November 28, 2016

Flourishes and Imagine Crafts Cyber Monday Blog Hop

Welcome to the new Flourishes first partner blog hop with Imagine Crafts. They sent our designers some amazing ink pads to work with while we created for today and we sent them some of our fabulous stamps! Thank you for joining us!

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We are excited to share with you our designer’s creativity. Make sure to leave a comment on each designer’s blog as we will be giving prizes away randomly from two blogs. Since it was my Anniversary on Friday and our attempts to celebrate were interrupted by a sick kiddo, please leave a comment for hubby and me!

fl imagine blog hop freestyle collage wm

I started by creating a background using Brilliance Galaxy Gold pigment ink, sponging it through a stencil. Then I added some sponged inks to coordinate with the colour of the butterflies on the patterned paper. I inked the edges of the pink text packaging with Memento Rich Cocoa dye ink to distress it lightly. Enlarge the photo to see how  I added some Celestial Copper pigment ink to the edges of the scalloped cork circle and Brilliance Pearlescent Olive pigment ink to the center. More gold ink was added to the edges of some of the paper layers for extra shine.

The focal image is from Year of Flowers 1, coloured with Copics. I used non-traditional crocus colours, who says art has to be accurate after all??! I decided to match  the colouring to the shades of the butterflies so I used yellow and pink.

fl imagine blog hop freestyle collage2

Some details to notice: friend sticker (the light is hitting it strangely because it’s a glossy, puffy sticker, it’s underneath the tulip), mirrored cardstock hearts, Copic coloured wood veneer heart and ephemera: tag, ticket, pretty packaging from embellishments (pink text) and music paper. There are three colours of twine on the tag all knotted separately. I’ve never done that before and I love it. There are mulberry roses, sequins, gems and mini pompom lace. The final touch was the thanks sentiment cut from gold textured art paper.

Please hop along with us. You will get so much inspiration from both teams of designers. Don’t forget to leave as many comments as you can to increase your chances of winning!

Enjoy, Rebecca

 

Imagine Blog - https://imaginecraftsblog.com/

Barbara Thompson - http://cardsandpaperfun.blogspot.com/

Toni Storie - http://sweetpeasstory.blogspot.com/

Alison Heikkila - http://alisonsrandomthoughts.blogspot.com/

Beverly Cole - http://bevsbliss.blogspot.com/

Kren Kurts - http://afourthlife.blogspot.com/

Neva Cole - http://snippetscrafter.blogspot.com/

Roni Johnson - http://inkstainswithroni.blogspot.com/

Linda Lucas - https://lovelylindascraftcentral.blogspot.com.au/

Davi Long - http://alstromeriaartistry.blogspot.com/

Jennifer Vanderbeek - http://www.scrapsoflife.com/

Naomi Gong - http://www.naomigong.com/

Vickie Yeakley - https://stuffbyvickie.blogspot.com/

Nadine Carlier - http://myscrapnstuff.blogspot.com/

Rebecca Ednie - http://eclecticendeavours.blogspot.com/

Gloria Hayoung Lee - http://iiroom1004.blogspot.ca/

Mark Melnick - http://latidart.blogspot.com/

Shirley Qu - http://mypinkieisinkie.blogspot.com/

Martha Lucia Gomez - http://stampartpapel.com/

Terre Fry - http://terresscraptherapy.blogspot.com/

Mary Prasad - http://artbymdp.blogspot.com/

Trisha Traxler - http://simplystamping.blogspot.com/

Monica Edwards - http://scraps2treasure.blogspot.com/

Flourishes L.C - http://flourisheslc.com/blog/

November 26, 2016

Let Them Eat Cake!

