New Stamps From Flourishes!!!!

Well... the time is here when we can unveil the newest batch of stamps from Flourishes sure to fill your creative appetite!

This first set is another gorgeous floral set drawn by the ever so talented Marcella Hawley! Introducing......
When this set started to make its way to the Senior Design Team, many of us scratched our heads. What was a Nasturtium? And, how did you even pronounce it - let alone color it? Many of us "googled" it to see photos and to try to envision this beautiful and vibrant flower on paper.

Well, here's what one seed packet showed! Don't you just love the variagated petals? So pretty!So, with this picture in mind, this is what I came up with!
I chose to keep my flowers all one color and just deepen the orange tones in areas. I also colored them with Copic markers using the Tiger Lily and Spring Green collections that will SOON be unveiled in the Flourishes store! YIPPEE! I started with the lightest tones in the collections and then went progressively darker adding in my shadows until it was just the right mix of color. After you are done, use a circle Nestability (large and small) by Spellbinders to cut your main image and a black mat. Then, I used the Labels Three die to create the mat. I ran paper through twice, first with my orange dp and second with black. I embossed the orange dp, and using the embossed line, I trimmed it up so that my black piece would act as a mat. I hope that makes sense!

Here's a close up....Before I go - I have to tell you that we've got lots of fun brewing over at Flourishes! First over on the Flourishes Newsletter - the Nasturtiums set is our daily giveaway for sneak peek week! Leave a comment HERE and you'll be in the running! Then, mark your calendar for our release party! It's set for Friday from 8 to 10 PM Central time over in the Flourishes Forum on SCS. Need a little more fun? How about participating in the His & Hers challenge! Enter and you'll have a chance at winning all three of our newly released sets! You can read up on it HERE!

Don't miss out on all the other sneak peeks! Check out what the rest of the Senior DT cooked up.....

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

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back with day two of our sneak peeks tomorrow. This one will satisfy those English garders at heart! That's your hint! ;-)

For my mom!!!

I am posting this card so that I could be the first to wish my mom a very, very Happy Birthday!! (It's not til Wednesday!!) I won't tell you how old she is but let's just say-- if you multiply 35 by 2 and add 2 -- well, there you have it! ;-)

And for my mom...

a card like her -- classic! I just love these images from Impression Obsession by Leigh Hannan. The rose image is called Victorian Rose And, all I did was color it with small Vivid ink pads in Tea Rose and Olive Green. The sentiment was done with THIS versatile set. Add some nice satin ribbon, some bling and some corner accents-- and done!

So, if you get a chance - take a trip to my mom's blog HERE and wish her the best of days tomorrow-- the 13th!

Hope you are having a great week! Tomorrow starts the sneak peeks for Flourishes May release-- Can't wait to show you what I've cooked up!

See you back here soon!

Flowers for all the moms!

Happy Mother's Day! Hope you enjoy your day!!

Twice is Nice Friday!

Hi all! TGIF! I have some fun things for you this Friday --- two challenges actually! We've got the weekly Stamp Simply challenge and a second - a Flourishes challenge aimed at giving you a chance at winning all three of their new release sets!

This week's Stamp Simply is all about the little things in life and being there for your MOM!! You were to design a creation that includes a small gift of some sort! The Flourishes Release Challenge is a "his & hers" challenge. Use the same layout and create a masculine AND a feminine card!

So.... I combined this challenge! I made a small gift just for mom... and used the same layout to make one for the dad in my life -- my hubby!
Starting with the feminine flair, I used Flourishes Sweet Pea set for my focal image - stamped it and watercolored it up on watercolor paper. The seeds were put into a pink vellum sleeve and stitched around the edges with some gold thread. Add a button and some gold cording and... you are almost done!
I stamped the saying in aqua dye ink. I thought this sentiment was perfect for this creation! Want to see the other motherly creations cooked up my our Stamp Simply team? Check out Sharon's place for all the official details, then be sure to stop by and say hi to Barbara - our Guest Designer for May, Janine, Jennifer, AJ, Becky, Tammy, and our newest team member Deb! We have a sad goodbye. Dee is taking a break from the team to focus on her health. Please keep her in your prayers! We will miss you Dee! Big hugs to you!

Changing gears -- let's hear it for the dads! I used the same basic layout as the seed pocket but this time - I mixed it up with Flourishes Menswear set and instead of seeds-- I added some coveted baseball tickets! How fun is that? I also made the pennant by using a triangular piece of cardstock, paper pierced it and added #1 Dad to it. The wooden handle is actually... just a toothpick! Add a button and a wish for a "Happy Father's Day" and... you're done!

