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Flourishes Preview Day 1; From the Garden

 

It's release week at Flourishes, and this is one of my favorite releases.  It's about celebrating; Life, Friends and Fortune.  I have enjoyed working with these sets so much, and ideas just keep flowing.  In fact I had another card I was going to share for the preview, but when Rox posted the Sketch Challenge 267, an idea popped into my head right away, and well...here it is!

 The set is called From the Garden, and it makes me feel that spring and planting are actually on their way!  I've been going through my stuff and purging as much as I can to make space for the stuff that I use, and of course I came across some goodies I hadn't used in a while.  These long notes, are a size of card I love to work with, and I thought the sketch was perfect for them.  They had been stashed among my stuff, and I deemed them keepers, so I put them to use right away!  I was also reminded of my hardware, and Lord knows I have enough of it...so I pulled them out of retirement as well!

The images are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black on Flourishes' Classic White cardstock.  They were coloured with Copic markers then popped up to add a little dimension to the card.  The designer paper is Origins by Basic Grey...and that's all there is to this simple creation!

You're going to love seeing how the rest of the Design Team inked this set up!  Have a quick peek at their creations:

Julie Koerber

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Leslie Miller

Latisha Yoast
Stacy Morgan

This set is up for grabs to one lucky winner!  Leave a comment on this post on Flourishes blog to let them know how much you love it already...but do it quick, because tomorrow we bring out another fabulous set!

I'll be back tomorrow with another preview, and I hope you will be too!  Thanks so much for dropping by, and have yourself a fabulous day!

Stamps:  From the Garden (Flourishes) Paper:  Flourishes Classic White, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Origins DP (Basic Grey)  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black  Accessories: Copic Markers, HPH, sponges, oval punch, pop dots

Flourishes Friday; What's Your Cup of Tea?

 

It's finally Flourishes Friday and we are just a week away from our next release!  It's always an exciting time, and of course it comes with our Pre-release challenge for you to play along with!  So what's your cup of tea?  Let your favorite beverage be your inspiration for a card or project of any sort and share it with us!  Link your project to this post on Flourishes blog or upload to SCS with the keyword FLLCFEB10.  On release day, next Friday, Feb 12, a winner will be chosen to win all three sets in this release!

I chose to be inspired by one of my favorite beverages, wine.  I love a fabulous Merlot or a Cabernet Sauvigon.  Rich red wines.  I would drink it far more often if it didn't do those horrible things to my head the next morning.  But enough about my head, here's my card.

I was inspired to keep it clean and simple so I cruised over to the Clean and Simple blog and used their Fall to Layout sketch 76.  For as simple as this card is, I used three Flourishes sets!   The flourishes are from Flourished Elements, the heart is from Angelic Love and the sentiment is from Tag Lines.  I added white ribbon and pearls for embellishments and stopped while I was still remotely clean and simple.

I'm just a little curious to see what the rest of the design team's favorite beverages are, so come along for a quick peek!

Julie Koerber

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Leslie Miller

Latisha Yoast
Stacy Morgan

OK...it's your turn now!

I am in the process of re-arranging my studio, and this time I am purging big time.  What a project that turned out to be.  OMG...I can't believe the stuff I have accumulated, and it continues to grow.  Oprah says if you haven't used it in 6 months, you probably don't need it.  DH says, it's him or my stuff.  I get the point.  Some of this stuff I've packed around for 10 years.  With over 200 stamp sets alone, not to mention tools, storage, paper, stickers and embellishments, I could stock a store.   So bear with me for a while while I get myself reorganized. 

Have a great day, and thanks for spending a few minutes of your day here! 

Recipe: Stamps:  Taglines, Angelic Love, Flourished Elements (Flourishes)  Paper: Flourishes Classic White, Bravo Burgundy  Ink:  Versamark  Accessories:  silver ep, heat tool, satin ribbon, pearls, foam tape

Flourishes Friday; Playing Favorites

  
 

Hey, it's Flourishes Friday, and I actually have a card to share!  This week Leslie Miller is sharing her favorite things on Flourishes Blog, so I figured I'd show you some of mine!  I really have so many favorites that it would be impossible to get them all on one card, but I gave it a good try!

 
I started by picking my designer paper in my favorite colour pink, by my favorite company, Basic Grey.  Flourishes has carried all their lines, and this one is actually last year's "Bittersweet".  I hardly used any of it last year, not that it's at all exclusively a Valentine's paper, but they just kept coming with more and more papers that, well you know, I had to have!  This year's Valentine's paper is "Sugar Rush", and it's in store now...while supplies last! 

