Sewflake Creations

Sushi Challenge

2009-12-13T19:00:00.000-06:00

After a night of parting at Flourishes power hour release party, I have trouble going to sleep until I wind down for a few hours. Since I was already on SCS and it was getting to be the midnight hour (at least on the East coast) I decided to check out the next days challenge. Much to my delight I found that the inspiration challenge had been posted a little early. I went right to work using inspiration from SushiPot!
Flourishes has just released three stamp sets that have 12 floral images along with a down loadable calendar that is free (calendar) with the purchase of all three Year In Flowers Calendar Set. Not only that, but the three sets are on sale (as a bundle) through Thursday December 17th.
From Calendar set 1 comes Primroses, a low growing flower that loves the cold. Not a flower that is seen in the South until now, you can color your own version. Marcella Hawley has done such a marvelous job with the detail on the leaves and floral buds that its a breeze to color.

I use the Copic Evergreen (YG) and Peony (RV) collection as marketed by Flourishes, then air brushed the background with C1 (copic).

All cuts done with Spellbinders, Versa Mark daubed all over the largest circle with dazzling diamonds sprinkled over it. Glue all the layers together and add some white velvet ribbon.

There you have IC210!

Thank you for visiting................ Are your ready for Christmas?

A Touch of Winter

2009-12-09T20:18:00.002-06:00

It is time for Flourishes release party this week.........the first peek of the week is A Year in Flowers Calendar set 1 .
This week I have combined a new stamp set with SCS color and design challenges. Christmas is coming fast, even though the outside temp is in the high 70's today. So it is all about saving time this month. One card for three different events saves time!
The stamp set comes with four different flowers all approx the same size, 2 " x 2" for a variety of uses. Here I have paired January's crocus with barely banana, raspberry, and artichoke papers. The image was stamped then colored. I covered the area around the floral image with a square cut from copy paper and used an air compressor to add Copic E97 and a SU artichoke marker to "recolor" the yellow background paper while leaving the immediate area surrounding the crocus the original color.
I have used cuttle bug embossing folder, Spellbinders frame die and Spellbinders fancy tags to add interest with a little metal Finishing Touches.

Thank you for stopping by and check out more at Flourishes.blogspot.com for many more Calendar ideas.

2009-12-06T17:25:00.002-06:00

Finally, it has been soooooo long since my last post I will have to see if I remember how to do this. But first a tid bit of advice.......if you happen to break your camera lens close, I mean even two months away, from Christmas.......don't wait to replace it. Go out immediately and buy a new one or you will have to wait till after Christmas or special order it. Bah humbug! No one has it in stock.
Now I am reduced to taking pictures with my little Sony Cyber shot... you know....that camera I thought was just the best thing for all my scrap book pictures, and it was for some time when I was taking all my pictures outside.
Once I started taking more and more pictures inside, I found that the flash was just not good enough and besides I had a 35mm camera.............that took film pictures............that you had to develop and throw out all the bad shots. Now, once I started making cards I found out in a big hurry that a 35mm nor a small digital was not giving me the quality type of shots I needed for Webb posting. I am not very good at dealing with lighting, sun light or indoor light, I like my 35mm digital where I can be a foot away from the card and still get a good flash shot at night!
whine whine whine I'll get the glasses and you can join me......... At least I have a back up camera.

I played along this week on SCS color challenge of Very Black Suede. I would not have thought I would like the combination for a Christmas card as much as I do ...........even though I planned on doing just that.
I started with Flourishes Classic Ivory Card stock, stamped the image on the left side of card using rich cocoa, then I stamped it a second time, then a third time before I re-inked my image and stamped twice on the right side of the panel, I was wanting the "forest" to have some depth to it.
The deer and sleigh was stamped right over the trees, no masking which makes it fast. I stamped a second image of half of the sleigh, colored it, cut is out and place over the first stamped image. Walla.....it keeps the trees from showing though. I daubed around the edge of my planel with close to cocoa, then took the chcolate chip ink pad and ran it over the edges.

I finished of with faux suede ribbon and a ribbon slide from Finishing Touches that I colored with Copics, I only have the silver slides.
I have also seen numerous cards using Spellbinder dies in many clever ways, If you don't believe me than take a look at the Flourish newsletter for an excellent example. I used the fancy tag to finish off the look.

