Thursday, May 30, 2013

Maps and Making a Difference

Hello Flourishes Friday Friends! Today we're going to continue on our theme of masculine cards that we began last week, giving you some more great inspiration for that guy in your life! The Senior Design Team is picking any set in our Flourishes Stamp Collection and showing off their masculine designs to you today. I know you'll be inspired and come away with some great manly ideas!

I always think that simplicity and good lines make for an effective and sharp masculine card.


I've always loved this background map Antique Map from our stamp collection.  It's really got that old world feel (ha ha pun intended :) ) and can be stamped as a background or - as I've used it as the focal piece.  I stamped the image onto Flourishes Classic Ivory Cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I gave the image some rustic colouring with Copics so it kept that old map feel.  Then I layered on Flourishes Kraft cardstock and Flourishes Color Made Easy - Emerald Coast Line.  


For the sentiment fishtale-banner panel I added this lovely Inside and Out Thank You set in Espresso Truffle Memento Ink and the smaller sentiment in Teal Zeal Memento Ink, with some beautiful Kraft Crochet lace, an Emerald Coast Button and some twine to finish it off.  




Here is a link to some other beautiful cards made with these sets in the Flourishes Gallery for even more inspiration:


Here is an older card I made with this set as a background so you can see it used in a different way.  See how I used just the compass from the image on the sentiment too?  


So now you can stop by and see:
On the Flourishes Blog, you'll also find a NEW Designer Focus this week on the one and only Cindy Lawrence.  It's another opportunity for you to CASE the Designer and enter to win a Flourishes Goodie Bag!  Thanks so much for all of you who cased me last week!  What a great honour, and it was so fun seeing your designs  :)  

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

10 Minute Doodling

Just wanted to pop in and let you know I have a fun tutorial today on the Flourishes Blog.  It's a "how-to" on creating this very cute card in just a few minutes with some fun doodling.  I hope you can tune in!


Sunday, May 26, 2013

Party Cat

That son of ours, the one I showed you yesterday in the swing turns 14 this week.  Sheesh!  He's very proud that in the last month he's become taller than me and tells me so at least a couple of times a day.  He is a gem, and we're pretty close.  I think we're wired somewhat similarly in certain ways so we have some good talks and he's very loving.  I am very proud to be his mom.  


So here's his Party Cat :) what's funny is that he and I are both very allergic to cats.  So I think he'll get the humour in this.  Its a very fun image from Birdie Brown that I won recently.  So cute right?  Torico is amazing as an illustrator and designer.   I coloured this goofy cat and presents up with Copics and then carefully trimmed out the image and popped it up on some fun Stationary Noted paper from Teresa Collins.  My guy's favourite colour is red, so I threw a lot of that in there.  


The one thing I did for fun was cut out 14 on my Silhouette machine and used the negative of the cut to create a windowed design with a little red cardstock behind.  I think he'll like it :)

Copics:  R08, R24, R27, R29, B91, B93, B95, C00, C1, C2, C3, C5

Thanks for dropping by!  

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Photography 52 - 21

Last weekend was a long weekend for us and our oldest son asked if I thought our maple tree could finally hold a tree swing.  I said I thought it might and that maybe that should be his weekend project....so he took it on with the help of his sister.  


And here he was this week enjoying some reading time sitting in his swing :)  I was pretty proud of the work they put into it.  It's a nice cozy spot in the shade for swinging your cares away!



Have a great weekend friends.  Look foward to catching up with you next week!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Hopping Along for Jessica

This is my second post of the day.  Please CLICK HERE or scroll down for my Flourishes Friday post!  

I'm hopping along to celebrate the Birthday of Jessica Knutsen, owner extraordinaire of There She Goes Stamps.  I had so much fun on the Design Team, so I was thrilled to be able to jump in on the fun.  

One thing I really love about Jessica is her awesome prismacolor pencil coloring.  She does some magic with these pencils and her shading, and she's great at "creating a scene" (on paper! LOL) with masks.  So I thought I'd do it a little Jessica-style.  


I pulled out my very cute My Little Friend set and masked and stamped these little guys out, adding some lines and connections with my Copic Multi-liner to get the scene to work with the hill and grass.  Then it was just fun colouring everything in, adding a little puffy cloud and some simple accents to make this birthday card fun.  You can click on either of these pictures if you want to see a little more detail.  


Too cute right?!  

Happy Birthday Jessica!  Thanks for all the TSG Fun!  

And have fun hopping along to the rest of the celebration stops today:  

Thursday, May 23, 2013

You're So Fly



Hello Flourishes Friends!  Today the Design Team is showing off projects with a very fun set - What A Catch.  It is such a great masculine set!  A while ago you might remember me saying I needed to make a number of thank you cards for the staff at our Church on Administrative Assistant Appreciation day, and 2 needed to be masculine.  This was one of the them...


I thought it was a fun play on words to combine this set and the Inside and Out  - Just Because in the sentiments for this card.  "Just because you're so fly" sounds so fun!  I stamped the tackle and gear onto Flourishes Classic Ivory with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, then coloured up the image with some masculine colours to match this Authentique Free Bird Nest Comfort and Familiar Paper.  I really like the chevron theme in the design, so I also played that up with an Edgeabilities border along the bottom in Flourishes Color Made Easy Pistachio cardstock.  