I picked up Angelic Love, and decided to create a Valentine for a friend!  I just love the tiny little words that fit either across the locket or on the angel's banner!  I chose "Best Friends" along with the sentiment "Friends are kisses blown to us by angels".  What a fabulous sentiment for a friendship card, don't you think?  I stamped the angel in Memento, Rich Cocoa on Flourishes Classic White, (my favorite Copic colouring paper) and coloured it with my favorite medium, Copic Markers!  It was cut out with Labels 4 Nestability and layered on the Small Labels.  Spellbinders are definitely one of my top 10 favorite things, and word has it that Flourishes will be getting some of the new labels!  I can't wait!

The pink ribbon is the gorgeous May Art's Silk Ribbon, and it's my favorite because my bows always look amazing with it.  I accented the corners of the card and image with pearls.  I only buy white pearls now, because I can colour them with my Copic Markers to get what ever colour I like.  I used RV04 to colour these ones pink.  I added a heart pin, one of the Finishing Touches selections, and added an adhesive pearl heart that I coloured with my Copic Marker as well.  Lastly, I added some shimmer to the angel wings with a Clear Spica glitter pen...another favorite!  I could not pick it up on camera, but it's so pretty in real life!

Well, there you have it....so many of my favorites all in one sweet card!  After you check out Leslie on Flourishes blog, you'll find Julie and Christine are also playing favorites, so hop on over and see what they picked!

It's Friday and I hope you are planning a great weekend for yourself!  I hope you get to stamp!  Thanks so much for dropping by and have a great day!

Recipe:  Stamps:  Angelic Love (Flourishes)  Paper:  Close to Cocoa, Regal Rose, Flourishes Classic White, BitterSweet DP (Basic Grey)  Ink:  Memento Rich Cocoa  Accessories:  Copic Markers, Spica Clear glitter pen, Pearls (Kaiser),Labels 4 & Small Labels (Spellbinders), Heart Pin, Light Pink Silk Ribbon (May Arts), adhesive heart (Hero Arts)

Vintage Flourishes

 

Last week Flourishes had their weekly focus and Cindy Lawrence showed us some quick ideas for adding a vintage feel to your cards on Flourishes blog.  I had started my card with every intention to post it Friday, but I struggled.  I am not a vintage-y style designer and I just got too flustered to figure out what was going wrong with it.  So I took a look at it this weekend, and a simple change to the ribbon made all the difference in my mind, so I'll share it now!

I chose to work with Lace Edges one of Flourishes latest releases.  It's so delicate and pretty and it seemed the perfect start to a vintage style card.  I picked out some paper from Basic Grey's "Porcelain" line that seemed to work well with it, and that gave my my colours, so I embossed the lace edges in pink to match and added some silver pearls to finish.

I stamped the locket from Angelic Love on Flourishes Classic White card stock and coloured it with the Cool Neutrals Copic Collection. I used my Heart Nestablilites to cut out a pink heart and embossed it with my French Script embossing folder before popping it up on dimensionals and adhering the locket image.

I finished it with two different ribbons that coordinate with the colours of the card and there you be!

I am going to skip the recipe as I mentioned most of the items I used in my post.  But of course, if you have any questions, please email me.  I have to get to bed now as I have to get up to take dh to the airport tomorrow at the ungodly hours of 4:00am...never a good thing as I am a night hawk by nature and early mornings are in direct conflict with my inner peace (I simply hate them!!).

Have a fabulous day, and thanks for the visit! 

Sweet Sunday Angel

 

I want to begin by thanking everyone for their notes and emails of condolences and prayers said on my behalf.  It was overwhelming and so touching and I very much appreciated your words of comfort and support.  Healing is a slow process.  I am getting there, but as many said, you don't get over it, you get through it.  It was a welcome breakthrough to finally finish something this evening, and I am so happy with it, even if it does make me a little teary eyed.

I have to say this card took FOREVER to finish.  Not that I ever whip something up in minutes, but I think I spent the better part of 3 hours before it came together.  And boy to I have a mess to clean up.  Flourishes released four amazing sets on Friday, and since I didn't play in the release, I was itching to ink up one of the sets.  I picked Angelic Love, which is a sweet and fun "mini" set and it worked perfectly for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch.

I reversed the sketch so that my angel wouldn't be looking off the card.  The cupid/angel is stamped on Flourishes Classic White cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Copics.  I absolutely love the sentiment.  Julie Koerber suggested it, and it is just so perfect, it brings tears to my eyes.  I used Baja Breeze as my base and the designer paper is Holiday Happenings layered on Pirouette Pink.  I bought a new punch at Michael's yesterday, and of course couldn't wait to play with it.  I added some taffeta ribbon and liquid pearls to embellish and although you can't see it, I added some Angel Wings Shimmerz paint to the wings of course!

