Speedy Cards!!

This weekend there's a mini VSN on Splitcoaststampers - Virtual Stamp Night. For ages now I've been wanting to play along with one of these, and FINALLY I DID IT!! Woohoo!! What happens is they post several challenges - a different one each hour - and you are supposed to complete your challenge card within 45 minutes. You can play along as they go live, or you can do it when you can throughout the weekend. So first of all - 45 minutes??? I *never* make cards that fast. I am a major slowpoke stamper. So that in itself is a HUGE challenge for me!! To help speed things along, I set a few ground rules for myself. First, try to use similar supplies on all the cards. Second, use all Unity stamps (mostly because I have a ton and I don't use them nearly enough and they make me INSANELY HAPPY so I wanted to give them some VSN love!). In the end I made all the cards in LESS than 45 minutes - I made 5 cards on Friday night in 2.5 hours. WOW. And then I finished the 6th project - a luminary - in about 40 minutes this morning. I had a blast. And I stepped WAY outside of my comfort zone. If you've never tried one of these, I really highly recommend it. AND - this particular VSN is open until 8pm EST on Monday, so there's still tons of time to play along!

So here's my card for the first challenge - "Punch Your Heart Out" - it was a color challenge, a sketch challenge, and we were to make a flower out of punches or dies. I used my fabby MFT rolled flower die. Actually, I used some felt rolled flowers that I had already made a while back and happened to be sitting on my desk! Time was of the essence, you know! :-)


Next - "What SHAPE is your heart?" - yup, you guessed it, a heart shaped card was required! I had these heart-shaped doilies, so I used one to trace around and create the card. And I loooove this Unity stamp!


The 3rd challenge was "Light Up Your Life" and that was the luminary I made this morning. I followed this great tutorial from Beate, which made it a piece of cake. I guess I went with the songbird theme since she had quoted an entire song in her challenge post, hee hee.


Next was "Paper-Piece Your Heart Out" (hosted by my sweet friend Donna Baker!). I did some pink & blue paper-piecing on the soda bottle. And btw, being a Diet Coke fanatic (although, recovering - I'm trying hard to give it up!!) - I love love love this Fizzy Feelings set!!


The 5th challenge was "Two Hearts Beat As One" and we were supposed to have "entwined" images on the card. I went with entwined clouds raining down hearts. I hope that's entwined enough, LOL! I was inspired to pull out some rain clouds after catching a peek at my friend Lisa's AWESOME sketch book project!!


And finally, "Slimming Down" - the challenge was to make a "slimmed down card of encouragement". It was a limited supply challenge with only 2 layers of cardstock allowed, and she wanted it to include Kraft, which obviously was not a problem for me, LOL!! She also said to include something about motivation - well, she told a story about slimming down herself, which I found very motivating, which inspired me, hence the message I chose to use. :-)


Whew, that was a ton of stamping for one weekend! My desk is a WRECK, but it was so much fun.

Thanks for stopping by!


Card #1

• Stamps: City of Love from Unity Stamp Co (message)
• Paper: Hero Arts Brown Bag Kraft, SU green, American Crafts DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic multiliner, Copic Pale Olive marker
• Accessories: MFT Die-namics Rolled Flower, pink felt, circle punch, SU Slit punch (to make scallops), American Crafts caramel twine

Card#2

• Stamps: ?? sentiment that I love from Unity Stamp Co
• Paper: American Crafts DP
• Ink: Vintage Photo Distress Ink
• Accessories: Heart doily, pearls

Luminary

• Stamps: Could I Be Any Cuter? (bird), Nothing But Blue Skies (message) from Unity Stamp Co
• Paper: Hero Arts Brown Bag Kraft, white, vellum
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers, black Stazon
• Accessories: Spellbinders die, SU scallop edge punch, Star Dust Stickles, hemp twine

Card #4

• Stamps: Fizzy Feelings from Unity Stamp Co
• Paper: Hero Arts Brown Bag Craft, SU Baja Breeze, BoBunny pink, white
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Accessories: SU Slit punch, machine stitching, hemp twine, heart sticker

Card #5

• Stamps: a pocket full of... (clouds), Could I Be Any Cuter? (message) from Unity Stamp Co
• Paper: Hero Arts Brown Bag Kraft, GP white
• Ink: Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Vintage Photo Distress Inks
• Accessories: American Crafts caramel twine, heart stickers

Card #6

• Stamps: a pocket full of... from Unity Stamp Co
• Paper: SU Brocade Blue, Hero Arts Brown Bag Kraft
• Ink: Barn Door, Vintage Photo Distress Inks
• Accessories: Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder, Spellbinders die, hemp twine