Create It 3 Ways IG Hop - Dec2023

 

Hello crafty friends,

Have you heard of the Create It 3 Ways Instagram Hop?  It's a monthly hop on every 3rd Saturday at 3 PM ET.  

Each month we challenge ourselves by creating 3 cards in the scheduled theme using the same stamp or die set, colors and/or technique.  I joined the team a few months ago and have been enjoying being part of an amazing group of card makers.

This month’s hop theme is December holidays. 

I chose to feature the Nesting Tree dies by Waffle Flowers and stitching on my cards.

Thanks for stopping bye.

TOB Dec Mid Month Challenge

  

    

Hello crafty friends,
Welcome to this month's challenge reminder post.  Have you started working on a card/project?  If yes, GREAT!  If no, WHAT are you waiting for?  We want to see your Halloween creations.   Remember  the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, runs from the 2nd to the 28th of the month and the theme is always Halloween... ANYTHING related to Halloween!

Honestly, I'm not completed happy with how this card turned out.  But after three different attempts at creating what was in my mind, this was the closest version.   Have you ever had a Halloween Christmas tree?

Here's this month's mood board for additional inspiration... Hope to see your card/project soon. 

Challenge ends on the 28th, winner will be announced on the 1st on the month before the start on the new challenge.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge home page.  unit next time... take care.

              

TOB Dec Challenge

 

Hello crafty friends,

Welcome to a new month at the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, which runs from the 2nd to the 28th of the month and the theme is always Halloween... ANYTHING related to Halloween!  

I think Jack and Sally would wish people a Spooky Christmas.  Jack and Sally are digital images by Vera Lane Studios (Esty).  The large Spooky word is a new die by Penny Black, whose shallow die cuts the top of the word from your cardstock.  The spooky and christmas are actually on the inside of the card.  The striped pattern paper covers the top folding flap, which the die cut spooky from it.

Here's this month's mood board for additional inspiration... Hope to see your card soon. 

Challenge ends on the 28th, winner will be announced on the 1st on the month before the start on the new challenge.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge home page.  unit next time... take care.

 

TOB Nov Mid Month Challenge

 

    

Hello crafty friends,
Welcome to this month's challenge reminder post.  Have you started working on a card/project?  If yes, GREAT!  If no, WHAT are you waiting for?  We want to see your Halloween creations.   Remember  the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, runs from the 2nd to the 28th of the month and the theme is always Halloween... ANYTHING related to Halloween!

I stepped away for the inspiration board for this card, because I really wanted to used this new to me BOO die from Penny Black.  I paired it with two stamped and fussy cut ghosts from Unity Stamp. 

Here's this month's mood board for additional inspiration... Hope to see your card/project soon. 

Challenge ends on the 28th, winner will be announced on the 1st on the month before the start on the new challenge.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge home page.  unit next time... take care.

              

TOB Nov Challenge

 

    

Hello crafty friends,
Welcome to this month's challenge reminder post.  Have you started working on a card/project?  If yes, GREAT!  If no, WHAT are you waiting for?  We want to see your Halloween creations.   Remember  the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, runs from the 2nd to the 28th of the month and the theme is always Halloween... ANYTHING related to Halloween!

Halloween may have past, but you know that for us here, the spooky fun continues.  I'm starting this month with a fairly easy and quick shaker card.  The background owl is the result of a google search, so a digital item.  The tree die is kind of the star, because it makes everything extra spooky and the frame allowed me to add dimensional tape to raise it for the shaker top,  Of note... I could have gone with a flat sharker also.  

Here's this month's mood board for additional inspiration... Hope to see your card/project soon. 

Challenge ends on the 28th, winner will be announced on the 1st on the month before the start on the new challenge.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge home page.  unit next time... take care.

              

TOB Oct Mid Month Challenge

  

    Hello crafty friends,

Welcome to this month's challenge reminder post.  Have you started working on a card/project?  If yes, GREAT!  If no, WHAT are you waiting for?  We want to see your Halloween creations.   Remember  the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, runs from the 2nd to the 28th of the month and the theme is always Halloween... ANYTHING related to Halloween!