I love cake, my favourite is chocolate cake with chocolate fudge icing and ganache glaze on top. Ooh yeah! My second favourite is lemon with lemon filling and cream cheese icing. But honestly, it’s rare for me to find a cake I Don’t like!

free style cake card

Our challenge this week at Crazy 4 Challenges was to make a cake themed card. I’m kind of on a roll with freestyle collage the last few days. I saw my Maggie Holmes collection stickers and chipboard I’d left out from my last post so I checked to see if I had any cake themed items to use. I was hoping to make a quick card as hubby was waiting for me to start watching a movie! It was our anniversary yesterday and although we’d planned to celebrate in style today, it was fun to spend some time together. (Our kid is sick, we’ve had to reschedule! ugh) There were lots of celebration themed items but no cake. So hubby had to wait a bit while I water coloured this pretty cake by SU! (from a long, long time ago.)

free style cake card2

Creating a freestyle collage card is so much fun. As long as you keep the balance right, you can throw almost anything on! Some small details you might otherwise miss: clear gems from Lucy’s Little Things on the cake, gold embossing on the cake, tiny yellow flowers amidst the roses on top of the cake, offset matting of the focal image rather than a perfectly even mat, scattered sequins-clear, opaque, heart and star adhered to resemble confetti scattered around; gold Wink of Stella pen around the edges of the  water colour paper, glitter on the balloon die cut and heart and finally, some pink stamped stitching.

One last tip: add some sparkle right into your watercolour. If you have a white shimmer watercolour paint, mix it into the paint you are using. Even when it looks like you don’t have much, it is very shimmery. I used my white pearl paint in my Gansai Tambi palette. Or add some perfect pearls into the mix. You could even add some wink of Stella to your palette and mix that in!

Isn’t this the best challenge? You’ve got to find some time to play a long with us! If you don’t have a cake stamp or die, just make one out of pieces of patterned paper cut to size, or use a cupcake stamp! You probably have one of those!

Enjoy, Rebecca

November 25, 2016

Red, Red, Red!

Hi! Our challenge today for Flourishes l.c. was to use the colour red. I don’t use red much so it really was a challenge!

fl tulip red challenge wm

I actually had to look through quite a few paper pads to find one with some red in it! Eventually I found one by American Crafts. I used some Gansai Tambi paints to watercolour this image from the Year of Flowers 2 set by Flourishes. The sentiment is one from a dollar store set of preprinted sentiments on vellum, it’s surprising how nice and thick the vellum was. The die cut hearts cover up the adhesive since I don’t find vellum adhesives work very well.

I hope you enjoy your hopping! Off you go!

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

Enjoy, Rebecca

November 18, 2016

Chicken Soup Get Well

It’s the 3rd week of the month so have a sketch challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges. It’s full of amazing possibilities.

floral swag get well
I find get well cards to be harder than most as I’m not into cutesy images and there seem to be few vintage or classic style images to use. So when I saw a sale on this stamp set I grabbed it quickly especially since I already had the matching dies! The image was stamped on ivory cardstock and coloured with Copics with the gold spoon coloured with a gold Wink of Stella pen. Underneath is some messy gold thread.  Instead of plain squares across the top, I had the idea to use daisies but three wouldn’t fit and still look right. So I decided to use three roses and add the daisies in between. It looks way too bare up there so I added some branch-look floral wire, some gold stamens and a few leaves. Last but not least, a few tiny buttons and sequins.

C4C363Sketch

Isn’t it a great sketch? Even if you are busy this week, maybe you can sneak in a few minutes to make a card! The entire team would love to have you play along with us!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Not Your Average Sunflower!

We have a topsy-turvy challenge at Flourishes l.c. this week! Any type of card was fair game as long as we used atypical colours for the image or theme.

fl sunflower wm

I Googled it… there are sunflowers in just about every shade of yellow, orange, rust, burgundy and even a few with bits of pink! But there are absolutely no blue sunflowers! And I added a yellow center instead of a brown one. The image was coloured with Copic markers but the background was sponged with three shades of Distress ink. I allowed the ink to smudge and applied it unevenly so it better matched the rustic, distressed patterned papers.

fl sunflower b

I added some calligraphy to this card. The fig 2 was supposed to resemble a botanical illustration. Sadly too much ink came off the pen and the result is less than stellar. And of course I did it at the very end after everything else was done. UGH! But I like how the Miss You on the tag turned out! You can’t see it here but the shading on the center of the sunflower was done with a Spica glitter pen. I added it in tiny dots like pointillism. I just realized now that I see the enlarged image that I missed adding the dots to the little flower! I’ll go back and fix it.

