Gradient is Radiant!

My second attempt with Cath Edvalson's MOXIE FAB Challenge! Totally different from my first try. True, they both contain butterfly images! LOL This image is from Flourishes. I stamped my image then proceeded to Copic color.. Flower is MM, sentiment is from Papertreyink's Mixed Messages set, all patterned paper & cardstock with the exception of teal (SU) is also from PTI, as is the ribbon. A little stitching on my sew mini, a patterned paper liner for the envelope completes my creation!

Closeup of the butterfly, colored from light to dark, gradually! I also Copic colored pearls to add below the sentiment...this works great! I hope you enjoyed my Gradient is Radiant challenge creations! Be sure to check out the MOXIE FAB BLOG...you are in for a treat!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Take good care!

Snowflake Legend

Won't this snowflake look beautiful glistening among tree lights? It is textured plastic and quite thick, which makes it very sturdy. These snowflakes were found at my local Dollar Tree store, 6 in a pack for one dollar! Years ago I received a small snowflake with a similar legend written on the card. I don't know who wrote it, therefore cannot give appropriate credit but have seen a similar saying in the Oriental Trading catalog. I did adapt it somewhat to fit on the scallop punch I felt suitable for the snowflake. The silver hanging cords were already attached! I added ribbon and a snowflake bling from JoAnn's.

Here is a closeup of the legend tag. It is computer generated. I stamped a Flourishes snowflake stamp with Memento london fog for a light touch. For the snowflake centers and tag edging I used the stardust gelly roll pen. I also purchased a package of the blue snowflakes and applied the same tag and embellishments. This would make a perfect package tie on, easily writing the to and from on the backside of the tag. And for sure these would sparkle and glisten among tree lights. So much fun, easy, and affordable. These last three posts have been small gift items that are economical to make. Not only is it a goal to raise funds for the church youth group, but to make items that are affordable for others to purchase. A two fold mission. We have raised 300 dollars so far!

I have a few more items I made for the youth sale, and cannot wait to show you! They will be featured starting Monday as my friend, Sharon Johnson, Notimetostamp begins her Stamp Simply Celebration. Can you believe Sharon has reached 1,000,000 blog hits? This will not be your ordinary blog party, this 10 day celebration will include daily challenges, bloggers providing samples for each challenge, blog candy, and Christmas ideas galore! I am so blessed that Sharon has asked me to join in and help her celebrate this momentous accomplishment. Be sure to stop by each day to see what is happening starting this MONDAY, December 1. ! You are not going to want to miss this party!

Take good care! Thanks so much for stopping by, I pray you had a blessed thanksgiving with your families and surrounded by dear loved ones. I will be back tomorrow, I have been tagged and will share!

Butterfly Moment

Another card displaying my need to not let go of summer quite yet! I love the butterfly images in Flourishes set, Butterfly Moments. I used the challenge over on SCS for this creation. Friday's challenge was to use only paper, ink, punches, nesties, cuttlebug etc. You get the idea? NO embellishments, unless you make them out of the listed usable items. I did punch three small circles to mimic brads. I used my new cuttlebug edging folder for the bottom of the card front.

Close up of copic colored butterfly. Love the color intensity you can achieve with these markers. Pink and black together, wonderful combination! The butterfly is cut and adhered at the mid section only to enable bending a bit up off the card stock! No sentiment, as I want to use this card as the occasion will dictate. Perfect for a thinking of you, birthday, get well card, don't you think?

I will be leaving for a few days, on a four day escape with my daughters and Mom! I did not realize it was World Card Making Day when we planned this excursion! Gasp! I think I would have made it another time! LOL I hope all of you have a wonderful time and weekend. I will be anxious to see all your wonderful creations! Take good care!

Fantasy Floral Clearly

The inspiration for this layout is the CPS 84 layout challenge. I love their challenges, but sadly do not have the time to play each week! I did it today! Go check out their site and be inspired! I also included a rub on quote which is the SCS challenge, using a quote or such on your creation. All papers are layered on the outside and inside of the clear card stock to hide any adhesives.

