It's VSN time again!

Well, it's time again for VSN. Hey, that rhymes! Anyway, there were a lot of awesome challenges, and as usual I didn't get to do them all. I did, however, get to do quite a few of them. So, this will be quite a long post due to the number of cards to show. So bear with me please.

First off, let me take a slight sidetrack and show you this adorable lion card that I cased from one of my uplines. One of my friends is expecting her third baby and we threw her a baby shower. This was my card for her. This adorable lion was so much fun to make, I may just make another to have on hand so I can remember how I did it! The lion himself uses various circle punches and scallop circle, one oval and a boho flower. All the edges were sponged with chocolate chip ink to give it some depth. I used a marker for the eyes and whisker dots. The flowers are from the hostess set Itty Bitty Buds and are stamped in various colors. Her favorite color is turquoise so I did use quite a bit of that as well. The green part in the foreground is gable green that was embossed with a cuttlebug folder. This card took a little time to do, but was well worth it for the end result.

Now, on to the first VSN challenge...Since the theme for this VSN was viva Las Vegas (or something like that), all of the challenges have a Vegas theme to them, but most of the cards do not really reflect Vegas--only the theme of the challenge. The first challenge was called "double down". The idea was to take a fun card design and make two of the same card. The imagery was to be something fun like food, vacation, etc. So I actually had to do this challenge twice. The first time my inspiration took me down a different road, and it didn't really reflect the challenge. Second time around, though, it worked beautifully.

Here is my first attempt at the challenge. I loved this card on its own even if it didn't follow the rules of the challenge. I kept it very simple in color scheme and imagery. The groovy guava strip on the front is wheeled with the Scandinavian wheel. Behind that is a piece of whisper white that is stamped with the heart from one of the Sale-a-bration sets in blush blossom. Those are layered on two different shades of green cardstock. On the strip of groovy guava I layered some green jewelry cord I had on had and threaded it through some stylized silver hodgepodge hardware a friend gave to me. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations.



My second attempt at this particular challenge actually fit the challenge perfectly. I used some of my scraps from the first card to use for layering the cherries on this card. I was going for the triple cherries luck on the slot machine (now, I've never been in a casino and used a real slot machine, but I've played plenty of games with them in it, LOL). I used riding hood red for the reds in this card. To get the two colors on the cherries, I used my markers and colored the stamp and then stamped them down. then I punched them all out and layered on some more riding hood red paper. The black striped paper is from the Rockabilly DSP that Stampin' Up! currently has. I L-O-V-E this paper. The sentiment again is from Sincere Salutations.

The next challenge was to make a non-traditional wedding card meaning that we were to use bright, bold colors. So I chose to go with a military color scheme since I have a couple of friends with either military husbands or fiancees. The base of the card is brilliant blue that overstamped with night of navy using the Brocade Basics stamp set. The red is really rose red and I scalloped the edge. Then I used the She's All That stamp set and stamped it in night of navy on whisper white and layered it on a piece of rose red. It was actually quite a simple and fairly quick card to make.



On to the next challenge--Hitting the Tables. Here the challenge was to make a card using only red, black and white with no exceptions. Only those colors are allowed. Now, I love the concept of this card, but the execution could have been better. I'm just not sure yet how. The background is a Flourishes stamp and the sentiment and images are also Flourshes stamps. I love what the quote says, and since it talks about a staircase, I tried to make the main image reflect that. I also really love red, black and white as a color combo on a card. It's beautiful and elegant.




After this challenge came the "Late Night Snack with Elvis" challenge. This one was a toughie. There were color restrictions that were really cool, but difficult with the only musical stamp I could come up with. For this card we were to use Barely Banana or So Saffron, close to cocoa, and creamy caramel. There also had to be something musical on the card. Even though I love music, I don't own much that is music related as far as stamping goes. So my friend owns the Do the Hula stamp set and the hula girl has a ukelele. Voila! Something musical I can use on this challenge. LOL. So I used that set, the colors listed and some dazzling diamonds glitter to come up with this creation.