Fun sketch don't you think?  You must check out what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers have done with it; they are always so inspiring. 

Jennifer Tapler
Nancy Riley

Karen Motz

Lynn Put

Vicki Burdick
Sarah-Jane Kale

and of course Karen

 

I have a lot of catching up to do in blog land.  I look forward to a good dose of inspiration doing some blog hopping today.  I hope you're Sunday is as sweet as they come.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  I promise you won't have to wait as long for my next post!

 

Recipe:  Stamps:  Angelic Love (Flourishes)  Paper:  Flourishes Classic White, Baja Breeze, Pirouette Pink, Holiday Happenings DP  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black  Accessories: Copic markers, Scallop Border punch (SU), Diamond Lace border puch (EK), Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon, White Opal liquid pearls, Angel Wings Shimmerz paint, pop dots

Flourishes Friday! White Spaces

 
It's Flourishes Friday, and this week our focus is on white space, and Stacy Morgan is leading the focus on Flourishes Blog.  I'm sure by now she is shaking her head, wondering what part of white space don't I get?  I just have such a hard time not filling up my space.  In fact often I have my cards so cluttered I have no space left for a sentiment.  I struggled with this card, and in the end, made another, but decided this was the better of the two anyway, so here it is.

Funny thing about the start of this card.  I was Christmas shopping yesterday, and the Martha Stewart Arc Lace punch fell into my cart.  It was a pleasant surprise when I got home, and I grabbed the first piece of paper on my desk (I had about a million to choose from after finishing my calendar!), to try it out.  I love it!  So that piece was the beginning of my card.  At least I left some of the white exposed.

I used Flourishes Year of Flowers Calendar set  2.  The asters were stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black on Classic White and coloured with Copic markers.  I cut it into an oval, sponging around the edge before removing the die.  The sentiment is from Sweet Violets, and is cut with the word window punch.  I added some gems to the corners and a few buttons because I couldn't stand it being so naked!

There you have it.  Not exactly what Stacy likely had in mind...nor I for that matter.  This just sort of happened.  Wanna see what happened with the rest of the design team's white spaces?

Julie Koerber

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Leslie Miller

Latisha Yoast
Stacy Morgan

 

Don't forget to stop over at Flourishes Blog and check out Stacy's post!  She is truly the queen of white spaces.

Thanks so much for popping in today!  I'm always glad that you do!  I'll be back Sunday, and until then, have a fabulous weekend!

 

Flourishes Floral Calendar...Finally!

I finally finished my calendar!!  I am thrilled with the way it turned out.  I encountered a few "production" issues that made me detour half way through the project, but I think it was for the better.  I had intended on adhering each page to the chipboard page that came with the calendar stand, but I was about half through, when I realized that the bulk of the layers, ribbon and pearls made that idea rather cumbersome.  Honestly, the calendar looked like a rolodex it was so "fat" LOL!  I ended up removing the pages I had already adhered and just sticking with the paper page.  Really, Flourishes Classic White is such a nice sturdy cardstock that it is just fine.  It still fans, but at least you can tell which month it is open to!

So here they are, really quickly.  I used paper from just about every Basic Grey paper pack I have.  The months don't match the months from the set, but that's OK.  I chose them to match the colour of the printing on the calendar page, since I wasn't using the month/flower word stamps, I just worked with the colour the month was printed on the calendar.  You can click on each photo to enlarge it.

 

 

 

 

Now I realize that I didn't photograph January's, which has the crocus image on it.  Oh well.  I will try to get that this evening.  Right now I'm off to do some Christmas shopping.  Oh and speaking of shopping, Flourishes Bundle special ends tomorrow!  So don't delay that purchase any longer.  You'll get all three sets, plus the calendar download is free with the bundle purchase.  This is really a fabulous set, and you'll be seeing a card from me on Friday...so these gorgeous flowers are definitely not just for calendars!

Have a fabulous day and thanks so much for dropping in!  I love it when you do!

Flourishes Preview; A Year of Flowers Calendar set 3

  
Happy Flourishes Friday!  We are almost at release time, and today we are previewing the third set in Flourishes "A Year of Flowers" Calendar set.  All the sets and the calendar download will be available in Flourishes store tonight at 10:00 Central, right after the release party!  I hope you plan on being there for the games and prizes, and of course the full reveal of all three sets!  Here's my sample for the third set.

 

Today, I'm fast forwarding to November, 2010!  I chose to showcase the gorgeous chrysanthemums from Set 3, pairing them with Basic Grey's "Indian Summer" designer paper.  The bouquet was coloured with Copic markers, and sponged with a little Crushed Curry and Dusty Durango.  I used EK's postage border punch and some black grosgrain ribbon to finish.  So simple!  Here's a close up of the image.