Please visit the entire design team to see how they interpreted this fun challenge!

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

Enjoy, Rebecca

Entered In: Mojo Monday 474

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November 11, 2016

Masculine Blue Jay Card

This has to be one of my favourite Flourishes l.c. sets ever! The birds in this set are gorgeous, perfect for so many occasions and a blast to colour!

fl blue jay wm

When I looked up blue jay images, I was amazed at how many shades are found in their plumage! I used a ton of markers and still only got pretty close! But it sure was fun trying! I decided on a masculine card as I’m always in need of them and I find them hard to create with little time so having them made ahead is key.

winter birds wm

I hope you like this set as much as I do. And I know that the team has some lovely cards to show you too! A couple members are missing from the list as some changes were made last minute but I’m sure they will show off the set as soon as they can.

Flourishes Blog
Barb Thompson
Beverly Cole
Linda Lucas

Enjoy, Rebecca

Entered In: Mojo Monday 473

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November 10, 2016

Monogrammed Floral Card

Welcome to day 4 of our Flourishes l.c. release. We are revealing two sets today, It’s All In the Details 2 and Art Deco Alphabet.

fl details 2 alpha wm

The Details set includes some lovely frames that work perfectly for small images or the alphabet! There are two of each letter, a left and a right which helps you make monograms with an overall oval look when used together.

its all in the details 2 wm

I coloured in the inner details of my frame and paper pieced the outside. It makes for a very pretty focal point. I’d keep this a secret for the recipient but my best gal pal reads this and will recognize the monogram! I’ll give it to her so she can send it to someone else like you would with monogrammed stationery. BTW, the ribbon matches much better in real life!

monogram alpha wm

Using just the frame and the monograms with the MISTI would be a great way to make quick work of a stationery gift set! The MISTI would allow you to make multiples very quickly. You could add just a touch of quick colouring and you’d be done! You could make notecards and envelopes or if the recipient likes to write a bit more, you could add in some note paper. Oooh, wouldn’t it look pretty with some golf foiling… {Smile!}

Time to hop along to all the super talented design team member’s blogs!

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

Enjoy, Rebecca

November 09, 2016

Camellia Love–Day 3 Flourishes Release

There was a mix up on Monday regarding which sets were to be released in which order so I’ve already posted about todays set. You can see that post and card HERE. Here’s another look at the stamp set and a link to the store. Camellia Love.

camellia love wm

The links to the other designer’s blogs are also on that post so go clicky up there!

Enjoy, Rebecca

November 08, 2016

Winter Bouquet–Flourishes Release day 2

One of the things Flourishes l.c. has always been known for is it’s glorious florals. And the re-launch of Flourishes maintains that tradition.

fl winter bouquet wm

Here is another gorgeous floral to add to your collection! I’m not sure what several of the flowers are so forgive me if they aren’t the correct colours! I just coloured them with whatever pleased me at the moment which is the most fun!

winter bouquet wm

As you can see, you get not one but 2 lovely arrangements with this set! I used Copic markers but any medium would be lovely. The background was stenciled with a damask stencil using white crackle embossing paste. Be sure to go and check it out in the store! Winter Bouquet.

And for the other designer’s creations go to:

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

Enjoy, Rebecca

November 07, 2016

Day 1 Flourishes Release… Again!

Apparently the calendar was incorrect and the set we are releasing today is My Cup Overflows!

fl cup overflow wm

I bet you haven’t seen one of these in a while! It’s a waterfall card if you aren’t familiar with them.  You can get instructions over at Splitcoast Stampers. I stamped the images in various places on square die cuts. Then I cut a mask with a slight border and placed that over the image. Sponged ink was added and the image coloured in. I got the idea from a recent card by Debbie Hughes.

fl cup overflow 2 wm

The background was stamped with the little mug image from Must Be Santa on top of patterned paper. I love this paper, I would have bought an entire pack if it was available! Ombre woodgrain? What’s not to love? Just so you know, in the photo above the card isn’t crooked, it’s just that it was hard to photograph and the pull tab was sitting a bit crooked.

fl cup overflow 3 wm

So fun right? I hope you love this fabulous set. It’s in the Flourishes store right here My Cup Overflows.

cup overflows wm

I can’t wait to see what the other girls have created. There may be a delay for some of them because of the mix up as to which set we were featuring today. Visit all their blogs to see the versatility of this set!

