Welcome - and the first VSN at my new blog!

Good evening! I wanted to do a whole 'formal' welcome thing on my new blog address, but I'm kind of in a rush tonight and want to get my cards for this weekend's VSN posted in case anyone has any questions! My internet was down tonight, so everything got posted a little late, but, hey, that's pretty much the way things go for me :)

The first card I made was for Friday's challenge to make a 'scrapling' - a card 1.25" x 4.25", or as close as we could get. My card ended up being 1.5" x 5.5" so I could use a cuttlebug embossing folder for the main image. Here's the card:

The base of the card and the "brown" layer are core'dinations cardstock. Core'dinations is awesome because it has one color on the top layer and a coordinating color inside, so when you tear it or sand it you see the other color. This caramel piece has a cream core, so when I embossed the paper using my cuttlebug border image and sanded it, it revealed the 'cream' core for the flowers - it looks really pretty IRL! I added pink snaps in the centers of the flowers and embellished with some SU gingham ribbon. The sentiment piece was cut with an SU oval punch, and then I used an old See D's stamp for the sentiment. I hand pen-stitched around the sentiment. At first I wasn't sure about this challenge because it seemed SO small, but I actually really enjoyed it and will be making some more!

The next challenge I did was Julie's challenge to create a 'tender love' card - a Valentine card with something 'soft' on it. I made a card with a quilted heart on it as my soft element - here's the card:

The card is made with a wonderful textured cardstock from Hanko, along with Washi paper. The quilted element is made by cutting a heart out of chipboard, adding a layer of quilting foam (also available from Hanko), and then covered with Washi paper. The Washi paper is cut slightly larger than the chipboard piece, and then wrapped around and glued to the back of the chipboard, creating the quilted look. It's pretty easy and fun. I inked the edges of the heart to help it stand out a little better for the picture, but I think it actually looked better before I did that.

Thanks so much for stopping in at my new blog: I'll keep my old address up for the rest of this month, but I'll be posting here from now on. Hope some of you were able to play a little with VSN as well - happy creating!!