Love to You

 Welcome back to my little blog!

Today I have a card that is combining a couple of the following blog challenges :

Polkadoodles - Anything Goes ..w/ Love (theme)

Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes .. w/ Sentiment (feature a sentiment)

Inspired By...  - Puffy Hearts ... (theme : Valentine's Day)

Addicted to CAS - Friends

I stamped out Colorado Craft Company's Hedgehog Day stamp set and cut it out using the coordinating dies, then colored it in with Copics. I did fussy cut out a few areas so that there was very little white edge showing, to clean it up. 

To make my background, I used MFT's Slimline Cloud Edges, using Mermaid Lagoon and Prized Ribbon Distress Inks to make my clouds. After sponging the clouds in, I taped off a section and sponging in Peeled Paint and some Distress Oxide in Rustic Wilderness. I matted the background on top of MFT's Stitched Mini Scallop Square in Kraft cardstock, then added the diecut image that I popped up on popdots, so it would offer dimension off the card. Then I stamped my sentiment from Memory Bound Scrapbooking from their Care and Concerned stamp set.

I don't usually make Valentine's Day cards, but this one turned out really sweet!

Thank you for stopping by my blog. I can't wait to see you next time you pop by!

Friends

 Hi Friends! I wanted to share with you another card I created for a blog challenge.

Over on Addicted to CAS, they're code word this week is : Center Focus .

I chose to use Colorado Stamp Company's "Bunny & Ducking" stamps with dies, and coloring them in with Copics. I masked off a border and sponged in Mermaid Lagoon & Prize Ribbon Distress Inks, then embossed a single line around the sponging with my Scor-Pal, to frame my images. I matted the scored and sponged paper with Kraft cardstock, to keep everything clean and non-fussy looking, then placed popdots under my bunny, to further give it depth, so it wouldn't feel "flat" and further reenforce the size difference, then added the duckling.

I love how it came out! So simple, gentle and clean!  I almost stamped a sentiment on the card but felt it would detract from the clean lines and the images. 

Thanks for joining me in my little craft corner. Until we meet again, have a great crafting day!

Happy Rides

Good morning, and happy Sunday to you! I have a nice and simple card today using Flourishes Bike Ride.

I stamped out Bike Ride onto Flourishes Classic White Cardstock and colored it in with Copics. I trimmed down the image piece and used my corner rounder to round out the bottom corners. After rounding the corners I added my blue ribbon and Flourishes Tailor Made Classic Tags die, that I stamped Hello onto, from Flourishes Friendly Reminder stamp set. I placed popdots under my bike image to lift it off the background patterned paper and attached it to my cardbase.

I want to mention that Bike Ride, Friendly Reminder, and all the other stamps in Flourishes online store are on sale until the end of the month! The sale is so popular, you our readers, have asked that the sale be extended and so we did! Almost every stamp set is $10, only!! Don't miss this stamp liquidation sale! To visit Flourishes online store visit: Flourishes LC

Have a happy Sunday, I'll see you on Fridays in September, as a part of a weekly Flourishes Friday Hop, from now on. That means five times as much inspiration! I can't wait to see you there.

~ Amanda

 

 

A Creative Journey With Melissa August Release!

Good morning!! Welcome to the monthly NEW RELEASES for A Creative Journey with Melissa. Every SECOND WEDNESDAY of the month we will be featuring our newly released stamp sets. I am a Design Team member for A Creative Journey with Melissa and I am so excited to be able to share these creations with you today.

The new stamp releases this month are the Awareness Ribbon Stamp Set #3 - Ready for a Fight and the Awareness Ribbon Stamp set #4 - Autism Awareness. We are also highlighting our amazingly cute and versatile Everyday Alphabet and Everyday Alphabet Outline stamp sets throughout this hop. I am highlighting the Autism Awareness set for this blog hop, and this one is really near and dear to my heart. It is a beautiful set and has some very nice and appropriate sentiments.

My youngest has Autism.  I love her very much, and how her older sister does, too. When they play together, they have some pretty fun adventures. Sometimes it's nice to know there are others out there thinking of us, which is why I am so excited about the Autism Awareness set!


Here is the first card I made.

