Happy Halloween!

Trick or treat... smell my feet... gimme somethin' good to eat!!! HA! Hope all of your little ghosts and goblins are getting excited for the night of fright! Mine are! And, we already have a hefty sugar high!

This is what we did this week to take to school for my daughter's Halloween party Friday. Too easy. Too fun! They are chocolate witches!

And, when I say easy... I mean easy! Melt some chocolate...
Do some stirring........(a few giggles won't hurt either)

Pour them into the mold, set, wrap and throw them in the box!

The tag was made with a stamp Ellie's Nana gave her. (You might know her Nana as the Rubber Maid!!) I thought they turned out cute!

Speaking of cute, I got this darling card from Flourishes owner Jan Marie this week! I can't believe the creativity behind this one!

After painting up her night sky, she used a tag as a template to draw in her tombstones. She drew in some grass and used Flourished Elements to make her white swirls that she used to hang the lit chandelier from the Summer on the Patio set. TOO CUTE! Thanks Jan!!!

And, to the rest of you that stopped by for a trick or a treat.... here's hoping you have a happy weekend and a........

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Stamp Simply--- grab your accordian!

When I think of accordian cards, I can't help myself, I think polka! I think - 'roll out the barrell... we'll have a barrel of fun!' Well, today's Stamp Simply challenge is both - it's about accordians, and it's about a barrell of fun!

The challenge today courtesy Miss Sharon Johnson is to make a three panel accordian project or card! It can be as large or as small as you like it! Anything goes -- just do a 3 panel accordion card. But beware -- they are ADDICTING! Be sure to check out all the DT girls links to get some GREAT ideas and to get your juices flowing!

Amy, October Guest Designer
Janine
AJ
Tammy
Deb
Barbara
Jenny
Barb-- she's filling in for Jennifer Buck who is taking time off!

This card was also created as a part of the Flourishes Focus this Friday hosted by the ever-so-talented Latisha Yoast! She challenged the rest of the DT to "Color Up the Season!" and to let coloring take center stage. I picked Christmas and.... I picked up my Copics!

For mine, I grabbed a tag accordian card from my stash. I had a pre-made one from the Paper Cut. I know, I cheated! It was actually a 6 panel tag accordian card that I cut in half. I then took some fun Christmas paper and created mats for each panel. The next part was the super duper fun part! I stamped the images from the Drummer Boy set from Flourishes onto Flourishes Classic White card stock. Using the Poppy, Spring Greens, Fields Collections to color up the holly, the drum, the soldier and part of the French Horn. I also have a tad bit of a preview for you here because I used some of the soon to be released Copic collections that Flourishes just got in house! They aren't on the store site yet but.... they will be.... SOON! The collections I used were the Sunflower and Holly collections!

Here's a peek at the solider! The antique gold shade on the soldier's uniform and hat is thanks to the Lionel Gold Copic marker. It was covered over by the Gold Copic Spica Atyou pen for a little glitz! Sorry, my camera didn't pick up that sparkle! I highlighted the laces on the boots with a white gel pen.

Here's a peek at the center panel. The sentiment is from the Christmas Music set and I put it on a punched shape from my Curly Labels Punch from Stampin' Up!
And here's the last panel showing the french horn! That, my friends, is it! A fun tag accordian card literally wrapped up with a bow! I am not sure how I will use this card but I love the sparkle and vibrant color.

Want to see how the other ladies 'Colored Up The Season?' Just hop on over and see.....

Leslie Miller

Latisha Yoast
Laura Fredrickson
Stacy Morgan
Cindy Lawrence

Thanks for stopping by! See you back here soon!

Just sitting here dreamin'........

Don't you find that there are times when you just have to dream of the ocean. And, since I live in Montana -- the ocean seems worlds away. So, what do I do to combat that? Well, I "stamp" the ocean instead!

I dug deep and picked a stamp that is long gone when it comes to images. It's a retired PSX stamp called Portland Head. Here's a little history for you. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow often visited this area and wrote a poem about this very lighthouse....