If you want to find out more about the Flourishes challenge click HERE and be sure to stop by the other DT member's places to see what fun they cooked up!

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

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

Fun Stuff!

Want a fun idea for baby announcements without being a typical baby announcement? Well, I have one for you!

A few months back, Dawn Gehring, the editor of Crafts 'n Things, asked if I wanted to play in a challenge for the magazine. The challenge, was to use a postcard (Avery perforated for your ink jet printer) and stamp it up! Well, first of all, the cards are fun because they are meant for printer ink and so -- they take your stamping ink -- perfectly!!!

So, this is what I cooked up!
I love that stamp set! It's called Build-A-Tree from Impression Obsession. You can essentially build your own tree with leaves, flowers, apples.... too cute!!! The sentiment on the front is from the Flourishes - Flourished Words set.

This is the back side....

And again, all the printing was just done on my home computer! If you want to learn more about how I put it all together and what inks I used etc. check out the June issue of Crafts 'n Things! I have a couple other projects in there too!

Hope your week is off and running with a great start! I'll see you back here soon!

White Wedding....

Hi all! Hope you had a fantastic weekend! It feels like spring has finally sprung! And.... with spring comes weddings! My hubby's cousin is going get married here soon so, I spent some time making a white on white wedding card. FYI: These are not the easiest cards to take a photo of!

I used white paper, silver pearl embossing powder, and pearl striped paper. The stamps are from Inky Antics and are pretty old! Actually these are some of the first stamps I bought when I started stamping 10 years ago! The saying is a stamp called Love is a Canvas and the leaf is called Leafy Stem.


To make the card, I stamped and embossed the saying with the silver pearl powder and then started making a frame around it by embossing the leaves around it. After I made the frame, I stamped the leaves on a piece of scrap and embossed them as well, so that I could cut them out and layer them over my original frame. The little pop up circles are actually just pieces of pearl paper that I punched with a 1/8" hole punch. They were popped up by putting them on a piece of foam paper and molding them with a fine tip stylus. After I assembled, I punched a heart out of the pinstripe pearl paper and put it at the top center of my frame. Now, in order to get my leaves to pop up just right, I did use silicone glue instead of foam tape. That way, I could situate the leaves and let them dry at the different angles.

EDITED TO ADD: Shirley asked this question: "Could you please explain a bit more about how you curved the leaves and how to use the silicone glue? Do you curve the leaf and then just put a dot of glue at the tip? Or is the glue what is pushing up the high part of the leaf?"

Shirley, I use a tool that is a paper sculpting tool. I tried to find it on line but couldn't! It's that old! It is a plastic tool with a curved end. You can also use a metal baby spoon and holding the leaves in your hand run (with some pressure) the spoon over the leaf. This will mold and curve the leaves. After that, use some silicone glue or E6000 (type of glue) and situate the glue on different parts of the leaf to angle them in different ways. The neat thing about using silicone glue is - it is pretty dense. So, if you create a glob on the back, it will stay that glob until you push and situate it on your paper. Leave it overnight and your leaves will stay exactly as you positioned them! Hope this answers your question Shirley!

Here's a close up!
It's a good thing I don't have to mail this card - I am afraid even bubble wrap would smoosh it! It was a fun card to make though. This could be a nice anniversary card as well!

Hope you have a great start to your week! See you back here soon!

Twice is nice Friday!

Hi all! I'm the hostess over at the Flourishes Newsletter today for the Flourishes Focus this week! The focus is..... easy watercoloring! So, I matched that up with today's Stamp Simply challenge (ssnotime85), which is all about letting the sun shine in our card today! How do you do that? Use yellow! It's so sunny, so cheerful and it's not a color I turn to often! So, this was a bit of a challenge!

But... this card is definitely yellow!To make my card, I used some European Watercolor Paper, and then inked up my image with a couple shades of yellow ink (Memento Cantaloupe and Dandelion and two shades of green (Mementio Bamboo Sprout and Cottage Ivy). After I inked, I went over my work with a damp water brush. The stamp was from Flourishes Signs of Spring set. If you want to see the full tutorial, just click HERE!

I used my oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities, the Vintage Wallpaper background stamp on my card base, some Kaiser rhinestones, sheer olive ribbon, a tag to stamp my "daffodils" word on and some decorative paper from both the Basic Grey Urban Prairie and Memory Box Rhubarb Tart collections and..... DONE!