Thanks for continuing to check on my blog, I will try to get more posted............with decent pictures

Christmas Bouquet

2009-11-09T00:00:00.001-06:00

Christmas from Flourishes! We have more to show you and what could be a better start to Flourishes sneak peek week than a floral from Marcella's sketch book.

This is a simple card using just white as the base card and image layer and red as a background layer, with plenty of green in my coloring and ribbon. Copic's give me the color depth in my images that I have come to expect with my color medium of choice.
Christmas Bouquet is my favorite of the month, in fact I used it for my ATC swap too.

Christmas Bouquet comes in two sizes and both are easy to color. If you are making just one or many what better way to celebrate than with a Christmas Bouquet.

Flourishes newsletter will provide more looks at a Winter Bouquet.

Flourishes design team have come up with more to see with this beautiful set.

Sketch With a Purpose

2009-11-04T20:53:00.000-06:00

Which comes first.................? The image or the sketch design?

In this case it was the stamped images that I had colored and "matted", then I to find a sketch design to show case them! I turned to SCS with all of their sketch challenges. It makes it easy just to go to the thread that has all of the challenges listed by number.
I went down the line, well I stated close to the bottom, until I found a sketch that would work. The sketch I found was SC248, that seemed to fit very well with the two images I had stamped.

I stamped the image with SU true thyme, then colored them with atyouspica glitter pens. You are able to see just a hint of sparkle, click on the image to see it better. The best thing about this card, for me anyway, was the fact that I used some of those snowflake brads that I have had for a number of years.

I could have done much better on the picture, but I got my foot tangled in my cell phone cord (it was charging on my work table) and pulled it off onto the floor. Yikes!!! My camera came off the table with it. They both fell onto a carpeted floor so when I picked them up everything looked OK. It wasn't until I got ready to take a picture of my finished card that I saw the lens to my camera was bend at an angle...........not good. It will no longer auto focus, so here I am moving my whole body back an forth trying to get my card into focus.

I do have a long range lens for my camera but the closest I can take a picture is from 30 feet away...........not good! Do I see an early Christmas present in my future??? I Believe!

Thank you for stopping by.

Time for A Challenge

2009-11-01T12:31:00.000-06:00

As soon as I went to the site for SCS inspiration challenge for Saturday I knew I would play along. Franz Porcelain has so very many beautiful pieces that I have to talk myself out of buying something every time I look at one of them. This card instead, along with taking pictures to show how I color with Copic markers using the color collections as sold at Flourishes. I used the Poppy collection for the poinsettias as well as a couple of markers from the soon to be released Fuchsia collection.

The first thing I do is to lay down the lightest shade in which ever collection I will use, in this case it is R20 blush (as shown at the bottom left). As you can see this first picture shows the four stages of coloring I used for the poinsettia.

When I am coloring with Copics, I like to hold all (or most) of the markers I am going to be using in one hand. That allows me to color fast, especially when I have so many flowers to color. And, when I am coloring I do not work on more than 1 image (if it is small) or 2 at the most. Copic's blend their best while they are wet, and being alcohol they dry fairly fast. That is not to say it is impossible to blend more images (like I am doing with these four and taking pictures too) at a time, I just don't want to use more ink than I have too. There is always the blender that you can use....although I have not mastered that...I find I lighten areas TOO much when I use it.

After I lay down the color with my 1st marker I go back and use the next darker shade, R24 prawn (I think, why is the writing so small, it is hard for older eyes to see) . Sometimes I will blend the two colors using the lighter shade(R20), not this time.

I went to R29 to add color in the areas I wanted a little darker, then using R39 I touched up the darkest areas of the poinsettia where I wanted depth.

That is when I went back to R24 to blend all the colors together, that "smooths" out the color transition from lightest to darkest which allows the dimension of the shades to pop!

I knew I wanted to use the poinsettia's as a "frame" but I did not know around what or what shape of what to do with the rest of the image! My inspiration comes from this Franz Porcelain plate.

I hope you enjoy my card as much as I enjoyed making it.

Thank you for stopping by.

2009-10-25T20:07:00.000-05:00

The first thing I would like to do is say how much I admire all of you woman out there that have jobs, little kids and a household to run ......WOW! How do you do it? Or maybe I had forgotten how tired and stressed you can get trying to fit everything in, then on top of it all..... many have extra curricular activities.......with more than one child!

