a Tim Holtz splatter and attached the oval to the face of the front panel and, using a black thin marker, dashed a curved line from the cloud to Chicken Little's head and beyond and attached a fussy cut acorn stamped from a very old Thanksgiving stamp set. I stamped another set of clouds from the same Hero Arts set with the small cloud, fussy cut it, and mounted it to the face of the oval. The final step was to glue the panel with all of the circles and oval to the face of the white card base and add a sentiment that I computer generated.

 

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge 242 - Inspired By Words

Added 7/27/23:

BON APPETIT!

Anne Marie is in charge this week at The Paper Players' CAS Challenge, and she's come up with a fun theme - "Bon Appetit! - Things you can eat". As usual, I have a hole in my card supplies when it comes to food, which is strange for a foodie! I do have an old summer stamp set that features rows of pineapples, watermelons, and ice cream cones, and I started out to work with it. Then I threw out my idea and decided to make my own watermelon slices with a series of circle dies and some green and red cardstocks.

Once I started playing with the idea of a couple of slices of watermelon, my mind started wandering to the idea of picnics and bugs, and voila, this is what I came up with. I started with a die cut stitched rectangle in white cardstock that I stamped this little Katzelkraft bug onto and colored him with some Copic markers, along with a small sentiment from Hero Arts #CM351. Then I trimmed a scrap of red and white checked PTI paper and glued it over him and added the watermelon slices I had made - a bug's picnic banquet! 

The Paper Players: PP649 - A Clean-and-Simple Challenge from Anne Marie

I'm looking forward to seeing what all of you come up with for Anne Marie's celebration of food! But, remember to keep it CAS!

STAR-SPANGLED SKELETON - WITH A BANNER!

Our July Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge features red, white and blue! Look at that row of bony characters in the top right picture of our mood board. That's where I went.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: July Anything Halloween

I must admit to not being too excited about a red, white & blue Halloween card, but I relaxed into it and thoroughly enjoyed the fun!

This card started with an idea - "Red White & Boo" and trying to figure out how to implement it. I have this old rubber stamp from Stampendous that I've used quite a few times over the years, most recently here . I stamped the image twice with Memento Tuxedo Black - the first time on a gray cardstock and the second time on white cardstock. I distressed the gray background piece after trimming it down and then fussy cut the white skeleton out and adhered him over the face of the gray stamped panel. I matted it with red iridescent stock and set it aside until I prepared a black top-folded card base and attached a gray stitched rectangular panel. To make the sentiment, I messed with a PTI 4th of July stamp by stamping it with VersaMark watermark ink (on black cardstock) and masking the top line and heat embossing the middle and bottom line with white embossing powder. I then masked the bottom lines and red heat embossed the top one. The final step was to white heat emboss the word "Boom" on blue stock from the same PTI set and trim it down to make "BOO" and glue that over the top of the final word of the sentiment. I added a blue panel to the face of the card, layered the sentiment strip over, and added Mr. Bones and his panel over these other layers. The final step was to add some red, white, and blue streamers through his hands. Do you suppose he's dancing to The Star-Spangled Banner? 

Check out the great cards my fellow Design Team members came up with - very creative! You have the full month to create your own and there will be a prize drawing if we can get up to 25 cards submitted. Remember, you can submit more than one card and your cards don't have to be inspired by the mood board - submit anything Halloween themed. Mostly, have fun!

TALKING DIRTY IN THE GARDEN

I have so much to do today, but why not cramp my time even more by making a quick card for the current Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #233 -"F is for Flowers"? I had to rack my brain a bit to come up with what one snarky flower might say to another!

So, this is one possibility. I'm sure there are many more, but as I said, time is short. I used a favorite image of mine from Inkadinkado (#60-31604 "Funky Flowers") to start and stamped it twice with PTI "Pinefeather" and die cut one of the stamped images with a stitched rectangular die. The second one I used to color and fussy cut two of the flowers. I computer generated the sentiments on green cardstock, cut them into strips, and glued them to the face of the main panel. Then I masked off a portion of the panel and blended on some green ink. I did the same with the card base and glued the panel over it with dimensional foam and added some green strips to the edge of the card (although it looks like they're not quite straight!). The final step was to attach the colored and fussy cut flowers over the strips.

So, this is what the flowers in my garden probably say to each other when I'm not listening! You should join me over at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers with your own version!

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #233 - F is for Flowers

Added May 16, 2023:

Z IS FOR ZODIAC

This morning marks my sixth time as Guest Designer at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers! Do you think that makes me "officially" snarky? And this two-week challenge is #232 "Z is for Zodiac". 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: 232 Z is for Zodiac

 

I chose as my zodiac topic "Mercury retrograde". Mercury is the planet of communication and when Mercury goes retrograde a couple of times a year (that is, appears from the earth to reverse its direction), all bets are off! We're told not to start new projects or sign any important documents - everything related to communication just goes sideways, so it's best to just slow down and re-center. The next time this occurs is starting next week - April 22- May 15th. Buckle up!

I definitely do not have any zodiacal supplies, so improvisation was the word of the day. I found an illustration online with Mercury prominent in a partial astrological chart and printed it out onto heavy paper, trimmed it, matted it with red cardstock, and mounted both layers to a black card base. I made up the sentiment and printed it on gray card stock. The final layer was a stamped and fussy cut image from Riley & Company (FBP-019) that I adhered with some dimensional foam. I added a couple of tiny rhinestones to her ear and wrist.

So, starting next Saturday (April 22), when your days start to descend into chaos fix a cup of tea and take a deep breath! It would probably be a good time to take out your crafting supplies and join us at SOSS.