I created a very dimensional shaker card using frame dies.  The background of the shaker panel is a dry embossed spiderweb.   I inked the embossing folder with black ink on it's raise side, so that when embossed the black into would be inside the grooves.  I started with a orange pattern paper, but note that it was a thin paper and the 3D folder did break the paper a bit, but since I was glueing it to the front of my card and it was going to be inside the shaker window, it wasn't a big deal for me. 

Here's this month's mood board for additional inspiration... Hope to see your card/project soon. 

Challenge ends on the 28th, winner will be announced on the 1st on the month before the start on the new challenge.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge home page.  unit next time... take care.

              

Three Cards w/Stamps from Brutus Monroe

Hello crafty friends,

It's a good feeling when you use stamps (any product really) that has been sitting around unused and therefore unloved for a while.  I got these three stamps a while ago and they just sat waiting for me to play with them and I finally did.  Here are the cards I made with them in no order, because I can't pick a favorite... I love them all

Card 1, does not have a sentiment on the front, so I could use it for anything really, but this card will be going out soon to a special couple as a belated (I'm always late) anniversary card.  I used Taylored Expressions Birch Tree Background die and the Brutus Monroe Owl Love You stamp

Card 2, is fun and I think totally male card.  I know several guys in my family who would love to get this card.  So if you want dibs on it, you better speak up.  This card obviously started with the super CUTE dog wearing headphones stamp from Brutus Monroe Rockstar Pets stamp set (there's a super COOL cat in the set also).  I colored them w/my zig watercolor brush pens, using a clear wink of stella to move the watercolor around for lots of sparkle.  I also used the Die-Versions Birthday die, which is no longer available.  The spatters on the background are from a water down black wink of stella and in person they look grey instead of black, which is kind of cool and edgy.

Card 3, is going to a true Chicago lover.  I have someone in mind, even though I'm not sure when her bday is :)  Really how cool are the Brutus Monroe city globes!  This one is called City Sidewalks - Chicago.  I colored it by with an ink blender and distressed inks... super easy and fast.   The curvy  birthday die is from Serendipity Stamps and goes so well w/the globe.

Well, those are my three cards.  Thanks for stopping bye to check them out... do you have a favorite, leave me a comment telling which is your favorite and I'll pick one random comment to win their favorite, which I'll custom make for them. 

Digital Stamps - Oddball Lizzy Love

Hello crafty friends,

I love making scenes with stamps, doing so with digital stamps is so much easier, because they can be combined without the need for masking.  Below is a print out of some scenes I created with digital stamps from Oddball Lizzy Love (listed and linked at bottom of post).  

The right hand panel, which I've already die cut into a slimline card (4"x8").  Was a super easy scene to assemble, because nothing overlapped.  I sized the two houses and the witch to the scale I wanted and positioned them were I wanted them and printed the 8.5"x11 sheet of card stock when ready.  Note all of these images were printed on the same 8.5"x11 sheet of card stock.  

The middle panel, also already die cut into a slimline card (4"x8").  Was a little more time consuming, because I played around with the scale and the placement of the characters more.  I placed the vampire inside the house looking out the second floor window.  In order to do this I had to remove (with the easer tool) parts of vampire's body.  Note that he's now in front of the window's middle bar.  I could have fixed this in PSE, but figured it was just as easy to fix it by hand later.  But noticed that I didn't see the bar lined up with his eye... if I had noticed that I could have easily moved him up or down to avoid it.  Other characters I added to the scene, scream peaking out the left side of the house.  And Frankie and his girl on the steps waiting for the rest of the party goers, because this house is all decked out for Halloween!

  

Here's how the cards turned.  The night sky were done with distress inks, but the rest were colored with alcohol markers. 

Card1:
Boo Babies Monsters
CCC #19 Boo Baby Bride Sampler
Halloween Haunted House image #474
CCC #24 Happy Halloween

CCC #22 Bats

Card2:
Whimsical Witch on Broomstick Wendy
CCC #23 Haunted House
Halloween Haunted House image #474

Card3:
CCC #19 Boo Baby Bride Sampler
Boo Babies Monsters
Hand Drawn Lace 

Thanks for stopping bye.  Until next time, take care.