I used A Creative Journey's Autism Awareness set that I colored in with Copic Sketch markers and fussy cut out with a craft knife, then popped it up with popdots. I edged my Kraft cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black so it would stand out a bit and give it a shadow effect. After edging my top layer of cardstock, I added some popdots under that to give more depth to it so it would stand out even more. Then I stamped my sentiment in Tuxedo Black and added some Black Kaiser Pearls to finish the look.

Here is my second card using the Autism Awareness stamp set.

I used the Autism Awareness set and colored it in with my Copic markers, then fussy cut them out and popping the upright ones up on popdots and leaving the upside down ones firmly attached flat to my card. I added some scored lines to add some interest and popped my white layered cardstock up on popdots.

Please be sure to hop along to each participant, follow their blog and answer the question correctly that they have posted to qualify to win the prizes. The prizes include:

• The Awareness Ribbon Stamp Set #3 - Ready for a Fight
• The Awareness Ribbon Stamp Set #4 - Autism Awareness
• Sizzix Embossing folder set

My question is : What type of die cutting machine do you have if any?


Thank you for visiting and be sure to visit these fellow DT Members blogs for more inspirations!

Rhoda
 

Amanda (you are here)
 

Marie
 

Alena
 

Brandie
 

Melissa

Thank you for visiting and have a great day!!

A Creative Journey July Blog Hop!!

Good morning crafty friends! I am back from a rather long absence to participate in my first blog hop with A Creative Journey with Melissa stamps!! I'm pretty excited and I hope you are too and ready to get inspired!

This release I am working with the other DT ladies to show off some pretty gorgeous and diverse stamp sets. Today I am going to show two of the stamp sets! They are the Everyday Alphabet Uppercase and Emoticon & the Everyday Lowercase and Numbers sets.

I made a soft yet cheery card to really make the yellow flowers and ribbon pop and really set off the inked alphabet.

 

I used A Creative Journey's Petals For You to inked in Stampin Up Sage ink, for the leaves and  Everyday Alphabet Uppercase and Emoticon set with the Lowercase set too,  inked in CTMH Gold Rush ink. I layered and matted everything on some scrap polka dot paper, and Kraft cardstock, then added some faux stitching around the patterned paper edges. To finish the card I added a golden yellow ribbon, some swirling bling and rhinestones for some pizzaz.

 

Now for the fun part of every stamp release blog hop: Prizes!! Simply answer this question for a chance to win! Question : What's Your Favorite A Creative Journey with Melissa Stamp Set?? You can see all the stamp sets here at A Creative Journey! Please leave your answer in the comments section below for your entry to win!

 

Thank you for visiting and please be sure to hop along to all of our other amazingly talented design team members and comment on each blog answering their questions correctly. If you do, you will be entered to win one of five prizes. You can win the Tie Dye and Splatter stamp set, the complete two piece set of the Everyday Alphabet stamp set, the complete two piece set of the Everyday Outline Alphabet stamp set! Contest ends Friday at 8 PM. Winners will be chosen and announced on A Creative Journey blog on Saturday July 12th!

 

Leticia

 

Alena

 

Brandie

 

Monica

 

 Amanda

 

Melissa 

Happy Birthday, Jan Marie!

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? We just love creative challenges here 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!

Here is the birthday card I made for Jan Marie.

I wanted to create a nice and feminine card for her birthday so I used Flourishes Feminine Charm shoe image that I stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I colored the shoe in with Copics then cut the image out with Flourishes Tailor-Made Classic Keyhole die. I used some Scor-Tape under the diecut to attach my paper lace doily, then I added a bow from Flourishes Color Made Easy Seam binding in Baby Pink from the Poppy line. I used paper from My Mind's Eye Lavender and matted it with Flourishes Classic Ivory cardstock as my card base.

Jan Marie, I hope you have a very happy birthday filled with lots of love and surrounded by family and laughter. Thank you for creating the perfect company offering elegant stamps and embellishments! I love what I do and I'm so thankful to be a part of your design team!

Here are the Copic sets that I used for this card:

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!

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence         

Danielle Kennedy

Heather Jensen

Julie Koerber

Silke Ledlow

Stacy Morgan

Allison Cope

Broni Holcombe

Cindy Haffner

Maki Jones

Amanda Havon

Aleksandra Mihelič

Dina Kowal

Iwona Palamountain

Kathy Jones

Meredith MacRitchie

Sasha-Marie Holmes

Deborah Anton

Thanks for stopping by and helping us with Jan Marie a wonderful and fabulous BIRTHDAY on Monday!
Thank you for visiting!