I have had two of my grandchildren for the last four days while their parents are on a cruise....de-stressing....from their jobs and raising kids and dealing with extended families. I am just about "played out"!

I have to admit that I have more time and am willing to spend time playing and not worrying about the house work and mess. It can all get done once the kids are back home.

I had my card done at the middle of last week, but ran out of time to get it posted, well that and I thought I would wait until the DT from Flourishes posted their "fancy folds" cards. I just didn't find the time to spend that long on the computer. I have a 4 year old that wants to do his e-mail every time I do mine.

This is not a hard fancy fold to do, especially with double sided designer paper. I cut one 4.25x11 piece from a 12x12 (I do not have any double sided 8.5x11 paper) sheet of paper. And folded in half with the folded edge on the bottom.

The kraft paper measures 4.25x8.5, then used a Martha Stewart border punch along the short edge.

The kraft paper was adhered to the back and folded over the top front. I cut 6 designs from Spellbinders Flourished accent and arranged them in a circle pattern. The bird with the blue back layer was a left over piece of 7gypies paper from another card.

The inside card holder is designed the same as the front panel, with it being just large enough to hold a gift card for that special someone.

Late Night & Early Morning

2009-10-17T07:25:00.000-05:00

After the release party over at Flourishes forum on SCS, I was so wired I could not go to sleep. They were kind enough to post the inspiration challenge early enough for me to play along before retiring for the night.

I took a look at Xenia Taler site for decorative tiles and ideas starting coming to mind, lol....in reality the ideas in my mind did not start out to be these finished cards. I may get to my original idea sometime this week, I guess the blue of the late night appealed to me more.

I air brushed the background with Copic B99, then I inked the tree with Night of Navy Craft ink. I did not plan on using SU craft ink but it was late and I just grabbed, as soon as I smushed my stamp into the pad I knew it was not the "right" one. Craft pads are a lot more "juicy" than classic pads, most of the time it is "too much ink"! To my surprise it was just the right amount of ink for the fur tree. I will be using craft pads more on the stamps I find a little difficult to get full coverage when using the drier pads.
Whew...saved, I was ready to get rid of my craft pads because I have not used them much in the three years that I have had them.
The Flourishes deer is stamped with navy and colored with Copic B99. As you can see, I have masked off for the moon before air brushing, and the tree before stamping the deer.

After a late night of stamping, It still took me awhile to fall asleep, of course it could not be the fact that my feet were freezing and the had windows open and the fans going. Not sure the what the temps were last night but it is only 50 degrees now.
Maybe that is why I was up before daylight to make another challenge card. This one took me quite a bit more time to design. I have trouble finding papers to match my colored designs, I will have to try picking papers first then colors for the stamps.
This card is more dependent on the embellishments to "highlight" stamped image than the last card. Not sure which one I like the best! What do you think?

Stamps:
1.Flourished Christmas, Forest of Trees
2. Summer Blossoms

Ink:
1. Night of Navy, Copic B99
2. ballet blue, burgundy

Paper:
1. classic white, night of navy
2. classic white, cranberry, Memory Box dp

Embellishments
1. none
2. ribbon, pearls, sentiment, popped up embellishment from dp cut with Spellbinder inverted circle

It was a late night and early morning, now I have to get to work!

Ten Cards in Ten minutes

2009-10-16T00:01:00.001-05:00

Yes I know, there are only 4 cards shown here, but with this one design it is very possible to make 10 cards in 10 minutes. Now if you are one of those people that send out ton of Christmas cards, well this set was designed with you in mind.
Black is not one of your traditional colors for Christmas, but pair it with red and white and it can be a winning combination. Versa Mark and embossing powder will give you many looks with one stamp.

These two cards are embossed also, one with silver embossing powder on black paper layered over silver metallic card stock. The other card is embossed with gold glitter powder on black. Base card is carmel metallic card stock.

Not a colored image in site for this Christmas Wreath image, not yet anyway. Gold all the way around, from embossing powder to metallic board. All cards are simple and clean.

I am sure you are able to see colored images galore on Flourishes Newsletter, or by going to Latisha, Julie, Leslie, Cindy, Christine , Stacy, or Laura's blog.

Of Course I Believe!

