Flourishes New Release Day 1

It's that time once again.... Flourishes New Release!  This week we've got two wonderful new stamp sets to share with you and as always, you're going to LOVE them!  Up first for today is Snow Wonderful, a beautiful stamp set for Winter that coordinates with the new Tailor-Made Classic Keyhole Die Set that was released last month.  Now you've got even more uses for that beautiful new die set with two stunning images in this new stamp set, and loads of wonderful sentiments.

I chose to use these sweet birds nestled in the pine trees for my card, stamping directly onto some designer paper from the "Breeze" 6x6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye and lightly coloring with Copics from the collections shown below.  I added some more papers from the 6x6 pad to my design, some chocolate Kaisercraft pearls, some stitching, and some white cotton lace trim.  My layout was inspired by Iwona's Sketchbook Saturday challenge #41.

Want to win this set and matching die? All you need to do is leave some love in the form of a comment on the blogs below! Why? You need to try to figure out…..

One of the ladies on our link list below will be picking a name from the comments on her blog post today. We don’t know which one it is… so the more blogs you leave comments on, the more chances you have to win! So, head on over and see how our fabulously talented DT used this beautiful new set and matching die combo that is sure to be a holiday fave for years to come!

Barbara Anders

Christine Okken

Danielle Kennedy

Dawn Burnworth

Julie Koerber

Stacy Morgan

Tammy Hershberger <--<-- you're here!

Sharon Doolittle

Heather Jensen

Beate Johns

Good luck, and happy stamping!

Color Throwdown #172

It's Wednesday again, and that means we've got another Color Throwdown challenge for you and actually it's the last one for 2011!  We'll be taking a little holiday break, and will be back on January 4th with more challenges and a few neat changes for you to see in 2012!

Today, Kerri is our hostess and she's picked a really neat color combo for you to try! I just loved this combination, and could think of so much I wanted to do with it.  Unfortunately, I'm also really pressed for time this week so I went with a very non-typical (for me anyway!) clean and simple design using some new Paper Smooches stamps!  This peach and sentiment are from the Fruitastic set, and I paired them with some old Bella Blvd. paper I had in my stash that I knew contained all of these colors (and then some!)

You'll love seeing what all the girls on the Throwdown team did with these colors too, so be sure to stop by their blogs...

Barbara Anders	Broni Holcombe	Danielle Kennedy	Joan Ervin	Kerri Michaud	Keva Brown
Kristin Eberline	Lori Tecler	Lynn Put	Wanda Cullen	Lydia Fielder, Guest Designer

InLinkz.com

And extra-special thank you goes out to the fabulous Lydia Fielder for being our Guestie for November and December!  It was great to have you join us, lady!

Happy stamping, peeps!

Timeless Tuesday #148

 It's time for another Timeless Tuesday challenge, and this week Makiko is our hostess with a fun idea.... Opposites Attract!  Make two cards that use the same image, but make them completely opposite!  Maybe one can be clean and simple and the other full of layers and embellishments.  Or one card masculine and the other card feminine.  One card for a child and one for an adult.  One with a colored image, and one with no coloring.  Get the picture?  Whatever you interpret as opposite!

Now for a small disclaimer... don't take MY samples as examples of what to do!  I didn't read the directions closely enough.  My cards are opposites, but I missed the part about using the same image!  Whooops!  But I hope you'll enjoy my version of the challenge anyway!

I just had "opposites" in mind when I started working on the challenge for this week, so my first card shows a sparkly, snowy Winter scene using the Season of Celebrations stamp set.  And my second card....

...shows where I'd rather be right now on a warm, sunny beach!  For this card I used the Beach Life stamp set.  So, you see I did get quite opposite with my creations, but need to improve in reading instructions!  LOL  (Supplies used on both cards are listed down below.)

Please stop over at the Flourishes blog for all the challenge details, and join us!  YOU could be the lucky winner of $10 to spend in the Flourishes online store!

And for more inspiration, please see what the other Timeless Tuesday designers created for today...

Makiko Jones
Mona Pendleton
Silke Ledlow
Beate Johns
Cindy Haffner
Heather Jensen
Theresa Pollack, December Guest Designer

Happy stamping, and thanks for stopping by!

Winter card:  A Season of Celebrations (Flourishes); SU! cardstock, Flourishes Classic Ivory cardstock, "North Country" designer paper (Prima); Versafine Onyx Black ink (Tsukineko), Tumbled Glass distress ink (Ranger); Petite Ovals, Labels 18, Create-a-Flake 3 dies (Spellbinders); Metallic White curling ribbon; Snowflake embossing folder (Provocraft); glass glitter.

Beach card:  Beach Life (Flourishes); SU! cardstock, Flourishes Classic Ivory cardstock, "Yacht Club" designer paper (Webster's Pages); Memento Tuxedo Black ink (Tsukineko), Tumbled Glass, Antique Linen, Wild Honey distress inks (Ranger), markers (Copic); twill ribbon (May Arts).

Christmas Card and Coupon

The Praise & Worship team at our church is having breakfast together this morning, and we got an Applebee's gift card for our director and his wife for a Christmas gift.  I offered to make a card for everyone to sign, and this is what I came up with.  I love the reference to music in this sentiment, and decided to pair it with this Bo Bunny "Father Christmas" paper and some old sheet music.  The sentiment is computer-generated.  My BFF Barbara Anders has been using the Upsy-Daisy Die-Namics from My Favorite Things for the past month or so to make beautiful poinsettias, so I just had to get that die recently to make my own.  I just love how these turned out!