Timeless Tuesday: Deck The Tree!!

Good morning Flourishes friends!! Did you know we've reached our 200th challenge mark?! I know, I can't believe it either!! I'm thrilled that it landed on this week, the week before Christmas and when we have a great challenge, too!! This week, Maki, our hostess, has challenged us to: Deck The Tree!! All you need to do is make an ornament or any 3D project that is decorated on a Christmas tree! Sounds like fun, right?

I thought hard on making an ornament that was unique and something that you would notice on a Christmas tree. I created a lit/night light ornament for a tree that you can see both in the day light and lit at night.

I used Flourishes "Vintage Postcard" stamp set, stamped in Memento Black Tuxedo ink and colored in with Copics on vellum paper. I cut the picture down to size and placed it into a frame. I hot glued some Teal Velvet Ribbon to the frame so I could hang it, then I added a tea light flameless candle to illuminate the picture in the frame. 

Here you can see the tea light that I hot glued to the back side of my illuminated and framed ornament.

This is what it looks like illuminated without the Christmas lights on, in the dark. I wish you could see it in person, it really glows beautifully all over and not just in the one area in the photo.

Just a tip or two, if you are going to try to color in on Vellum, don't try to shade with them or the colors will smear all over and create a mess on your image. And if you do try to layer your colors, let each layer dry before adding more color and don't recolor over a color you just laid down, or it will "separate".  So for instance, I layered the B05 Copic twice on each side of the vellum paper, to achieve the deep evening sky color. So I would recommend coloring on both sides of the vellum to get some really saturated colors.

I used the following Copic Sketch Collections to color my ornament in:

Please check out all of the other Flourishes Timeless Tuesday team for more ideas and inspirations!

Allison Cope
Amanda Havon
Broni Holcombe
Cindy Haffner
Denise Marzec
Maki Jones 
Katie Sims – December’s Guest Designer

Thank you for visiting and have a very Merry Christmas!!

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday: Falling Off The Page

Good morning and welcome back for another Timeless Tuesday challenge! This week's hostess is Allison and she is challenging us to create a card with the image : Falling Off The Page.

I used Flourishes "From The Desk Of" stamp set, stamped onto Flourishes Classic White cardstock then colored it in with Copic markers. I used papers, ribbon and the blue rhinestones from the Flourishes "Viola" 123 Create Kit. 

Here are the Copic Collections I used:

Don't forget to keep your eyes out for the Flourishes "Viola" 123 Create Kit, soon we will be featuring Novembers 123 Create Kit, so get your hands on this one before we run out! In this kit you will get a thick 6x6 paper pad, 3 yards of iridescent cording, 2 yards of soft purple ribbon, a yard of white pleated ribbon, a yard of teal velvet ribbon, a yard of lace, and two kinds of bling!! Whew! All of the cording and ribbons combined are pretty generous and I still have some leftover!

Please visit the rest of the team to gather more Flourishes Timeless Tuesday "Fall Off The Page" inspirations!

Cindy

Heather
Broni 
Denise
Ally 

Maki

Nina Brackett - October's Guest Designer

Thank you for visiting and please have a great day!

Timeless Tuesday: Treats

Good morning Flourishes Friends! It's time for another Timeless Tuesday Challenge and this week Broni is challenging us to: Create a Card or Project with a Treat!

This is also Flourishes Release Week and today Flourishes is releasing "Fresh Baked", a perfect set for this challenge! October is my favorite, favorite month and all I want to do is bake, so I had fun with it!

I used Flourishes "Fresh Baked" stamped into Flourishes Classic White cardstock, colored in with Copic markers. I used papers from Flourishes 123 Kit called "Viola" embossed with Spellbinders "Flourishes" that I paired with Kraft cardstock.

Here are the Copic Collections that I used:

This month I am showing off Flourishes October 123 Kit called "Viola" which is chock full of goodies! Keep an eye out for cards with the "Viola" kit all this month!

Please visit the rest of the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday team and the Senior Design Team to gather more inspirations!