The rocky ledge runs far out into the sea
And on its outer point, some miles away,
The lighthouse lifts its massive masonry,
A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Lighthouse"

Enough dreaming.... here's my card! I made it pretty simple because my image is so pretty. I colored it up with Copic markers using Flourishes Copic Collections - I used the Water, Poppy, Spring Greens and Flesh Tones 2 collections. I added some Snow Green from the Pastels Collection to the clouds and while my Nesties Labels 1 die was still on my shape, I sponged some baby blue and Antique Linen inks around the upper edges for my sky. Add a sentiment, on a punched oval, some rustic cord and you're almost done! The papers are from Prima and Crate Paper (blue). I also paper pierced the edge of the blue for a little extra pop.

Voila! Now if only I could zap myself to the coast to smell that ocean air in real life. Oh well.... I can dream! :-)

Thanks for stopping by! I'll see you back here soon!

Here's a funny story for you...

Ok, I am somewhat laughing as I write this post -- it just goes to show that trying something new is not ALWAYS a good thing! I found some beautiful holly berry paper at my local scrap store and thought I had a good idea!

Well.... not so much!

I took the Santa from Flourishes new Santa, I believe set and stamped it directly on my paper. After layering it up, I added a scallop, some fun red satin ribbon and one of my new faves -- a tag cut and embossed with one of Spellbinders' new dies.

After I got it all together, I showed hubby. This is what he said, and I quote....

"Who shot Santa in the face?"

OH MY GOSH!!!! After he said that, that was all I could see!!! UGH!

Needless to say, I found a scrap of the paper, stamped Santa again, matted him up, added some bling and then added him to my card front making sure to fully cover the 'bloody' Santa! LOL! I also added some color to the holly and berries with the help of some tombow markers and also added some color to Santa's cheeks with some pink chalk. Much better... don't you think?

At least now, I won't scare small children! Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend! I'll see you back here soon!

Flourishes Friday... Fancy Folds!

Hi all! It's Friday, which means it's time for another Flourishes Friday and this one is all about Fancy Folds! Christine Okken is heading up the Flourishes Newsletter today and she has a fabulous tutorial on a fancy fold card that is just too.... FUN! So, click HERE to see what she is up to today!

My card today is a fold I've done before here on my blog! In fact, I have a tutorial HERE on the card in a box. I learned this fun card/box when I first started to stamp ages ago and I am thinking it was orginially a Stampin' Up pattern.

Now... my show and tell! Here is my box/card closed. I used the Doves and Holly - a new set recently released from Flourishes. I stamped it in Vivid Taupe ink and colored it with some of the new Pastel Copic markers.

I used BGOOOO, WOO, RVOOOO and then I added in some RVOO and RVo2 for the berries. I sponged some Antique Linen Distress Ink around my oval and also added some sparkle from a Stardust Gel Pen to my berries as well. The scalloped oval and oval were made with a Classic Petite Oval and Oval Petite Scallop Nestabilities dies. Add some pearlized paper, some Champagne Pearls and some paper piercing and that's it for the front! Here's a look at the card/box open. I stamped the sentiment in Rich Cocoa Memento Ink and then stamped some of the single holly leaves next to the sentiment and colored them up the same way as I did in my dove image. Add some champagne pearl paper, a fun corner punch and some self stick pearls and that's the inside of the box!
Here's a close up of my image. Can you see the sparkle? Again, if you want to check out the step by step tutorial, all you need to do is click HERE!

Don't forget to see what other fancy folds the Flourishes DT cooked up this week! They are all over the top stunning!

Cindy Lawrence has done an Easel Fold Card
Latisha Yoast has made a Criss-Cross Fold Card
Laura Fredrickson has done a Swing Card
Leslie Miller has an Accordian Gate Fold
Stacy Morgan has a Wallet Tri-fold to show you.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a fabulous weekend and I'll see you back here soon!

Stamp Simply.....Hip to be Square Style!

Hi all and TGIF! It's time for another Stamp Simply challenge and this one is all about feeling square! Here's the deal - NO rounded corners on todays card. No ovals, no circular punches or die cuts, only square shapes. The card must be square and all layers added must have squared corners. Want to see the offical rules? Just click HERE to head on over to Sharon Johnson's site!

Now... to my super duper easy peasy card! This is truly a 10 minute card.....

