A Sweet Surprise!

I just love this time of year when the mail box starts sharing little notes from friends far and wide and some of those friends... go above and beyond! I got this little surpirse this week.... I just think it's darling!!!

I am not 100% sure but I am thinking this is a Paper Trey set. I love the fold my bud Janine used (she's my sister that my parents never gave birth to! LOL! I've just adopted her! ) And that little frame? I love how she painted and distressed it adding some fun bling/berries to her wreath inside!

And, in my Entertainment Center - there are cubbies that I love to deck out with the season - this little frame found a perfect place!

Thanks Janine!

I'll see you all back here soon! Wednesday starts the sneak peeks for Flourishes! If you're a fan of Marcella Hawley's floral delights -- man, oh man, you'll want to stay tuned! ;-)

Until tomorrow!

Floral Finesse Release Challenge!

It's almost that time! We are less than a week away from our sneak peeks for Flourishes December release! We, in the Flourishes Design team, are literally giddy! We can't WAIT until you see what we have to unveil for December - beauty doesn't even begin to cover it! To get you in the mood for our release, we're offering up a challenge where YOU can will all three of our new release stamp sets for December!

THE CHALLENGE: This challenge is all about the colors we love in our gardens and those feel good floral feelings. Use your favorite flower as the inspiration for your card or project's color scheme. Maybe you choose dusty pink and sage because it reminds you of the tea roses in your garden. Or, maybe you choose golden shades with hints of brown to remind you of the sunflowers you love in the field nearby! You choose! The contest closes at 5 PM Eastern on December 11th. To enter, all you need to do is link up your creation on THIS POST using the Mr. Linky box! Random.org will pick a number and the winner will be announced both at the RELEASE PARTY set for December 11th starting at 9PM Central Standard Time and also here on the Flourishes Newsletter!!

For my creation, I turned to two of my favorite colors found in those beautiful violets ~ rich purples and greens! While this challenge is just a color challenge, I thought - hey - I have a beautiful violet stamp set-- why not use it! :-)

After stamping the violets on my petite oval (Spellbinders die) in Tuxedo Black Memento ink, I used the Violet and Spring Greens Copic Collections to color my flowers. I accented the centers with an Inkssesntials pen and then outlined the flower with B0000 and blended with a Copic Blender pen to soften the lines. The rest is just matting! I used some My Mind's Eye and (green polka dot is unknown) and matted it up on a Flourishes Classic White Card Stock Base. The oval scallop is paper by Core-dinations. Add some ribbon, a button and some paper piercing and... you're pretty much done!

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

Gosh, just think... we only have to wait 6 months before we can see these beauties in real life! :-) Thank goodness I can stamp them at least! LOL!

Want to see what the rest of the DT created to spark some floral inspiration? Stop by and pay a visit to:

Christine Okken
Latisha Yoast
Stacy Morgan
Cindy Lawrence
Laura Fredrickson
Leslie Miller

Stamp Simply... tag it pretty!

Hi all and happy Friday! It's time for another Stamp Simply challenge! Last week, the team showed you some fun ways to wrap and package gifts. Today, it's all about decking out your packages with a pretty gift tag! Create something you can just hang on a gift, a bag handle or box -- just a little bit of handmade loveliness that tells the recipient they are special to you!

My creation couldn't be easier! Let's take a peek!

I started with a Crafty Secrets Christmas Cotton Square using this fun Santa! (I got my cotton scraps from Craft Secrets -- but I know Sharon has them in her store too!)I added some fun silver stitching by literally letting my sewing machine "drive!" I wanted to create squiggly and uneven lines to add a dash of whimsy! The rest is matting - I used some Eskimo Kisses and some Bo Bunny decorative paper. I used the Stampin' Up tag corner punch and then added a tab at the top using another Stampin' Up punch. The button is one of my all time favorite buttons - it's one of the American Crafts Glitter Buttons that I wove through some red and white gingham ribbon. In my tab at the top, I did punch a small hole - when the time comes to attach this to a package, I'll grab some of that fun metallic cording and tie it around a bow or a bag handle! Easy as pie!

