Classic Design Challenge : Snowman

 Aaaand, it's December already! How did we get here so fast???! I feel like we just left summer..

Anywho, I'm back with another great Classic Design Team digi. This month, our team is featuring designs from Goha Digi Stamps. I chose a cute snowman, because it reminded me of all those snowmen I made as a kid, back in the day. 

I decided not to feature "Christmasy" colors, but use fun shades with a vintage feel and color palate. 

I printed off my image and colored him in with Copics, then, I decided to outline him in a black Pigma Micron 01 archival ink pen, just to "pop" him off my paper just a bit. Then I diecut my image out with a die I found on Amazon, and sponged a few various shades of Distress Inks around my diecut edge. After sponging, I matted the back of my image with a light Kraft colored cardstock. I found a "dirty" vintage paper from Carta Bella, and adhered my image, matting one last kraft cardstock paper underneath for stiffness. I added a cheap pink lace I bought for less than a buck at a craft store, some blue Maya Arts Ribbon for .50 cents a yard at my local scrapstore, then a small slice of a Gingham paper from Daisy D's, under the ribbon for interest. I added a double bow and a tag stamped "Just for You", on it.

This card turned out so cute! I love that I chose to use different colors, despite the colors in the image. I kind of like that juxtaposition and surprise. It just stands out in that way and I like it.

Thank you for joining me this year with the Classic Design Team, I'm looking forward to Next year and a new round of cards and inspirations with you!

Happy New Year!!

Flourishes Release Week: A Mother's Hug

Good morning, are you enjoying Flourishes Release Week, so far? I know I am and I don't want it to end, but today we are showing you Flourishes last new set. I feel like Jan Marie saved the best for last, because it is.

 The set is called A Mother's Hug, and it's simply beautiful.

I stamped A Mother's Hug on Flourishes Classic White cardstock and colored it in with Copics. I matted the image in with Color Made Easy: Iced Aqua cardstock and Taupe cardstock for the card base.

I hope this Release Week has been both fun and inspirational for you as much as it has been for me. I also hope you've been leaving comments on all the designers blogs and lastly the Flourishes blog each day, so you can have a chance at a $25 Flourishes Store Gift Card! I know I want one, I have so many stamp wish lists for that store! So be sure to leave a comment below and keep on hopping through to get some more great eye candy from each of the other bloggers! You have until June 3rd to leave your comments!
Don't forget, if you buy all 3 of the new sets you get a 10% discount!

                                           Amanda Havon - me

Nancy Nickel

Naomi Gong

Vicki Dutcher

Flourishes Blog

Do you remember that I am also giving away a prize on my blog, too? Today is the last day to leave a comment so that you're able to receive this sweet prize!!

You had to have left me a comment on ALL THREE blog hop days to be in the running to win it! I'll announce the winner on my blog Friday June 3rd!


It's been an amazing week with you and I hope you come back soon!
~ Amanda

Flourishes Favorites: Focus on the Guys!

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 now you'll be inspired and come away with some great manly ideas!

I used the Flourishes Father's Day set to make my card.

I used Father's Day that I stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black onto Classic White cardstock and sponged with Memento Desert Sand ink onto a Spellbinders Perfectly Pierced Frame diecut. Then I tied some Kraft Jute around my card and added a Black Button knotted on, then I matted my card with Flourishes Kraft and Classic Black cardstocks. 

This will be Danielle's last Friday with us :(  We are going to miss her sweet spirit and her amazing designs! Please stop by her blog and leave her some love! :)
And don't forget our Designer Focus on the main blog.  Did you know you can have a chance to win a
Flourishes Goodie Bag if you CASE this weeks designer? To play along, visit our Flourishes main blog page HERE to read more about it!

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

Thank you for visiting and have a great day!

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!

Timeless Tuesday: Using Kraft Paper

Good Morning Flourishes Friends! This week's Timeless hostess is the lovely Cindy and she is challenging us to use our: Kraft Paper.

I created two items today with Flourishes "Bike Ride" that comes together as a set. The first item is a simple bookmark, keeping it flat so it can be used in a favorite book.

 I used Flourishes "Bike Ride" stamped onto a diecut piece of textured paper and barely colored in with my Copic Sketch BG000. For the sentiment I used Flourishes "Country Road" stamp set. I used a few punches for my borders and then I added twine to accent my card. So it's pretty but flat, so it can be used in a book.

