Time for a Release Week Challenge!

Hi all! Can you believe another Flourishes release is just around the corner? And, to get you ready, the design team is asking you to look out your windows and be inspired by what you see with the beautiful textures and colors that only nature can deliver! In just a few short days we’ll be unveiling a new round of stamps at Flourishes inspired by the outdoors. We’re really excited to show them to you! So today, we’re challenging you to be inspired by the TEXTURES of nature!

How To Play:

Create something with an outdoorsy texture in mind – or use an element from nature as part of your design. It could be the texture in an embossing folder that has woodgrain, leaves or vines, it could be a leaf rubbing behind your image, something glossy like rain or shiny like a berry. The interpretation is up to you! If you play along with us, you could win Flourishes entire June Stamp Release! If you upload to SCS please use the keyword FLLCJUN13. You can enter as many times as you like, but we want you to know if you use your Flourishes stamps, your entry counts twice! You have until Friday June 14, 2013 at 5 PM EST to enter. Just click HERE to link up your creation!

On to what I created!

There are some weeks where you just don't have a ton of time to create and sadly, (sniffle, sniffle) this week was one of them! So, I tried to create an "earthy" card that didn't require coloring. Instead, I turned to one of my favorite silhouette sets called Country Road. I love the peaceful imagery in this set and I thought it would be perfect for this challenge! I started by stamping using Espresso Truffle Ink and stamped the barn image on Flourishes Classic Kraft card stock. Add a little paper piercing and then mat the image onto the darkest shade of the Color Made Easy Rich Browns Collection. The red strip of paper is from the Teresa Collins Far and Away paper pack. I added some twine and a few antique copper brads and... almost done! The sentiment is from the Old Fashioned Florals set and I thought it was a fun one to go with my image. So, where is the earthy texture? I decided to use a wood grain embossing folder and some Core-dinations paper that had a base of kraft in it. I thought once I embossed and sanded my image that it might resemble an old piece of weathered wood! And, after I was done matting it all up -- I think it worked!

Here's a close up! You can see I did add some Antique Linen Distress Ink around the edges of my image just to add a more distressed/weathered look. See?

And that, my friends, is it! So, do you need a little inspiration brought on by Mother Nature herself? Head on over and see the beautiful creations from our Senior Design Team before you get started. Hop on over and see.....

Amanda Havon
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Heather Jensen
Julie Koerber
Maki Jones
Silke Ledlow
Stacy Morgan
And be sure to welcome our NEWEST Senior Design Team Member - Tosha Leyendekker!! See more about her HERE. We’re so excited to have her with us! Woo hoo!!!!

If you want to check out the official rules -- be sure to click  HERE   And, get ready to get your fingers inky! If you play along, you could win Flourishes entire new release for June! Oh, and be sure to mark your calendars because the sneak peeks for the June release start next TUESDAY! Have a fabulous weekend and hopefully I'll see you back here soon! 

~Julie

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