Cindy

Broni 
Denise
Ally 

Maki

Nina Brackett - October's Guest Designer
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Danielle Kenned
Heather Jensen
Julie Koerber
Sharon Doolittle
Silke Ledlow
Stacy Morgan
Tammy Hershberger

Thank you for visiting and please have a great day!

Timeless Tuesday: Fall!

Good morning Flourishes Friends!! It's Tuesday and it's time for another Timeless Tuesday challenge. This weeks hostess is Maki, and she is challenging us to: Create a Fall Themed Card or Project! 
Fall is my vary favorite time of year and I just love all of the colors you see. So I used all fall like colors on my card, kept it rustic, and went with a little grunge look on my card.

I used Flourishes "Summer Blossoms" and "Flowers and Frames" that I colored in with Copics. The papers, ribbon and rhinestones are from the September Flourishes 123 "Rejoice" Kit. And to make the notched pennants, I chose to use the Spellbinders "Nested Pennants" dies, that I embossed and sanded down. Then I sponged everything down in Antique Linen and Tea Dyed Distress Ink.

Here are the Copic Collections that I used for my card:

Please visit the rest of the team to gather more Flourishes Timeless Tuesday inspirations!

Cindy

Heather
Broni 
Ally 

Maki

Linda Lucas - Septembers's Guest Designer

Thank you for visiting and please have a great day!

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday: A Pintrest Christmas

Good Morning Flourishes Friends! Welcome back to a fun filled Timeless Tuesday Challenge. This week I am challenging you to: A Pintrest Christmas!! All you have to do is find your Christmas inspiration on Pintrest, link it up to your blog and show off your Pintrest inspired creation! This is going to be a long post, but I hope you will enjoy it!

I found a really pretty idea for my Pintrest inspiration HERE. It's part way down the page.
Sometimes the link doesn't work, so if you can't click on it, here is my Pintrest Christmas Inspiration photo:

I wondered if you could paint in images instead of stamping them into cookies and maybe having them distort when they are baked. But I cannot freehand paint At All, so I used Flourishes newest release, Poinsettia and Pine to help me.

For the cookies, I stamped Flourishes "Poinsettia and Pine" on to the frosting, then watercoloring the images in with food coloring. For the cookie gift box I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out a design onto Flourishes Classic White cardstock, and added my frosted cookies inside. For my gift tag, I stamped an image from Flourishes new Trimmed With Love set colored in with Copics, onto a diecut that I popped up. Then I matted it with some Bo Bunny paper used from Flourishes 123 Kit that also comes with the silver cording you see on my tag.

I did not use edible ink to stamp my cookies, I just combined equal drops of red, blue and green food coloring on a plate and dabbed my stamp in it then stamped onto my icing.  If you would like to try this technique, here are a few tips that I learned.

* Use Royal Icing as your go to icing because it will harden up nicely and so that you have a solid "surface" to stamp your image onto. Here is the recipe I used: Royal Icing.

* Use a cookie recipe that offers a firm cookie and not a soft one or else you'll be adding the firm icing to a mushy cookie. Stamping onto firm icing but a mushy cookie base results in a bad image impression.

* Always make sure your icing is as smooth and flat as possible. I would suggest using a baker's offset spatula. I resisted buying one and I have a few knife lines in my icing that I couldn't smooth completely out.

* Pick non detailed stamps to use and just know that no matter what, after you have dipped them into food coloring, your stamps will be forever stained.

And here is the card I made for the cookies, box, and gift tag set. I couldn't get the card to fit in my picture without you being able to see the cookie details clearly, so I put it in my photo booth.

I used Flourishes new Poinsettia and Pine stamp release, stamped onto Flourishes Classic Ivory cardstock. The paper is from Flourishes September 123 Kit that comes with all of this gorgeous green ribbon and the pretty green rhinestones at the bottom of my card.

Here are the Copic marker Collections I used on my tag and the card:

Please visit the rest of the team to gather more Flourishes Timeless Tuesday inspirations!

Cindy

Heather
Broni 
Denise
Ally 

Maki

Linda Lucas - Septembers's Guest Designer

And please visit the Senior Design Team for their Pintrest inspirations too!

• Christine Okken
• Cindy Lawrence
• Danielle Kennedy
• Heather Jensen
• Julie Koerber
• Sharon Doolittle
• Silke Ledlow
• Stacy Morgan
• Tammy Hershberger

Thank you for visiting and please have a great day!