No Time To Stamp?

I was so happy to see that a nice assortment of Nestabilities are finally back in stock and on the shelves at Flourishes!!! I am seeing a great assortment of ovals, circles, rectangles, hearts, tags and labels!!!! What fun!!! And as we all know, these products move very quickly, so if you’re interested — Check out the Nesties here.

A shipment of Basic Grey 6 x 6 Designer Paper Pads has also arrived. There are no greater DP’s than these fun little 6 x 6 pads — so easy to store and grab — my favorite size. Check out the Basic Grey pads here.

As always, we are fully stocked with May Arts Ribbons and the JustRite Monogram Stampers.

We offer free shipping onUS orders exceeding$50 and on International orders exceeding$100. Yes, I know that is a bit of an increase,and it is a change that was not easy to make, though necessary. Hope you will understand.

Just wanted to share right away, as I so love these products and, as you know, I couldn’t create without them!!!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! And remember, our new DT announcement comes on Sunday!!! Can’t wait!!!

This is an exciting time, but yet a sad time — as we usher in a new Design Team at Flourishes that means we must say goodbye to our current Design Team. They have served us well and we wish them all the best success in their future endeavors. They have become our friends and we will miss them — THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU — each and every one of you for all you have given of your time and talent. We all appreciate you more than you know!!!

Flourishes New Design Team will be announced on Sunday, June 1 — so please be sure to stop in and welcome them. We KNOW you will be excited, as are we!!!

Plus we have one more bit of exciting news — as an additional bonus this month, one new stamp set is also being released on June 1 — it’ll be a must-have for spring/summer!!!

Oh, and I almost forgot — does anyone out there like BLOG CANDY — really GREAT Blog Candy????? All I cansay about that right now is — stay tuned –

And the countdown begins —

Keyword ssnotime37-There is no time limit. You can play this challenge and upload yourproject at Splitcoastand/or your Blog, anytime at all! You (and that means anyone and everyone, blogger or not!)can play as many times as you like!!! The point is to keep it simple, quick and have fun!!! Please link back here.

The challenge this week isa Color Challenge — Black and White + 1 More Color.Andthe addition to this is you may use just that one color you select, OR you may use many varying shades of that one color. So, if you choose blue — you could use many shades of blue. But if you want to just use one shade, then that is fine too. So, essentially, the cards in this challenge can be taking on 2 looks — one would be black and white with an accent color, and if you use many shades of one color with the black and white as an accent, then you’ll get more of a monochromatic look. Either way, it’s fine — just make sure you use black, white and one other color family. And, as always, try to keep it simple!!

Here are some samples: (please bear with me for the next couple hours as I link samples as they come in)

Check out Julie Koerberssample here.

Check out Dee Jacksons sample here.

Check out Tammy Hershbergers sample here.

Check out Jennifer Bucks sample here.

Check out Janine Orchards sample here.

Check out Becky Oehlers Sample here.

What a fabulous Stamp Simply Team!!! Thank you girls!!! Much appreciated!!!

And here is my sample:

• Stamps: Peace by Flourishes
• Paper: White, Black Textured, Bashful Blue
• Ink: Versa Fine Onyx Black and Versa Mark
• Accessories: Black Embossing Powder, Black Velvet, Black Brads

Now, THIS should have been my 10 Minute Tuesdsay Card — LOL!!! This really is a quick card to reproduce, which is what I like to keep in mind when I do a Christmas card. This 5.5″ square carduses Peace by Flourishes , which is a super set for quick cards. I stamped and black embossed the main image, and merely stamped the sentiment. The black paper is textured, which doesn’t show up well in the photo, but it adds alot IRL. I added the 4 black brads andwrapped the black velvet ribbon completely around the card front.

Hint on tying this knot: This being velvet, it gets a bit bulky to tie and still lay neatly. I am usually rather fussy about getting the bows or knots neat and having the proper side of the ribbon exposed; HOWEVER, in this case, to get everything to lay properly, the WRONG side of the velvet is exposed on the center knot portion. When tying your knot, if you twist the ribbons so the wrong side will be on the knot portion, then the RIGHT sides will be exposed on your tail portions.

And again, for tying knots with these narrow ribbons, I want to link you to a great bow tying tutorial done by Val Stangle (11Valerie11). What she is doing in this video, is exactly what I say to myself in my head each time I tie a knot like this — left over right, 6 and 12 0′clock, right over left. Works like a charm. Thank you, Val, for making it so simple and easy to remember!!!

Remember when you upload to use the keyword above, followed by a comma.Please come back here to post (as a comment) that youve played, and provide a linksowe can check out your card right away. You can find all cards uploaded for this challenge by clicking Gallery Submissions Here.

Some wanting to play said they have never uploaded before. If thats you and you need help uploading, just go to my Challenge No. 1 here.