I stamped my floral corner (Penny Black) using Ancient Page Coal. I colored it up with watercolor pencils, blended with a blender pen and then added some hot fix crystals in yellow. I added the sentiment in the lower right corner and then decided to add a punch of color in a square. I used post it notes to mask off a square and then sponged the color (Dandelion Memento) in the square. Remove the mask and... then it's time to add your green and yellow mat onto a 4-1/4" card. Add some fun ribbon from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store and you're done!

Wanna be square too? Join us in this week's challenge! If you need a little extra inspiration, just visit these amazing Stamp Simply designers! ;-)

Sharon
Amy, October Guest Designer
Janine
AJ
Tammy -- is taking the night off! Rest up Tammy!
Deb
Barbara
Jenny
Barb-- she's filling in for Jennifer Buck who is taking time off! :-)

Thanks for stopping by! I'll see you back here soon!

Timeless Tuesday.... Watercolored Christmas!

It's Tuesday, which means there is some fun going on over on the Flourishes Newsletter with Timeless Tuesday! This week for FTTC38, Dee Jackson is the hostess with the mostess. She challenged everybody to whip up a watercolored card.

Since my mom is visiting, I didn't want to make a super duper hard card. I wanted a 15 minute creation and I found it using some fabulous ribbon, paper and an elegant image!

I used the reindeer image from the Sleigh Ride set, embossed with gold detail powder, and colored by picking up some waterbased markers with a water brush. To get the watercolor effect, I stamped my reindeer onto Flourishes European Watercolor paper! After I was done, I added a 2mm rhinestone to the nose to make my deer.... Rudolph! Mat it up with some Labels 8 Nestabilities and you're almost done! the paper is actually some leftover glittered Christmas paper that Flourishes sold last year. I stocked up because I knew this would be one of my favorite papers!

Here's a close up of the reindeer....

Well my friends, that's it! If you want to see the official rules, please visit the Flourishes Newsletter for more! Thanks for stopping by! More to come later this week! My mom and I have been busy in my stamp room and the paper is flying! ;-)

See you back here soon!

The sneaks are over!

After almost a week of tempting you with sneaks of some GORGEOUS art from some of the most talented stamp illustrators in the land.... Flourishes is pulling the lid off and unveiling these beauties! And now.... the moment you've been waiting for! Say "hello" to....

Christmas Drummers

Musical Score & Words

The Holly & The Ivy

Christmas Wreath

Santa, I Believe...

Holly Background

Now... one final card to show you to cap off the week! :-)

An easy peasy lemon squeezy for you! I stamped my santa from Santa, I Believe on Flourishes Classic Ivory card stock using Memento Rich Cocoa. I cut him out using the Labels 8 Nestabilities die and then sponged on some distress inks (Tea Dye and Antique Linen) while the die was still on my paper. I colored up his cheeks and lips with Tattered Rose Distress ink. I stamped the holly onto a scrap of paper, colored it up with Copics from the Fields Collection and Poppy Collection, cut it out and then popped it up using foam tape. Add some decorative paper, a fun Spellbinder's tag and a great sentiment from the Musical Score and Words set, some rhinestones, a fun ribbon and you're pretty much done!

Thanks for joining me this week for the sneak peeks! If you want to get your hands on these beauties, all you need to do is click HERE! Remember, the best deal by far is the New Release Bundle. It's a one week only special -- all six sets for 10% off!

Happy Stamping!

Flourishes Sneaks... the final day! Plus.. a challenge!

This week has flown by and today brings the final day of sneak peeks for Flourishes' October release! This set is a true classic! It's an image that, when you look at it, you can almost smell the cloves and a hint of mulled cider!

Introducing.....

This set is the second offering from the talented Marcella Hawley. It is just a beauty and will create such elegant Christmas cards. It's a pair of images that truly stand on their own with out a lot of extras!

Want to check out the other creations as we wind up our DT hop for the week? Just take a trip to visit....

Leslie Miller
Christine Okken
Julie Koerber
Latisha Yoast
Laura Fredrickson
Stacy Morgan
Cindy Lawrence
Sharon Doolittle
Jan Marie Caruso

Now to my creation! Because I thought this image was just too pretty on it's own, I wanted to keep my layout simple.

