Virtual Stamp Night--WHAT?!

We were supposed to be in Indianapolis this weekend celebrating our nephew's 3rd birthday with Steve's family, but apparently my dear daughter has been ill and I've been too busy worried about stamping to notice. I'm really going in for Mother of the Year, I tell you! Many of you know on Tuesday that I was a bit unprepared for class because Maddie was fussy and clingy much of Monday night and Tuesday afternoon. I chalked it up to teething and just thought she was running a fever and had a runny nose due to the fact that it looked like she had a couple of teeth coming in. WRONG. Turns out she was sick and the poor thing has a mother who didn't even realize it! She's doing much better, but we cancelled our trip to Indy. SO ANYWAY, this leads me to my latest discovery. I was on Splitcoast last night when I realized that it was Virtual Stamp Night...what the? Yes, it's like Stampalooza or something! The event started yesterday at 6:00 P.M. and every hour there's a new challenge posted. There were six challenges last night and then more challenges are being posted today. You have 45 minutes to complete each challenge although you don't have to do them in order or when they're announced--there's an honor system involved. Oh, and you can pick and choose which challenges you complete if you're not up to doing all of them. So, I took a look at the challenges that had been posted and one caught my eye right away. The challenge was called, "Chocolate or Shoes?" and it asked us to use a picture of these adorable little chocolate shoes as inspiration for our project. We had to use pink and brown (okay, a real stretch for me...NOT!) and so here's the card I made.

I used an old Hostess set called Fashion Statements because it contained the stamp with the shoes on them. The sentiment is one that I picked up a couple of years ago to make a card for a friend who always wears the cutest shoes, but I never did make the card. Perhaps, this one will go in the mail. Act surprised when and if you get it, Michelle. Now, one technique that I tried for the first time was embossing ribbon. I used the polka dot stamp on the ribbon and embossed it with Pretty in Pink embossing powder. It was very easy to do and I liked how it turned out! I will definitely have to incorporate that technique at an upcoming class. I first learned of embossing on ribbon through another blog (Kristina Werner). Her work is gorgeous--I've referred you to her site before and she is linked over there on the left in case you haven't looked at her blog yet and would like to check it out.

Stamp Sets: Fashion Statements, Polka Dots and Paisley

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink

Ink: Basic Brown, Whisper White, Copic Markers

Accessories: Ribbon from American Crafts, Pretty in Pink Embossing Powder

This card was made for another VSN challenge which was called, "Little Black Dress". We were asked to stamp our main image on black cardstock and we were also asked to use black embellishments--oops! I forgot the black embellishments, but by the time I realized it I knew I would go over the 45 minute deadline so I had to leave them off. JoLynn had completed a card recently for another challenge which is where I first saw the Black Magic technique. It's very simple and will be coming to a stamp came near you sometime soon. Many of you probably don't realize it, but chances are you own this stamp set. It was a Sell-a-Bration set two years ago and many of us selected it as our freebie. Well, I must go and see if I can complete another challenge before Maddie is awake!

Stamp Sets: Best Blossoms

Cardstock: 110 lb. white from PTI and Basic Black

Ink: Whisper White Craft Ink

Accessories: Colored Pencils, WW embossing powder, Signo White Gel Pen

Link for VSN: These challenges are posts #3 and 4.