Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge Returns

We're back!  The Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge is up and running again after a three month hiatus.  I appreciate this challenge just for the fun of it, and that's a good enough reason for me.  Let's play!

The mood board is provided for inspiration, but we are not required to follow it.  Our challenges are always anything goes as long as it's Halloween themed.  I like the idea of using the board as a jumping off point, just a self-challenge so to speak.  In this case I went along with the eyeballs.

Eyeballs in the sentiment, wonky eyeballs on the spider... mostly old supplies on this somewhat busy card.  Smooshy watercolor background.  Just fun.

Hop over to the Two Old Bats Challenge blog for colorful samples and then share yours in the gallery!  Have a great day!

Stamps:  DJ Inkers, Whipper Snapper  Paper:  Neenah Super Smooth 110 lb white, Lime green cardstock, DCWV Happy Halloween mat stack  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Cool Caribbean  Coloring:  Copics  Other:  K&Co swirl trim, Doodlebug spider, Memory Box Wrapped Stitched Frames, Cheery Lynn Spider Net

Retro Valentine Wishes

Hello on a Monday, friends!

I learned to type on a manual typewriter, probably much older than this one, but not nearly as cute.  My card accidently came out retro-looking, so I'm going with that.  The daisy flower punch is so old it could almost be called retro, anyway.

Today's challenges:

• Double D Challenge:  Valentine Love (Inside sentiment is "Happy Valentine's day".)
• Shopping Our Stash #438:  Love is in the Air (Use hearts.  Most supplies on this card are years old.)
• Darnell's NBUS Challenge #23 (Typewriter die/stamp set is NBUS.)

 

That's it from me!  Trigger finger is cutting my typing and coloring time short, so I'm not sure how much of that I'll be able to do coming up.  This week's cards were all made prior to the flare up.  Signing off with a wish for a beautiful day!

Supplies:

• Marianne Designs Typewriter stamp and die combo
• Tutti Stitched Nesting Hearts
• Old SU daisy punch, 1/4" circle punch, SU Subtle embossing folder, Stickles Stardust glitter glue
• CTMH Primrose and Shell Pink card stock (years old), DCWV Baby Girl designer paper (also years old)

Feline Friends

Hello again!  It's been a while since I made this card.  I was thinking in terms of using some old papers with a not-yet-used stamp.  I seriously need to reduce the bulk in my basket full of stamps that have yet to see ink.  I love the quirky whimsy of Laurel Burch stamps and all the different things you can do with the color, so I combined this one with some nearly vintage BasicGrey.

I made a frame with an old tag die and I even used an eyelet.  Imagine that!  One down, 50 bazillion to go.  Coloring is Tombow water-based markers with minimal use of the blender pen.

I've always enjoyed mixing up papers and making fun, yet easy to mail cards.  This one with envelope and protective sheet weighs less than an ounce.  My very accurate little scale removes all the guesswork.  I bought the scale for weighing my Copics as I refill them, but it has come in handy for other things, as well.  The scale I purchased (in 2019) is here.

I'll send this card with its Laurel Burch stamp over to Darnell's NBUS Challenge (never before used schtuff).

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps:  Laurel Burch 'Feline Friends Like You' (Stampendous)  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb hot press watercolor, dark gray card base, Neenah 110 lb white for layering under die cut frame  Ink:  Versamark  Coloring:  Tombow markers  Dies:  Sizzix Fancy Tags, Impression Obsession Heart Scroll Valance (scallop border), Spellbinders Scored and Pierced Rectangles  Other:  Black embossing Powder, black eyelet, Stickles Stardust glitter

Bentley's Joyous Wishes

Hello on a Monday, friends!  You're probably doing way better than me, but I feel as though I can't get another single thing done until I finish my Christmas cards.  By day I create, by night I address and write up cards for the mail.  Actually, I don't spend all day and all night on cards, but it's on my mind a lot.

Today's card is Bentley by Whipper Snapper.  I made four of these, all the same, inspired by two challenges which I'll list at the end.

Super easy and quick coloring with Tombow markers, no water.  These markers blend so easily when using marker on marker.  Much easier than Copics and just the ticket when I'm in a hurry.  Bentley's hat is trimmed with Viva Decor Ice White Pearlen Pen (similar to Liquid Pearls), then sprinkled with microfine glitter.  The one gold glittery star completes my nod to holiday sparkle.

It was Double D's Santa Hats Challenge and their cute mood board that made me think of Bentley, so he's heading over there to spread holiday cheer.

Bentley and I are also playing along with Retro Rubber Challenge #149.  Older stamps are required, and Bentley and the sentiment are both several years old.  For the current challenge we are to use the photo for inspiration (see below).  I made sure to include red and green as well as pine boughs, plaid stars, and a stitched mat. 

