Friday night stamping!

I finally got to stamp again! Last night was the first night in 10 days that I stamped. Both of the cards I made are for the VSN warm-up challenges. All the info can be found in the VSN forum here on SCS. You can play any or all of the warm-up challenges until Sept. 6. VSN itself runs Sept. 7-8. This is going to be a great VSN; there are lots of terrific challenges and a great group of coordinators and hostesses planning the event. You won't want to miss it. On to the cards: the first card was for the challenge to make a wiper card. You tug on the ends to flatten it out and the little pop-up piece reveals itself. I used perfect plum, pale plum and sage shadow cardstock along with the patterned paper from the Tres Jolie collection by My Mind's Eye. I LOVE that paper. I've cut a couple of pieces with the intent on using it on cards, but tend to hoard it more than I use it! Anyway, the main image is from a Newberg, Ore., company called Daisy Chain. I have no idea if they are still in business. But I have always loved bunnies and my sister got me this stamp several years ago. I love it because it is a large image, perfect for a card like this. I colored the bunny, including a faint outline around the entire image, using pale plum, perfect plum and sage shadow inks and blender pens. I sponged the edges of the image lightly with basic brown and sage shadow inks. Looking back, I wish I would've stamped the image on vanilla instead of white, but the sponging helps! I used my SU ticket corner punch on the corners and attached to the patterned paper. I used a piece of my new ribbon from Jimmi (thanks again!) and a piece of hodgepodge hardware in antique brass to finish off the card front. The pop-up piece is stamped with a sentiment from Riveting and the center is filled with a brown prima and antique brass brad. I'm planning to use this card for a little girl I know whose birthday is coming up!
The second challenge called for using autumn colors on a Christmas card. That one seemed tricky, but I pulled out old olive, cranberry crisp and more mustard ink and used those as my starting point. The circle ornament images are from a set by Hero Arts called Merry Dots (also a gift from my sister). I used my CM circle cutters to cut them and their mats out. The sketch is loosely based on a fairly recent sketch design from SCS. I stamped the background with stars from Stars and Swirls, attached the strips with the sentiment from MSE and added silver brads before attaching the circles. I finished it with some mustard grosgrain and cranberry stitched ribbon from SU.