This card is for the color challenge at SCS: Kraft, Black, and Rose Red. When I laid the colors out they felt elegant to me. I started by looking through my stamp index. When I found Riot of Petals I knew I wanted to use that and do a “spotlight” type of effect. After adding the organdy, which has a sheen to it, I felt I needed something else, so I outlined most of the petals on the sentiment panel with the stardust pen.

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 😉 ).

The first night of VSN is over – though there is still time to play (you have until Sunday, August 24 10pm CT to upload your images to SCS). Here is a group shot of the cards I made for Friday’s challenges:

I always try to make cards that I know I can use when I’m done with the fun of the challenge. There are two challenges that got me to do something new – scratch-n-sniff and flocking. I had always wanted to try scratch-n-sniff but just never took the time. When I first read this challenge I wanted to do something different…eventually the idea of baby powder came to mind. While I had a few hurdles with that one, I do like how it turned out. The other challenge, flocking, had me digging into my stash for long-ago purchased items that I just never took the time to try. This was SO EASY – a little inking in my glue pad and a little shake of flock and voila. I will definitely be doing that one again soon!

Notes about the other cards:

The Gnome Bookmark card is 8 1/2 x 5 1/2, fold in half. From the front, trim 1 1/2″; from the back, perforate at 1 1/2″.

The Sketch Book has about 6 pages from my sketch book in it. I used Japanese Stab Binding (SCS TLC142) and twine to do the binding along the spine. The flower is stamped directly on the Kraft paper then colored with pencils.

Thanks to all the hostesses for such great challenges!