Time to 'Get in Shape!'

Hello Flourishes Fans! I don't know about you but I love this time of year -- when the leaves start to change colors and there is a brisk feeling in the air! Many of us decide, yours truly included, to get back into "stamping shape" in the fall. That's why this Flourishes challenge is perfect for you -- turning your fingers to some paper crafting fun!

In just a few short days Flourishes will be unveiling its beautiful September Release of  FIVE sets, and playing in this challenge is your chance to win the whole September Release! Want to know how? All you need to do is create a Shaped Card OR a 3D Item. You can either create a card using any non-standard shape (we encourage you to think creatively), or a lovely box, ornament, home decor item, or anything 3D....it's all up to you! 

On to my creation (plus a little fun tip!) I don't know about you, but it frustrates me when I have a die cut shape and don't have a mat for it. I love matting images and having an accent that way. So, I came up with a plan to combat that! And here's how you start. Create two die cuts and cut one in half vertically, one in half horizontally. 

Take your decorative or main mat and attach the top and bottom of one of the half die cuts.....

 Then, add the sides. You can see there are little notch outs on each side, but I thought that was a fun decorative flair and I like the look!

And then, I added a die cut circle with the cute little candy cane from Sweets of the Season! Colored it up with Copic Markers (see list below for colors), added a punched snowflake, a little bling, some paper piercing and some glitter glue!

How did I make my card? Well, I took the Classic Keyhole Die and did this.....

I put the die on the folded card stock so that a portion of the folded edge wouldn't be cut.  On the inside, I added this cute little sentiment using Love Letter Memento Ink.

And, here's my finished project below! Want to know how I created the bag? It was a tutorial that I picked up over on the Scor-Pal blog HERE. I added some decorative paper, a fun little crystal button, some twine and see the top of the bag? That is actually a folded over piece that was created using Flourishes Classic Frames Die!

 You can see when I show you a side shot how the flap just folds over thanks to that die! How did I keep it shut? I just added a strip of repositional tape. I thought about adding a ribbon, and I might before I stuff this with sweet goodies and give it away. I might even add a little more bling to accent the flap! So many options!

And that, my friends, is it! Hope you play along with the Flourishes DT! It will be so much fun seeing YOUR creations! How do you enter? Just click HERE for all the official rules!

And now for some wonderful shaped inspiration, our Design Team has pulled out all the stops to get your creativity jump-started:

• Allison Cope
• Christine Okken
• Cindy Lawrence
• Heather Jensen
• Julie Koerber -- you are here!
• Maki Jones
• Silke Ledlow
• Stacy Morgan
• Tosha Leyendekker

Thanks for stopping by today and we look forward to seeing what you create! We’ll see you here on Monday September 9th when our FIVE wonderful September Sneak Peeks start! Enjoy getting back into stamping SHAPE! ;-)

~Julie

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