Want to see what the other Stamp Simply gals cooked up?

Barbara, Our Guest Designer for May!!
Janine
Jennifer
AJ
Becky
Tammy

Oh... and be sure to stop by these fabulous Flourishes designers to see what kind of easy watercolor beauties they created this week!

Christine Okken
Faith Hofrichter
Laura Fredrickson
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan

Lot of eye candy out there for your viewing pleasure so be sure to hop along and check out their blogs! Thanks for stopping by! See you back here soon!

Another oldie from the drawer!

Remember the card yesterday featuring the colored image that sat in a lonely drawer waiting to be made into a card? (I now affectionately call that drawer of images, half made cards and scraps my pieces and parts drawer) Well, I have one more for you today!

I made part of this card while doing a demo for my LSSS using colored pencils on dark paper. The stamps are from Magenta and I thought the artsy feel demanded kind of an artsy - more scribbled look. Well, I did that and never made this bad boy into a card!

I stamped all of my leaf images in white, highlighted with white colored pencil and then colored with several shades of green (apple, lime and grass shades). After I was done, I took the darkest green pencil and a white pencil and using a ruler made some grid lines around my leaf images for a little extra pop.

The thing with stamping on dark colors is -- it doesn't make it easy to add a sentiment. So, I grabbed one of these little metal embellies that I picked up years ago at Walmart. From there, mat it up, add a slot punch and accent the mat of your main image with some silver leafing pen. The ribbon is just the most glorious part! It's a new 100% silk ribbon from May Arts that Flourishes is now selling. This ribbon is soooooo lush! It's like the Cadillac of ribbon!

And that, my friends is it for today! I have one more rescue attempt from my pieces and parts drawer-- so stay tuned! See you back here tomorrow!

Flowers for a friend....

Do you ever color up images and then stuff them in a drawer to make into a card later? I don't do that a lot now, but I used to. I used to keep extras that I colored up while teaching a class to save for a rainy day.

Well, last weekend, I was digging through some of the drawers in my stamp room and found one that I did on watercolor paper using markers and some really fun stamps from Art Impressions. It was just there on a scrap piece of watercolor paper calling my name. And guess what? It was actually a rainy day! ;-)

So, I grabbed my new Nesties and went to town to make a semi-easy card.
If you click on the link above for Art Impressions, you'll see the kind of "watercolor" stamps I used. They key is to stamp by inking up the stamps with Marvy markers, mask the areas (like the gloves and the water pail) and accent with flowers and the grass. Then, when you are done, you simply take a damp water brush and meld the colors together to make these hand stamped images look like you painted them yourself!

The rest is easy. Use the Labels 3 Nestability to cut out the watercolor image and a second for a mat (I used Bo Bunny paper). Use a distressed background stamp (SU) with Antique Linen ink, paper pierce the edge and distress, add some brads and a little hardware and ribbon! The tag was done with a fun little set I bought years and years ago from Hero Arts. I made it into a tag thanks to a 1" circle bunch. And..... done!

Now... to a story. I honestly could not believe this one! On Saturday, my family and I went for a short walk to our favorite island nearby that is separated from our neighborhood by the Yellowstone River. It's not uncommon to see some fun creatures big and small. We've seen porcupine, ground hogs, beaver, heron, deer, and fox. Well, on Saturday we saw a beaver and it was just sticking out its head staring at us while we stared at him. I was kicking myself that I didn't have a camera. As we walked away, honestly I said, "The only thing better would be to see a bald eagle." Well, we finished our walk and didn't see one....... at least not then.

The day melted into evening and we had seized the day by barbequing. As we were eating our steak kabobs, right over our house we saw this circling above.... Holy cow! Are you kidding me? It was a bald eagle circling over the nearby field. I didn't get a shot of what happened next because it happened so fast but out of nowhere a hawk of some sort dive bombed the eagle in mid air causing them both to spin out. I guess the hawk didn't want the eagle in "his" territory. It was a sight to see! What was hysterical is the hawk was half the size of the eagle. It had some ki-hon-ays!

So, I guess, be careful what you wish for!

Well, thanks for stopping by my place, see you back here tomorrow!

Flourishes Focus.... Flower Soft!

Hi all! You've likely seen that fluffy colorful stuff called Flower Soft popping up on cardmaking blogs recently. But, have you tried it? If you haven't and needed a how-to before you dive in, then you will have to check out the Flourishes Newsletter this week as Cindy Lawrence gives us all a fabulous tutorial! Just click HERE!!


