March VSN cards

I was busy Friday night and Saturday morning with Stamp Camp and then a wedding reception in the afternoon, so when I got home, I hopped over to Splitcoast to check out the Virtual Stamp Night challenges that were going on. I knew I didn't have time, or energy, to complete very many, but the following cards are samples of what I got to make. VSN is such a good way for me to jump-start my creative thought processes. You're given a challenge with certain parameters and asked to make a card following them within a 45 minute time frame.

Frazzled Ribbon:

The Bunny Hugs bunny's tail is done with frazzled ribbon. If you take a piece of grosgrain, and pull the thread out that ties all the fibers together, (the one that makes it be ribbon), you get a tassle-type piece (feels like the tassles on a corn cob before it's shucked) and a very zig-zaggy thread. I balled up the zig-zaggy piece actually to throw it away, and loved how soft and puffy it looked. I'm loving this bunny and he clearly needed a fluffy pink tail. I glued it on using Crystal Effects. The flower centers on the Basic Grey designer paper have Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The sentiment is from Bunny Hugs, too. I doodled the edges of the card base (Vintage Violet cardstock) with my white gel pen to frame the images a little more.

Anything that flies: aka, Froggy Godmother:

This Unfrogettable frog is colored in Certainly Celery, cut out and mounted on the butterfly from Reason to Smile (hostess set). The butterfly was Rock n' Rolled in Regal Rose and Cranberry Crisp. Some of the flowers on the butterfly were filled in using Tempting Turquoise. The background is the retired Dots and Daisies background stamp that came out with Simply Said in its mini debut last year. I highlighted a few of the dots and daises with my white gel pen. The "Froggy Godmother" tag is handwritten in black and mounted on Tempting Turquoise and stitched using a Regal Rose marker then dotted between stitches with the Old Olive marker.

I love how much crafting bling I was able to break out for this project. The crown is colored in gold paint with my Zig Painty Pen and topped with 3 small rhinestones. Her wand is a toothpick with punched out flowers that were dipped in Dazzling Diamonds and topped with another rhinestone. The stem of the wand is covered in silver microbeads (attached with Crystal Effects, but next time, I'd cover the toothpick with sticky strip instead).

Faux Postage:

We were to incorporate faux postage into our card. I'd never done this before, but thankfully, Beate had created a tutorial for Splitcoast Stampers that was linked from the challenge thread. Like all of her tutorials, it was so easy to follow and I love how it turned out! This lady bug and sentiment are from this year's Very Punny Sell-a-bration Set. The bright cheery colors were just perfect. The colors on this are Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, and Cameo Coral. The celery brad is a Stampin Up brad.

Accordian Fold:

I didn't think that I was going to get to do any of the VSN challenges, so I didn't check the supply list before hand. I'm guessing that 3.5" x 5" tabbed index cards were on the list since the challenge called for using them, but, since I started at about 8 p.m., I didn't have time to shop for them. Instead, I made my own index cards out of Creamy Caramel stock and the SU rounded tab punch. The stamp set is Farm Fever and the background is the retired Chicken Wire background stamp. The sheep was stamped in Chocolate Chip on watercolor paper and then I spread the color around with my aquapainter. I watercolored below the sheep in Creamy Caramel ink. When folded up, the two tabs together read "Bee well soon!" The primas are attached with aged copper brads and I did the doodling around the Very Vanilla pieces with my Chocolate Chip marker.

If you get a chance, you should definitely participate in VSN. It's so fun, and makes you think outside of the box.