More VSN Challenges

My photo could be better, but I'm still not a pro at Adobe Photoship so extend grace to me please!

Here is the challenge and there on the left you see my answer to it. When this challenge was first posted, I was so excited. I'd never stamped on candles before and I'd been thinking of including them as one of my Christmas Gifts Class projects. I was so excited and then...I realized I did not have a proper colored candle in the house!

I decided to search anyways and, buried deep underneath a pile of votives, I found this vanilla one we'd received for free years ago when we bought a rocking chair at a local furniture store. Ok, I was so excited again!

And how fun was this! It was like magic watching my stamped images transfer to the candle. Sort of like the first time I learned heat embossing and saw the powder turn to liquid gold. I used Stampin' UP's Natural Beauty stamp set (retired) with Chocolate Chip ink. I colored the images in with markers. I just love this set and I don't care if it is retired and I'm a demo. I'm still using it! It has so many beautiful, soft images that just beg to be colored. What really drew me to this set is the word collage image (see card below). I finished the candle off with some gold cord. This will make a pretty gift, don't you think?

This next card was for this challenge. I already knew I wanted to use the bleached background I'd made several days ago with the French Script background stamp (also retired). (Speaking of bleaching, I need to upload the October Technique Tuesdays class projects... this week, I promise...). I found the perfect leaf almost immediately when I dashed outside to search.

I used my brayer to roll Green Galore ink over the leaf, then pressed it to Whisper White cardstock. I rolled over it with a clean brayer to make sure all the ink transferred to the cardstock. I then cut it out with my paper snips (super sharp and very good at cutting into small places) and glued it to the background.

I then used Elegant Eggplant ink to stamp the word collage from Natural Beauty (the same set I used on the candle above) on vellum. I stitched the piece to the card with linen thread.

I then glued the whole thing to Lavendar Lace cardstock and edged it with a Uniball Signo White Gel Pen. Even though I had 45 minutes to complete this challenge, this card came together in under 30 minutes. I told you in my last post, once I get going with a stamping or two, the ideas really start to flow.

If you've never stamped with nature's wonders, head outside for a hike and see what you can find! Pretty much anything goes...I've seen scrapbook pages with twigs stitched on! S-t-r-e-t-c-h your creativity!

Now go create!
- Nicole