Thursday, February 28, 2013

Tweet


It's a fun Friday today at Flourishes!  The Senior DT is showing off some of our favourite things.  It's a great time to bring out something you may not have seen for a while and show it off again. I know you'll enjoy it.   

I have spring fever ...and a real longing for those warmer days that are coming so I pulled out one of my favourite spring themed sets today. 


This is the set Spring is Sprung.  I have always liked sets that have birds or eggs and this set has both (plus cute bunnies)!  I've paired the image with some new papers in the store, MME - Unforgettable, and some Color Made Easy Emerald Coast Cardstock.  

I'm so glad that Flourishes is now carrying our own Classic Kraft coloured cardstock!  One of my favourite things to do on Kraft is to use prismacolor pencils.  So today I thought I'd show you one of my techniques for getting lovely color on Kraft.  


Here is the image stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto our Kraft.  It's a lovely buttery Kraft colour, not too pale, and not too dark.  Kraft tends to absorb quite a bit of the colouring with prismacolors, so I've started laying a base coat of white colouring before I add any other color.  This serves two purposes, it gives the paper that waxy base to smoothly blend other colour on top, and it gives you built in highlights you can use too.  


After I've laid down white, I just go about my merry little way adding layers of the other colours I'm going to use, soft blues on the eggs, greens on the leaves and browns in the nest and branches.  See how the white you already used gives it pop?  And you can use the white as a last coat to blend a little too.  I did not use any OMS or blending tools with this card, just straight colouring and I think it works because of the base coat of white. 


Here you can see I added some soft white and soft blues to the sky around the image, then for accent - some pretty wood buttons, ivory jute twine, ruffled ribbon and some satin-finish green.  I added some pretty embossing from the embossing folder Courtship in the background.  

Definitely says spring to me!  

Now you can head on to visit the rest of the Design Team to see what their Friday Favourites are today. 

Make sure to give a very special welcome to someone lovely who's having her first day with the Senior DT today too....Amanda!  

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Hi Sweet Pea

Hello Again Everyone!


How about something gloriously green today?  I have some *sweet* peas for a tasty card.  There's nothing like fresh peas from the garden.  One of my jobs as a little girl was to shell peas.  I love the sound of the little peas dropping to the bottom of the pail.  

This awesome set from Flourishes called Garden Fresh celebrates all those wonderful things about vegetables in such a sweet way.  I love the script on the sentiment font too.  Sorry, the string in the photo makes it a little harder to read the sentiment!

I used copics to color and paper pieced the basket that the peas are in, these papers are new in the too, MME - Collectable Collection, Remarkable, paired with Flourishes Color Made Easy Pistachio and Color Made Easy - Emerald Coast.   


Some pretty green seambinding, with one of our new rhinestone buttons in teal, tied with some iridescent string.  


And that's it for today!  

Monday, February 25, 2013

Hello Tulips

Tulips are my second favourite flower.  There's something so vibrant and perfect about their sturdy blooms, and they are the perfect sign of spring.

So, I especially love this little bucket of tulips from the Flourishes set, April Showers.  And as I was thinking about how I wanted to colour them, I went looking at some different tulip pictures and found some pretty bright pink ones with orange edges.  So that's how I coloured these.


I paired the image that I had stamped on Flourishes Classic White with Memento Ink with some pretty MME papers - Market, that I found at Michaels.  For the cardstock I had some pretty Color Made Easy Candy Pink on hand but it wasn't quite the right tone, so I just took my Canteloupe Memento ink and used my ink blending tool and sponged the edges to give them more of that orangey-pink tone.  Inside the main Spellbinder's square I sponged Ranger - Spun Sugar and Canteloupe Memento give give it that rosy glow.  


As you can hopefully see I added some seam binding that I also tinged orange on the edges with my YR04 Copic - it just carries over that pinky-orange edged theme from the tulips.  

The little sentiment "hello" is from the fun set Tiny Flowers and Tags.  

Makes me long for spring!  You too?









Saturday, February 23, 2013

Photography 52 - 8

It was a very busy week on the home front.  We had basketball 5 out of 7 nights, and I finally got down to painting our youngest son's room so he could move out of the room he shared with his brother for many years.  What a big job moving furniture, taping painting, moving the room over, sorting through my messy boys' stuff!  Now all three kids have their own rooms for the first time in our family.  I still have to repaint our oldest son's room because he wants a more grown up style...but for a few days (maybe weeks) he can live with it, after all he has lots of space now.


