Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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!

25 comments:

Karen W said...

Just beautiful and I can't wait to get my hands on these new stamps!!

Joan Fricker said...

Julie, great card, great colors and beautiful stamp!

Joan

Liz Williams said...

Beautiful card.Flourishes has done it again!!

The Rubber Maid said...

Well it must be the 12 days of Christmas...is there maids a milking too?? Just teasing. Your little turtle doves are divine. Mom

Darlene said...

This is gorgeous! Your coloring is exquisite and the layout is PERFECT! Thanks for sharing the info too ... I'm glad you cleared that up ... I was a bit confused myself!! I'm more familiar with Pennsylvania Honkin' Pigeons, LOL!! (long story ... tell you later, teehee)

Stacy Morgan said...

Julie this is beautiful. First that picture of the *real* dove is so cute, he is chubby and I just want to hug him. hee hee Your take on the picture is fabulous with your golden feathers. Beautiful beautiful card.

Helena (Gvendalen) said...

Beautiful card and beautiful stamp!
Lovely coloring!
Hugs

Laura (scrapnextras) said...

I never thought to google them...I just figured they should be white...who knew?? Beautiful colouring and Ilove the stitching!

NancyK said...

A beautiful card with gorgeous coloring! Thanks for sharing the photo of the dove - it will be very helpful when I do my cards!

Connie M. said...

This is just sooo pretty, Julie!! Love how you colored and birds and highlighted the feathers!!

Unknown said...

Beautiful coloring, Julie! I didn't know how the turtle dove looked like until now, lol. Thank you for including the photo.
I love the gold thread, too!

SAMARA said...

WOW the inspiration became the card. amazing how deeply the inspiration was etched inside of you Julie in a way that created your art to be so similar but with the feeling of the homemade touch. gorgeous.

ChristineCreations said...

Well your artistic interpretation is just gorgeous Julie. The doves look stunning. And the paper is beautiful too! Love that gold stitching!

Janine said...

Simply gorgeous!!!

Ida said...

Gorgeous card and you "nailed" the look of the Turtle Dove.

Leslie Miller said...

I didn't realize until today that they're turtle doves. That helps! You certainly did a beautiful job coloring them. Love the soft chalk in the background. It's a gorgeous and very Christmasy card, Julie!

DB said...

The card is beautiful, the coloring on the doves is fantastic!

Cindy Haffner said...

Beautiful Julie.

Latisha said...

I had no clue what those birds looked like, so I colored them to match my paper LOL. You did a beautiful interpretation. Gorgeous card Julie!!!
hugs
Latisha

Jan Castle said...

Love the turtle doves...never saw them before. You did a remarkable job in coloring!!!!
Jan Castle

Betty Wright said...

Beautiful and wonderfully colored!!! Lovely card, Julie!!!

Sabrina Jackson said...

Julie, this is breathtaking!!! You are a master at colring. Totally gorgeous!! Hugs, Sabrina

Silke Ledlow said...

OH my - this is SOOOO GORGEOUS - Julie!!! Your coloring is fabulous!!! Hugs ~S~

Jenny Gropp said...

One after another -- home run, home run, home run...... way to go -- you showed off these new sets with every card being a home run!

Beate said...

Beautiful sample. Gorgeous soft coloring.
Hugs and smiles