The floral image is from Flourishes Fantasy Floral Garden set. I stamped it with Memento tuxedo black ink on watercolor paper. Reinkers are used to watercolor image.

Papertreyink twill ribbon, ball head straight pin from the dollar store, Clear bead from SU pretties kit, scallop oval punch, and still using those sparkly embellis from my pal, Linsey!

HOPE YOU ARE HAVING A TERRIFIC THURSDAY AND WEEK SO FAR! I WILL BE OUT OF TOWN SATURDAY THROUGH MONDAY. A NEEDED REST WITH MY GIRLS AND MOM. HOPEFULLY I WILL BE ABLE TO POP IN AND SEE WHAT YOU ARE UP TO. I HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH THE NEW RELEASE SETS FROM FLOURISHES! IF YOU ARE STARTING TO PREPARE FOR THE HOLIDAYS, YOU WILL DEFINITELY NOT WANT TO MISS THE DEBUT NEXT WEEK! TAKE GOOD CARE! I SO APPRECIATE YOU STOPPING BY!

Peony Wish

One last taste of a summer favorite! This image is from Flourishes Peony set. I am pretty sure it is lily of the valley. Don't know if they come in colors, but that is what I chose to do with mine! It's stamping, right, you can make the images any color you choose! Using copic markers I colored away, I am loving these markers. DP is Basic Grey ambrosia, all other paper is Stampin UP. Martha Stewart butterfly punch with a couple of mini adhesive pearls add the perfect accent.

I use the same adhesive pearl to dot the i on my sentiment circle. This sentiment is from the goodies I won in the Just Rite contest! You cannot believe the enormous basket of stampers I received. I will post more about those later! I am soooo impressed with the clarity and ease these stampers operate.

Hope you are having a great week! A last taste of summer then onto holiday stamping! Wait until you see the Flourish holiday stamps ready for release next week! Stay tuned, you will not want to miss it!

Take good care and thanks so much for stopping by!

Fishy Christmas Mens Wear!

This weeks set focus at Flourishes was Men's Wear. This is the first Flourishes set I bought! I have used it over and over for the men in my life and today decided to combine this set with the Limited Supply Challenge over at SplitCoastStampers. The fishy designer paper is from The Paper Patch. It is so old I have no idea where and when I acquired it! I stamped the shirt image on the paper with Memento Rich Cocoa ink. I added Copic marker coloring for a red and green festive look, shading to the shirt, and then cut out! Part of the challenge was to make critters into a holiday card! I hope fish will qualify! What does a fisherman hope will catch his fish? A hook of course! But, probably not this kind of ornament hook! The sentiment and ornaments are from the the Flourishes set, O Christmas Tree. I have to let you in on my conversation with my husband regarding this card for his Dad. When I asked him what he thought, he asked if it was a pajama shirt? Then stated, it looks like the tasteless material used for those holiday boxer shorts! Bwahaaaa. And he hates those! Oh well, I tried! For a Merry, Merry Christmas greeting though, I think this will be just fine! But I will pass on the boxers!

Hope you had a good week! I have been so overwhelmed with house showings, my day job and some family matters, I have been missing is action! I hope to get back to the blogging world on an every day basis soon! Thanks so much for stopping in! I DO appreciate it.

Butterfly Moments, Friend

My creation for Friday's SCS Limited Supply Challenge. The stamped butterfly is water colored with my H2O brush and SU markers. Scor Pal used for scoring around butterfly panel, along with distressed edging. Stamp set is from Flourishes, Butterfly Moments. Lavender adhesive pearls, dollar store headed straight pin, and Papertreyink ribbon add the embellishment details. All in all, pretty simple!

Have a great weekend everyone! I will be gone for a couple of days! I hope to get back on Monday and blog hop, I have missed commenting and visiting everyone! See you soon!

Many Blessings, Copic style!