2009-10-15T00:01:00.003-05:00

Fast! Fun! and Fabulous! You will have to give this one step stamp a try. This image is from Flourishes newest artist Becky Fleck. See Her Santa image and combined with the Holly Background you have two sets that were made for each other.Talk about a 10 minute card, this can be done in 5 minutes! The shading is already done, all I did was add a bit of color and sponged the background with distress ink.
The image is layered on a library pocket fold card with a "tag " insert. What a perfect place to add a gift card than the inside of this card.

One Stamp: Santa I Believe
Two Papers: cocoa, classic white
Four Inks: rich cocoa (Memento), red, green, flesh (Copic markers)
1 bit of ribbon

Much more to come and other sneak peeks on Flourishes Newsletter with Leslie, Stacy, Julie, Laura, Latisia, Christine, Cindy. And don't forget you have a change to win all the sets so check out A Season That Sparkles.

Doves and Holly

2009-10-14T00:01:00.001-05:00

WOW, WOW, WOW!!!
What else can you say about Doves and Holly??
Way to go Marcella!
I don't believe I have seen any set more stunning than this and with so many ways to use it that they all look different! I do not think I will ever get tired of the peacefulness of this image. I can see me using it over and over again.

I don't know if you remember at the last Flourishes release party there was a little talk about how we use to use mulberry paper on projects, is that a thing of the past? I had always liked the effect mulberry paper gave to my scrapbook layouts and being a paper horder.....well.....I just had to pull some out of my file cabinet to use with torn edge papers.
Well lo and behold, I found silk ribbon to match the paper and tearing the edges of all the layers kept me from getting out my Spellbinder and you know how I love to use my Spellbinder dies.

The holly accent piece on the ribbon was stamped, colored, cut out, and a layer of glossy accents put over the top to make an instant embellishment, (and less expensive than purchased ones), besides, you can match them perfectly in color to the rest of your papers or images.

This second card was made with "cooler" colors with dp from Basic Grey and the silky blue ribbon.

I also used the smaller of the two images, then colored them a warmer shade of brown with Copic markers.
One small stamp that is quick to color, two die cuts with Spellbinders and three pearls in two different places.

There is nothing hard or complicated about making a striking card with Marcellas newest addition to Flourishes. Anyone is able do it!

Would you believe there is still more to come? See you tomorrow!

Sweet Music

2009-10-13T00:01:00.005-05:00

Angels we have heard on high............

I can't think of a better way to start off Oct sneak peeks that will last the rest of the week.

What could be more appropriate that Flourishes angel from Rejoice combined with Christmas Music background, it just makes a natural statment.

I added a lot of sparkle to the card with the base paper and atyouspica pens on the angel, especially on the wings.

Stamps: Christmas Music, Rejoice (a little secret will be shared about one of Flourishes oldest Christmas stamps....in November)
Paper: Classic White, Curious Metallic Carmel
Ink: Rich Cocoa, Copic, atyouspica pens
Ribbon: brown velvet.

Check out the links on Flourishes Newsletter for the first time sneek peek from the Timeless Tuesday gals.

Tree of Blessings

2009-10-11T16:22:00.004-05:00

I have been having a blast this week playing along with all the challenges on SCS. Doing so gives me a starting point for a card, whether I am wanting to try out a technique (like in this case with a large covered area of glossy accents) or trying to perfect other techniques (air brushing). We were given an inspiration site to check out, then come up with a project to mimic that, in this case a piece of jewelry. What better way to do that than air brushing the white die cut circle with Copic markers. I also used my air brush gun, will limited success, on a copper Posh Impressions accent pen. How was I to know that once I added the layer of gloss over the image, my copper would turn to green. If I knew chemistry better I might have known it would do that before hand.
The hardware I used for the "jewelry" is a ribbon slide that I bent in half, I used a flattened bead cap as a "stick pin" on the ribbon.

Recipe:
Stamps: Forest of Trees, Mixed Greetings
Ink: Ranger Distress ink, Copic markers, accent copper pen, versa mark
Paper: white, yellow, green card stock, copper metallic board
Accessories: Finishing touches ribbon slide, bead cap, gold rhinestone, gold embossing powder. silk and reversible ribbon
Spellbinder dies: Fancy Tags, classic circle

Here is what I took my inspiration from at Tzaddishop. I translated it into a birthday card for my gd, it is her 21st birthday later in the month.

Check back next week as I continue to PLAY!