After skipping a few challenges due to lack of interest, time or whatever, I came to BINGO! The idea here was to use a grid scoring technique and some sponging on the card somewhere. I used the A Happy Heart Set for this card and I really like how it turned out. For the scoring, I used my paper trimmer to score at one inch intervals. Then I took a spong and sponged bashful blue in the background to give it a cloudy sky-like look, and it made the score lines much more visible. After that I used my markers to color the stamp in the center and then stamped that on whisper white. The dandelions were stamped with riding hood red to frame the tic tac toe board. In the lower corner I put the sentiment that was stamped and punched out and then layered over a night of navy scallop oval punch. That was put on with dimensionals.

The next challenge was a sketch challenge based on a slot machine. It was a pretty fun challenge, too. So here's my creation. I used the beautiful Flores Suaves set for this. The script stamp is used in the background on the so saffron paper. On the riding hood red paper, I used the script, the butterfly and the flower to make a collage sort of background. The bees make up the "slots" Behind them is a piece of creamy caramel that was stamped with the sanded background. I finished it all off with a piece of so saffron ribbon and a couple of square rhinestone brads. here is the sketch:











Moving along, the next challenge is called the "color of money". You guessed it, the challenge was to use all green. Inks, paper, embellishments, etc. all green. Only one neutral paper was allowed. My neutral was sahara sand, but I think I used nearly all of the greens, LOL. So, for this one, I used the Thoughts of Father stamp set. There are some beautiful images and I love to watercolor them. So that's just what I did. I made good use of the sanded background as well on this. The background is stamped with sanded and then I stamped the sanded background over the top of my finished image. For embellishment, I took a piece of hunter green and tore it after I embossed it with a Sizzix texturz plate. The sentiment came from the Good Friend set out of the current SU Mini catalog. I used the key tag punch to cut it out and a brad of the same color to attach it.

Skip, Skip, Skip. Oh, here we go. This challenge is right up my alley! Use as much glitter on the card as possible. I borrowed this set a long time ago and stamped some of these beautiful churches out. Now, one of my favorite all time images not matter what is of old country churches with steeples. There is just something beautiful about them to me. So, I took this image and added a little navy coloring and watercolored in a sky with navy. Then I added a little yellow to the windows for lighting. Now for the magic. I took my versamark and covered the whole thing then embossed with iridescent ice. Then I versamarked it again and put UTEE on top. There are two layers of UTEE on here. Then I froze it for just a few minutes and cracked it. The background on the navy is rolled with the snowflake wheel and then embossed with iridescent ice. The image is attached with silver brads.

On down the VSN road we find the "Bright Light City" challenge. The challenge here was to use the spotlight technique on a card. This has to be one of the simplest techniques I have ever done. So I used the Spring Song stamp set and its beautiful hummingbird image. I went with the colors reminiscent of my favorite hummingbird--the ruby throated hummingbird. I honestly believe the hummingbird is one of my favorite birds. The background paper is a wheel called Always in Bloom. I used Versamark to apply it to the background. The tag is attached with a rhinestone brad.

The last stop on the VSN tour is called "Tying the Knot in Vegas". The challenge here was to take inspiration from this provided photo and make a card. I loved the colors of the cake and the soft swirls, so I made that my inspiration and made my niece a birthday card. She loves anything princess so I knew I couldn't go wrong with this card. Snow white will not quite be the correct color scheme which I'm sure she will be happy to educate me in the proper colors of her dress. I used that heart stamp again to make a background for snow white. Then I sponged over it a bit to tone it down and have a more soft look to it. I used my nesties to cut it out and layer it. The added a blue strip underneath to anchor it. The white strip was punched with the eyelet border punch. All the edges of the scallop oval were sponged with ballet blue to make them stand out a bit more. I used my gel pen to add the dots. A piece of sheer blue and sheer white ribbon were added to the white strip for accent. They are tied in a knot with a rhinestone brad through them.

Whew! Okay, that's enough creating for one weekend. I hope you enjoyed looking as much as I did creating.