I can't wait to see what tag-a-licious creations the rest of the Stamp Simply team created! Be sure to stop by and see for yourself! :-)

Sharon
Michelle Woerner -- our guest designer for December!
Janine
Jennifer
AJ
Tammy
Deb
Barbara
Jenny
Barb

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you back here soon! ;-)

Winter White

Hi all! It's time for another Impression Obsession challenge and this one is all about.... white! That's the only rule -- a white creation! Oh, and yes, you have to use Impression Obsession stamps. There are some serioius goodies on the line if you enter! The winner receives a $25 gift certificate to use in the Impression Obession store! You only have until Saturday - so click HERE for all the details!

Now, to my creation!

I wanted my card to have a white feel with some silver and pastel accents. I just love this image -Ice Skate Stockings -illustrated by Leah Hannan. I inked it up using Versamark ink and embossed it with detail silver embossing powder. Then, I picked up my Pastel Collection of Copic markers to color my stockings and give it just enough color to create a soft tint! Add some pearls, a silver pearl rectangle to mat my oval on and then mat it again onto a white piece of cardstock that's been embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder and edged with a silver leaf pen. Put it on a white card stock card base and.... done! This really was a quick card and I love how soft it looks!

Want to see what wonderful and white creations the rest of the IO team cooked up? Stop by and see....

Shirley
Kathy
Dina
Laura
Jenny
Deborah
Daniela
Jeanne

Thanks for coming by! I'll see you back here tomorrow! :-)

Little Snow Tree

I don't know about you, but when I set my eyes on any kind of snow globe, I just can't help but pick it up and turn it over to magically stare at all the snow and glitter. It's like an instant stress reliever! So, when I saw this little snow globe stamp from Impression Obsession, I thought... "Awwww!" It just looked like a little Charlie Brown tree, which only adds to the sweetness!

I started by cutting out my Labels 8 shape (largest die) from some Stampin' Up decorative paper. I edged it with some silver stitching and then created my card stock base by making it smaller than my labels shape so that the die would, in essence, hide the card. Before I adhered my shape to the card base, I added some grosgrain ribbon by wrapping it and securing it with glue dots.

The Snowy Tree Globe was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink twice - one for the base image and a second time so that I could pop up the actual globe with some foam tape. Before I attached my globe, I put the Labels 8 die back on and sponged some light blue ink around my globe. Then... I attached the globe and colored it up with Copic markers - I used B21 and B24 for the snow globe base, YG91 and YG93 for the tree branches, and the Snow Green Pastel BG0000 to create some color on my snow. After I was done coloring, I took a Quickie Glue Pen and painted on some areas of my snow and then accented with some fine Diamond glitter.

See that button? there is a method to my madness there. The button (glittered button by American Crafts) actually hangs over my front image - which - you can't tell but it is actually a mini card on my card front. The button is placed so that it will hold the flap on my mini card down.

Here's a peek inside the mini card...The sentiment is also from IO and can be found HERE. And, here's a peek at how the button actually holds it in place! And that, my friends is it! It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas -- not only here on my blog but in my house too! We spent the night starting to decorate and pumped up the Christmas music. Are you getting in the holiday spirit??? It will be here before we all know it! :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by! See you back here soon!

Stamp Simply-- Mass Produce It!!

Hi all! Happy Friday! Hope you had a happy turkey day and ate lots of goodies! :-) With the official start to the holiday shopping season, you know.... your time is limited for stamping! So, today the Stamp Simply team has you covered! Today's challenge (ssnotime115)is all about mass production! Create a card that is SUPER easy to mass produce -- like once designed you could realistically sit down and do 6 or 8 or more within an hours time. Super simple, easy to reproduce cards for Christmas or any occasion that suits your fancy -- that is our today's challenge!

Recently, I decided to make a handful of Thank You cards to have on hand and with a fun new embossing folder I picked up -- it was easy as pie to create 6 of these in 45 minutes!
I used some textured Coredinations cardstock that I bought in a big pack at Hobby Lobby and cut it to measure 4 by 5-1/4" I ran it through my Wizard with the Quick Kutz Vine Label Embossing Folder and then the fun began! I used a sanding block to sand down the embossed part to reveal the pattern. Since this folder has a little "window" for a sentiment - I cut a strip of paper 1'' wide to fit in that window. Stamp a sentiment in Teal ink (Vivid) and.... the rest is matting! I matted it on some pearl paper and then again on a standard size white card stock base and .... voila! You can see -- picking the paper, finding ink to match and cutting was the longest part of this process! I easily made these in a half hour.