There's more of this set to soak up, and the rest of Flourishes Design Team has some fabulous creations to show it off!  Pop in for a quick visit at their blogs for a fabulous treat!

Julie Koerber

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Leslie Miller

Latisha Yoast
Stacy Morgan

I know you're anxious to win this set, so leave a comment on this post on Flourishes blog, and you'll be entered to win!  The time to get your Floral Finesse challenge card posted is closing in!  Make sure you have it posted and/or linked by 5:00pm Eastern for your chance to win all three sets! 

I'll be at Flourishes Power Hour release party tonight!  Will you?  I hope you'll join us in Flourishes Forum on Splitcoast Stampers, 9:00pm Central for fun, games, prizes and of course the full reveal before the shopping starts!  It's the fastest hour of the month...guaranteed!

Have a fabulous day, and your visit is much appreciated!  I love that you've taken a minute of your day to visit!  Make it an amazing day, and I look forward to seeing you this evening!

Flourishes Preview: Year of Flowers Calendar Set 2

  
We're back today with previews of the second set in Flourishes Year of Flowers Calendar set.  Oh my these are beautiful images to work with.  I have 2 versions of a July calendar, using the same Tigerlily image.  I think it might be my favorite in this collection! 

  

This uses the calendar download and the Tiger lily image.  I coloured it with my Copic markers using the Tigerlily collection and paired it with Basic Grey's "Ambrosia" designer paper.  Incidentally, the calendar set does have the months paired with the name of the corresponding flower images, however, they were a teensy bit too large to fit on the tab, and it seemed redundant on the calendar, so they are not on these calendars.  "July" is from an old calendar set and it's not near as classy as the Flourishes version, but it fit.

 

Here is the second version.  This one I sized to display in a CD case, which is such a nice presentation.   The image was cut with the Labels 4 Nestability and the background was sponged before removing the paper from the die.  I used the same Basic Grey "Ambrosia" paper and Fiskar's Apron Lace border punch.  Here's a close up of the flower.  What a beauty!

Let's see what the rest of the team has been up to with this set!

Julie Koerber

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Leslie Miller

Latisha Yoast
Stacy Morgan

Hop on over to Flourishes blog and leave a comment for your chance to win this set!  You can win all three sets in this release by playing along in our Floral Finess Challenge.  You have until tomorrow at 5:00pm Central to get your project done and uploaded.  Tomorrow is the final preview and you can be there for the full reveal of all three sets at Flourishes Power Hour release party.  There will be more samples, lots of chat and prizes.  The fun starts at 9:00pm Central in Flourishes Forum on Splitcoast Stampers.  I hope to see you there!

OK, that's it for me today.  I'll be back same time same place tomorrow with the final preview.  I hope you will be too!

Flourishes Preview; A Year of Flowers, Calendar set

 
We are nearing Flourishes next release, and this month we have something very special to share with you.  Flourishes has created a set of stamps featuring twelve of Marcella Hawley's fabulous florals.  These gorgeous images will be beautiful on a card, on a calendar or whatever project you decide to work with.  Today we are previewing Set One, containing four amazing florals and January through April.  In addition, Flourishes has created a downloadable calendar that will be free with your bundle purchase, or $2.00 on it's own! 

  
I worked with the pansies in the set, and the calendar download.  The calendar download is a 6"x6" inch calendar, but by printing 2 or 4 to a page, you are able to get a variety of sizes to work with.  I chose the 4 to a page option for this calendar, (only printing 2 at a time) to get the size that worked.  The calendar stand is by Maya Road and I picked it up at my LSS (on sale!), a while back.

Aren't those pansies amazing?  I had so much fun colouring them! Marcella has outdone herself with this collection!  Don't miss seeing the fabulous projects the rest of the design team created with this set!

Julie Koerber

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Leslie Miller

Latisha Yoast
Stacy Morgan

You could be the proud new owner of this set, simply by leaving a comment on the preview post on Flourishes blog.  If you want to win all three, then don't forget our Pre-Release challenge.  You'll find all the details here.  Friday brings our release party, and of course that means more chances to win, plus more samples and the full reveal.  I hope you have your calendar marked, because this is one release you will want to see it all!

I'll be back tomorrow, advancing the calendar to July!  Until then, have a fabulous day, and thanks so much for stopping by!

Recipe:  Stamps:  A Year of Flowers (set 1) (Flourishes)  Paper:  Classic White, Euphoria DP (Basic Grey), Soft Sky  Ink:  Memento Rich Cocoa  Accessories:  Bliss Pearls (Kaiser), Soft Sky ribbon, scallop border punch, crop-a-dile