TOB Oct Challenge

 

Hello crafty friends,

Welcome to a new month at the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, which runs from the 2nd to the 28th of the month and the theme is always Halloween... ANYTHING related to Halloween!  

Here's a fun and easy card... I stamped the spiderweb border in black and ink blended black, two shades of purple and orange (not shown in photo) to create my background for this old, but super cute stitched spider from Papertrey Ink.  I added a funny stamped sentiment in the center of the web and sprayed the panel with a sparkle spray before adding the spider. 

Here's this month's mood board for additional inspiration... Hope to see your card soon. 

Challenge ends on the 28th, winner will be announced on the 1st on the month before the start on the new challenge.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge home page.  unit next time... take care.

 

TOB Sept Mid Month Challenge

    

Hello crafty friends,
Welcome to this month's challenge reminder post.  Have you started working on a card/project?  If yes, GREAT!  If no, WHAT are you waiting for?  We want to see your Halloween creations.   Remember  the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, runs from the 2nd to the 28th of the month and the theme is always Halloween... ANYTHING related to Halloween!

Still inspired by the floral skulls, I used a digital stamp on my card this time.

I stared with a Park Lane floral embossing folder and dark purple pattern paper as my background.  I colored my sugat skull with purples and pinkish reds.  I wanted to make this a light up card, so I fussy cut the eye openings and backed them with two layers of velum in order to hide the light kit.  I placed double side adhesive on the back of the skull around the light component making sure my foam was a little higher/deeper than the light component. 

 Here's this month's mood board for additional inspiration... Hope to see your card/project soon. 

Challenge ends on the 28th, winner will be announced on the 1st on the month before the start on the new challenge.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge home page.  unit next time... take care.

              

TOB Sept Challenge

 

    

Hello crafty friends,
Welcome to this month's challenge reminder post.  Have you started working on a card/project?  If yes, GREAT!  If no, WHAT are you waiting for?  We want to see your Halloween creations.   Remember  the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, runs from the 2nd to the 28th of the month and the theme is always Halloween... ANYTHING related to Halloween!

I used the flower skulls as my inspiration for my card.  

I started by stamping a background floral by IO and colored it shades of grey.  The background of the floral design, I colored in a dark purple.  Next I stamped, colored and fussy cut the heads of three super cute sugar skulls from Scrappy Boy.   The "bless your soul" is also from the same Scrappy Boys stamp set.

Here's this month's mood board for additional inspiration... Hope to see your card/project soon. 

Challenge ends on the 28th, winner will be announced on the 1st on the month before the start on the new challenge.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge home page.  unit next time... take care.

              

TOB Aug Mid Month Challenge

    Hello crafty friends,

Welcome to this month's challenge reminder post.  Have you started working on a card/project?  If yes, GREAT!  If no, WHAT are you waiting for?  We want to see your Halloween creations.   Remember  the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, runs from the 2nd to the 28th of the month and the theme is always Halloween... ANYTHING related to Halloween!

Using the Clearly Besotted Treats Please stamp set again,  I stamped, colored and fussy cut (don't have the dies) all the elements.   Then I arranged them on the A2 inked background panel.  They are all glued flat (no dimension), but some overlap each other to make the scene work. 

Here's this month's mood board for additional inspiration... Hope to see your card/project soon. 

Challenge ends on the 28th, winner will be announced on the 1st on the month before the start on the new challenge.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge home page.  unit next time... take care.

              

TOB Aug Challenge

    

Hello crafty friends,

Welcome to a new month at the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, which runs from the 2nd to the 28th of the month and the theme is always Halloween... ANYTHING related to Halloween!  

For this month's cards, I took inspiration from the front porch mood board picture.  On this card, I used a torn paper stamp to give you a peek into a Halloween front door scene. 

I started by stamping, coloring and fussy cutting around the outside and inside of the torn paper elements.  I mounted them on a dark purple pattern paper (has shades of purple) and fussy cut the inside of each opening.  Next, I sat this panel aside and started working on the backing scene, using the Clearly Besotted Treats Please stamp set.  I stamped, colored and fussy cut (don't have the dies) all the elements.  I lightly penciled the outlines of the torn paper openings and arranged my elements on a second A2 size panel.  They are all glued flat (no dimension), but some overlap each other, so they could all be seen.  I added double side form to the panel with the torn paper openings for dimension.  