Organizing Polymer Stamps in Clear Boxes

2009-10-11T09:00:00.002-05:00

There are many ways to organize your crafting supplies. In fact I have tried many ways to fit 2 tons of stuff into a 1 ton room. I have had some areas of success.....like, here in two of a six shelf narrow bookcase I am able to store 90 to 180 stamp sets in six small CD boxes. Not only are they all in a relatively small area, they are labeled for easy and fast access. I have made labels for each stamp set using my Brother label maker. The label maker has a number of features that you may use to design your labels. You may choose from several different font sizes, varied spacing between letters, styles, under line or frame around words/phrases and more. I have picked a style that is easy for me to see and read.
The Brother label maker has several tape options to choose from as well as widths of tape. Again I picked one that is easy to see, but I do have tape in two sizes, 1/2 in and 3/8 inch.

As you can see when using the 1/2 label the edges of the label extend over the sides of the box
edge. I center the label along the edge, then "fold" the edges over the sides

It does not matter what end of the box you place the label, I like a uniform look so all the labels are on the end with the hinges on the right and the latch of the box to my left. Must be because I am left handed.

As you can see the box will close very tight with that layer of the label between the two sides. But if you do not want the edges of you label to extend over, then buy the 3/8 inch width tape.

You will find that two sets of 4x6 stamps will fit in the 4x6 clear boxes as the boxes are 1/2inch deep when closed.

Labeling them could not be easier, and that is when the 3/8 inch width tape is a must for me. I am able to put two labels on the end of each box along with the two stamp sets inside. So with these 6 CD cases I bought at Target, I am able to add 90 more stamp sets in the same amount of space.

Accessing the stamps is a breeze!

I just pull out a bin with all the sets alphabetized, as you can see they are all in order and easy to read.

Of course there are a couple of ways to sort and store your stamps, I know all the names of my stamps very well so alphabetizing works for me. You may want to store your by occasion or theme, which works the best when you do not know the names as well as the subject/theme of your stamps.

Either way, I love the system I have set up and that is one area of my room I can find what I want fast! Now if I could only find..........................

LSC241

2009-10-10T17:43:00.002-05:00

Here is the card I posted for yesterdays SCS limited supply challenge. NO embellishments, just paper, stamps, ink. For a while there I thought I was going to have a problem coming up with something, then a little creativity kicked in and I came up with falling leaves. That and I had not used this Fall set of leaves from Flourishes. Fall is the color/style of the challenge..... how perfect for the new papers I happened to purchase just a few weeks ago in shades of green, tan, and a peachy orange.
The style is pretty simple, cut layers with Spellbinders, stamp sentiment. Stamp leaves on Classic white paper, color with Copic markers and cut out. After I cut images out I always ink the edges to get rid of any "white" edges. I color with any one of the colors used, in this case either brown, yellow, or orange. It gives your image a cleaner more finished appearance.

I have a inspiration piece to start for today's challenge. Thank you for looking.

Zen by Way of SCS

2009-10-08T17:21:00.002-05:00

I found a time late this afternoon to check out SCS latest challenge "Ways To Use It". It was a pretty wide open challenge, make a card by way of a foreign country. The the Orient by way of my Zen garden.

I relied heavily on designer papers, I really like using double sided paper like this from g.c.d.

Recipe:

Stamp; Waterlily

Paper; g.c.d.

Ink; Versa Mark

Misc; gold embossing powder, ivory cord, Chinese coin.

Sunflower Correspondence Club

2009-10-07T23:22:00.004-05:00

Ok Ok, I just had to make a quick card after saying why I have not done any posts. Sometime the withdrawal is just too much and I have to stamp. Well with the help of SCS sketch today I was able to produce this quickie.......any thing I can get posted an hour after I start is quick for me.

I stamped the main image with rich cocoa, masked the flower and cut a circle in paper to mask off the background. I used an air brush with Copic markers to "paint" the setting sun. Then I masked the sun (with the circle I cut for previous mask) and flower to air brush the background with Copic's.
As I was flipping through my newest papers I saw the sunflower correspondence club paper by 7gypsies, it fit perfectly with the image I just inked.

Recipe

Stamp: Summer Blossom by Flourishes
Paper: 7gypsies, Memory Box, Kraft, Classic White
Ink: Copic Daffodil collection, BG Copic
misc: ribbon

Do you think I got my inspiration from the next picture? That would be a good guess!
Thanks for stopping by.

Why I have not gotten my posts up!