You may want to click on this one to see what's going on.  At our elementary school, you can first try out for the running team in grade 4, and that running team goes on to compete in a huge event called the Journal Games.  It's a awesome event where every elementary school in the city brings a team (generally grades 4 - 6 kids) to compete in 8 x 200 m relay at the University track facility.  So, since our youngest had a role model in his older brother who made the team in grade 4, he was determined to make the team in grade 4 too.  When he did make it, he was beyond thrilled, and his coach told him us he was one of the fastest on the team.  This is him in the red competing on his leg of the race.  He ran a personal best time too.  He caught the boy in green and see that boy in black that's twice his size behind him?  He was determine that boy wouldn't catch him either :)  We'll see if their time makes the playoffs held next month.  


These are da'boyz.  Our older son's Basketball Team, and the team my husband finally got back to coach this week.  They won gold in the tournament this weekend, and I was really proud of them.   Great kids.  My husband has worked with most of them for 2 years and I've really enjoyed basketball and seeing these guys grow and improve in their skills, there's some really skilled ball players on this team.  All but two of them (our son and another boy) will go on to high school next year.  


And this is that pretty gold trophy close up, and my husband....I call him skinny now.  All those 24 lbs he lost in the hospital and post-hospital are still lost.  Every day he's improving a little in strength, and we're super grateful.   His cast is off the wrist  he broke, and today FINALLY he had his last IV antiobiotic clinic.  33 days on IV's.  Finally he can now just take pills each day, so no more needles, no more saran wrap to shower; all those little markers that mean healing is coming...YAY!  Thank you Lord!  

Back atcha soon :)  Thanks for coming by!

Half a Mill Candy Winner!

Hello Gang...just popping in to announce the winner of my Half a Million Blog Candy...

random.org picked #38 who is:


‪Cathy said...

Gorgeous card, love the easel cards. Love visiting your blog and I can see why you have so many visitors. Your cards are always gorgeous. 
Thanks for the chance to win one of those Flourishes stamps sets. Both of them are wonderful.

Congratulations Cathy!  You have 48 hours to contact me with your mailing address and I'll get these lovely stamps out to you :)  

Thanks everyone for your very kind comments!

Friday, February 22, 2013

A Most Delightful Birthday

In a week or so it's our little niece's 4th Birthday :)  Because of my husband being in the hospital, we missed her little brother, our nephew's BD Party, so I don't want to miss this one!

And, it's been a long time since I've played in any challenges, so I did a little checking around and found TSG's sketch challenge for this week and came up with this...


It's with a cutie patootie set from TSG called Wrapped in Joy, and coloured up this happy little girl with Copics.  I love her sweet smile and those pretty presents.  I like how the long lean image of the girl goes with the long narrow focal panel.  

Here's the sketch:


And here's a bit more of a close-up:  


I paper pieced her stockings and the top box of the presents too.  It matches the paper on the little scallops along the top of the panel.  The papers are Basic Grey's True Love, and then I added a wee bit of velvet ribbon, a button, some rhinestones to balance the right side and some iridescent string.  

Little girl cards are always so fun to make :)

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Berry Sweet Birthday Blog Hop

Light the candles, cue the music and get ready for a little bit of birthday fun! It will SOON be a very special lady's birthday and so we rallied the troops to send some birthday wishes her way a little early! On Monday, February 25th, Jan Marie Caruso, the fearless and creative force behind Flourishes will be another year older -- what a wonderful thing to celebrate! So, we've asked Flourishes' designers from all of our teams to join us to help make this day super special with a......


Here's the scoop, there's a way YOU can help Jan celebrate and win some Flourishes stamps as well! HOW? Simply be inspired by the photo above and create a birthday card for Jan. Just that simple! We just love creative challenges at Flourishes and so, why not usher in another one! One randomly drawn winner will get a $25 gift certificate to the Flourishes store, just for playing along! You can find out more about the "official rules" by clicking HERE!


To me this card just speaks Jan Marie, elegant and full of style!  I'm excited to be able to wish her another Happy Birthday this year.  She is a beautiful and generous lady who really does carry herself with a lovely southern charm, and I feel so blessed to be a part of this wonderful family of yours Jan Marie!  I wish you a very happy Birthday, and I'm praying for a year ahead that is filled with hope and purpose.  You have blessed my life in countless ways!

