Over at SCS, there will be another VSN mini on Saturday. But on Friday – there was a surprise challenge! The challenge was to embellish a card with at least 3 things (from a list).

So, my card isn’t highly embellished, but I made up for it by eating a couple cookies whilst I created the card The first requirement was to use a favorite stamp set. Well, for me, my favorite set is always the one I most recently got – that would be Wishing You by Dawn for PTI. Then my “bar” selections were ribbon, buttons, and the piercing template.

I’m a little behind, but I loved this challenge and had to finish what I started a couple weeks ago. This card is for a past Res-Q challenge – Daisies and Diamonds (RESQ03). The challenge was to use brown, white, and either red, orange, or yellow, and also to add in diamonds.

Ever since I got this stamp set I’ve wanted to do the lines thing…I’m just too lazy when it comes to making a mask, lol! I really love how this turned out! The diamonds part of the challenge was covered with the gems in the flower center. Thanks Mom for sending me a sample of the Tangerine paper!

I was even inspired to decorate the inside too.

I made this card for Jen’s March 28 SFYTT. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do at first, but when I looked through my stamp index and saw the Bella image, I knew I should use it to make the Easter cards for my girls. I wasn’t sure what I was going to put as the accent (the star in the sketch), but I knew I didn’t want a flower (I wanted a flower on the sentiment panel), so I ended up inking just a few chicks on an image from SU’s Best of Cluck set.

This week’s Weekend Sketch (WSC74) was designed by Charmaine. It is a perfect sketch to highlight those big sentiments (which I don’t have, lol) and pattern paper. I have a ton of pattern paper, but I had a color scheme in mind that I couldn’t let go of The colors come from a dress I bought my daughter recently. I’m sure I’ll do another card for it as there are plenty of things about the dress from to be inspired.

I used all the colors to make the floral panel. Knowing that I was going to put some Summer Sunrise accent in the top left, I made sure I used all the pink inks in that corner. The sentiment panel was fun to put together. I ended up using a few different sets to get all the pieces on there – I like how it turned out!

Whew, I’m done! And only a week late, lol. This card was hard – my normal format is A2 size cards, so doing a long/tall card was a challenge. Since this was a challenge from the PTI forum, I wanted to use a PTI set – but I challenged myself to use one I haven’t used in a long time. Finally, I took umpteen pictures – I can’t seem to find the right place/angle/lighting in the new house. My pictures keep coming out dark. I am using the same sort of setup, so I’m not sure what is different. Maybe it is time to get a light box

OK, enough whining. I do like this card, it actually ended up much better than I thought it would (I’ve had it half done for a few days). PTI doesn’t have a lot of multi-color pattern paper (I *hope* they start coming up with designs that incorporate more of their colors), so I pulled out a Basic Grey pack that I’ve had for awhile and decided to use that. My colors ended up being all over the map – some retired SU, some current SU, and a PTI color; but that was all in the attempt to match the pattern paper.

I made this card for Beate’s Weekend Sketch (WSC72) – which, this week, was provided by Jenn Balcer. Such a fun sketch!

To make the background I used my Curved Rectangle Nesties and used ribbon to cover where they overlapped – this was the first time I’ve done that but I doubt it will be my last! Somewhere I remember reading a challenge for using bugs, but I think it was a limited challenge, which I’m sure I blew LOL; nevertheless, that is why I chose to use the ladybug set I wanted a bright card, so I dug into my pattern paper and pulled out this cheery pack. A few primas and brads and I was done!

Spellbinders is having a contest (check it out)! Most of the Spellbinder dies I have are nesties, but I wanted to do something different. One die I do have is from the Spirellabilities collection. I really love spirellis – I’m not much of a fiber artist, but these I can do I checked out the Spellbinder thread that I have and decided on purple. I don’t have much in the way of purple paper, but the Guidelines stack from PTI was perfect.

