It’s a Treat Day for Flourishes Customers

All October releases are on sale for a whooping 15% off. If you purchase $55.00 or more and US addresses get FREE SHIPPING. If you purchase only one stamp set, we'll ship in a plain brown envelope for $3.00 - There are restrictions: no insurance, no tracking number and no guarantee from Flourishes if you have problems with your shipment. We will do what we can, but it's not a guarantee.

October sets are:
Year in Flowers 1,2 and 3
Elf-n-Christmas
Diamond Background
Go Tell on the Mountain both large and small
Hanukkah
Must Be Santa 

So  full fill your treat bag!
International rates apply for all non US addresses-Sorry :-(

Enjoy!

Elegant Floral Frame Card

Our challenge this week is one of most interesting I’ve come across in a long time! We were asked to use the initials of our names and come up with supplies to use that start with those letters!

My full name is Rebecca Jennifer Menzies Ednie which gave me 4 letters to work with. So the supplies I decided on are rose (the colour and the flower), rectangle, evergreen (one of the leaf ink colours), ebony (black for the sentiment), embellishment, metallic and embossing. I didn’t come up with anything for the J though. Overall, I had a lot of fun brainstorming for supplies to go with my letters. It helped that I had a list of a lot of my supplies in my database program on my phone and I also used my catalogue of ink colours I made last week. For more info on either organizing technique, leave me a comment below.

It’s hard to see in the full on photos but I added some embossing to the corner of the card which has to be the cheapest embellishment ever! Yeah! And it worked perfectly for the sketch. I had to light it differently to get it to show up.

I am excited to see all the cards the team have made aren’t you? Head on over to the C4C blog and check them out! I hope you can find time to play along with our challenge this week.

Enjoy, Rebecca

Entered In: Mojo Monday471, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

Flourishes Friday Blog Hop–Use Pastels

It’s my week to host our Flourishes l.c. Friday Blog Hop! I decided to challenge the girls to make their card using only pastels except for stamped lines and sentiments which can be a neutral colour. I’m excited to see what the girls have made!

I used the Year of Flowers 2 poppy image for my card. I coloured it very softly with Copic Markers on Flourishes white cardstock.The focal image was cut with a Spellbinders die. The background piece was cut with Simon Say Stamp dies (I cheated and used a rectangle die with stitching along the outer edge as a border stitching die on the left) as was the sentiment (also SSS)which was popped up on fun foam. A scattering of sequins from Lucy’s Little Things and some messy gold thread complete this soft and feminine card. The background papers are by My Mind’s Eye.

Isn’t this stamp set gorgeous? It’s perfect for so many occasions! Now it’s time to hop along! I’m sure you’ll be thrilled with the amazing cards the team has created!

Barb Thompson 
Beverly Cole
Linda Lucas
Naomi Gong
Tricia Traxler

Enjoy, Rebecca

Entered in: Retro Sketches 237

Tim Holtz Monthly Tag Challenge

This tag was inspired by the TH tag for September I believe. It used several fun techniques and I had a blast making it. I traded it away as I made this for a swap on Swap-Bot.com. If you like snail mail, I highly recommend you check it out.

The background was made with a mix of various colours of distress stain and a few inks brayered on. Then I added some die cut grunge paper coloured with metallic Distress stain. The dies for the branches are by CAS-ual Fridays, flower by Prima and the rub ons by Tim Holtz.

Enjoy, Rebecca

Bee Well Soon

Our challenge this week on Crazy 4 Challenges was to make a card using bees or bugs.

I finally got the dies for these little bees by PTI. They are such a pain to cut out. But aren’t they cute? I’ve saved a few idea on Pinterest for using hexagons. I think the arrangement gives a cut quilt-y look without actually lining them up or actually sewing the pieces. I added a few sequins and some wood veneer shapes.

Enjoy, Rebecca

It’s Cookie Time!

Whew! It’s been a long but fun week. My last card features some fun cookie stamps for the Flourishes l.c release!