I stamped the lovely Bloomin' Aussie Florals set onto Flourishes Classic White, cutting out the shape with the lovely Tailor Made Classic Keyhole Die, and then pairing it with another die from our exclusive collection, the Perfectly Pierced Classic Window die, cut on Pistachio Collection cardstock.  The sentiment is from our new Inside and Out Hello set on vellum.  I love that you can stamp with an ink like Memento Pistachio and just clear emboss on Vellum.  Works perfectly!  The designer papers are MME.  


Then for the finishing touches I added some pretty sage green pleated ribbon and some of our gorgeous scalloped  lace in pink.  


Inside I paired another one of the sentiments from Inside and Out Hello and the Sturt's Desert Rose again.  And there you have it, a lovely birthday card.  

Don't forget that the New Release Bundle for February ends today...don't miss out on the discount on these great stamps!


One extra note? Jan may be the head of this company but one thing she doesn't get a ton of is happy mail from customers using her stamps! Let's change that for her birthday and flood her with some creative "love" by sending her your Berry Sweet Birthday Blog Hop creations! Here's her address so you can pop them in the mail! Jan Marie Caruso 4140 Lyric Lane Pensacola, FL 32514 I know she would love to see "in real life" what beautiful work you all do and I know it would bring a huge smile to her face! So, join us in singing her a special little birthday song! Be sure to check out all the fun and festive wishes and grab some great ideas for birthday cards along the way!
Thanks for stopping by and helping us with Jan Marie a wonderful and fabulous BIRTHDAY on Monday!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Sweet Little Lamb


This sweet little lamb just steals my heart :)  The preciousness of this little scene from Flourishes - Easter Wishes is so perfect for Easter, or I was thinking it would make a lovely child's card or a baby card too, don't you think?

Stamped onto Flourishes Classic White with Memento Tuxedo Black, I then coloured it up with Copics giving the background sky some pointillism for softness, cutting it out with a simple circle Spellbinder's and framing it up with vellum in Lacey Circles.  Then I decided to create a soft cozy background to the card by using 1 1/2 inch strips cut into triangles to create this quilted sunburst feel to the card, sewing the strips on with a zig zag stitch.  I love the old fashioned warmth it gives.  The paper is MME - On the Bright Side.  


Finished off with a pretty Tailor Made Classic Tag in Emerald Coast cardstock, stamped with Teal Zeal ink, a button, iridescent string,  and some pretty soft seam binding.  







See you soon friends!

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Half a Mill!

Sometime Saturday on this little blog of mine -  I passed the half a million blog hits milestone!  That is really amazing to me :)  Thank you for coming by each week and seeing what I've been up to creatively.  You are such a blessing to me :)

So, to celebrate I have a card to show you and a little give away too....keep reading.


A little something for Easter :).  I thought this would make a lovely Eastery card, or you could even make it into a table place card for Easter Dinner.  I think that would be really pretty don't you?  I love the new set from Flourishes - Easter Wishes stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black on Flourishes Classic White.  This beautiful egg is so pretty.  The kids and I love to colour up Easter eggs every Easter, so just like the Easter dye, I gave it some vibrant colour with my copics.  I also cut out the shape with the Silhouette Cut file to match from the store.  

I created the easel fold with this pretty Spellbinder's die, some fun Echo Park paper, and this pretty Tiger Lily Cardstock from our Color Made Easy Line.  Then for accent I added a couple of Color Made Easy seambinding bows and flouncy ribbon.  




Just a little shot of the inside of the easel fold with some rhinestone accents.   



NOW for the giveaway!  Just to say thank you for coming by and celebrating with me all of these half a million times :) 

I'm giving away two gorgeous Flourishes sets!  





Here's the rules:  
  • 1 entry per person
  • You need to leave your email address (this helps me contact you if you win).  
  • Tell me ...anything you like!  :)

I'll be drawing a winner Saturday February 23rd.  

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Photography 52 - 7

It was a week of continued recovery for us.  Our days are filled with kids, my husband's Dr. & IV Clinic appointments each day, and gratitude to be on the healing side of things.  


I made these adorable Valentine's for our youngest son to give out this year.  He's the only one who needs Valentine's anymore :)  I thought the little monsters were just adorable.  He came home and said, "but MOM, what if kids take them seriously???"  He was not impressed that anyone would seriously think he wanted them to be his Valentine.  Once he was able to put on the googlie eyes any way he wanted he did melt a little.  But on EACH Valentine he wrote, "Happy Valentine's Day, do not take this seriously".  Ack, that kid cracks me up.  