It would have been easy to make the torn panel into a shaker, but I felt it would have made the card too busy and also, I didn't want to distract from the cute scene.  I could also have made the torn panel into the front of the card and the scene the inside.  This idea would have made this card a whole lot easier to make, but I didn't think about it until days after.

  

Joining challenges is fun, so I'm entering this card in Halloween Crafts All Year 'Round Challenge #6, which runs from July 15th - Aug 14th.  Where the theme is anything Halloween goes. 

Here's this month's mood board for additional inspiration... Hope to see your card/project soon. 

Challenge ends on the 28th, winner will be announced on the 1st on the month before the start on the new challenge.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge home page.  unit next time... take care.

              

TOB July Mid Month Challenge

    

Hello crafty friends,
Welcome to this month's challenge reminder post.  Have you started working on a card/project?  If yes, GREAT!  If no, WHAT are you waiting for?  We want to see your Halloween creations.   Remember  the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, runs from the 2nd to the 28th of the month and the theme is always Halloween... ANYTHING related to Halloween!

  Even skeletons celebrate the 4th of July.  On a serious note, fireworks are beautiful and fun to watch.  Unfortunately,  fireworks and the noise they come with is a scary thing for a lot of other people and our pets.  

This card came together very fast, but 1) I didn't like the card I had originally made and 2) it's all digital.  The skeleton is an older Twistoon digital stamp.  The fireworks a png file.  The sentiments I created in Paint Shop Elements. 

Joining challenges is fun, so I'm entering this card in Halloween Crafts All Year 'Round July challenge.  Where the theme is anything Halloween goes. 

Here's this month's mood board for additional inspiration... Hope to see your card/project soon. 

Challenge ends on the 28th, winner will be announced on the 1st on the month before the start on the new challenge.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge home page.  unit next time... take care.

              

Red, White & Blue

  

Happy 4th of July weekend crafty friends!  

I have two birthday cards with a red, white & blue color scheme.  Both cards are patriotic based on their color combo and I made them with American's birthday in mind, but these would make great birthday cards for someone who's birthday is in July or someone in the military. 

This first card, features the Color Layering Happy Birthday stamp set by Hero Arts, which was the perfect fit for the circle opening left over by the Painted Dots Turnabout stamp by Concord & 9th.

The second card, features a circle Happy Birthday die by Memory Box/Poppy Stamps and the Lovely Blossoms Turnabout stamp by Concord & 9th.  On this card, I die cut three of the circle happy birthday dies and stacked them.  The top circle, I die cut from black glitter paper.  I also die cut the circle from the stamped floral panel.  Being careful to save all the tiny die cut sections of the stamped panel, I inlayed the stacked black die cut element.  I have to admit, that this was the most time consuming (and a little frustrating) part of the whole thing.  I almost always back my paper with double sided tape before die cutting to make adhering the die cut easy.  Unfortunately, in this case the glitter paper was think and texture and the die was intricate, leaving me with a struggle to get a clean cut.  But having worked with both of these products before, I knew what to expect and worked thought it.  

Thanks for stopping bye.  Until next time, take care.

TOB July Challenge

   

Hello crafty friends,
Welcome to this month's challenge reminder post.  Have you started working on a card/project?  If yes, GREAT!  If no, WHAT are you waiting for?  We want to see your Halloween creations.   Remember  the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge, runs from the 2nd to the 28th of the month and the theme is always Halloween... ANYTHING related to Halloween!

  This was fun to make.  I dressed my Art Impressions jointed skeleton, which I stamped/die cut from gray multi tone pattern paper, in a flag t-shirt.  The flag is a vellum sticker and the t-shirt is by Your Next Stamp.  For my background, I inked blended red in the center, dark blue and black for the rest of the panel. The sentiment is from an old Halloween set by MFT, and if this guy is going out to watch fireworks, he's sure to have a fab-boo-lous night. 

 

Here's this month's mood board for additional inspiration... Hope to see your card/project soon. 

Challenge ends on the 28th, winner will be announced on the 1st on the month before the start on the new challenge.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge home page.  unit next time... take care.