As Cindy was putting together her tutorial, she challenged the rest of the Flourishes DT to try their hand at it too! I remember when we first got this product in the store. The "Flourishes" all sent us a little to play with and in the note, one of the owners (I won't say who) warned us -- don't try this technique if you have a moving ceiling fan in the room! I got a laugh out of that -- but it's true. Flower Soft is a light and fluffy way to add texture!

So.... here's my card!

I knew I wanted to use the new Swing Set and I wanted to keep it simple. I stamped my image colored it, paper pieced it with this darling Jenni Bowlin paper and then grabbed my Flower Soft glue. At that point, I just pressed some of the Shamrock Green Flower Soft into my tree! Just a simple way to add a pop of texture and color.

Here's a close up! See the clouds in the background? I used an old template I had and just sponged in some ink. But, if you don't have a template, cut some reverse cloud shapes into a piece of text weight paper and use that as a mask!

You'll have to make the rounds to the rest of the Flourishes Senior Design Team! As you'll see with each hop, there are so many ways to use Flower Soft. You can get pretty creative with it.... or you can grab it like I did for a simple pop of texture!

Flourishes Newsletter
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Latisha Yoast
Laura Fredrickson
Leslie Miller


Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp Simply.... Pipe up!

Hi all! TGIF! Time for another Stamp Simply challenge and this one is all about piping up!

For those who sew, this challenge will make a lot of sense! You know the "piping" that you see on pillow cases, pillows, on trim? It's that thin pop of color that is added to a sewing project to bring a pop of contrast! Well, that my friends, is what Sharon Johnson wants you to try on your card! Basically, a narrow strip of paper to separate two other pieces of paper!
Click HERE for all the official details!

My card could not be any easier!
I used some Making Memories paper, some border strips from the same collection, and my piping can be found in my black strip! I added some fun May Arts ribbon that actually looks like a crocheted edge! Add some layered Nesties - one for your sentiment (SU) and the other for your mat. I ran my black mat through my Wizard with my Swiss Dots embossing folder for a little something extra.

My favorite part?? The bling of course!

Easy peasy card! You'll have to stop by to see what the other Stamp Simply gals cooked up!

Jenny, April Guest Designer
Janine
Jennifer
AJ
Becky
Dee
Tammy

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you make time for play time this weekend!

~Julie

Celebrate!

How many of you just can't have enough birthday cards stashed away? I would DEFINITELY fit into that category! They always seem - no matter how hard I try - to sneak up on me! So, my one third of the way through the year resolution is to create a bank of birthday cards to drawn from.

So... here goes!

I have to admit, whoever gets this must be ready for a party because you just might need sunglasses to look at this festive one! Orange, turquoise, purple and green are the colors on this bad boy! I love this image! It's a relatively new one from Leigh Hannan at Impression Obsession called Cake Trio. I just stamped it in Versafine Onyx, colored it with watercolor pencils, blended with a blender pen and then razzle dazzled it up a bit with some Stickles. Mat it up, add some scallops and some rhinestone loopy brads with some fun sheer ribbon hanging off the side!

Just that simple! You'll see, I have a lot of work to do on my resolution. You can say.. one down... a few dozen more plus to go!

Hope you are having a great week! See you back here soon!

A stamp + a little paint = a fun project!

Hi all! Hope your week is off to a great start! I'm going to kick things off here with a fun project that now is sitting in my daughter's bedroom as a reminder of her as a babe with her Nana!

All you need is a unfinished wood frame (I bought mine for $1 at Michael's), some StazOn ink, one of your favorite stamps, some acrylic paint, a fine and a fine line black permanent paint.

To start, I gave my frame a white wash by just sponging on some watered down white acrylic paint. After it dried, I took my Sweet Pea set from Flourishes and stamped it in both corners with StazOn ink. Just like so! (Those angel babies were in the frame when I bought it! ;-)

Here's a close up....

And these are the colors of paint that I picked - two shades of green, two shades of pink and some white....(they are all "well loved" bottles of paint!)

Then, I started to paint with a fine tip paint brush, making sure to darken the areas I wanted shadows and lightening highlighted areas with dabs of white.

While the look above is "OK," I knew I wanted to see the definition in my flowers. So, I grabbed a permanent file line black pen and started to outline the stamped image - like this....

Now I was in a quandary because I thought it didn't look soft enough! So, I let the permanent black pen ink dry and then I took my white wash paint (watered down paint) and I took a foam sponge and sponged the white wash over my entire frame. When this was done, I took a large dry brush and dipped it a bit into ivory paint and added some antique streaks. Its a great way to get a hand painted look without being an artist!! :-)

When it was done it looked like this....