2009-10-07T21:11:00.003-05:00

I would like to say that is a picture of my dh and I but....................no it is not. Although we were at the beach, and we did enjoy the time there. Would you that we live 20 minutes from one of the most beautiful beaches in the U.S. and this was the first time we have been out there together in years.

I do not like to spend time in the water and do not need to spend time in the sun...so now we went to let the gk play in the sand and run along the edge of the surf while we walked behind them.

I had forgotten how much I like the sound of the waves. I believe we will be doing this again soon, but I can not get any stamping done at the beach.

Oh well, somethings will just have to wait!

Card Sketch

2009-09-25T20:48:00.004-05:00

I made the card for the card sketch on SCS this week. I have been making time to play a little more this week and will be taking more time next week to play too. I have really missed the opportunities to get my fingers inky, my clothes inky, my floor inky......well a dropped pad will do that to a carpet. And you do not want to be wearing your best (newest) shirt when you drop an alcohol marker.............ECK, that not exactly what I said but
Did you know that black ink WILL come out of carpet.... a year latter and with repeated washings. Sigh.........I just have 11 more months to wait for the latest inky mess.
I have tried my hand at air brushing again....I do need to find some new techniques, or a bigger background. It takes such a short time to brush the background on the poppy's and the sentiment that is did not satisfy me.

The Poppy's were stamped, masked and stamped twice more. The fourth poppy was colored cut out and popped up, I did the same with the poppy bud.

Some one mentioned that I do a nice job of cutting out images. I find it to be very relaxing, I have a pair of Fiskers fine pointed spring action scissors that eliminates hand fatigue. I am able to get very close to my colored image with minimal effort. If there are any white area left around my cut image I take either the outline color or inside color of marker to go along the thin edge. That will "hide" white marks that were not cut quite enough.

My favorite technique in quilting was hand applique, there I had to cut close to the image or shape, turn the edge under using a needle and hand stitch it down. I find cutting out an image with scissors much easier.

The background was stamped using the silhouette poppy from Summer Botanical and Versa Mark watermark ink. Memory Box dp and tangerine, thyme, and Flourishes Classic White card stock. Of course I colored with Copic for a vibrant tiger lily shade of orange.

Fruit, Fall, Friendship, and Fun

2009-09-23T16:35:00.003-05:00

I went directly for my air brush to do the background of the sentiment and behind the fruit. I will have to go to SCS to see what other techniques I can find for airbrushing with Copic's, markers, or maybe paint. I colored all images with Copic markers, seems like that is what I say every time but I love the depth of color I get with Copic markers. Don't you think the fruit looks good enough to eat?
I cut out the images and adhered them to the label I cut and colored.
Add a little dp and some satin ribbons and call it done. The most time consuming thing on the card was cutting out the images, but when you cut and watch tv the time goes fast and I can justify (as if I have to) sitting in front of the tv.

Recipe:
Stamps: Cherries and Peaches, Timeless Quotes
Ink: Memento black and rich cocoa, Copic collections, fields poppy tiger-lily& evergreen
Paper: Flourishes Classic White, dp Memory Box
Misc: satin ribbon

Painted House

2009-09-22T17:00:00.002-05:00

We had our house painted the week Flourishes came out with Cottage Home so I thought I would make a card to represent our home. It is not the same of course but still fun to color.

The day they were putting the yellow on our house my dh called and asked when I was coming home, when I asked why he said "Because the house looks like a big lemon."

Do you think it looks like a lemon?? I will even take comments from my ds...are you reading sharkbait? It does not look lemony to me, makes me wish I had a picture of what it looked like before.........

I had soooo much fun coloring the sun and sky. I used my new air compressor and Copic markers. I will be "air brushing" the background on more cards for the next little while. Think I will go now and see what I can come up with.

Recipe

Stamp; Cottage Home
Paper; Flourishes classic white, piece of scrapbook paper I just bought, black card stock
Ink; Copic markers
Misc; re purposed ribbon (it came on gift packing) Copic air brush system.

1 sketch 4u2 Challenge

2009-09-18T00:01:00.003-05:00

This week the ladies at 2sketches4u and Flourishes has teamed up for a challenge. Kazan has drawn this sketch, if you want to play along!

I used Seasonal Wreaths stamp, Spellbinder die, Eskimo Kisses paper, silk ribbon and pearls.
Other papers are Flourishes Classic White, green and pink card stock.

Pretty quick with only two inks on the image then I used a dauber to add shading.