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

Enjoy, Rebecca

Camellia Love Card

It’s that time again! Another month of Flourishes l.c. releases! 5 new stamp sets for you to enjoy. And in case you are paying attention, no, it hasn’t been a month already. We have moved up our releases for November and December to avoid all of the holidays.

fl camellia wm

This gorgeous flower is a camellia. Please tell me I’m not the only one who’d never heard of it before? Perhaps they don’t grow this far north, no idea. They are a woody shrub or tree and have the loveliest rose-like flowers in shades of white, pink and red. But I guess when they are small they can also be an indoor plant because the set below shows one in a pot!

camellia love wm

I hope you  love this set as much as I do. It will be available in the store on Saturday. It really colours up so beautifully and if you usually have trouble figuring out where the shading should be, it’s all figured out for you!

Now, off you go to see all the cards the super amazing design team have created for your enjoyment!

Flourishes Blog
Barb Thompson
Beverly Cole
Linda Lucas
Naomi Gong
Rebecca Ednie –That’s me!
Tricia Traxler

Enjoy, Rebecca

November 05, 2016

Sweet Fruit Card

Is everyone having weather as great as we are getting here in Southern Ontario? It’s been unseasonably warm the last few days and for a winter hater like me that’s awesome!

fruit sweet

So when we got a theme of strawberries or fruit in general for this week’s Crazy 4 Challenges, I was happy to make a tropical looking fruit card! The stamps are about 10 years old maybe from SU! I can’t even remember the last time I used them! But they were perfect for the challenge. I inked each up several times using my MISTI which makes the rock and roll technique even easier! You can add layers of ink without ever worrying about contaminating any of your ink pads. I do recommend working while each layer is still wet though for best results.

Do you have any fruity papers, embellies or stamps? Then you should join our challenge this week! You are welcome to add a card any time this week and we’d love to have you play along with us, the Crazies!

Enjoy, Rebecca

November 04, 2016

Monochromatic Floral Card

This week at our Friday Blog Hop we were challenged by Linda to make a monochromatic card. I debated on which colour to use but I finally decided on purplish-blue.

fl monochromaticwm

OK, yeah so I know the green isn’t monochromatic but I felt I couldn’t do purplish-blue leaves!! ha ha! So I broke the rules a wee bit. The flower is an iris from Year Of Flowers 1 and not only is it lovely but so are the other 3 flowers in the set.

Year-of-Flowers-1-watermarked-6

Be sure to check out the Fabulous Design Team’s cards. I’m sure they will blow you away!

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

Enjoy, Rebecca

November 03, 2016

Shabby Fall Branches Card

I was looking at a few challenges and trying to come up with a card that would fit. While pulling some supplies, I realized that now that I’m on two design teams, I don’t just make what I feel like making much anymore!

shabby fall card

So I just started creating with what felt like fun! In the end it turned out it did match one of the challenges after all! The greenery and pinecones were handmade using Susan Tierney Cockburn dies. It definitely takes a while to make the pinecones but I thought they turned out very cute and pretty realistic. I used my little Delicata copper ink pad to highlight the tips of the scales.

For the background, I started by adding gold crackle paste through a script stencil. Then I added more stenciling through a Moroccan style stencil with green ink. Some random gold splatters, clear crackle paint and evergreen ink competed the background. The cluster in the corner includes burlap, twine, ribbon, a gold stamen bunch, tiny flowers, lace, cheesecloth, the large fabric flower and the greenery and pinecones. I also dabbed some gold Stickles in random places all over the card. Finally I added sequins, a butterfly sticker and a bit of brown ink distressing.

Enjoy, Rebecca

Entered in: the Paper Players Tic-tac-toe challenge #319

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I used die cuts, pine and ribbon if that wasn’t obvious!