Basketball.  Since my husband has missed 3 weeks of coaching the Senior Team, our Vice-Principal has stepped in to help coach.  This is our older son waiting to get on the floor, see him biting his lip?  :)  a little nervous still.  It was the first game my husband could even watch in 3 weeks.  It's killing him to not be coaching yet...but he's just not strong enough.  




Video Games - hands and tongues.  Such concentration from my boys playing PS3


Love this picture of his little tongue sticking out.  They always say portrait shots should be focussed on the eyes.  If you enlarge it, you can see,  his sweet eyelashes are even in focus.  :)


Remember I said we were re-doing our daughter's room, here's a bit of what it looks like.  When it's completely done I'll take a few more pics.  But you can see the wall colour and the assortment of pillows in the different fabrics on her bed.  She was studying for a tough math test coming on Tuesday.  

Have a great Sunday everyone!



Favourites Winner!

Thanks so much for all your entries into My Favourite Giveaway post with CardMaker.

Random.org picked #29 who is...


Sue D said...
Love how you colored the fuschias! Thanks for a chance at some of your favorite things!
________________________________________

Congratulations Sue!  You have 48 hours to contact me with your mailing address and all these wonderful Flourishes Goodies will be mailed to you!  I know you'll love them!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

You Totally Rock

By the sounds of it, you like the newest offerings from Flourishes! Well, if we are right, you'll be happy to know that each and every one of our new sets is now LIVE in the Flourishes store! Easter Wishes, Old Fashioned Florals and today's new set that the design team is giving you a peek of called Inside and Out Hello!

Introducing...

Inside&OutHelloGraphic copy

Give the inside and outside of your cards a dash of pizazz with this fun new set from Becky Fleck! Inside and Out Hello is the perfect little sentiment set for all occasion creations! There are so many mix and match sentiments packed on this 4" by 3" set! Not to mention -- this set is a PERFECT companion to all of the other Inside and Out sets in this collection! 

I never seem to have enough masculine cards on hand.  So I knew I needed to create something for a guy on this one.  I really love the creativity of going through some of my other Flourishes sets to find things to creatively pair together with these fabulous Inside and Out  - Hello Stamps :)


 I had a lot of fun playing around with this one!  Do you see how my focal point electric guitar is paired with the background?  I made my own accent guitar with Spellbinder's Circles dies and a little flag, with some silver cording strings.   Hee Hee, it's those little things that make my heart smile :)

I stamped the guitar from the very fun set Love Notes in Memento Tuxedo Black onto Flourishes Classic White.  Then I trimmed it out with a little border and coloured it up with Copics in some greens and blues.  Then I stamped the sentiment in Nautical Blue and Bamboo Leaves onto a Perfectly Pierced Classic Hourglass Die from Flourishes too.  The designer papers had that acid rock band feel to me, some fun sheets from Authentique Loyal.  The cardstock is some of our True Blue Color Made Easy Collection.  



And here's the inside of the card which pulls it all together...

Here's the Copics I used..


Just like we mentioned, you can get all three new sets now -- just click HERE to see them in the store! Or... would you like to try to win today's set? Just leave some love in the form of a comment on all of our designers' blogs and try to guess....

Mystery Blogger Graphic

We don't know which one is the mystery blogger and which one will draw a name from their posts to win this beautiful new set!Before we get to the link list with all of our designers and let you go and see their beautiful eye candy - a few announcements! First, it's hot off the presses!!

catty graphic

This gorgeous, full color, high gloss catalog is here for the taking! What's inside? Only all of Flourishes stamp sets for you to peek at, more than 60 samples to inspire you in your own stamping spaces, and five step-by-step tutorials just for you! There's even a few peeks at some stamp sets that haven't even been released yet! So click HERE and get your copy today!

Another new item in the store? Silhouette and Cut files for our brand new set called Easter Wishes! Just click HERE to see the SVG version and click HERE for the Silhouette Studio file!
Do you want to see what gorgeous creations our designers created with our new Inside & Out Hello set? Hop on over and see....

DO YOU WANT TO WIN FLOURISHES' FEBRUARY RELEASE?

If you want a chance to win all three soon-to-be released sets, you can always play in the Pick 1 Challenge! TODAY IS THE LAST DAY FOR ENTRIES -- YOU HAVE UNTIL 5 PM EST!! 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! If you can't wait -- don't forget about our New Release Bundle a special that gives you 10% off when you purchase all three together in a bundle.

Check back at the Flourishes Blog tomorrow at noon for our WINNER'S CIRCLE POST! Will your name be one of the lucky ones?