I have been practicing again with the copic markers! I think this fruit lends itself well to copic markers. The fruit image reminds me of still life drawings we drew in college, before computers and you had to hand draw everything! Well, this is by far a much better drawing than I ever could create! I so enjoy watching the fruit come to life when applying color. Click on the picture to enlarge and get more detail of coloring. As a beginnner copic user here are two learned tips, do not be afraid to saturate the image with color, and stamp many images at one time to practice so you can move from one to the next if you do not like how it is developing. I know this from experience! LOL I copic colored the fruit bowl as well and cut out. It is bent a bit and adhered with foam to give dimension. This set, Mixed Greetings has so many possibilities, it is one of three new sets FLOURISHES just released. I will have a project using one of the other sets tomorrow! Flourishes is offering a buy it all bundle too! Savings for you! Go check it out!

Please post a comment on the previous post to win awesome blog candy! And a shout out Happy One Year blog Anniversary to Sharon Johnson! Congratulations, my friend!

The Just Rite stamping champion contest is still going on. There are FABULOUS entries! Go take a look and if you could place a vote by my name, I would so appreciate it! Take good care and have a great day!

It's FLOURISH Time!

Look at this beautiful image from FLOURISHES new release, Mixed Greetings! This is one of the containers and one of the fillers! I experimented with my copics again and am starting to feel more comfortable with them! I have cards from this set using copics coming up tomorrow too! The floral container is stamped, cut out and slightly bent with foam adhesive to give it lift.

A row of beads are sewn on across the top edge of container. The slit punch adorned with a white punched circle and gem brad adds interest and holds the card closed.

Be sure and check out the other Flourish Design Team members for more creations!

JULIE, SUSAN, LESLIE, FAITH, LINDA

Thanks so much for stopping by! And don't forget to VOTE here! I need all the help I can get! Take good care and stop back tomorrow for more copic coloring with images from this set!

Just Because Butterfly Moments

The butterfly image is from FLOURISHES set, Butterfly Moments. Copic markers are used to color image and the sparkle edges are achieved with a clear stardust gelly roll pen. Martha Stewart border punch and ticket corner punches used, along with some adhesive rhinestones. The sentiment is a SU rub on. The ribbon is from a package I received many moons ago! I love this ribbon, but the width lends itself to be cumbersome to attach and tie. This may not be new information to anyone, but I had one of those aha moments! I used my word window punch to create an opening to thread ribbon. No more ripping the card stock, when the hole is not large enough, no uneven cut line! It worked perfectly! Have a wonderful weekend! Don't forget FLOURISHES new releases next week! Take good care and thanks so much for stopping by!

Summer on the Patio, Clearly!

OK, this is my last clear card stock creation for a while! I am just loving this this crystal clear card stock with the new releases though! I cut and scored my piece to create a box, but without a back! The white stamped card stock completes the box back. I wanted a window look to this card, so hence the valance! Using the threading water punch for edging, and Sugared Basic Grey DP to coordinate with the Copic colored images! I had a super hard time getting a good photo, with the glare and shadows! Sorry!

Close up view of coloring! Another perk with FLOURISHES new release, SUMMER ON THE PATIO, is you get the small chair in two positions! One facing left and one facing right for easy stamping! The creation had too much empty space at the bottom so I added sheer ribbon from Michaels, a button from my button jar, created a tag, and cut out a copic colored topiary from FLOURISHES Siberian Iris stamp set.

This concludes my clear card stock creations this week! LOL, I hope you have enjoyed them and be sure to keep checking out all the other design team creations with FLOURISHES products!

Julie, Leslie, Susan, Faith, Linda, Sharon, Nancy.

THANKS so much for celebrating with me this week! I love working with FLOURISHES clear stamps and products and hope you have enjoyed these creations! More to come! Take good care, I'll be back on Monday!

Have a blessed weekend!

Sweet Lemons on the Patio and CPS!

Lemons, oh how sweet! From FLOURISHES new release, Summer on the Patio set. This is a wonderful image that comes in two sizes to accommodate the patio table that is included in the set. This and my previous post are but two of the many patio accessories that enable you to create a superb patio scene. Practicing with my Copic markers again! The bowl or basket was a hard one!. Let alone trying to make the three look relatively alike! I love the vibrancy of the lemons though! Using clear card stock, this time I stamped a little flourish image from the FLOURISHES set, Siberian Iris. The sentiment is from the FLOURISHES set, Sweet Treats. I did not write down copic colors, once I get more efficient with them I will start writing colors down and showing you how I am achieving my final result! For the white swirl I used my new white opaque StazOn.

