January Beautiful Blossoms Challenge : Thinking of You

 Hello Blossom Friends! It's 2026!! Oh my goodness, 2025 went by so fast!

I'm back with a Beautiful Blossoms Design Challenge inspiration card for you, based on this challenge photo. Isn't it gorgeous?! Love those colors!

I really struggled to decide on what color I wanted to focus on or if I wanted to use all the shades of pink and peach I see. I love all those colors and colored in quite a few images with them all, but ultimately decided to focus on one color for more impact.

I stamped out Gina K's "Single Peony" on thick vellum, and colored the image in with Copics. Then I cut a frame to frame my flower image in, using Spellbinders A2 Filigree Delight. Then I cut my image out using the frame die, then glued the vellum to the frame diecut. I matted that with some design paper from Prima's "With Love" 12x12 paper pad, cutting my matted DP out with Spellbinders A2 Rectangles die, then placed more white cardstock behind the DP to add some weight to the card. to finish my card, I added a few decorative details from Anna Griffin's "Garden Fountain Embellishments" package.

I really enjoyed the process of making my card and it gives me a few other ideas for future cards using vellum, dies and textures. Don't be afraid to try new things, tools, techniques and ideas - you just never know how it might turn out!

 Thank you again for joining me and the rest of the Beautiful Blossoms Challenge team, please join our fun monthly challenges; we can't wait to see what you create with each new theme! Have a great day and see you back here for next month's challenge photo! :)

Flourishes Free For All Friday!

Hello and welcome to another Flourishes Free For All Friday! It's my turn to host the Flourishes blog and show off a creation using another Flourishes Image.

I am using another Flourishes retiring set called The Sweetness of Friendship.

I stamped out The Sweetness of Friendship on an acetate frame with some Memento ink so that it wouldn't smear after drying. Then I took an old back piece of Prima flower packaging and used that as my card background. After letting the stamped sentiment dry on the acetate, I placed popdots under the acetate to lift it off the card background to create depth. After placing the acetate image where I wanted it on the card, I added some flowers, leaves and some pearl swirls over the white popdots so that they couldn't be seen and also add some color and beauty to the card's overall look.

This was an experiment to see if I could find a way to place popdots under the acetate so I could lift it off the card to add some depth and interest. I really like how it all turned out and I may try this again, although working with acetate is tricky and it doesn't photograph easily. I'd like to encourage you to try it, if you haven't, you may find you like it!

Don't forget that Flourishes is having a huge blow out sale to retire old sets and make way for some of the new ones! Don't miss out, you only have a couple days left to buy your favorite sets. The sale ends July 31st.

Thank you for visiting and I will see you next Friday for another Free For All Friday!
~ Amanda

YOU Are Special

Hello friends and welcome back to another fabulous Flourishes card. This such a special and pretty card, I just love how it turned out!

I used Flourishes You Sentiments that I stamped and framed in a metal frame and I painted over with white paint to "shabby it up", adding some pretty pearls under the sentiment. After that, I added some Prima flowers, a half a doily, and some Flourishes May Arts Mauve Ribbon. Then I matted everything in Flourishes Classic Ivory cardstock cutout into a frame using the Spellbinders Regal Frame die.

I wanted to go for a mixed media shabby chic look, so I decided to use something's I usually never use on my cards, such as Prima flowers and a metal frame to frame my sentiment. I am not comfortable in the mixed media realm, but I like to push myself creatively just to see where it goes.

I have created all of maybe 3 mixed media items or projects and I always over analyze each embellishment or accessory thinking it looks like too much or looks too "heavy". This time I just rolled with it and decided not to look at the in-process card too critically. After it came together I realized because I wasn't used to it, it was all "too much" before I even gave it a chance to evolve. So next time you're creating your next card, try using something you don't normally use or like to use, keep an open mind and see where it goes!

Thank you for stopping by and I'll see you next week with some new inspiration!

~ Amanda Havon

Flourishes Irish Blessing

Good morning crafting friends, it's time for my first Flourishes Free For All Friday! I am so excited to show you what I created.

I used Flourishes Cottage Home's Irish Blessing sentiment, that I stamped on a tag I'd saved. I added my card base in Flourishes Classic Cardstock in Taupe. After attaching my base, I used May Arts Champagne and Ivory ribbon in a double bow that I added on my card, and then hat pins and a flower to complete the card.