I just love that picture of Ellie and her Nana! So did Ellie and now it sits on her shelf in her room.

Hope you enjoyed this little project. Like I said - all you need is a fun stamp, some paint, a picture frame.... and an afternoon!

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

Getting In The Swing.....

Hi all! Happy Sunday!

Since the weather here in little ole Billings, Montana has been easy breezy - I thought, why not let my card be the same?? Easy and breezy!

So..... here you have it!

I used the new Swing Set from Flourishes! And, I also broke in my package of their new European Watercolor paper! This stuff is fabulous! It's amazing artist quality and so thick! You could actually make your card base out of this stuff! I stamped my images in Sepia Versafine, heat set, and then colored with watercolor markers - I actually scribbled all my colors on a plastic pallette and then picked up the color with an aquaflow brush. The background wash was created by wetting my paper first and then brushing the watered down blue maker over my background. For the ground, I actually inked my stamp with Adirondack Lettuce ink, stamp, and then go over the image with a damp water brush to soften the look.

From here... do a little paper piercing, add a scalloped edge, some ribbon and buttons and then mat it all up! I used a mix of Crate Paper, Bo Bunny and Memory Box Rhubarb Tart papers. Add the sentiment from the set off to the side of your main image. The lady's dress was paper pieced with the same Memory Box paper. And.... done!

Here's a close up! I just LOVE the watercolored effect. It's so soft looking...Well, my friends, that's it for this Sunday! I hope you are enjoying your weekend! I am! We're just having some lazy family time. Nothing better than that!

Thanks for stopping by and I will see you back here soon!

A Friday Two-Fer!

Hi all! TGIF...we're on the verge of the weekend!! I hope you have relaxing plans!

Moving on to ink, paper and stamps! This week I have a challenge and a tidbit! First.... the challenge! Stamp Simply (ssnotime83), courtesy of the talented Sharon Johnson, is all about threading it through! You can thread string or ribbon through your card, a button....whatever! Sharon is so great - she leaves a lot for interpretation which is fun because then you get to sit back and really see people's creativity shine! I especially love checking out the rest of the Stamp Simply team!

Jenny - April Guest Designer, Janine, Jennifer, AJ, Becky, Dee and Tammy!

Moving on to my card -- it's pretty simple! Here were my tools....

I cut off a bit of sheer ribbon, angled the edges and then threaded it through my decorative button!

And here... is how it turned out on my card!

I also wrapped the sheer around the stamped mat and then attached my button with a glue dot. Easy peasy!

This card using the new Vintage Wallpaper background and the matching set Thinking of You is also part of the Flourishes Focus -- which just so happens to be focused on ribbon tricks! I realize using a button isn't necessarily a "trick" but it might be an added embellishment that you might not turn to frequently! Stacy Morgan hosted the focus this week over on the Flourishes Newsletter and showcases a bunch of different ways you can add flair with ribbon! So be sure to check it out!

You can also visit the rest of the Flourishes DT, who are also showcasing their favorite tips!

Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Faith Hofrichter
Latisha Yoast
Laura Fredrickson
Leslie Miller
Sharon Doolittle

Thanks so much for stopping by! Enjoy your weekend!

This one is for you mom!

It's time for another Impression Obsession Designer Challenge and this one.... is all about the woman in our lives who gave us life and helped to shape us from children... to the women we are today! Yep... our MOMS!

(ok Mom, this is where you avert your eyes and skip this post of mine!)

That's the challenge -- plain and simple. Since I just recieved this beautiful climbing rose stamp in the mail, I couldn't wait to get it inked up. I just think it is too pretty for words!

I stamped it using Versafine Sepia on watercolor paper. I then used Antique Linen Distress Ink and sponged along the edge. Using a plastic palette, I scribbed on two different colors of pink and one shade of green marker on it. Picking up the color with a damp watercolor brush, I loosely painted my leaves and flowers. I wanted it to look airy -- not realistic. So, I just let the water flow!

Add a punched edge adorned with some mini pearls and some lacy ribbon and.... you're almost done! I wanted to put the word "Mother" on my card from THIS set. So, I punched an oval from my small SU oval punch and then stamped off part of my climbing rose so just a small part of it was in the corner. Watercolor it up, add a pearl and.... done!

See? Now, you'll have to make your way around to the rest of the IO DT and see what they cooked up just for their MOMS!

Jeanne
Dina
Laura
Shirley

Thanks for stopping by!