When using clear card stock, in order for adhesives not to show, planning how the card elements will be assembled is important. The white lemon image square is adhered on the outside of the clear card. The yellow square you see edging the white square is adhered on the inside front directly behind the white square. I applied one small piece of adhesive on the Boxer Basic Grey DP to hold the dp piece on the inside back. One the outside back I added a scalloped circle with two lemonade glasses to cover the adhesive! The sentiment strip has running adhesive all along it's length, which helps hold the dp in place too! This pic helps you see more of the inside view of the card. I love this Basic Grey DP. The yellow dew drops add just a bit of pizazz without taking away from the image. The card layout is my interpretation of the CardPositioning systems layout challenge this week! If you like layout challenges check it out! I made this card for Latisha! I don't know if she visits here or not, but she is hostessing a FLOURISHES swap over on the SCS FLOURISHES member forum. I am including this card in my swaps as a thank you to her for all the organization and hard work it takes to conduct a card swap! A shout out THANK YOU to Latisha! Hope you have been enjoying the creations highlighting FLOURISHES new releases! Check out the other fabulous design team members blogs to see what they have been up to! Julie, Susan, Leslie, Faith, Linda, Nancy, Sharon.

Check back this weekend! I have yet another clearly amazing card to show you! Until then, take good care!

Clearly Copics Out On the Patio

Today's challenge over on SCS is Crazy for Copics. Well, I can use all the practice I can get! I love the markers, but to be honest, it is hit and miss right now when I use them. I am getting better and do love how this turned out though. I used an image from SUMMER ON THE PATIO, a new release from FLOURISHES. Designer paper and white stampers select is from PAPERTREYink. Yellow papers are Prism, Sunflowers light and medium. Memento Black Tuxedo ink is used along with various Copic Markers. Sorry, I did not write down colors. Inside view to show you card stock placement on front and back of this crystal clear card stock base. Where I stategically placed my adhesives is behind this layering so it will not show when card is complete! The clear card stock is so so nice, heavy but yet as it's described, crystal clear. Love the simple photo corner and sugared embellishment to tie the colors of the flowers and dp together.

Thank you so very much for the kind comments and congrats on my recent FLOURISHES guest designer spot! My heart is warmed and I hope you know I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to write them! You will want to stop back tomorrow for a clearly (hint) terrific creation! See you then!

Celebrate with Flourishes

YES! It's time to CELEBRATE! I will be a guest designer for Flourishes for the next three months! I LOVE their incredible stamps and know you will to!

Flourishes is releasing 3 new sets today and here are three creations using one of the sets called, SUMMER BOTANICALS. By the creations here you can see the many looks achieved from one stamp! The above card measures 3 7/8 x 8 1/2 inches, perfect fit for a business envelope. I inked my stamp by dabbing the ink pad directly on my stamp. Colors used on all creations are ColorBox Chalk inks: Pink Pastel, Warm Red, Lime, and Olive Pastel. On the above card I stamped twice before re inking stamp. The sentiment Celebrate is from one of the other new release sets! Machine stitching, adhesive pearls, and the super cool large button add pizazz to the stamped image! Gotta love that!

A single stamped image provides a stunning look for this card. Cut out with a rectangle nestie and layered on olive green card stock embossed with the swiss dot cuttlebug folder, then mounted on a rose red card stock piece embossed with a scor pal is color perfect.

Bloom is stamped with StazOn on clear card stock and cut with a cuttlebug tag die. The tag is positioned to have bloom read off the end of the flower stem. The stem and flower are outlined with a light gray copic marker. Label is attached with green ribbon from Michael's Dollar bin and gorgeous pink sheer found at FLOURISHES.

I love the clear tag with the sentiment! It adds so much to the overall design and is so easy to accomplish!