Be sure to check Flourishes News letter to see more fabulous cards.

Home for Fall

2009-09-10T00:01:00.004-05:00

Can you believe Fall is almost upon us............time for cooler nights and sunny days. What better way to celebrate the season than being home for all the changes that are going on.

I should have colored my house yellow. We just had the house repainted and my dh says it looks like a big lemon. I don't think it looks quite that bright of a yellow but I am happy that yellow is said to be one of the colors that fades fast in the southern sun. After 10 years of a blue/grey house (that did not match the brick at all) the yellow stands out a little brighter. The brightest on the whole block......In time it may get a vintage look to it..........

I love the vintage feel of the paper I used, and I must be on a kick of using double sided papers as this is another of said designer papers. It happens to be one I have had in my stash for some time and since I have not been doing any scrap book pages in a long time, I am now starting to go through my 12 x 12 papers to use with my stamps.

The vintage paper needs a stamp set that has a vintage look about it like... Cottage Home. Another new release from Flourishes and drawn by Lauren Pope.
I stamped on watercolor paper then ended up using a combination of water coloring and Copics to shade in the house and shrubs.

Using SB lables 5 I cut the WC paper, then a frame for the picture. The "flower" is a single big flower that I squished together with diamond glaze till dry. The mini message is attached to a small bead cap.

As always the design team has put together more truly amazing cards to view......
Christine
Cindy
Laura
Faith
Julie
Leslie
Latisha
Stacy
Nancy

A Time For All Seasons

2009-09-09T00:01:00.001-05:00

Day one of Flourishes Feel For Fall release bring us to the first of four new sets, this is one of my personal favorites, Seasonal Wreaths. With these wreaths you now have a floral for any occasion for any time of the year all in one set.
How about Fall with its bright crisp colors. Here I used dp paper from 7gypsies, two colors of card stock plus Classic Cream. I love the fact that this dp is double sided, that way you have a coordinating color without having to hunt through your stash of papers for a matching shade.
First I stamped on Classic Cream cs, colored with Copic Daffodil, Tiger Lily, and Spring green collection. I sponged ink around the edge then cut with Spellbinder dies. I added a few black rhinestones and sentiment (from )for a completed look.

This next image can be colored for Fall or Winter in bittersweet colors or red berry colors, here I chose to have it look like bittersweet kind of.
Again I used 7gypsies Savannah designer paper and this time I used just one sheet of paper, front side has a design with back side plain. I used one ink pad and one Copic marker for additional color. The butterflies are cut using a MS punch, I stamped a design on top (although you can not see it well in these pictures) then applied a little glossy accents on top. I finished off with finishing touches brads and snow colored pearls.

The last card (so far) from the Wreath set was done in Spring shades of yellow, green, and a hint of blue. I added a ribbon slide with crochet ribbon and an accent piece I made from bead caps.

Most shapes are cut using Spellbinder dies, which makes it easy to emboss and stencil.

If you want to find out how you may win all 4 of the new release sets and or the set shown each day all you have to do is check out the news letter for all the information.

And better yet, you will want to see some drop dead gorgous cards from our designers so be sure to take a look.

For Seasonal Wreaths

For Falling Leaves

Nancy is going to have a vidio that covers using an air compresser for coloring with Copic markers, don't miss it!

Feel of Fall in Shades of Violet

2009-09-04T00:01:00.003-05:00

In a little less than a week - Flourishes will usher in the Feel of Fall as they unveil a handfull of new stamp sets.
We'll kick off the sneak peeks next Wednesday -- and you won't want to miss a minute of the action! Each day will bring a chance to win the set of the day!
But first, a chance to win all FOUR of our new releases! Just make a card using the sketch found here. That's it! Link your creation onto our new Mr. Linky link box and... you're in the running! If you upload to Splitcoast Stampers, please use the keyword FLLCSEPT. Remember though, in order to be in the running, you have to link up your card by clicking on the Mr. Linky in Flourishes Newsletter.
The contest closes Friday, September 11th at 4:00 PM CST. Don't be late.
The winner will be announced during our Power Hour Release Party which kicks off that night at 9 PM Central time! Hope you make time to play!
Stamp: WaterLily
Paper: Flourishes Classic White, BG Eva
Ink: memento Black, Copic Violet Collection
Embellishments: Satin Ribbon, Pearls

Take time to play and see you Friday night Sept. 11