Here's a peek at the sanded portion - I just love the look on this paper!

Well my friends, that's it for today! Be sure to check out the official challenge rules over at Sharon's place and then, stop in and say "hey" to the rest of the Stamp Simply Team!

Sharon
Janine
Jennifer
AJ
Tammy
Deb
Barbara
Jenny
Barb

Bethany

Oh, before I forget... are you in the mood to shop a bit? If you are or if you know a stamper you'd like to Christmas shop for... Flourishes is having a.......

15% off everything in the store! You can even use this code for Gift Certificates! Simply use the code JINGLE in the promo code box at check out! You can click HERE to learn more or click HERE to shop!

Thanks for stopping by!!

p.s. I almost forgot! Flourishes is having a HUGE Black Friday Sale!!! You'll have to check it out HERE!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hi all and Happy Turkey Day! Yesterday while the kiddos were at school, I took some time to whip up these turkey day cards for them. I want to write a little note inside to let them know that I am soooo very thankful they are in my life! They are both amazing kids and I'm pretty blessed.

Both of these cards are pretty easy peasy! I stamped this cutie patootie turkey in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics - E31, E33, E25, E27, R14, R27, Y17, YR14, E08,100 and a little C00, C01, C03 and B0000 for shading.

Card#1

For Card #1, I cut out my turkey with a Nesties Circle. While the shape was still on, I sponged some Antique Linen Distress Ink all around my turkey. I left the die on so that I could create that bit of white edge. Mat it on a shape cut with the Spellbinders Blossom Die. Then... mat the entire card up! My main card measures 4-1/4 by 4 and then I layered the circle so that it spilled over. The card will still fit in a standard size envie because I made sure the circle wasn't placed too high above my fold line. The sentiment is also from this fun little clear set called Happy Turkey Day from Impression Obsession. The papers are Basic Grey Porcelain, and 7 Gypsies Nottinghill. The buttons were some I grabbed from the ole button jar.

Card #2
For Card #2, the only difference is really the paper. I ran some Lasting Impressions Weathered Nutmeg paper through my Wizard with a Swiss Dots Embossing Folder and then sanded down the dots for a little something extra.The red paper is Weathered Barn also by Lasting Impressions and the strip is a paper from Prima. Add some May Arts twine and a button (Little Yellow Bus Epoxy Buttons)and... voila!

Hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving and along with counting all those calories... can count your blessings too! :-)

See you back here soon!

You Warm My Heart....

Hi all! Happy Monday! Hope you had a fabulous weekend. I actually got a little time to just stamp for no reason! I think that's the best when you can walk in to your craft space and not have any real motive - just pick up a stamp and go with it! ;-) I got my hands on this fun Snowman Marshmallow Mug recently and had been itching to ink it up!

Isn't that stamp the cutest thing? I inked it up twice - once in a light blue Memento ink and the second time in a Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. I colored it with Copics and only used a few colors - RV00 for the rosy cheeks, BG0000 to edge my snow guy, and then some blues - BG10, B21 and B24. The cocoa was colored by E31 and E25. The marshmallows were just given a bit of color with the help of YR0000. Now you might wonder why I inked and stamped twice? Well, the snowman is actually paper pieced. I wanted him to stand out but I wanted my cup (in blue) to be real soft looking. I also paper pieced the snow man's hat by stamping just the hat portion onto some blue decorative paper (Stampin Up). The marshmallows and cocoa were also paper pieced. You can also see, I used the same light blue to sponge some color around my mug. After I was done assembling, I added some Crystal and Diamond Stickles to my snowflakes and marshmallows.

See?

The rest is just matting it up! I added a strip of decorative paper edged with a Martha Stewart Snowflake Border Punch and added a bit of silver stitching. Using Adirondack Stonewashed ink, I added the You Warm My Heart sentiment!

Well my friends, that's it for today! Hope you have a great start to your week and I'll see you back here soon! Hope my American friends are getting excited for turkey day! I love this day -- full of wonderful family times!

Stamp Simply -- All Wrapped Up!

Hi all! This week for our Stamp Simply challenge we're getting all wrapped up in the Christmas season! Since Christmas is just around the corner and many use the Thanksgiving weekend to get a head start on wrapping their gifts, Sharon challenged us all to share some of our gift wrapping ideas!