Just Because is stamped in Ranger Crushed Olive Ink and You're so Fly is stamped in Forest Moss.  Then it's just a wee bit of jute twine and an Olive button to finish off the detailing.  

You'll want to hop through the Design Team today to see their great cards with What a Catch and get some great inspiration for that man in your life!    And if you're looking for even MORE inspiration check out the Flourishes Gallery for this set as well, you'll find tons of great ideas for that man in your life!   

And, one last note, don't forget to check out the Flourishes Blog again today for new Designer Focus {blushing} hope you can join in on the fun!  

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Organizing Cards & Pretty Tulips

Hey there gang!  Happy Wednesday to you.  I'm in allergy season and I'm a bundle of itchy eyes and sneezing. It's worse this year than in many years for me and for our youngest son.  :(

So I just wanted to pop in for a quick note to let you know I have a couple of posts on the CardMaker Blog to check out.

Today's post is about how I organize the cards I've made to get them ready for sale...


And this post is about a pretty card I made inspired by another from the CardMaker Magazine archives.



Hope you can take a look!


Monday, May 20, 2013

Give Me a Ring


How about another fun card from this month's Flourishes New Releases?   I can tell by people's response that you really love this cute set Call Me.  :)  I do too.  I think the vintage phones are SO fun.  I have to tell you, I had the best little giggle as I was making this card.  As I was stamping out the sentiment I thought, "ha, this would be a funny card from a girl to a guy - like she's demanding a proposal!"  So everytime I look at it that cracks me up!  

The shape is first cut with the Call Me set's Silhouette Cut file on Flourishes Classic Ivory card stock, then stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and coloured up with Copics.  A telephone book should always be yellow don't you think?  They delivered the yellow pages the other day and I realized that it's been years since the last time I looked up a phone number in a paper phone book.  

I've paired it up with one of my all time paper packs from MME - Sunshine.  I love the blend of yellow, black, cream and soft blues.  I have barely anything left from this pack.  


Behind the image I used our Flourishes Perfectly Pierced Classic Window Die, some wood buttons, iridescent ribbon, and gold cording, and all placed on Flourishes Classic Kraft card stock.  And there you have it!  




Saturday, May 18, 2013

Photography 52 - 20

Week 20 of photos included Mother's Day and some spring gardening 


My beloved's on Mother's Day.  I feel so blessed to be their mom, and I can hardly believe I've been a mom for 16 1/2 years.  That just doesn't seem possible.   We had a really nice time with my family where my husband and brother made us a dinner of grilled steak, crab legs, twice baked potatoes, salads and trifle for dessert.  They did good :)


My brother and I and our mom.  She's a gem.  


The bruisers :)  Oh I just love this picture.  Our youngest son still missing a tooth, and our little nephew who knocked out a tooth by accident. So they have mirror image smiles.  They are so cute!


Sweet little picture of my little button-nosed niece.  


 Ladder ball - my husband put together this game called Ladder Ball, have you heard of it?  It's fun, you have to swing a linked pair of golf balls onto a PVC pipe "ladder" for points.  



Want to see my early spring garden?  Some tulips and some grapevine hyacinth (muscari).  You can see that some bunnies have been snacking on my tulips.  grr.  

 

Lovely bleeding hearts.  They are just starting to bloom.  



These tulips will be done soon, so I had to grab a few shots of them.  


My sister-in-law gave me these dahlias for Mother's Day.  They are so pretty!

One of our hanging baskets.  We found this gorgeous basket of fuchsia.  They are a gorgeous colour combination of cream and deep pink - almost a burgundy.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

She's Got Fabulous Feathers


Hello, Fabulous People!  We're back to show off another look at the May Releases at Flourishes.  Wasn't it a beautiful set of stamps?  I know you won't want to miss out having them in your crafty little hands...and TODAY is the LAST day to purchase the May New Releases at a discount.  So don't miss out!  

I thought I'd diva this gorgeous girl out today from our Glamour Girls set.  When I coloured her up with Copics I saw that the feather on her Kentucky Derby-worthy-hat were peacock feathers....that reminded me of some peacock feathers I had from a Ms. Peacock costume I made for a Clue youth event we had done one time...and then I just couldn't resist putting them on the card.  If you're going to go diva, you just have to go all the way :)


She's stamped on Flourishes Classic White with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, then die cut out with our Flourishes Perfectly Pierced Victorian Oval die.  She's paired with Flourishes Color Made Easy - Emerald Coast cardstock that was embossed with a peacock embossing folder called Courtship, it suited the theme perfectly.  


Some pretty teal velvet ribbon, green silk, turquoise ruffled edge ribbon, and some Kaiser Sea Breeze Sparklets to match all the glam.  






Be sure to visit the rest of the Design team to be inspired again...