That’s it for today’s challenge — hope you all find time to play sometime!!! And, oh yes, we have a Chrsitmas Card Challenge running in the Flourishes Forum at SCS and this is my 2nd Christmas card this month, so I’m getting there — LOL!!! Please, feel free to join our Christmas Card Challenge as well!!!

Thanks so much for stopping in again and I wish you all a wonderful weekend!!!

Just a quick note to remind you all there are continual games going on in the Flourishes Forum at SCS.

We are running a never-ending Featured Stamper Challenge. Any and all cards made with Flourishes images can be entered here, and double dipping with other challenges is fine — we are ALL for multi-tasking — LOL!!! We’re on Week #2 right now. Each weekly winner is featured on the Flourishes Newsletter Blog. Each weekly winner’s name is thrown in a drawing for a monthly winner, who wins a prize!!! Our first weekly winner was Lois, a/k/a Clownmom. You can check out Lois’ article here.

We also have a never-ending Christmas Card Challenge running as well. There are no winners or prizes for this challenge, but getting a head start on your Christmas cards is gift in itself!!! Plus, viewing the challenge entries gives you ideas to get you inspired!!! And again, you MAY enter your Christmas Card Challenge entries into the Featured Stamper Challenge as well!!!

Remember, please use the keyword FLLC for all Flourishes uploads — we all LOVE to be able to easily find them and see what you’ve been up to!!!

And tomorrow is our Stamp Simply Challenge here on my Blog — again, it’s a super easy one that truly ANYONE can play — hope to see you then!!!

Some Splitcoasters from this area are planning a stamping event in Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula. Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend. It is the first weekend of August — what a gorgeous time to enjoy the beauty of our Upper Peninsula. You can check out this thread for more details and to sign up!!! I’ll be there and hope to meet many of you!!!

Is this a gorgeous bouquet, or what!!! Our friend, Kellie, over at Polished to Perfection, has created the absolutely most gorgeous complete wedding ensemble using Flourishes Lace Heart, Damask and Damask Reverse, along with the JustRite Monogram Stamper. And as a little tease, I wanted to show you this beautiful bouquet, which is a portion of Kellie’s project.

You can see the complete wedding ensemble at Polished to Perfection. Whether you are planning a wedding, or just want to make a pretty card, treat bag or decorate your table, you’ll see some wonderful projects that will be sure to inspire you!!!

Thank you so much, Kellie, for choosing to use our beautiful Flourishes images on this wonderful project!!!

Hi everyone! Today I’m starting a new Wednesday feature called May I Suggest… I’ll be showing you a card and then giving you a better view of the things I’ve used to make the card, with some additional suggestions as to things that would work well with the selection of product used. I needed a feminine sympathy card for today, so here it is:

The paper I am showcasing on this card is one of my very favorite Basic Grey 6 x 6 pads, called Lily Kate. It has such lovely prints and colors so suitable for spring. I’ve also used one of Flourishes latest releases, Lilac, and my sentiment is from Flourished Words. I used Nestability Dies by Spellbinders to cut and emboss my main image as well as sentiment. My lilacs were colored with Copics, and here are the colors:

As I said above, Lily Kate has been one of my very favorite of the Basic Grey pads, and that’s what I’d like to give you a better look at today. I spread the sheets out so you can see them better and I’ve paired them up with some of the fabulous May Arts ribbons that Flourishes carries. Here’s the 1st photo:

Aren’t these just the most gorgeous prints and colors!!! The ribbons I’ve selected that work well with the Lily Kate colors are the Olive Green Scalloped Edge Satin hanging on top, the White and Ivory Wide Satin, and the Dotted Sheers in Light Blue, Apple Green, Maize and Lavender. Just looking at these makes me want to go and do something with them!!!

And these gorgeous prints and colors finish off the pad. There are 2 sheets of each in the pad, for a total of 36 sheets per pad. Hanging from the top are again, the Olive Green Scalloped Edge Satin, Chocolate Velvet and the Pink Scalloped Edge Satin. The Wide Satins are shown in Pink, Chocolate, Ivory and White. The 1″ wide Sheers are shown in Pink and Chocolate, and the Dotted Sheers are shown again in Light Blue and Maize.

And I can not, in all clear conscience, make ribbon recommendations without showing you my all time favorite ribbons. Yes, black ribbons are a staple in my stamp room — I just could NOT design without them. My theory is simple — when all else fails — add black!!! Or if you’re in a hurry, just add black!!! You can never go wrong with black accents and black ribbon — a fool proof winner, every time!!! The ribbons shown here are the Wide Sheer, Dotted Sheer, Scalloped Edge Satin and Velvet.