I used the cookies to make a sweet place setting complete with placemat and mug of cocoa. Since the cookies are set in all directions and I hadn’t decided the placement until after I coloured them, I coloured them very simply without much in the way of shading or shadows. I added some browning to the edges of the vanilla cookies and a bit of a shadow next to the icing on the gingerbread cookies.

I coloured right over the sprinkles on the star cookies. When the ink was dry, I added Sakura gelly roll pen to the sprinkles then coloured with Copics over top. I do this on strawberry seeds too. It’s so much easier than carefully colouring around such tiny details. The background uses an embossing folder by Cuttlebug and I used patterned paper by Basic Grey. The mug die is by SSS.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our release week! 6 sets is a lot so I hope you’ve kept up! The girls have shown so many lovely ways to use all our new stamps! If you’ve missed some, each of the links below will send you not only to todays post but all of the Flourishes cards they’ve made!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Enjoy Your Vacation

It’s day 5 of our Flourishes l.c. release! Today I have a beach themed card in one of my favourite colour combos, ivory and aqua.

For sure this card will be miles different from the other designer’s cards because the other sentiments are all Christmas or holiday related! But when I read this one, I automatically saw a holiday card for my sister who travels all over the world, often to places with beaches. The paper is by Prima and the die cut by Spellbinders. I mixed a few paints to get the colour I used for the die cut. Underneath are lace, ribbon and trim with some accents of sequins, rhinestones and plastic star fish to round out the card.

All the girls in the design team have some awesome cards for you to check out. Don’t forget to leave some comments along the way!

Flourishes Blog
Barb Thompson
Beverly Cole
Linda Lucas
Naomi Gong
Me!
Tricia Traxler

Enjoy, Rebecca

Entered In: Global Design Project #58

Let Your Light Shine

For the day 4 release at Flourishes l.c. I made a support card using an altered version of the candles.

Sometimes our friends need to know that they are awesome! I think this card does the trick. The star of David was removed by omitting that candle when stamping and then adding just the candle back in it’s place. It’s pretty easy to do with a MISTI or other stamp positioner and some very careful inking. Sometimes I protect what I don’t want ink on with some regular sticky tape and then remove it before stamping. Then I added some Glossy Accents to the flames and the candle stand.

The image was coloured with Copic markers and a white Sakura Gelly Roll Pen. The paper is by My Mind’s Eye and I typed the sentiment out using a font called Isabella. (I had to pay for it but it’s so pretty it’s worth it.)

Do you love these images? Be sure to head on over to the store to see all the fabulous stamps, paper and ribbon we carry! And once again, we are hopping to see all the cards the girls have made with this amazing set!

Flourishes Blog
Barb Thompson
Beverly Cole
Linda Lucas
Naomi Gong
Me!
Tricia Traxler 

Enjoy, Rebecca

Flourishes Release Day 3–Go Tell it on the Mountain

We have another amazing stamp set to release today. I used the image to make a Praying for You card.

And check it out! I even managed to get my watermark to work!! I am not that good with such things. I’m so proud!! (Kidding) I coloured the image with coloured pencils because it seemed to suit the image. Can you believe I found paper with both of the greens I used to colour my trees and bushes?

So, hop along to see all the designers cards for today! I’m sure you’ll be super inspired!

Flourishes Blog
Barb Thompson
Beverly Cole
Linda Lucas
Naomi Gong
Me!
Tricia Traxler

Enjoy, Rebecca

Entered In: Paper Pal Arts 332

Woodland Elf Card

Welcome to day 2 of the Flourishes release. Today we have Elfen Christmas.

Of course, as you may have noticed by now, I never use the Christmas sets for their intended purpose. This elf can be used at any time of year! I coloured him in browns and muted greens and used papers with similar colours from Basic Grey. (ETA: I just noticed I missed shading the green tunic and hat. I’ll be sure to fix that!)

I did some partial die cutting along with some hand cutting to trim the image. All of the papers were edged in Vintage Photo Distress ink. Last I added some grosgrain ribbon and a few wooden ‘enamel’ dots.

You have got to join our hop to see all the work by our amazing designers! So many gorgeous cards to see!