I stamped the wreath, which is lovely and large (about 4" square) using Palette Hybrid Burnt Umber ink onto Flourishes Classic Ivory paper and then I used the Spring Greens, Tiger Lily, Poppy and Fields Copic collections to color up my wreath. I colored the balls up as oranges, but they could easily be sparkly ornaments too! After I was done coloring, I added a fun edge thanks to a gold leaf pen, a fun corner punch, some pearls that I colored red with one of my red Copic markers and then I added some dimension. I stamped a piece of the bow a second time, colored it up, cut it out and then popped it up on my card. I also used the "for you" sentiment from the Holly and the Ivy set and stamped that on a small die cut tag. I attached my tag with some gold cording.

Here's a close up! You can also see I added some Stickles glitter glue to add a little razzle dazzle!
For my second creation, I wanted to get in on this week's Stamp Simply challenge, which is all about "opening the gate!!" with a gate fold! You can read all the official details HERE over on Sharon Johnson's blog! Gosh, it's been years since I have done a card with a gate fold like this! I also staggered my images so that they were aligned on different sides of my gate! FYI: I took a piece of 7 by 10" green cardstock. The 7" was my height and the 10 was my width. I scored width-wise 2-1/2" in on each side so that my finished card measured 5" by 7".

I stamped my small wreath from the Christmas Wreath set three times on Flourishes Classic White card stock using the same burnt umber ink. I colored it up almost exactly the same only I used G09 and G17, the Daffodil Collection and the Poppy Copic collection to color up the balls on the wreath as ornaments. After I was done coloring, I punched my wreaths out using a 1-3/4" circle punch. Then, I matted them onto a small die cut mat from the Labels 3 Nestabilities set. The red strips on my card front were also stamped with the new Musical Score background. Add some gold wrapped ribbon and some gold self stick pearls and... done!

Here's what my card looks like closed...

And, here's a close up, so that you can see the glittered wreath!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Stamp Simply team to get a glimpse at their fancy folds!

Amy, October Guest Designer
Janine
Jennifer
AJ
Tammy
Deb
Barbara
Jenny

I hope you make time to play! Don't forget -- if you want to win this set, all you need to do is head on over to the Flourishes Newsletter and leave a comment there! There's also all the details on tonight's release party! Woo hoo! Thanks for stopping by! See you back here soon!

A Season that Sparkles with.... Santa Baby!!

We hope you've been enjoying this week's sneeks! Today we usher in an entirely classic holiday set with a real vintage feel...

Introducing.....

This gorgeous stippled Santa is so classic and it was drawn by a brand new illustrator for Flourishes... Becky Fleck! You'll have to head on over to the Flourishes Newsletter to read about this new artist on the Flourishes team. She has an amazing resume and we couldn't be more excited to have her in our corner!

When you tour the Design Teams' blogs today - you'll see this gorgeous Santa can be done up in an ornate way, with a touch of gold or even just stamped in one color. He looks absolutely perfect each and every way. Becky also designed a coordinating background called Holly that takes that beautiful leaf cluster in Santa's hat and makes it into a background that you can use for so many different things around the holidays! Head on over to see.....

Leslie Miller
Christine Okken
Julie Koerber
Latisha Yoast
Laura Fredrickson
Stacy Morgan
Cindy Lawrence
Sharon Doolittle

For my creation, I turned to a technique I haven't done in ages... crayon resist! It's a fun technique and it's perfect for this stamp set! Here's a peek at how you can get started! I stamped the Santa on a piece of glossy cardstock using the Hybrid Palette Ink in the Burnt Umber shade. I heat set it before I began.
You can see, I chose a light, medium and dark shade of distress ink. I have a sponge and also a white crayon. Before I continued, I ended up coloring all the areas that I wanted to stay white. I colored Santa's beard, hair and eyebrows.

Then, I sponged on all three shades of distress ink. when I was done, I used a soft paper towel to remove the excess ink that was laying on the wax of the crayon, It looked like this....