  

I'm listing card ingredients below, but a lot of these things are no longer available.  We're all just having fun, playing with our stuff, right?

That's all for today!  I'll be back with more Christmas cards this week.  Happy holidays!

Stamps:  Whipper Snapper Bentley, Hero Arts Wishing You a Joyous Christmas  Paper:  Neenah Super Smooth white, Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb hot pressed watercolor, textured green, SU Real Red, gold glitter, Memory Box Christmas Plaid designer paper  Ink:  Palette Noir for Bentley, Memento Tuxedo Black for sentiment  Coloring:  Tombow Markers no water  Other:  Viva Decor Ice White Pearlen Pen, Elizabeth Craft Warm Diamonds microfine glitter, Taylored Expressions Stitched Rectangle Stacklets and Ric Rac Borders, Sizzix Primitive Stars, Impression Obsession Pine Pair

From Our Patch to Yours

Hello!  I'm glad you could stop by today because I have the honor of posting as a guest designer with the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.  Thank you Penny Black girls!

 

Penny Black Saturday Challenges are always anything goes... or an option.  The November option is this bingo/tic tac toe board.  I love a tic tac toe board!  Today I've used the center vertical option of ribbon or twine, Penny Black stamped image, and a sentiment.

My ribbon is ric rac, which I think qualifies, my Penny Black stamped image is Owlsome, and the sentiment comes with the set.

Here's a giggle for you:  I didn't notice that these owls were actually pumpkins when I ordered them.  I loved them at first sight and I don't know what I was thinking... whimsical owls with leaves for wings and flower bedecked feathers?  And what about the stems coming out the tops of their heads?  I was totally blinded by their cuteness.  Nevertheless, they're adorable for any kind of fall card.  

I'm pretending these are a Mr. and Mrs. with the Mrs. being the smaller one in the front.  I masked the Mrs., stamped the Mr. behind her, and gave them a grassy field from which to send their greeting.  The leaves are cut out and arranged as shown.  All coloring was done with Tombow markers, no water, on Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb hot press watercolor paper.  A little strip of designer paper decorates the upper edge.  So much fun, and they do make a very happy greeting!

In addition to my guest spot at the Penny Black Saturday Challenge, I'm heading over to Darnell's NBUS Challenge #20 because this my first card with the Owlsome set.

As always, count your blessings and hang in there till things are back to normal because, seriously, this cannot be our new normal.  See you again soon!

For My Favorite Old Goat

Hello, friends!  As usual, I like to start the week with something fun, so today I'm sharing my husband's birthday card.  I used an Art Impressions set called Old Goat.  Very fun and perfect for my own old goat.

Nothing clean and simple about this.  It's a party on a card and isn't it fun?  I debated on whether or not to include the designer paper, but it won out and I'm glad.

I colored once again with Tombow markers and no water.  This one was more of a struggle because the watercolor paper I used is not so great.  I've been trying to use it up for backgrounds and die cuts, but thought I'd try it with the Tombows.  It doesn't matter what coloring medium you're using, the paper makes all the difference.  Use good paper!

It's been a busy card making month for me and I'm not done yet.  It's a big month for birthdays, fall, cards, and Halloween... and coming up is something from Power Poppy that Marcella's been working on diligently, barely coming up for air... the team will be sharing soon.  Busy, busy!

You all take care, stay safe, enjoy life however you can.  We'll come back here and do this again soon!

Stamps:  Art Impressions Old Goat  Paper:  Poor quality watercolor paper that is almost impossible to blend inks on, Prima Julie Nutting designer paper  Ink:  Palette Noir  Coloring:  Tombow water-based markers (no water)  Other:  Hero Arts Wood Frame, Memory Box Banner Parade, Spellbinders Classic Ovals Small

Air Mail Birthday Wishes

Hello, there!  It's a new week and I'm glad you're here.  Let's start out the week with a birthday card for my 3 year old neighbor girl.  I had plenty of cute stamps in my collection to choose from, but because I'd already made this stenciled sky background I decided to float some foxes.  They're just so darn cute, aren't they?  It's TCP's For Fox Sake stamp set which I've used often and had bunches of fun every time.  The sentiment is a Poppy Stamps Birthday Blowout.

You might be able to catch a glimpse of Wink of Stella sparkle on the balloons in the photo below.

About that background... I set out one day recently to play with my Heffy Doodle Cloudy Skies stencil, try some different colors, tuck them away in my background bag.  This was not a perfect piece, but I thought it was usable.  I do like it a lot, and the stamps help minimize some of the goofs.  Colors are SU inks -- Soft Sky and Barely Banana.  Stamps are colored with Copics.

I played with my cloud stencil some more after this, but didn't get very far before I decided I'd made enough of an inky mess for a while.  Not very much of it ended up in the background bag, either.  Cards happened... you know how it goes.