Flourishes Blog
Barb Thompson
Beverly Cole
Linda Lucas
Naomi Gong
Me!
Tricia Traxler 

Enjoy, Rebecca

Entered in: Sweet Sketch 2-100

Flourishes October Release–Year of Flowers

Another month has passed! I can’t believe it! You are going to love the gorgeous new Flourishes l.c. releases!

I used the Petunia stamp which I coloured with Copic markers and die cut using a Spellbinders label die. Isn’t this image lovely? I used some old Basic Grey papers, die cut leaves, ribbon and mulberry paper roses along with some sequins to dress up this card.

Hop along with us! All of the Flourishes Design Team have made fabulous cards for you today! Don’t forget to leave some comments! Be sure to visit every day this week as we will be showing you new sets all the way until Saturday!

Flourishes blog
Barb Thompson 
Beverly Cole
Linda Lucas
Naomi Gong 
Me!
Tricia Traxler

Enjoy, Rebecca

Flower Window Shaker Card

I gotta tell you, when I first saw this sketch, I was thinking, ‘Oh nuts, what am I going to do with this one!’ But once I figured it out, I LOVED it!

I used my brand new Altenew Persian Motifs stamp set and dies which I’ve been wanting for ages! It was embossed with gold powder on water colour paper. I’m not the best colour mixologist when it comes to watercolour so I decided to use inks to watercolour. I recently indexed a lot of my colours. I did about 2/3 of them I’m guessing and I’m already up to 170! What? I had no idea I had that many inks! I still have some Distress inks, 48 colours of Stampin’ Up! pads (for 24 of them I have minis too!) and a bunch of other odd pads from different companies.

The reason I tell you this is because 1. It made it sooo easy to find the colours I needed for watercolouring and 2. You have got to try this! I bought some small coin storage books and cut the little paper squares myself. It made a very cheap and easy system. I bought 2 books that have 120 little pockets and if I index all my inks I will probably run out of space! I did not anticipate that!

Back to the card. I used a mix of sequins from Ellen Hutson, Lucy’s Little Things and Theresa Collins along with some Martha Stewart micro beads in copper – but they look gold to me. Under the flower is some gold messy thread and a white Spellbinders die cut covered in gold leafing paint. Tucked under that is a teeny scrap of pink music paper, along with the other patterned paper, by My Mind’s Eye. I love that paper and I vow to use every. single. scrap!

I know this sketch is so fun you will want to join us! Be sure to link your card up to the Crazy 4 Challenges blog by Friday evening!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Elegant Congratulations Card

Welcome to another Flourishes l.c. Friday Blog Hop! This week Linda’s theme was to make our sentiment the star.

My card uses Christmas Tree as the background! I know, you could never tell right? The first time I laid eyes on it, I could see that it would make a fantastic background stamp! I removed the star and trunk very carefully using a craft knife then it’s basically a big triangle stamp. I don’t celebrate X-Mas so I didn’t worry about needing to reassemble the stamp but you could if need be. Taking the star off also gives me a cool star/snowflake stamp to use! I heat embossed it using clear powder for a beautiful tone-on-tone look.

The sentiment went through a couple of design changes as I attempted to get it to look how I wanted. First I cut it from white cardstock with Stick-It on both sides and from white fun foam. I’ve been wanting to test how the Stick-It works with glitter. My intention was to go with white but then I saw my new Distress glitter! I added two blue glitters in an ombre pattern. However, no matter how well I burnished it, Stick-It really isn’t so good for glitter, especially the chunkier-than-average Distress Glitter! So I was left with a lot, LOT of white space. Ugh, not so pretty! So rather than start over, I tried airbrushing the empty white space! Worked like a charm, yeah me! But when I added glue to the back of the die cut to stick to the card, a lot of glitter came off on my hand while holding it down. Seriously?

Next I covered the die cut in Glossy Accents to keep the remaining glitter on. But that just seemed to make it less glittery. Bummer. I would have started over except the die cut is glued on! oh well, sometimes things don’t work out perfectly but I still think it’s pretty, just not as pretty as it could be. The bow was tied with our Navy 1.25” silk ribbon. Isn’t it stunning? It makes such a lovely fluffy bow! You start by tying a regular bow then knot the tails. This secures the first bow while you tie the second one.