I’m still working on purchasing a good collection of “focal” sentiments. I only have one and it didn’t really work here (the font was wrong). So I improvised. I liked the scripty font used in the PTI Spiral Bouquet set. To fill up the other space on the white panel, I stamped a old background I have from ScrapGoods – it is a listing of flowers in latin. I topped off the spirelli flower with a metal flower embellishment from K & Co.

This layout fit perfect with the spirelli flower I created! The layout is a Sketch For You To Try (from i{heart}2stamp). Jen is also giving away blog candy this week – so check it out!.

Today’s post is another Lunch Box gift ensemble for a teacher back home. Mrs. A is a wonderful teacher (first grade) and a wonderful person. Because she is such a star, I went with the ‘star’ theme. She also loves rainbows (no wonder I like her so much ). I didn’t have the paper I wanted to use, so it took me a few days to mourn that and move on. I ended up choosing a favorite paper of mine from Stampin’Up! – Cutie Pie – it is so bright and cheery…just makes me smile! I don’t have the new teacher set from PTI yet, so the sentiment for the box was done on the computer and cut out using a Spellbinder’s Label 2 die. The star stamps are from Verve and they fit wonderfully in the punches from SU!

For this gift ensemble I even got the cards to match, hee hee. I wanted the cards to be mailable in case she didn’t want to just use them for school, so I did a very simple design with no ribbon knots. Did I mention the Verve stars fit into the SU punches? {I love that!} To do the sentiment I used a couple different PTI sets to get just the words I wanted – and since they are clear stamps, lining it all up was a breeze.

Finally, the gifties for inside the lunch box. I did a acrylic Post-it Note holder and a bag of cookies (her favorite). I used the same paper so it would match the lunch box. Putting them together is pretty straight forward.

The final challenges of VSN have been posted. These gals are quite talented in coming up with these challenges (and connecting them with books!).

Top left is my “African Batik” card. I wasn’t sure what the difference was between this technique and just regular brayering…especially since you embossed on top of the brayering and not a resist like I thought it would be. However, the white pencil really does add just a bit of dimension – though that is the part with which I had the hardest time! I brayed my ink onto glossy, forgetting that I was to immediately spritz with water, my ink dried…so when I did spritz I got the water spot effect (which I like!). Then I embossed the giraffe. Finally I went back over with a white watercolor pencil, but it didn’t want to stick to the card – so I got more of a whitewash effect.

Next is my “Lemon Meringue” card. This card was fun to make. And there isn’t a stamp on it! I love bright colors – this is something I’m just learning about myself. I don’t do bright clothes, but I can see adding a few more touches around the house. Anyway, I actually found some pattern paper in my paper stash that went with SU’s Yoyo Yellow. Then I dug into my flowers and found complements there too! I finished it off with Making Memories word washers and some sparkly yellow brads. this is one of my favorite cards from VSN!

Bottom left is my “Fall Thoughts” card. The challenge was to dust off an old set. The SU Simple Sketches set was one of my first purchases. I also think it is time to sell it – I haven’t used this set in over a year! Autumn is my second favorite season, so I enjoy making fall cards. I used my new oval nesties – those are so easy to use, well worth the price (which really isn’t bad when compared to individual punches).

The final card is my “Frank n Bats” Halloween card. This was a tough challenge for me – mostly because I wanted to do the challenge AND the bonus AND pick House Colors that other hostesses hadn’t…it was just too many restrictions. So I just did the main challenge. I really like how this turned out!

Scrappy vs Stampy – Those terms refer to the types of products used on a card. If it is mostly pattern paper and embellishments, it is scrappy. A good example of that is my Lemon Meringue card – no stamps at all!. A stampy card is one where even the texture of the card is created using stamps. A good example of that is my Fall Thoughts card. The bottom portion of the card is a background stamp – some simple masking allowed me to stamp the leaves and weave print on the same card base. I admire folks who can do primarily stampy cards and make them look good. Scrappy cards generally grab my eyes first. For my own style I lean toward scrappy cards, but I love working with ink and rubber (well, polymer mostly ).