The same image, with a dramatically different look! Shabby, but oh so nice! I wrinkled the image piece of card stock. Added some Tim Holtz distress tattered rose ink. Got out the MM distress tool and went to town on the Basic Grey DP and card stock edges.

Some french knots, and hand stitching with embroidery floss is wonderful for this look. And notice the dimension on the stem and leaves? This is a FANTASTIC new product called FLOWER SOFT. It is acid free and comes so compact when you open it multiplies like no tomorrow! Colors galore and it will last you forever! Apply with a tack glue, I used Aleene's Flower Soft high Tack PVA glue. So little is needed for a WOW impact. Take a look at the demo here using this new Flower Soft Product!

To finish the card I added dew drops in each corner. A piece of sheer pink ribbon along with a tied piece of embroidery floss.

Take a look at the other FLOURISH design team members to see what they have been up to! Their creations are spectacular! Jan Marie, Sharon, Nancy, Julie, Susan, Leslie, Faith, and Linda.

Thanks for stopping by and celebrating with me! Tomorrow will bring another creation with a new FLOURISH set! Take good care and see you soon!

Friend

A Flourished Friend Card! I used my new Fiskars round circle decorative punch on Prism Nautical blue paper to adhere my bird and birdcage stamped image. The images are from Flourishes Love Nest set. All card stock papers are Prism with the exception of the white which is Papertreyink Stampers Select white cardstock.

The Friend sentiment is from Flourished Words. All images colored with Koh I Noor woodless pencils and blended with odorless turpenoid and stumps. After placing the color and blending, I went in with an art white eraser to highlight the face and belly. The ribbon matches this Prism paper perfectly. Adhesive gem is found here. The round scallop blue cardstock piece is mounted on foam pieces, raising it off the yellow cardstock to allow more see through of the edging.

Hope you are having a great weekend, friend! Thanks for stopping by!

BARB

Lace Heart Butterfly Love

Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge 24

Here is my take on Taylor's sketch challenge found here. I turned the sketch upside down and used the heart from FLOURISHES Lace Heart stamp set for the butterfly wings. The image was stamped with Versamark then heat embossed with clear embossing powder on one of the Basic Grey Euphoria designer papers. I folded the ends in and attached to card underneath the wings.

The middle body piece and antennas are from FLOURISHES Cake Decorating 101 and sentiment is from FLOURISHED Words and stamped with Palette Landscape ink. I covered those pieces with my melon Spica pen. Click on picture for a larger view and to see the sparkle! Edges of paper and butterfly edges are distressed with Ranger Distress Inks, shabby shutters and tattered rose respectively.

I love the basic grey paper with the matching brads used on the hardware! The pearls are perfect for the butterfly and upper right hand corner! May Arts Scalloped edged ink satin ribbon and all these products are found at FLOURISHES. Hope you had a great weekend! We had a house showing, which meant cleaning up the art studio! I hate that! I am a very messy stamper and like everything out in sight! But into the closet it went for a few hours!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I really appreciate it! Have a great Monday!

HUGS,

My first Taylored Expressions Cupcake Friday Challenge!

I decided to try Taylor VanBruggen's sketch challenge! This is #23 and she always posts them for her Friday Cupcake Challenge on her blog HERE. I know I did not use cupcakes in this creation, but that is OK! Not only is this good for me to improve my card designs, but it's fun to see what Taylor creates along with her Cupcake Friday Team. Taylor has branched out with her own online store, Taylored Expressions. Check it out, her creations and store items are to die for! I have been a long time admirer of Taylor, first seeing her work with Papertreyink. And you know, I love all things Papertrey!

Onto the card details, FLOURISHES Love Nest bird image was stamped twice and cut out. The Sultry designer papers are Basic Grey found at FLOURISHES. DREAM sentiment is found in FLOURISHES Floral Fantasy Garden stamp set. White brads are from local dollar store.