One of the women I'm on the P&W team with said she was going to offer to babysit for free when Aaron and Amanda decide to use their gift card, and she asked me if I could also make a babysitting coupon.  So I used some various October Afternoon papers to create this little coupon tag.  The letters were cut with my new By the Letter Die-Namics from My Favorites Things, and the ticket was created using the Just the Ticket Die-Namics and stamp set.

Happy stamping, and thanks for stopping by today!

Flourishes Pre-Release Challenge - Feminine Flair

Lace, pearls and flouncy ribbons - these are the things that make up a creation with a truly feminine flair. That's what is at the heart of this month's challenge. To enter, let's see how you add a dose of femininity to your cards or creations! Link your project up on the Flourishes blog, and if you upload to SCS, please use the key word FLLCDEC11. Use Flourishes stamps if you have them, but if you don't please play anyway! The winner will recieve our entire December release. You have until December 16 at 5 PM Easterm time to submit.



For my card, I decided you can't get more feminine than our Feminine Charm stamp set, so I used that along with some pretty lace, ruffles and pearls.  My "lace" is from the Lace & Trim stamp set, currently on sale in the Flourishes store... see that pretty border across the bottom?  It's such a neat way to add a lacy touch to a card without the bulk of real lace.  I embellished with some Kaisercraft pearls (colored with a Warm Gray Copic marker) and used several Nestabilities here including the Labels 8, the Nested Pennants, and the Long Classic Scalloped Rectangle.

The rest of the Flourishes Sr. Design Team members are also using the beautiful Lace & Trim stamp set today with their Feminine Flair designs, so be sure to check them out for inspiration...


Barbara Anders
Danielle Kennedy
Dawn Burnworth
Julie Koerber
Sharon Doolittle
Stacy Morgan

Be sure to tune in next Wednesday when we begin sneak peeks of the newest releases from Flourishes!

Color Throwdown #171

Our Color Throwdown challenge this week is being hosted by Wanda, and she's chosen some great Christmas colors for us to work with this week. I pulled out my old Wassail paper pad from Basic Grey and found these colors, so I ran with them! The sentiment here on my card is from the new Sentimental Christmas stamp set from Flourishes and I embellished with some gorgeous caramel-colored satin ribbon and a few felt poinsettias I found in my stash.

As a finishing touch, I spritzed the whole card with some Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls for a little shimmer. Hard to see in the photo, but looks awesome in real life! :)

See what my Throwdown sisters have created today to inspire you....

Barbara Anders	Broni Holcombe	Danielle Kennedy	Joan Ervin	Kerri Michaud	Keva Brown
Kristin Eberline	Lori Tecler	Lynn Put	Wanda Cullen	Lydia Fielder, Guest Designer

InLinkz.com

We'd love to see your creations using these colors! As always, if you don't have the exact colors specified just use whatever you have that is similar.... it's not rocket science, anyway! Just have fun, and get inky! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Timeless Tuesday #147

It's time for another Timeless Tuesday challenge, and this week Silke is our hostess with this fabulous sketch shown below. As always, it'd be great to have YOU play along with us! You could win $10 towards your purchase of beautiful stamps in the Flourishes store!

For my card, I used the December amaryllis stamp from the Year in Flowers 3 stamp set. I stamped my amaryllis on Flourishes Classic Ivory cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and colored with Copics from the Fuchsia and Evergreen collections. The ribbon I used here is from the November 123 Create Kit, and I paired it with some Ivory Crocheted trim. I cut out my image with Small and Large Circle Nestabilities, and matted on a Picot Edge Circle Nestabilities.

On the inside, I stamped the amaryllis again using Versafine Smokey Gray ink, and a sentiment from the new Sentimental Christmas set, stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink.
See what the other Timeless Tuesday designers have to share with you today by visiting their blogs...

Beate Johns

Cindy Haffner

Heather Jensen

Makiko Jones

Mona Pendleton

Silke Ledlow

Theresa Pollack, December Guest Designer

Don't forget to stop by the Flourishes blog for all the challenge details!

Happy stamping!

Mark Your Calendar

It goes without saying that 2012 will be here before we know it and what better way to keep track of your days than to custom create a beautiful hand stamped calendar? With all of the beautiful botanicals and the A Year in Flowers series from Flourishes, there are so many ways to beautify your own calendar and truly make it your own! Just like in years past, Flourishes is offering a calendar created by Marcella Hawley designed for just that reason! It’s available to download right from our site and is a bargain at just $2! Once you purchase the file, it is yours to print as many times as you like! The .pdf download is sized to print at 4″ by 6″ – perfect to fit inside a little frame! What a wonderful and personalized Christmas gift! Visit the Flourishes blog for information on how to purchase and download.

For my calendar page, I decided to use July and one of my favorite Flourishes sets, Patriotism on Parade. I'm planning to get all the months done though over the coming weeks and use a Zutter Display-it-All stand I bought a few years ago to make a desk calendar for my Mom.

Today all of our fabulously talented designers used this fun calendar blank to fashion some pretty inspiring creations! You’ll have to hop around to check them out!

• Barbara Anders
• Christine Okken
• Cindy Lawrence
• Danielle Kennedy
• Dawn Burnworth
• Julie Koerber
• Sharon Doolittle
• Stacy Morgan

Happy stamping, and thanks for stopping by!