I try never to stick with one look or style, but if you had to ask what style I love, it would be shabby chic. With that in mind, I had to create a shabby chic card after finding this lovely card from a tag that came with an order of crinkled seam binding ribbon!

I love reusing packaging and things in unexpected ways when crafting. You never know what you will create or come up with. I'd love to hear from you in the comments section when you have used an item in a unique way!

As always come again and have a great crafting weekend!
~ Amanda

Splitcoast Stampers : Z Becky Brown

Today I have a neat product to share with all of you. All of us on the Splitcoast Stampers Product Review team were given a Z Becky Brown purse and asked to create something that speaks to us and have fun with it. I certainly had fun and my mind raced all over with what I could do and where I could go with my ideas. I've always wanted a pretty box to put my precious travel postcards in one spot. So I came up with an idea of using it to hold my postcards and add a picture of an activity or family group shot on the back of it, so I can remember it better. I copied my pictures out in black & white onto vellum so it would have a slight vintage look. Under each picture I plan on writing the date and location of each of our travels and keep it in the box to page through any time I want.

If you want to know what I thought of the Z Becky Brown Purse, please visit the SCS Product Review page HERE.

Here is a finished picture of what my box looks like.

And this is the top of the box. I kept everything simple and elegant. I kept the purse box clear without any liners, so you could see the pretty postcards.

Thank you for visiting and head on over to SCS and see what everyone else has created with their Z Becky Brown Purses!!

~ Amanda

Splitcoast Product Review : Spellbinders!!

Hello Friends, it's time for another Splicoast Stampers Product Review. Today is all about the newest Spellbinders that have been released and they are Gorgeous! How can you not love these? I mean, don't we all use Spellbinders at one time or another? :)

Here is just a taste of one of the cards I made with Spellbinders newest 5x7 die sets.

This has to be one of my all time favorite products to review! As you can tell, I loved them. If you want to see my review with the rest of the team, and all of our card samples, please visit Splitcoast Stampers HERE!

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday: Non Traditional Christmas!!

Good morning Flourishes Friends! It's time for another Flourishes weekly challenge. This week Ally is challenging us to create a: Non Traditional Christmas! All you have to do is create a Christmas/holiday themed card using a non-traditional color theme. So NO red or green this time!

Ok, so this sounded easy when I first saw the challenge, but while I was playing around with my stamps and colors, I really had the hardest time with it! Who knew? I love mixing things up, but Christmas is one of those holidays that I can only think of reds, greens silvers or golds -LOL :)
So this is what I came up with. I kinda "cheated" because bronze is a slight variation of gold! he he he :)

I used the sentiment from Flourishes "Poinsettia and Pine" that I stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa ink on to Flourishes Classic Ivory cardstock. I matted it with a metallic bronze cardstock and added a Prima flower, both of which I just found out that Flourishes is out of. The layered dies are a Parisian Accent, Labels # 23, Oval and Matting Basics A and B. I sponged the edges with Antique Linen and Old Paper Distress Inks, and I used a punch inside the window for some interesting details, then added a Want To Scrap Fancy Brackets in black next to the flower.


Here is the rest of the Timeless Tuesday team with their best "Non Traditional Christmas" projects and ideas!

Allison Cope

Broni Holcombe

Cindy Haffner

Denise Marzec
Makiko Jones

Katie Sims – December’s Guest Designer

Thank you for visiting and have a great day!

Page Maps

Good Morning fellow crafters!! Have you ever just wanted to find a good sketch when your in a crafting slump? Well, Flourishes, Becky Fleck and Page Maps are teaming up to offer you a nice challenging sketch to kick start your creative juices, again! 

When I saw this sketch I got excited to try something I had been wanting to do; incorporate a pleated banner. It's been an idea I've been playing around with and wanted to see if it would work.

I chose to feature Flourishes "Life Lines" on a machine stitched paper from My Mind's Eye, to which I added a lace doily that I placed a Spellbinders "Damask Motifs" diecut in Kraft cardstock. I placed a Prima flower on top of the diecut, then placed some bling on it. I punched a decorative border on some cardstock and used my scoring board to score it. After that I punched some holes in it and threaded a ribbon through it then attached it to my card.


I hope you are enjoying the Flourishes and PageMaps team up and are re-inspired to create something beautiful this weekend! I can't wait to see what everyone else has created! :)
Have a great weekend and have fun creating!!