I must run now.  Too long on the computer makes Leslie a dull girl... or something like that.  See you again soon!

Stamps:  TCP For Fox Sake, Poppy Birthday Blowout  Paper:  SU Whisper White, Barely Banana, Soft Sky, Neenah Super Smooth 110 lb for fox stamps  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Barely Banana and Soft Sky  Coloring:  Copics  Other:  Wink of Stella on balloons

Bird-day Party

Hello and happy Monday!  I hope you're all enjoying these early days of fall.  Even here on the Oregon coast it's my favorite season.  We've had a little rain, a lot of sunshine, and very little wind.  It's a good time for a bird-day party in the garden.

I used my Penny Black Songbird Celebrations set one more time before putting it away.  This is my 4th card with the set so I'm feeling pretty good about it.  Copic colored, a little sponging in the background, and some sequins to finish it off.  The 5 1/4" square card allowed room for these two stamps without crowding, and it gave me a chance to use some scraps of pretty Mintay paper.

I'm happy to be sending my party birds along to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.  It's always anything goes with an optional twist.  The twist this time is "favorite color".  I didn't use much of it, but for the last few years my favorite color has been yellow.

Thanks so much for your time.  Have a great week!

Stamps:  Penny Black Songbird Celebrations  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White, Mintay Bloomville designer paper  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery  Coloring:  Copics  Other:  Apricot sequins, Signo Uniball white gel pen (balloon highlights), Wink of Stella (on party hat)

Three Little Birds in Navy and Turquoise

Hello, and happy Monday Fun Day!  This is when the cute and/or quirky stamps come out (as if I need a reason).  That seems to be the "buy me" trigger these days.  I saw these birds on Bonnie's blog right here, loved them, looked them up and bought them before I even left a comment on her post.

I white embossed (same as Bonnie did), but then watercolored with SU inks.  It's been forever since I used those inks for watercoloring.  In the past they were my go-to medium, but then so many other things came along.  I really enjoyed this and will use them again soon.

The "thanks" is a resin disk that's been in my stash for a long time.  Rummaging around in my self-adhesives, I unearthed this and two others that I hope to use soon.  I'll list all supplies at the end.

• I probably would have given these birds a lot more color, but today they're representing me at Color Hues Challenge #2 -- Navy and Turquoise.  Neutrals are welcome.  I think they look great in these colors!
• It's my Three Little Birds first time out of the package, so I'll be heading over to Darnell's NBUS Challenge #18, too.

  

Thanks for your time!  I just received a new package of stamps in the mail (ahem), so I'll be admiring them and shuffling them around on my table for a while and, hopefully, using them soon.  They're fall stamps and will definitely be getting colored this year.

Enjoy your day!

Stamps:  Impression Obsession Three Little Birds, Hero Arts You're a Great Friend, SU Itty Bitty Backgrounds (splatters)  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb watercolor, Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White, SU Cool Caribbean  Ink:  Versamark, SU Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise, Night of Navy, Creamy Caramel  Other:  White embossing powder, resin sentiment disk, Paper Smooches Foliage 1

CAS Christmas Tree

Hello and happy Monday!  I hope you're well and keeping spirits up.  All is good when I'm in my stamp room and my Golden Retriever bubble where I can set everything else aside.  Speaking of which,  I set the summery cards aside for the moment so I can play along in the CAS Christmas Card Challenge.  The prompt is "Christmas Tree".  I could do a million of 'em with all the different Christmas tree stamps in my collection, but for now I have these two:

I used one Bugaboo digital stamp called Christmas Tree Row.  The digi image is a row of 6 trees, cut down the middle to make two cards.  Unfortunately the Stickles glitter did not photograph very prettily, tsk tsk.  I took multiple pics, the glitter was dry... too much time spent, so I called this one good.

CAS Christmas -- Christmas Tree

NBUS #18 -- My Bugaboo digi is a first time use.

All done for Monday Fun Day!  I'm running a little behind this week so I'm not certain when I'll pop in again.  It all depends on how the stars line up... or something.  Take care! 

Stamps:  Bugaboo Christmas Tree Row digi, Hero Arts Christmas Greetings  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White, Bazzil white card base, red for mat, glitter paper scrap, Echo Park Story of Christmas designer paper  Ink:  Printer, Memento Tuxedo Black  Coloring:  Copics  Other:  Sizzix Primitive Stars die, Stickles Golden Rod, Holiday Red, and Stardust glitter

Mushroom Scenes -- Two Cards

Hello and happy Monday!  When I sorted out all my not-yet-used supplies for last-of-summer card making, I did not forget the dies.  You know how I've gone nuts a few times at The Scrapping Cottage on their sales... well, I've done a pretty good job of using my Cottage Cutz dies, actually.  Today I've played with mushrooms.