I have been using Kraft paper for a little while now, after my local Micheal's finally started to stock it :) I love the rustic look it has. So it got me thinking about creating a card with all Kraft cardstock, which I have always wanted to try. I have seen others do it and I think it looks great, so I wanted to give it a try too.
What's interesting is that I meant the thread to stitch nice, clean, and tight, but for some unknown reason, my machines tension is off and it's loose. But I kinda like how it turned out on this card. 

I used the newest Flourishes release set called "Bike Ride" with the sentiment from "Flowers and Frames", another new set from the July release. I stamped them directly on Kraft cardstock, and then stitched around it with black thread. I embossed the matted background with Spellbinders Impressabilities "Flourish". I used some bling that I colored in with my BG02 Copic Marker, then I finished everything off with some wrinkled ribbon and a flower.
From the following Copic Sketch Collections:

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! If you like hanging out with Flourishes and taking on a few challenges -- JOIN US on AUGUST 15th! We'll have a 2-4-6-8 Challenge day. What does that mean? It means that at 2PM, 4PM, 6PM and 8PM, we'll usher in some challenges to celebrate Flourishes' 5th Birthday! The challenges will run through the end of the month and the prizes will be fun! So, be sure to join us back here tomorrow!

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

Cindy

Heather
Broni 
Denise
Ally 

Maki

Sasha Homes - August's Guest Designer

Thank you for visiting and please have a great day!

From The Desk

Good Morning Timeless Tuesday, Friends!!! It is another fabulous inspirational Tuesday with Flourishes :)
The hostess this week is Cindy, and she is giving us a really good challenge this week. It is called: From The Desk. Create notecards, a monogrammed card.....or make something from whatever you can find on your desk. It's that simple :)


Well, for me it isn't that simple, after every card I usually clean up my area because I can't think or create with a messy space. But I had an image already colored in, left over from the Release Week "Arts and Letters" Challenge that I didn't end up using, but hadn't put away. I also had some ripped diecuts laying around too, so I used all of these to create my card. Please don't look too close, I tried covering up the rips but they are still there.

For my card sleeve I used a punch that I punched along one side and then left a 1 inch space and then punched down the other side, so it would look lacy. I added the Spellbinder "Damask Motifs" in Kraft CS and a Spellbinder "Wings Of Hope" butterfly on top, then I added a couple of Kaiser "Pearl" pearls.

For my card, I used Flourishes "From the Desk Of" on Flourishes "Classic White" Cardstock, stamped in Memento "Desert Sand" ink. I matted that on a scrap piece of Kraft paper. I colored the flowers and letters in with the following Copic Sketch markers:

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

Beate

Cindy

Heather

Maki

Mona

Silke

Alice Wertz - June's Guest Designer

Thank you for visiting and please have a great day!



~ Amanda

Timeless Tuesday: Flowers

Good Morning! It's great to see you back! It's time for Flourishes weekly Timeless Tuesday Challenge! Don't they just sneak up on you? I remember when I was playing along, I would barely squeak out a card and it would be time for another TT challenge! :)
This week Beate is challenging us to celebrate spring and create a card or project that uses Flowers! 


I know when I saw that challenge my mind started buzzing with ideas! I could cut this or color that, or make this look 3D or use that stamp, ect. But I wanted to further challenge myself like never before. I chose to create a card that was a CAS (Clean-And-Simple) card that was "flat fronted" and if you know my cards by now, I love to cut my images out and pop them up in 3D fashion. I also decided to use only Copic markers, instead of my usual watercolors. I am very new to Copics and don't know how to shade or use them so I am definitely out of my comfort zone, there! No water to save me if I make a mistake on paper! :)

I chose to use a Kraft paper background, also something I generally do not work with. But it really pops the Flourishes "Classic White" paper off of it very well, making it look clean and crisp. I used Flourishes "Hello Hyacinth" stamped in Memento "Rich Cocoa" ink. I colored it in with Copic Sketch Markers and finished by putting silver pearls in the flower centers. I used the following Copic Sketch Marker families:

* Note: I used only a few from each family, not All of the markers from each, maybe only one or two.


Please visit the rest of the team to gather more Flourishes inspirations.

Beate

Cindy

Heather

Maki

Mona

Silke

 Marie Oberg - May's Guest Designer

Thank you for visiting and please have a great day!


~ Amanda