No Time To Stamp?

Yes, it IS time for Blog Candy –and you can all thank the wonderful ladies at Flourishes for that!!! I had no intentionof doing Blog Candy at this point as my Blog has only been here for a week and I’m still trying to figure this all out — LOL!!! But Jan Marie, Nancy and Sharon at Flourishes figured it was a good time for Blog Candy - so here we go!!!

Compliments of Flourishes the winner will receive the stamp set entitled Peace!!! What a wonderful set — I just love it!! I have several cards on my Blog using that set — and it is just the most perfect set for beautiful, elegant and quick Christmas cards!!! Then to round out the gift package I am adding some large envelopes since we all know I LOVE to do large sized cards! So, your entire gift package will consist of:

• Peace Stamp Set by Flourishes
• 12 - 6 x 6 white square envelopes
• 12 - 5.5 x 5.5 ivory square envelopes
• 12 - 8.75 x 5.75 gold foiled ivory envelopes
• 12 - 6 7/8 x 5 1/8 gray parchment envelopes with 12 cards to match

To enter in the drawing you merely have to post below, answering this question: When you are cruising the stamping Blogs, what is it about a Blog that makes you want to stay and look a bit longer? Your answer could be anything at all — but here are some things that pop into my mind — the style/quality of the cards, that there are short instructions or that there are lengthy and detailed instructions, the layout of the Blog, the colors of the Blog on your screen, the size of the print, the size of the pictures, the fact that there either is or isn’t a lot of personal chit chat, family and personal photos, etc. I’m just really curious — what makes a Blog appealing to you — I guess that might be an easier way to state the question. Just tell me what makes a Blog appealing to you.

The winner will be chosen at 10:00 P.M. Eastern Time on Sunday evening, September 16, and will be posted here shortly thereafter. If I can figure out how to use a random number generator, then I’ll use one. If not, I’ll have my son pick a number, and he, of course, will never have seen the list.

Now, my Blog being so very new, I would imagine the responses will be relatively low compared to many Blog Candy contests, so your chances should be pretty good. Good luck!!! Just remember, you have to comment below to be entered!!!

This Christmas Card was done for the SCS Sketch Challenge today and it combines 2 of the new release sets from Flourishes — Peace and O Christmas Tree. The card measures 5 1/4 x 4 1/2 and requires a 5.5″ square envelope. (The only reason it is 4 1/2″ wide is because my main image layered panel came too large to fit on the 4 1/4″ wide card, so rather than make a new panel, I just cut a new card to fit. I have all sorts of envelopes on hand, so it was no problem!)

This Peace/dove image is the smaller one in the set. My other cards used the larger image. It’s so nice to have a choice with this gorgeous image. My Christmas cards that I mass produce will probably all use this set, with one Peace image or the other. I think it is just so verygorgeous and the simplicity of the image, I think, calls for a rather simple/easy card, great for mass producing!

The main image is gold embossed on Very Vanilla. Then, it’s hard to see, but the pine boughs from the tree in O Christmas Tree were then white embossed around the border. I then dragged the edges of the panel through my Versa Mark pad and gold embossed them to form a gilded frame!!! It was then layered on DP, another Vanilla panel, added gold brads and attached to card with mounting tape, with sentiment panel being attached on top with pop dots and dimensionals. My Ivory Taffeta bow looked a little plain, like it needed something, so I just tied on a little gold organdy and I was done!!!

Loved this DP with the gold outlined flourish type of design. It was by Sandylion, from Michaels. I actually bought it for a wedding type card, but I think it works great here!!! Thanks for looking.

• Stamps: Peace and O Christmas Tree both by Flourishes, www.flourishes.org
• Paper: Very Vanilla and DP by Sandylion
• Ink: Versa Mark
• Accessories: Gold and White EP, Brads, Ticket Corner Punch, Ivory Taffeta and Gold Organdy Ribbon, Mounting Tape, Pop Dots and Dimensionals

This is my first card using the newly released set from Flourishes called Fantasy Floral Garden. What a set!!! It is filled with so many pretty flowers and words — 23 stamps in total. I just wanted to use them all, so I tried — LOL!!! I made this card in the tent topper style that I’ve been just hooked on lately. The card base is 4.25″ square. The topper (blue piece) is 3.5″ wide x 3.75″ high. All credit for these fun tent toppers goes to Michelle Wooderson, who will be linked, along with many others, in my sidebar real soon!

To create my main image panelI started by arranging the floral image stamps onto a 4 x 4 acrylic block into a pattern I liked. I ended up getting 13 of the stamps on the block! Now, it is so easy to stamp the entire panel at once! I stamped in Versa Mark and embossed in light blue. I then colored all the little flowers with my SU markers, working with a paper towel at hand to wick up any marker ink from the embossing (any ink that gets on the embossing will not saturate into the paper, it just sits there — waiting to be touched and smeared). I carefully patted the paper towel onto each flower as soon as I was finished coloring it.

The background was the exact same 4 x 4 block loaded with stamps that I used for the main image, stamped with So Saffron on So Saffron paper. Main image panel is sponged with blue, and Safron panel is sponged with Saffron. The word *flower* is black embossed and a ticket corner punch was used on that little panel, along with brads. The blue dotted grosgrain is from Michaels. I used a piece of Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware to hang the bow on top. A really fun card to make.

Hint: Once arranging all your stamps onto a large block to make a pattern as described above, before you clean and put them away, stamp your pattern onto cardstock and save. The next time you want this same pattern, pull it out, place your stamps face side down over their printed images, then just lay your acrylic block on top of them and pull them up — and there you have your pattern all set and ready to go on your block!!!

And I just want to add that I am very displeased with this photo — the main image panel is not coming across very well — IRL the coloring in the embossed areas looks very soft and nice — it looks anything but that in this photo — but there is only so long one can fuss with a photo! That main image panel is so beautiful IRL, this is just so truly disappointing.

• Stamps: Fantasy Floral Garden by Flourishes - www.flourishes.org
• Paper: Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Whisper White
• Ink: Same plus Versa Mark
• Markers: Same plus Certainly Celery, Almost Amethyst, Cameo Coral, Creamy Caramel
• Accessories: Black and Light Blue EP, Ticket Corner Punch, Brads, Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware, Ribbon, Sponges