Close up view of the birds with the left one adhered on a less thick piece of foam than the right to add dimension. I love how they look like they are sitting on the branch. I am getting more brave with my Janome Sew Mini! I tried some wavy stitching on this card. White edged paper was created with a dauber and SU white craft ink. May Arts scalloped satin ribbon is from FLOURISHES. I love the little bit of edging that adds to the overall look of the card. Thanks so much for stopping in! I love that you come by, it means so much to me. Take good care! HUGS,

DREAM

CARD POSITIONING SYSTEMS challenge this week! The inspiration for the stamped images and sentiments, outer and inside are from FLOURISHES Fantasy Flower Garden. I have shown you two angles of card. This is an interactive card with a diamond shape paper clip holding it closed. Versamark and StazOn Jet Black inks along with Koh i Noor pencils blended with Turpenoid and stumps for color.

The red scallop is wool felt. I added white opal Liquid Pearls on it and on the dots for the outer card versamarked image. DP is American Crafts, black and grey is SU, and watercolor paper are the papers utilized. Silver circle is from SU Hodgepodge hardware, I added Kaiser Scrapbook self adhesive black pearl on the hardware and the inside dot on the sentiment word, friend. They are found at FLOURISHES. There are a ton of colors to choose from! Black ribbon is also from FLOURISHES.

Here is the open view! I am working on new lighting and photoing, so bear with me as I try to get this skill improved! Hope you had a safe and terrific Fourth of July celebration! Thanks so much for stopping by! I appreciate it so very much. Take good care, HUGS,

Celebrate Fantasy Floral

I tried my hand with the color challenge over on SCS this week. My inspiration for this card is from the FLOURISHES "Fantasy Floral set. I LOVE the detail in this particular stamp and knew it would be great to use reinkers to water color, since the SCS Monday challenge was to use reinkers for the Try a New Technique challenge!

I stamped my image on watercolor paper with StazOn jet black ink. The sentiment is stamped with the same. Celebrate is from the set, Flourished Words, with 27 different sentiments. Notice how the celebrate is curved to hug the top of the flower? With clear polymer stamps, they give you a little play with the stamp so I curved the stamp as I placed it on my clear block, and both being clear I can position it right where I need it to be! I LOVE that! The green bottom card stock is stamped with a vine leaf stamp from Fantasy Floral. It adds to the design without taking away from the focal point image!

I utilized my Janome Sew Mini to attach the black band of card stock! I am still getting used to this wonderful new item in the studio! I tend to hesitate when I first start stitching...then the stitches are not perfectly straight. You just have to place the needle in your starting position and go for it! I keep telling myself, just do it, if it you don't like how it looks, you can try again!

The beautiful sheer ribbon you see is from Flourishes! I love this ribbon, and cannot wait to use more of it! It ties like a dream. For this card I used a glue dot to attach. The adhesive gems are from GinaK Designs.

This card was made for a dear friends birthday! I hope she likes it! I appreciate you stopping by, take good care and hope you are having a great day. Have you noticed the craze over the new Just Rite Stampers out there? I have a creation I have been working on to show you with this product...hopefully tomorrow it will be complete! Until then,

HUGS,

Flourishing LOVE!

These adorable birds are from the Flourishes stamp set "Love Nest" that has a total of 22 stamps! Birds are so popular and this set has wonderful branches in three sizes, bird cages, nest, eggs, oh my goodness you just have to go and take a look. You will be glad you did! For this card I used this weeks Card Positioning Systems layout challenge. Martha Stewart punch with brown paper adhered underneath to show through and Basic Grey Sultry paper utilized on Papertreyink Stampers Select white card stock is what I used for this creation. Isn't this Flourishes sheer ribbon luscious? I wanted you to see a close up. It is so easily tied and does not take away from the focal point image. It is threaded through the top and bottom punched out white card stock. The birds are colored with Koh I Noor Pencils from GinaK Designs and blended with Odorless Turpenoid and stumps. I went back in with my white art eraser and lifted color off their bellies for dimension! Using the light grey pencil I drew around the birds and blended then lightly dusted blue chalk on a cotton ball around image. Thanks so much for stopping by! I am going to be pulling out my watercolor paper, and see what I can come up with in the next couple days! I hope you are having a great start to the week! Take good care, until next time, HUGS,