The next part is the fun part! I picked up some Copic Markers to give a photo tinting effect to my Santa. I used RVo2 from the Hollyhock Collection for Santa's rosy cheeks. I used G82 and G85 to color up the Holly Leaf from the Fields Collection and I used R24 and R27 from the Poppy Collection to color up the berries. I did use a clear Copic Spica pen to add some razzle dazzle to Santa's glasses! After I was finished, as you can see, paper pierced the edge around my Santa. The rest is simply matting my Santa up and adding a tied piece of ribbon for a bit of embellishment!

And here... is my finished product! You can see that I used the new Holly Background stamp to embellish a piece of green text weight paper to make an envelope liner. I think it is so fun to create liners that match your holiday cards!

Do you want to win this set? All you need to do is leave a comment on the Santa, I Belive post over on the Flourishes Newsletter and you'll be in the running! Random.org will draw a number and we'll have the winner in tomorrow's post!

MORE FUN AT FLOURISHES...

• Did you see our A Season That Sparkles Challenge? If you play, you will have a chance at winning all SIX of our new releases for October. That's one valuable prize - you could even call it an early Christmas present! Click HERE for the details.


• Mark your calendars for our RELEASE PARTY coming up this Friday! It's our power hour of fun with games, goodies, and prizes up for grabs! We'll host it in the Flourishes Forum over on Splitcoast HERE from 9 to 10 PM Central Standard Time. As the party wraps, all of our sets that we peek this week will be put in store for your shopping pleasure!

The fun continues tomorrow right here! We wrap up the week with a beautiful set that has a real homespun flair. Come back and see the second offering from the ever-so-talented Marcella Hawley! See you then!

A Season that Sparkles.... day 2!

Welcome to day two of Flourishes sneak peeks! Today we take a step back in time to honor one of the worlds' oldest Christmas carols.....

Introducing..... This gorgeous set drawn by the ever-so-talented Marcella Hawley is named after a hymn that has been around for upwards of one thousand years! I didn't know this but, way back when, the druids used holly as a symbol of the winter solstice. Today's offerings feature a classic look complete with two gorgeous turtle doves!

It was funny, I had no idea what a turtle dove even looked like! I had to email Marcella and say... how do I color this bird? I have seen those gorgeous white doves, I often hear pigeon doves outside coo-ing -- but a turtle dove? No clue! Thankfully she sent me a picture.....


And this was my artistic interpretation!

I stamped my doves and holly using Versafine Black Onyx. I heat set it and then added some sky blue chalk around my image making sure to erase the stray chalk that ended up on my image. After that, I colored the birds, holly and berries up using watercolor pencils. After I got the color exactly where I wanted it, I blended the pencils using a Tombow blender pen. Easy peasy!

Here's a close up....

The rest is simply matting! I did stitch some of my dp with some pretty gold thread to add a little extra sparkle! I also added some gold self stick pearls in the upper left corner of my image.

And that, my friends is it!

As you make your way around to see what the designers created, you'll see there are plenty of different artistic interpretations for these beautiful birds! They're grey, brown, blue and even pink! :-) So, fly along and take a peek!

Leslie Miller
Christine Okken
Julie Koerber
Latisha Yoast
Laura Fredrickson
Stacy Morgan
Cindy Lawrence
Sharon Doolittle

Do you want to win this set? All you need to do is leave a comment over on the Flourishes Newsletter! here on Holly and Ivy post and you'll be in the running! Random.org will draw a number and we'll have the winner in tomorrow's post!

MORE FUN AT FLOURISHES...
Did you see our A Season That Sparkles Challenge? If you play, you will have a chance at winning all SIX of our new releases for October. That's one valuable prize - you could even call it an early Christmas present! Click HERE for the details.

Mark your calendars for our RELEASE PARTY coming up this Friday! It's our power hour of fun with games, goodies, and prizes up for grabs! We'll host it in the Flourishes Forum over on Splitcoast HERE from 9 to 10 PM Central Standard Time. As the party wraps, all of our sets that we peek this week will be put in store for your shopping pleasure!

It's going to be a fun week at Flourishes! Tomorrow's release is one that will have you looking for cookies and saying... "I believe!" :-) You'll see why when you come back tomorrow!