***And I hope you can visit the Flourishes Blog today for a new feature we're doing this summer,  a closer look at our Design Team and a fun new challenge with prizes!  It's going to be great! ***

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Blue Jeans and Bracelets

I'm a blue jeans kind of girl.  I could wear jeans most any day.  Though I do like to dress up  - I think I'm most comfortable in my jeans.  I was thinking about how pretty silver looks with blue jeans and then thought about how pretty a silver bracelet like our new Simply Charming set would look against the look of worn blue jeans, and that's how this card started!


I combined the metallic look of silver embossing with an aging effect to the Color Made Easy True Blue Cardstock.  The bracelet and charm images are all first cut out with the Simply Charming Silhouette Cut File, stamped with VersaMark and then embossed with silver embossing powder.  After the images were cooled, I went over the cardstock with a Ranger Distress Marker - in Picket Fence.  This marker is SO cool.  It fades the card stock but it almost takes on the silvery tone of the embossing.  It's the perfect effect for the charms.  I distressed the cardstock in the same way with the marker and also some sponged colour with Ranger Stormy Sky Distress ink, so it would look like worn blue jeans.   


A few accents like some silver cording, seam-binding and some metallic Saville Row Candi dots to look like rivets.    

So what's YOUR go-to piece of clothing?  Are you a jeans girl like me?  :)

Thanks for joining me again today! 

Flourishes & CardMaker Blog Hop!


Today the CardMaker Magazine Blog Team is pairing up with the Flourishes Design Team to bring you some fabulous inspiration with our most recent Flourishes May Release sets! It’s a taste of creativity you’re sure to love!  We wouldn't want you to miss any of the beautiful inspiration so, if you get lost along the way the CardMaker Blog or the Flourishes Blogs will both have the whole list of Designers.

Flourishes loves CardMaker Magazine and its endless source of inspiration in each edition. You’ll find gorgeous photography; beautiful creations, step-by-step instructions and card and paper-crafting designs from the simple to the elaborate; and we love that a number of our Flourishes designers have been published in its pages!  And I love that I am able to work with both great teams!


How about a beautiful rose?  This is with the beautiful new set from Sam Pickard called Old Tea Rose. I think it's stunning!  I thought I'd watercolour it again, this time with Letraset Aqua Markers alone to give it that beautiful wash of colour that water colouring brings - but with more control.  I stamped in VersaFine Vintage Sepia Ink onto watercolour paper, and then coloured away.  I cut out the shape with our Flourishes Perfectly Pierced Classic Window Die, framing it behind with another die shape cut from our Flourishes Color Made Easy Candy Pink cardstock.  The designer paper is Carta Bella True Friends.  

Another great thing I used was this gorgeous Satin Scallop Edge Trim ribbon...it looks JUST like rose petals - so I thought it would be perfect for the design.  So lovely!  


So now you can hop along today and be doubly inspired by two great teams, and you'll want to be sure to comment because we're giving away our entire May Stamp release valued at more than $70...one prize at the Flourishes Blog and one prize hidden along the blog hop!  Deadline for entry is Friday at 5 PM EST.  Winners will be chosen and announced Saturday on the Flourishes Blog!

Your next stop on the hop is my very wonderful and dear friend...

 Julie Koerber 

Thanks for joining me!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Photography 52 - 19

I hope this week's photography post finds you well!  We had a good week here, lots of activity with the kids.  The weather was nice and my husband and I took our bikes to the river valley one day to bike the trails.  It's one of the the prettiest parts of our city, and it was fun to adventure to places we hadn't been before.  It feels so good to enjoy spring!


Daffodils...so pretty between our house and our neighbour's.  See the teeny tiny bug?  


Target in Canada!  Woo Hoo!  Of all the stores that are American based, the one I have always wished would come to Canada has been Target.  It was one of my very favourite places to shop for just about anything when we lived in the US.  When they announced that they were going to be opening stores here in Canada I was SO excited.  And, when the first ones opened this week in the city, we were there the very first day!  :)  It was a little nutty with all the people - but I am a happy camper that I can shop there now whenever I want.  



Lavender.  This will be for my sister-in-law tomorrow for Mother's Day.  A lovely lavendar plant.  

If you're a Mom...Happy Mother's Day, and if you are able to celebrate with your own Mom cherish it!   Our guys will be making us a yummy lunch and I'm looking forward to spending it with my Mom, and my kids, I am very blessed as a daughter and a Mom.   Thanks for stopping by today!  

Friday, May 10, 2013

Love you Mom

I realized this week - whoa...it's Mother's Day on Sunday and you have no card for your mom!  So I put something together and thought I'd show you today.  A simple but spring-filled design for my very special Mom.  


I combined two Flourishes sets - Spring Blossoms and Motherly Love to make framing elements for the  Flourishes Perfectly Pierced Victorian Oval.  It forms this pretty vignette for her. Coloring is done with Copics, and I paired the card with Color Made Easy Sunflower and Emerald Coast Cardstock and a new line to Flourishes - Carta Bella So Noted designer paper (so pretty!), I'm so glad we're carrying them!  


Finishing details are some paper flowers, crystal trinket pins, soft yellow seambinding and some lovely white crochet lace ribbon.  

Hope you'll enjoy this weekend with someone you love!  See you soon!