Y IS FOR "YUCK"

And in my estimation, soured milk has a pretty high "yuck" factor! I used the current Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #230 to create a birthday card for one of my favorite cousins, who is having her 80th birthday this week. She's pretty snarky, so I'm thinking she'll appreciate this card. She retired a number of years ago from her family dairy farm in southwestern Washington and has a large collection of black and white cow knick-knacks.

I started with Avery Elle's #ST-19-08 "Peek-a-Boo Pets" stamp set for the cow (which I colored and fussy cut) and conversation bubble sentiment. I layered pale blue and green paper to look like sky and grass, added a die-cut picket fence, glued the cow over the scene, and added a dimensional frame. I overlapped the frame with the bubble and the cow's hooves. 

The yuck factor was saved for the inside, where I used a Tim Holtz "Snarky Cats" sentiment and added another conversation bubble. That's it!

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SOSS #230 - Y for Yuck

Added April 5, 2023:

SKETCH CHALLENGE #PP629

It's Sunday morning and Jaydee's got a Sketch Challenge for us this week at The Paper Players. I've been playing around with an idea for my St. Patrick's cards this past week when the time presented itself and decided to apply Jaydee's sketch to my idea. I don't think I'll use this square card for my general mailout because of the costs of postage, but it has all of the elements I want to include - I just need to work with it a bit more and see how to convert it to a size A2 card. 

I started with a 5-1/2" square top-folded card base. The center element is a die-cut circle that I cut into the card after matting it with green plaid printed paper. Most of you will recognize the Tim Hotz "Snarky Cat" that I stamped in black ink, colored with Copic markers, and fussy cut to attach him to the face of the card. The confetti behind him is a combination of stamps and his beer mug is from a very old St. Patrick's Day stamp that I printed, colored, and fussy cut. I stamped his balloon on white stock, fussy cut it, and stamped the Go Green and colored the balloon before attaching it over the circle.

The inside is the main focus of the card, with the silly sentiment from Funny Bones by Riley & Company (#RWD-995) that I bought some months ago with the express purpose of using it on my St. Patrick's Day cards. "Don't Judge me." is from the same Tim Holtz set of Snarky Cats. 

We have lots of inspiration this time of year for cards, with the highly anticipated arrival of spring. The other ladies have come up with some great ideas for you! Come and join all of us!

The Paper Players: PP629 - A Sketch Challenge from Jaydee

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As I worked on this card it's the last days of 2022 and much of the US is blanketed in snow. Our January 2023 Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge features four snowy photos for your inspiration!  

 Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: January 2023 Anything Goes Halloween

I worked my card around a zombie/snow sentiment from Impression Obsession's "Zombie Sayings":

I started with a gray cardstock slimline card base and panel that I stamped with a Tim Holtz haunted house in Memento "Tuxedo Black" ink. I was able to make light coming from the windows by first using a white gel pen and then over-coloring with a yellow marker. I over-stamped this with a Tim Holtz spatter stamp and white embossing powder to create the snow. The gray panel was matted with white cardstock and the sentiment stamped and adhered after trimming the top with a wavey die. Finally, a die-cut zombie (Whimsey Stamps #WSD488 "Monster Parade Die Set") was glued to the face of the card with some black dimensional foam and a couple of snowflakes added with a white gel pen. 

Now that the holidays are coming to an end, maybe you'll have more time to start using up all of the old Halloween paper and embellishments you've been stashing. See what the other designers have posted and join us here at Two Old Bats for some Halloween fun! 

H IS FOR HALLOWEEN - SISTERHOOD OF SNARKY STAMPERS

I thought I was finished with Halloween for a couple of months, but then I was asked to Guest Design for the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers and today's challenge is #221 - "H is for Halloween". You can see that Edna has gotten herself caught in a real bind!

I've been wanting to use a particular sentiment from Impression Obsession's #CS1082 "Zombie Sayings" but it just didn't happen, so I decided to use it for this last card. 

I started with a black side-folded A2 card base. I cut a gray cardstock rectangle and stamped the mound of grass from Whimsey Stamps #CWSD388 "Zombie Party" with Memento "Tuxedo Black" die ink and over-stamped the zombie hands emerging from underground (I have no idea who manufactured the zombee hand - it is on a random stamp sent from years gone by). I added some White Tim Holtz splatters and white heat embossed the "happy halloween" sentiment. I decided to mat this with a lightweight cardstock that's about the color of a dirty diaper! I stamped the zombie sentiment on white with PTI "Saffron Spice" to match. To add a bit of embellishment, I punched a hole in the sentiment panel and pinned a couple of lengths of crochet cotton that I had colored with the same ink and mounted this to the face of the card with some dimensional foam. I customized the envelope with a scrap of "dirty diaper" paper and added a hand and cobweb before lining it. 

This was a lot of fun. I'm hoping you'll all give this challenge a try before putting your Halloween stashes away for the fall.

SoSS #221 H is for Halloween (snarkystampers.blogspot.com)

ZOMBIE BIRTHDAY

What kind of birthday card do you make for a friend who collects Lon Chaney memorabilia and whose birthday falls on October 28th? Well, answering my own question, a Halloween-themed card for sure! I was inspired to participate with the most recent challenge at Seize the Birthday #249 "Faces - Human or Animal", not knowing where on the human-animal spectrum a zombie lies!

 

A couple of months ago I purchased this rubber background stamp from Whimsy Stamps ("Zombie Faces" designed by Deb Davis), not knowing how I would use it but not being able to resist. I started by stamping it in black on a white cardstock panel and trimming it down. I inked the edges with my black ink pad, matted it with red-orange paper, and attached all of that to the face of a white card base. I colored in two of the faces with my Copic markers and attached fussy cut birthday sentiments (Avery Elle #ST-19-08 "Peek-A-Boo Pets") with dimensional foam. The envelope is custom-made from my current most favorite Halloween paper.

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #249 Faces-Human or Animal

Added October 28: