Flourishes Friday Focus: What A Catch!

Good morning and happy Friday everyone!  Today is Flourishes Friday Focus on What A Catch and our Focus on the Designers! Please check out who the Focus is on this week HERE on the Flourishes blog!

On to my creation, I created a Father's Day gift card holder, for the men that are hard to buy for!

 I stamped What A Catch on Classic Ivory cardstock, with Versafine Black Onyx ink and fussy cut my image. I colored it in with Ice Blue, Buttercup, Beehive, Copper, Walnut, Flesh Tones 1 and Cool Neutrals Copic Collections. I found a DAD gift card file on the online Silhouette America store and cut the Shape out with my Silhouette Cameo Machine and I used Score Tape to adhere all of the layers together.

Inside it I stamped the fish image in the gift card pocket area and colored it in with the Ice Blue, Cool Neutrals, and Sweet Pea Copic Collections. I wanted to add a Bass Pro Shops Gift card inside but apparently we don't have any near by us :(

For more What A Catch inspirations, visit the Flourishes Gallery! I know it will just tickle your toes seeing all those awesome designs!

Please Visit the rest of the Design Teams blogs for more What A Catch inspirations!


  Amanda Havon
  Christine Okken
  Cindy Lawrence
  Danielle Kennedy
  Heather Jensen
  Julie Koerber 
  Maki Jones
  Silke Ledlow
  Stacy Morgan

Have a great day!

Flourishes Free For All Friday!

Good morning and welcome to Flourishes Free For All Friday with a twist! Today begins a new segment to our release rewind favorites from Release Week. We are starting a Designer Focus where each Free For All you will get a closer look at each of us Senior Designers! Isn't that exciting? I know I would love to know what inspires each of us and how some of us come up with our delicious designs! This week the focus is on our wonderful Julie Koerber! Visit the Flourishes blog to read all about her, and our CASE Challenge! Play along to CASE one of her creations and a random winner will receive a Flourishes Goodie Bag!! I love a good CASE challenge, don't you? Play along and YOU might be our winner!

Don't forget, it's the LAST DAY for the New Releases Discount Bundle! In your bundle you'll receive the Old Tea Rose, Glamour Girls, Call Me & Simply Charming! Such Pretty & Cute sets!

I used the Old Tea Rose on my card from this month's release.

I used the Old Tea Rose stamp set that I stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink and fussy cut it out. Then I colored it in with Lenten Rose, Dahlia, Poppy, Beehive, Olive Green and Evergreen Copic Collections. I cut out a Perfectly Pierced Classic Window on Classic White cardstock and stamped my sentiment over that in Memento Rich Cocoa. I sponged Memento Pistachio ink on the edges of the Perfectly Pierced Window then placed my fussy cut images on popdots and placed it over the diecut. I layered the Perfectly Pierced Window on top of another Spellbinder diecut, matted with the Color Made Easy cardstock line in Pistachio and decorated my card with pearls.

Check out the rest of the Senior Design Team for more inspirations and amazing projects!

  Amanda Havon
  Christine Okken
  Cindy Lawrence
  Danielle Kennedy
  Heather Jensen
  Julie Koerber 
  Silke Ledlow
  Stacy Morgan

Have a wonderful creative day!

Flourishes May Release Challenge!

We're excited to welcome you to May's Release Challenge at Flourishes! May brings most of us to those warmer sunny days anticipating summer, and in some cultures May Day is celebrated by presenting loved ones with flowers or ringing the doorbell at someone's home and leaving behind a basket of flowers and treats....today we're bringing you flowers of our own,  asking you to be inspired by the colors in this beautiful illustration...

HOW TO PLAY:  There are so many beautiful combinations you can be inspired by!  Choose all of the colors in the illustration - or pick three that work together for you and create!  If you play along with us, you could win Flourishes entire May Stamp Release!  If you upload to SCS please use the keyword FLLCMAY13.  You can enter as many times as you like, but we want you to know if you use Flourishes stamps, your entry counts twice!  You have until Friday May 10, 2013 at 5 PM EST to enter.  Just make sure you enter your creation below using our InLinkz Widgit.  Have fun getting inky!

With this challenge, we also want to let you in on a little secret! Do you like the image above? Well, next week you will see this very flower in its full glory as our designers sneak peak the work of a brand new artist at Flourishes -- Sam Pickard! Sam hails from England and many folks have seen her work on her blog - Planet Sam. We are so excited to share this artist's work on polymer! We know you will love what we have in store!

Don't you just love the Release Week colors for the challenge? They're my ultimate favorite colors to work with!! I'm keeping the challenge color graphics for my personal inspirational file!
After I looked at the inspiration photo, I was inspired to create a Teabag Purse with the colors.

I used Flourishes Garden Gate stamp set that I stamped in Versafine Onyx Black and fussy cut it out. I chose to color my image in with Poppy, Sweat Pea, Beehive, Evergreen and Olive Green Copic Collections. I used Flourishes Kraft cardstock for my purse and stamped out a background with the Flourishes Vintage Wallpaper in Memento Toffee Crunch ink. After that, I sponged the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, and made faux stitching with the Picket Fence Distress Marker. I sponged Tattered Rose Distress Ink on a doily that I folded over the purse and added a few accents with some Spellbinders Fancy Tags dies that I sponged over, with the Tattered Rose and Vintage Photo ink. Then I stamped the sentiment from Tulips for Friends in Rich Cocoa ink. I added some Blush Pearls, and some Baby Pink Ribbon from the Color Made Easy line for the handle, and I hand dyed the ribbon bow on the handle with a Tea Dye Distress Ink re-inker.

Here is the inside of the Teabag Purse.

Here, you can see the teabags tucked in the pockets snugly, and the Vintage Wall Paper stamped design on the inside flaps in Memento Toffee Crunch ink, with Vintage Photo sponged around the edges for accent and emphasis. 


We know you'll also be inspired by our Senior Design Teams Creations so go ahead and visit:

 Amanda Havon
  Christine Okken
  Cindy Lawrence
  Danielle Kennedy
  Heather Jensen
  Julie Koerber 
  Maki Jones
  Silke Ledlow
  Stacy Morgan

THE OFFICIAL RULES:

Simply create a card using 3 or more of the colors of the inspiration photo above
Entries need to be in by Friday May 10th, 5 PM EST
Those entries using Flourishes Stamps will be counted twice
You must link your creation on our InLinkz Widgit to be counted
You must have a link to our challenge in your blog post or gallery post
Please DO NOT combine challenges.  Only those entries that don't combine will be in the running
If you upload to SCS please use the keyword FLLCMAY13
We'll announce the winners on Saturday in our Winner's Circle Post here on the blog on Saturday May 11th, so check back then to find out if you are a winner!

Thanks for stopping by and we look forward to seeing what you create!

Flourishes Friday Favorites

Good Morning Flourishes friends! It's time for another Friday Favorites, and today I'm using A Year in Flowers 3, featuring the Chrysanthemum. By the way, I just love the Flourishes idea of a flower for every month of the year!

I stamped out the A Year In Flowers 3 in Versafine Vintage Sepia and the sentiment from Tiny Flowers and Tags in Memento Rich Cocoa. I colored my image in with Olive Greens Collection, Tiger Lily and the Beehive Collection Copic markers. I added some stitching along my patterned paper and matted it with Color Made Easy Rich Browns cardstock. I added a pearl flourish, some Color Made Easy Chocolate Brown ribbon, a Color Made Easy Poppy Button, and some Ivory Jute Twine.

I really had so much fun using this stamp set and letting my imagination run wild. I hope this Friday Favorites encourages you to pull out your favorite Flourishes stamp set, too! Also please stop by and  visit the Flourishes blog today for our special news! Christine is going to take over some of the design team management for Julie so she can help Jan Marie more. You can read all about it here: Flourishes Blog.

Please visit the rest of the team to gather more inspirations to fuel your creative passion!


Amanda Havon
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Danielle Kennedy
Julie Koerber 
Maki Jones
Silke Ledlow
Stacy Morgan


Have a great day!

Product Review!

Good morning, friends! It's been awhile since I've posted about a product review and I'm super excited about this one!! Today the Splitcoast Stampers Product Review Team is reviewing Stamp-N-Storage!! They offer the most amazing organizational items that are perfect for any scrap space both large and or small! They come unpainted in a variety of option for you to customize your space. But don't take my word for it, read what all the other Product Review Team's thoughts: HERE! :)

I guarantee, you won't be disappointed with this company or review ;)
~ Amanda

Free For All Friday!!

Hi all! Just like we do every Friday after our release, our designers pick up their favorite new sets and let their creativity go crazy with a "Free for All Friday!" The goal is to show off those new images and give you even more ideas on how to use them!

This is just a taste of what you'll see when you hop around and see what the design team has to offer today! Also, time is running out for our New Release Bundle Bargain! Today is the last day to get all of our new sets at 10% off when you purchase them in a bundle. If you want to know more, just click HERE  to see the bundle in the Flourishes store!

 I chose to keep my card simple and as if you were looking out a window.

I used Flourishes new "Bees and Blooms" stamp set that I stamped onto Classic White cardstock, in Memento Angel Pink. I stamped out my sentiment, also from Bees and Blooms, in Versafine Onyx Black, then I added Kaiser Kraft pearls in Blush. I framed the card with Color Made Easy Candy Pink cardstock and popped it up on popdots to make it seem like you were looking out a window at the Bees and Blooms.

Ok, now it's time to hop on over and see.....

   Amanda Havon
  Christine Okken
  Cindy Lawrence
  Danielle Kennedy
  Heather Jensen
  Julie Koerber 
  Maki Jones
  Silke Ledlow
  Stacy Morgan

Hope you have a fabulous weekend and we’ll see you all back here soon!

Flourishes Release Week : Garden Gate

After a few days of peeks and tons of eye candy courtesy of the Flourishes Design Team, we're happy to share that the April sneaks are over and all of the sets we've been showing off are LIVE in the Flourishes Store HERE! Today, we bring you one more hop and this one will have you hopping past the garden gate to see a bevy of beautiful roses!

Garden Gate, illustrated by Marcella Hawley, takes the beauty of a shrub rose and makes it a card maker's delight! The set features one beautiful arched shrub rose branch and a fun-filled,whimsical scene welcoming you beyond the garden's gate. This 4 by 6" set also offers 5 beautifully scripted sentiments. 

Would you like to win this set?  Well, just as we have done in past release weeks, we offer our little guessing game of….

We don’t know which one of these ladies below will be the Mystery Blogger but one will, so leave comments on all of our designers’ blogs and you’ll be in the running to win today’s Garden Gate Stamp set! Want to see all the beautiful things you can create with this gorgeous array of shrub roses? Head on over and see…..

   Amanda Havon
  Christine Okken
  Cindy Lawrence
  Danielle Kennedy
  Heather Jensen
  Julie Koerber 
  Maki Jones
  Silke Ledlow
  Stacy Morgan

And.... if you own a Silhouette Cameo, you should know that there are a number of new cut files available too! We have the Bees and Blooms Cut File both for the Silhouette Cameo and in a SVG version as well. We have the Spring Blossom Cut file for the Silhouette Cameo and we also have the Garden Gate in a Silhouette Cameo Cut File as well! What creative fun! You can click HERE to see all of our cut files in the Flourishes store! There are a ton!

I used the Garden Gate stamp, stamping it with a solvent ink onto a sheet of Clear Cover Cardstock and colored everything in with the following Copic Collections : Crocus Collection, Flesh Tones 2 Collection, Olive Green Collection and the Evergreen Collection. I made a frame with the lightest cardstock from each of the Color Made Easy lines in Rich Browns and Pistachio, adhering my acetate to it using popdots to lift my image off the background paper. For my embellishments, I added some Scalloped Guipure Ivory lace, some Iced Lime Color Made Easy ribbon, a single Cream Leaf Pin and some small flowers.

*Note: If you are planning on coloring items in on clear Acetate cardstock, I have just a tip or two. You can't blend on clear cardstock very well. I have had mixed results, mostly success, but the more color you lay down, the stickier the cardstock gets. Which leads me to my next tip, if you do decide to color an image in, notice my image is "reversed" from the actual stamp image. I did that on purpose, to show the versatility of stamping on a clear cover cardstock. But when you color your image in, besure to place the colored inside so it's not facing out because it can get sticky, by facing it forward it will be smooth.

And of course I couldn't help myself, so I made another card because I really missed fussy cutting out my images!

I used stamped the Garden Gate out in Versafine Onyx Black onto Classic White cardstock, and colored my image in with the following Copics: Poppy, Olive Green, Terra Cotta, Copper, Flesh Tones 2, Sunflower and Blue Jeans Collections. After fussy cutting out my image, I adhered it on a die cut shape I cut in half and mounted them onto popots. I sponged my background diecut in Broken Glass Distress Ink, then I used my ScorTape and adhered everything to my card base that I diecut out. I made a base from Clear Cover Cardstock, which holds all those delicate pieces of the card together for me. kept the embellishment simple, only adding some Snow White Kaiser Pearls.
Here is the back of the card.

DO YOU WANT TO WIN OUR ENTIRE RELEASE?

If you want a chance to win all three of our new sets, you can always play in our Summer Lovin' Challenge – there will be multiple winners here AND you only have until 5PM EST today to enter!!! OR, play along with the gals for this week’s Timeless Tuesday Challenge! Check out the links for the official rules! You can also take advantage our New Release Bundle and get 10% off when you purchase all three together in a bundle. And, while you're shopping, did you check out the WHAT'S NEW PAGE on the Flourishes Store? There is a WHOLE BUNCH of new stuff that you'll want to check out!

Just like we do each release, we offer you the Saturday Winner's Circle -- a day when you can find out if you were one of the lucky commenters or.... winners in our Release Week Challenge! We'll have that post up tomorrow at noon -- so be sure to check back and see if your name landed in our latest Winner's Circle!


Thanks for joining us this week!

Flourishes Release Week : Bees and Blooms

Hi all and welcome to day 2 of Flourishes' fabulous sneak peeks! Today's stamp set is one that is close to our hearts in more ways than one. For starters, it's the last stamp set penned by Becky Fleck for Flourishes. And because of that, we decided to make it a special set that will help a cause close to Becky's heart. Take a peek at....

This stippled beauty called Bees and Blooms features apple blossoms and bees buzzing in such an artistic way. And, Becky created a SVG and Silhouette cut file to be used with this set. It's a unique look that is begging to be water-colored, colored up with Copics or just stamped on its own!

Now, the special part of this set. Becky is donating 100% of her artist fees to benefit the Relay for Life. Each year, more than 4 million people in over 20 countries take part in this global phenomenon and raise much-needed funds and awareness to save lives from cancer. And, Becky's team takes to the track in my own home town of Billings, Montana to help make a difference. Here's what Becky has to say about this powerful, uplifting, tear-jerking, survivor-uniting event....

"My aunt Linda took me to my first Relay for Life in July of 2005. It was 6 in the morning and the track at West High was three-deep in burning luminaries. It was such a breathtaking sight and I  remember how quiet and peaceful it was. That day, we formed our first team to walk the following year. We are a small band of sisters, nieces and friends called "Nip It In The Bud," and we joyfully celebrate the birthdays of three cancer survivors on our team. We are proud to have taken first place in the "Family & Friends" category the past three years for our fundraising efforts.

There is so much more to Relay for Life than just walking a track for 14 hours. Camaraderie is shared by everyone, support is given to those who need it, survivors are honored, lost battles are remembered, caretakers are appreciated, and everyone comes together with like minds and like goals. 

This quote, by Margaret Mead, hangs on a plaque in my pastor's office and offers a thought-provoking idea of the true meaning of Relay for Life: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."  To all of you who purchase my last stamp set from Flourishes, on behalf of my entire team, thank you for your support!

For my card I kept it simple and inked up the Bees & Blooms stamp with Cantaloupe, Potter's Clay and Rhubarb Stalk Memento inks, by just tapping the inks directly on my stamp, in a random fashion. I stamped out my image onto Flourishes Classic White cardstock, to which I then scored two lines across it using my ScorBuddy. I stamped the sentiment In Versafine Onyx Black, onto on of the Perfectly Pierced Victorian Ovals die set. Then I tied a ribbon from the Color Made Easy Poppy line called Basque Red, added a Poppy Button and some Metallic String to finish my card.

Because Flourishes supports Becky in her mission, 10% of all sales of Bees and Blooms will be funneled right into Becky's team fundraiser to raise money toward cancer research. Every single one of us has someone that we know that has been affected by this horrible disease. So, let's join forces to help stamp out cancer!
And, we'll also be giving away a set today. All you need to do is figure out......

We don’t know which one of these ladies below will be the Mystery Blogger but one will, so leave comments on all of our designers’ blogs and you’ll be in the running to win today’s Bees and Blooms Stamp set!  Want to see all the beautiful things you can create with this beautiful set for a fabulous cause? Head on over and see…..


  Amanda Havon
  Christine Okken
  Cindy Lawrence
  Danielle Kennedy
  Heather Jensen
  Julie Koerber 
  Maki Jones
  Silke Ledlow
  Stacy Morgan

DO YOU WANT TO WIN OUR ENTIRE RELEASE?
If you want a chance to win all three of our soon-to-be released sets, you can always play in our Summer Lovin' Challenge – there will be multiple winners here! OR, play along with the gals for this week’s Timeless Tuesday Challenge! Check out the links for the official rules! Also, if you like what you see on our designers’ blogs today, you can pre-order this set (along with the other two sets as well). You can also take advantage our New Release Bundle and get 10% off when you purchase all three together in a bundle. All sets will be live first thing Friday morning -- that's tomorrow -- along with the coordinating cut files for this release. So, be sure to stick with us this week as we unveil a whole new host of paper crafting goodies!
We’ll see you back here tomorrow for another new release sneak peek! This one will have you taking a trip past the garden gate for some beautiful inspiration!