I absolutely love using bags to "wrap" my gifts. Why? Because you don't have to wrap! ;-) I am an awful gift wrapper. What's funny is -I was trained to be a professional gift wrapper at a department store while I was in high school. I never made it.

So, what I do now instead is, I buy bags! When I see a cute one, I pick it up knowing I can deck it out with a fun tag or some fabulous ribbon! The dollar store seems to be the place where I find a lot of them. And... it's even better when you have a stamp to match a bag you find!

See?

Look at this fun bag I picked up! It just is a perfect match to the Christmas Borders set! I colored up the candy using the Poppy, Spring Greens, Daffodil, Meadow and Holly Copic collections packaged up by Flourishes. I did use the lightest shade too from the Dahlia collection. Use some Distress inks in Tea Dye and Antique Linen to antique it. Add fun Christmas ribbon and some stitching and you're almost done....

I added some faux sugar (it's a chunk glitter that is actually called faux snow -- but looks more like sugar!) to my gum drops! The "dots" of antique ink were created by a really old stamp that is just that... dots! Sometimes I turn to it to just create some extra "texture" on my image.

Here's a peek at the entire tag.....

I hope you've enjoyed seeing how I like to deck out my holiday packages! For those packages that "have" to be wrapped, I love getting a simple silver or gold wrapping and letting my ribbon and tags do the talking! I am glad I have some tags ready in my holiday gift wrapping arsenal -- ready to go for Black Friday! :-)

Want some more inspiration? Check out the Stamp Simply teams fun wrapping ideas!

Sharon
Janine
Jennifer
AJ
Tammy
Deb
Barbara
Jenny
BarbBethany

Also, this week over on the Flourishes Newsletter, I created five other tag designs that are fun! You can click HERE to see and don't forget to visit the other members of Flourishes' fine and fabulous DT!!! Latisha, Christine, Laura, Stacy, and Leslie! Cindy is taking the week off!

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

Just Shake It!

It's time for another Impression Obsession challenge and this one is all about shaking it.... with IO's new Shaker Card pouches! These little plastic forms are ingenious! I have made many a shaker card in my day but NONE was as easy as this one!!!

If you are curious at all how these little forms work -- you can see them HERE. Or, if you want the measurements for all of the openings for the shakers, you'll find that HERE.They are really fun and super duper easy! Along the lip of the shaker form, there is an adhesive strip - so that you can set your shaker material down on your colored image and then, remove the adhesive backing, set it down and... bam! Done!

I used a circle cutter for my hole but you can use a 3" circle punch for this particular pouch. The stamps I used were the Skating Snowman by Sarah Phelps and Snowflakes, also from Sarah Phelps. I stamped the snowflakes in a light blue, the snowman was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copic Markers - I used B00 and B0000 for the snowman and the snowman's jacket. I used R24, R27, R29 for the red in my hat, scarf, mittens and pocket. and then I used RV000 for the rosy cheeks. Add some Crystal Stickles to the fluff on the hat and jacket and you are almost done! The sparkly snow was actually found at Michaels and is called fake snow!

Here's a closeup! The rest is just matting! I used my circle cutter to cut a hole in a red piece of paper and then used the Classic Scalloped Circles Nestabilities. Add some stitching and a punched snowflake and..... voila!
So, now to the challenge! Creating a shaker card with IO stamps is all you have to do to be in the running for a $25 gift card from Impression Obsession! You can click HERE for all the official details! In the meantime, be sure to hop on over to the rest of the IO DT to see what fun they shook up! :-)

ShirleyKathy
Dina
Kelli
Laura
Jenny
Deborah


Thanks for stopping by! See you back here soon!

The Naughty... or Nice List!

Hi all! I don't know about you, but when Thankgiving hits and those after Thanksgiving Day sales flyers start to come out, my purse becomes an absolute mess! I am talking stuffed pockets with snipets of this flyer or that. They look "Sharpied" to death with who might want what scribbled all over them.

In an effort to simplify, I spotted this fun little accordian folder in the dollar bin at Michael's and immediately thought... HEY, this could work!

I thought that it would be fun to alter this and keep all my little Christmas ideas inside. It's funny, when I was working on this project, I tried to keep it low key so my kids would have no clue what I was making. Afterall, it might be disasterous if they knew where I keep my secrets!!! LOL!

