Flourishes May Release Challenge!

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

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

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

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

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

Here is the inside of the Teabag Purse.

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


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

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

THE OFFICIAL RULES:

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

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

Flourishes Release Week : Garden Gate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DO YOU WANT TO WIN OUR ENTIRE RELEASE?

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

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


Thanks for joining us this week!