Now it’s time to see all the lovely cards made by our awesome team! If you didn’t start at the Flourishes blog, be sure to start there. Don’t forget to leave comments for everyone as they’ve all worked so hard. And come back on Monday for the first day of our Flourishes’ October release!

Flourishes Blog
Barb Thompson 
Beverly Cole
Linda Lucas
Naomi Gong
Tricia Traxler

Enjoy, Rebecca

Girls Rock Card–A Colour Challenge

Here’s our challenge for this week. "Color wheel mix up... find your favorite 2 colors on the wheel and use the 2 colors on the opposite side of the wheel …. this will challenge you to maybe use colors you would usually shy away from."

So I looked up a couple of colour wheels. And surprise, surprise! My favourite two colours, pink and blue-green are opposite each other! What??

I was happy and surprised. I thought with pink being a lighter shade of pink, that green would be the other colour. But both of these wheels show blue across from the red and blue-green across from the pink. Maybe these are alternate colour wheels? But I wanted a wheel with more colours on it and this is what I got in the search. If any of you know why there are two very different colour wheels, please let me know in the comments!

I toyed with the idea of making a card with some colours I don’t use often which was the conclusion of the challenge but I thought about it and said, “Nah!” I love pink and aqua together so go for it!The papers including the two focal squares are all from a MME paper pad and the other elements are all from Crate Paper by Maggie Holmes except the wood veneer, clothespin and the rose. I added lots of shimmer to the card using a Mr. Huey’s spray mist. It looks like the card is out of focus but it’s the shimmer.

This is one of the most unusual challenges we’ve had! And while I ended up using colours I use normally, it was fun to look up different  colour wheels and use a type I didn’t even know about. I hope you have time to play along this week. We all love to see more participants than the week before! It really stretches your creativity to try something new so pop on over to the Crazy 4 Challenges blog today!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Entered in: Mojo Monday468

For the Love of Patterned Paper! Flourishes Blog Hop

This week we have another blog hop showcasing stamps from the new Flourishes! Our Challenge this week was to use patterned paper. Flourishes is carrying some lovely Authentique paper right now, you’ll love it!

When I colour, I usually try for some nice bright or pastel colours with lots of contrast. Today, I was trying to mimic the patterned paper colours in the Authentique paper pad Grateful so I went with a muted, almost all neutrals palette. I used Copic markers to colour the image. It’s very hard to tell but I did use two different greens for the different types of greenery. I used BG 90s for the sprigs with the berries that just out the sides and YG 67s for the rest with some R89 added to the greens in the back to add more depth. Did you know that you can add shading to your images using a colour on the opposite side of the colour wheel?

I hope you like this Harp image by Flourishes l.c. It’s quite a large stamp so it would be easy to make a card with this very detailed image just by stamping it in a single colour of ink then adding a sentiment and maybe some ribbon or twine. Be sure to hop along with us today.

Flourishes Blog 
Barb Thompson
Beverly Cole
Linda Lucas
Naomi Gong
Tricia Traxler

Enjoy, Rebecca

Winter Forest Scene Card

Hello! I’ve got another card for Crazy 4 Challenges today. We were challenged to make a forest scene card or use forest critters on your card.

I used a few different dies to make this card. Starting with a soft blue background, I sponged on some dark blue, purple and medium blue inks. I added some Copic marker to the trees, birds, deer and snowy hill. The sentiment was white heat embossed from a Prima doll stamp set and I added a few stars with a gel pen. But my favourite touch was the snow on the branches. I mixed glitter into some embossing paste and added it with the end of a toothpick. It didn’t seem glittery enough (though I didn’t let it dry) so I sprinkled on a bit more glitter while the paste is still dry. Last I added some Stickles to the snowy hill with a paint brush. Don’t forget that Liquid Pearls and Stickles can be used as paint!

Enjoy, Rebecca