So, with some fun Christmas paper and a great stamp set - Christmas Borders from Flourishes - I let the paper fly! And, this is what I came up with!
I didn't go overboard on decking it out because, let's face it, it will be in my mess of a purse and it will likely look like it's been through a war once the holidays are over with. But, in the meantime, it will be a perky and fun way to organize my ideas! You can see I have some index cards that I stamped the borders along the side in shades of red and green. Each person I want to buy for will have a card. Kids lists will go on there and then, those ideas will go in their folder in the file!

I absolutely love this new Christmas Borders set - it's too fun and could be used for so many different projects. Can't you just see Christmas tags with this set? I stamped the packages in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored them up with copics. I used Flesh Tones 2, Fields, Spring Greens, Poppy and the Dahlia collections from Flourishes. You can see all the collections HERE.

And, here's now my cards fit inside! Love this! So, with my new gift idea organizer in hand, I say... bring on Black Friday! I can take it! And, maybe my purse won't be such a mess! Snipped pieces of paper won't fall out every time I try to write a check at the grocery store! YIPPEE! Hey... it's a start right?

Hope you're having a great week! I'll see you back here soon!

The Sneaks.... are over!

I had a blast this week showcasing all the fun projects that you can create with the new stamps in Flourishes November Release! Hope you've enjoyed them and that they inspire you as you whip up your holiday creations! And... now for some good news! All of the peeks we've been sharing this week are HERE! They are now available in the Flourishes Store for your shopping pleasure!

Christmas Bouquet
Fancy Labels

Christmas Borders

Christmas Tea

Lamp Post Greetings

And, don't forget about Flourishes NEW RELEASE BUNDLE! Purchase the bundle, and get 10% off all five of the new release sets!

Happy Shopping!

See you back here soon!

Sneak Peeks.... Day 4!

When I first laid eyes on the concept for this next set, I actually shook my head and said, now that's creative! I thought of all those main streets in America where the lamp post is the conversation piece. It's the place where cities announce big events, holidays, and celebrations! It's a charming way to connect with the community. So, why not bring that same feel and that same message to a card sized creation? That's exactly what illustrator Lauren Pope did!

Introducing......

This set not only has the lampost that you can deck out, it has a half dozen "flags" that you can perch on your post as a way to say "hi" or celebrate! Celebration was on the brain when I whipped up my Lamp Post Greetings creation! I wanted to make a fun coordinating card... to match a little bit of birthday sweetness! When I saw this flag - a cupcake flag popped into my head! And, when you see this set in full, you'll see how many FUN cupcake flags you could make! Welcome, baby, patriotic, birthday, holiday, Mom's Day, Dad's Day... you name it! TOO FUN!

Here's a close up of the cuppy cake! And, this is a peek at the flag before I wrapped it around a toothpick - I left a little tab of paper to glue to the pick.... Now for the deets on my creation! Easy peasy! I stamped in Versafine Tuxedo Black and colored with watercolor pencils, blending with a blender pen. The light blue accent around my flag was done with the BG11 Copic marker and then blended with the Blender Pen. For the color on my lamp post image on my card, I simply sponged on some blue and green ink. I left my spellbinders Nesabilities die on my Mega Rectangle shape to serve as a mask while I sponged. Add some fun decorative paper, some fun ribon and some bling.... and that's pretty much it!

And, as you're about to see when to take a trip around to the Senior Design team, this set can be used in so many different ways! It can even be combined with other Flourishes stamp sets to make an even bigger impact! So stop by these fine ladies' blogs to check it all out....

Christine Okken
Latisha Yoast
Stacy Morgan
Cindy Lawrence
Laura Fredrickson
Leslie Miller

Would you like to win this set? Hop on over to the Flourishes Newsletter and leave a comment to be in the running for the daily drawing!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR MORE FUN AT FLOURISHES...

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

Speaking of the release, you'll want to join us this Friday for our POWER HOUR RELEASE PARTY! It's a super duper fun time full of 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!

Tomorrow's set will have you relaxing and sipping some tea with winter dreams swirling through your head! Stay tuned! We'll see you back here tomorrow!

Flourishes Sneak Peaks.... day 3!

Did you see the latest offerings from Flourishes? The sneaks continue! To see the goodies, click HERE to check them out and leave a comment for a chance to win them!

I'll be back tomorrow with another creation of MY own! :-) See you then!