All supplies are listed at the end of this post, so I'll be brief here.  I just want to say how fun these cards were to make.  On the first card I colored the Mushroom Garden with Copics and cut a window to an ink blended panel.  I used DOX inks and brushes for that.  Stamped the sentiment multiple times to get it good and crisp over the chalky inks.

On the second card the Spring Mushrooms die is all one piece so I made it a silhouette (so easy), and then I remembered Newton's Nook Garden Mice (thanks to Cat).  Yay!  Framed the mushroom scene with some paper I'm trying to use up, plus cut a little hillside to ground the mouse and his mushroom.  Again, supplies are listed at the end.

So this was my Monday Fun Day post.  I'm trying to get back in the swing of Monday Fun Day, Whatever Wednesday, and Flowerful Friday.  It helps me stay focused, and Mondays are a good excuse to indulge in the cute stuff.  Not that I need an excuse... I might do cute stuff on Wednesdays, too, or flowers...  just sayin'... that's why it's called Whatever Wednesday.  I'll stop talking now.  See you again soon!  Stay safe, stay well.

Card #1 --  Stamps:  Impression Obsession Fill Your Day  Paper:  SU Whisper White, Neenah 110 lb for dies, Mintay Bloomville designer paper  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Oxide Scattered Straw and Abandoned Coral  Coloring:  Copics  Dies:  Cottage Cutz Mushroom Garden, Lil' Inker Silly Stitched Die Set, circle die for window

Card #2 -- Stamps:  Newton's Nook Garden Mice, SU Sassy Sayings II  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White, black, My Mind's Eye Rosy designer paper  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Oxide Salty Ocean  Coloring:  Copics  Dies:  Cottage Cutz Spring Mushrooms, MFT Die-namics Stitched Rectangle Frames, Poppystamps Stitched Landscapes  Other:  Heffy Doodle Cloudy Skies Stencil

Birds and Blooms

I'm on a roll and I hope you can put up with me for a while.  With fall approaching and the need to double down on Christmas cards I decided to go the opposite direction.  Well, gee, I have so many summery stamps and digis not yet used... so I sorted through all of them and picked out the ones I'd really like to finish up while the weather is still fair.  Ha!  As if that's going to happen.  I filled a box with my fair weather coloring and die cutting aspirations.

Getting started... today is a digi set from the out of business Sparkle 'n Sprinkle.  It's called Feathered Friends.  I had these two images from the set printed up, but never colored so today is their day.  It's a very cute set and I think you can see why I just had to purchase it.

Anything with birds grabs my attention and my heart, especially if they're whimsical and easy to color.  I did these birds with Copics.  I somehow managed to get an ink blob on the white panel and that changed my design plan to the extent that I added the little flowers and the feather.  Initially I'd planned to simply tie a length of linen thread across.

The flowers below are watercolored with Gansai Tambi paints on Arches 140 lb hot press watercolor paper.  Again, very simple coloring.  I hand cut them so I could play around with the placement.  Sentiment is SU, probably retired.

I have a few different paper collections I've been trying to use up, not because I don't like them, but because they're close to being gone and maybe if I stay focused... we'll see how it goes.  These are Chatterbox papers.  Are they still in business?  They had the prettiest designer papers.  I might not have chosen these particular papers for my bird and flower cards, but I like how it all turned out.

Wishing you a wonderful week, whichever way you spend it.  Hugs and happiness to all!

Deeply Fun

Hello, friends!  I'm back and will catch up with everyone soon.

Today, it's just for fun... a little something I made before we left for camping.  It's one of those cards that happened mostly on its own.  The background... honestly, before it was die cut it looked suitable only for clown cards, and that was never going to happen.  I figured maybe some smaller die cuts...  Well, after I die cut this one it looked like the makings for an underwater scene, so that's when I pulled out my Gerda Steiner Deeply stamp set and finally made my first card with it.  The background is watercolor, but the stamps are all Copic colored and hand cut.

The background die is actually quite beautiful -- Jeanine's Art Garden Classics Lace Frame, Center Oval.  The center oval does not cut out, but was easily traced onto white paper, hand cut and glued in place.  One of these days it will look great with some flowers, which is why I bought it in the first place.  There are a bunch of similar Jeanine's Art dies still available, but I don't know about this one as it's new to me, but not brand new on the market.

In the next picture you may be able to see more of the embossed impression of the die.

One more pic so you can see the gloss on the submarine porthole:

I'll get back to the Deeply set again soon, I hope.  I don't want to put it away until I've used all the stamps, and there are still a few more.  The same goes for the die.  It will stay out until it's used again.

My card with its NBUS stamp set and die are going to visit Darnell's NBUS Challenge 17.

Take good care of yourselves and we'll get together again before too long!