I also wanted to recommend these soft and pretty colors in the LuminArte Twinkling H20’s, which are beautiful, shimmery little pots of watercolors. They are sold in 12 packs, and this pack is number 1256. Although I have not used the H20’s on the project shown in this post, this magnolia card shows how just a bit of H20’s added on as an accent after coloring can spruce up an image. Fun little pots of color and they are so easy to use — just like watercoloring with a wet brush when you were a child, only our paints are so much prettier, plus they shimmer!!! The H20’s are hard cakes in these little jars. You need to wet them to paint. You can take a waterbrush(which is a brush filled with water) and dip it into your pot of H20’s, or you can take a little spray bottle and spritz some water into your pot and use a regular paint brush if your prefer. Whatever works for you — just get the hard cake dampened and paint. And you can control the intensity of the color by how much water you have on your brush. Once you load your brush with color, just dab it on a scrap paper first to get off that first “blob” of water so it doesn’t mess up your project, and then paint away. They are SO FUN to play with — GUARANTEED FUN — no matter what your age!!! You can use them to entirely paint your image or you can color it first and then just use the H20’s as a shimmery accent — pretty much anything goes!!! They are new to me and I am still experimenting. The instructions say you can also apply this paint directly to your rubber stamp — which I will be trying later this week — so stayed tuned to see how that turns out - LOL!!! Can’t wait to try!!! Oh, also, it was recommended to me by the manufacturer that once you get your cakes of color wet, that you DO NOT recap the jars, just keep them open so the cake can dry up again.

Now, there is just one more item I’d like to recommend today, and that is the sentiment set called Flourished Words. This is a set of 27 individual words that can be used alone or together to form phrases, all done in a small, elegantly scripted font. It is what I used on the card above. As an example of how versatile this set is, by combining the words, here aresome ofthe options you have for a sympathy sentiment: Sympathy, Our Sympathy, All Our Sympathy, With All Our Sympathy, My Sympathy, All My Sympathy, With All My Sympathy — so you get the idea. And realize, these are only sympathy options — there are TONS of other words in the set so you can create endless sentiments. This is just one of those timeless and classicsets you will use forever and ever once you have it!!!

And this wraps up today’s May I Suggest…

Thank you so much for stopping in and I hope you are all having a wondeful week and are enjoying some warm spring temps — something we are still waiting for!!!

Hi everyone — I made it for 10 Minute Tuesday today — sorry about the lapse last week!!! And I am multi-tasking today as my card not only works for 10 Minute Tuesday, but also for the Christmas Card Challenge I am running in the Flourishes forum. Check it out — all are welcome to play!!! Here’s my card:

I used what I consider one of the easiest Christmas sets ever to use — Flourished Christmas. It features this gorgeous, flourishy tree as well as a reindeer with antlers everyone loves!!! He is my kind of deer!!! I love this tree as it is so simple to use — stamp it, and be done if you like. It also looks great embossed, and on today’s card I merely stamped it in brown ink and accented it just a bit with the Quickie Glue Pen and SU Dazzling Diamonds. I have also decorated it in the past with Dew Drops!

My Merry Christmas sentiment is in the same set, as is my inside verse, which reads: May your Christmas flourish with peace and good will. My Merry Christmas is stamped on Very Vanilla and then cut and embossed using one of the new Nestabilities tag dies by Spellbinders. This one is a slider for ribbons — how fun!!!! My velvet ribbon is run through it and attached back to itself with brads — quick and easy and I love the rich and elegant look it lends!!!

My tree and sentiment panelsare outlined with a Sharpie Metallic Gold pen. The tree is then framed with a scrap I found of gold mirrored cardstock. The background paper is from Scarlet’s Letter by Basic Grey. LOVE this pack. Although it is not one of the newest packs out by BG, it is new to me and I just love the rich colors it has. I LOVE browns and just haven’t used them as much lately as I used to, so I am really enjoying the brown tones and other dark neutralsin this paper pack. The sheer ribbon is run through 2 holes punched with my eyelet setter and hammer and as I’ve said before, I really like the delicate feel of this sheer ribbon — superior to any I’ve used before — it is by May Arts.

• Stamps: Flourished Christmas by Flourishes
• Paper: SU Very Vanilla, unknown Mirrored Gold, Scarlet’s Letter by Basic Grey
• Ink: SU Basic Brown
• Accessories: Velvet and Sheer Ribbon, Gold Brads, Nestability Tags by Spellbinders, Gold Metallic Sharpie, Quickie Glue Pen, SU Dazzling Diamonds, Dimensionals, Eyelet Setter, Hammer, Piercer, Mat Pack

Editing to Add: Let me address the issue of 10 Minutes — LOL!!! Do I design and make these cards in only 10 Minutes — NO!!! I am slow at design; however, once the design is there to follow, do I feel this is a really quick card to reproduce — Yes, absolutely!!! The paper cuts are all easy, the stamping is minimal. And, OK, perhaps on this card using the Nestability die and then putting the brads in the velvet (really easy and quick), may push this a bit beyond the 10 minutes to reproduce, but I love the look and feel it’s worth the extra couple minutes. But if 10 minutes is important, then change the sentiment slider with ribbon/brads to a simple oval punched sentiment — it would still look great and save a couple minutes!!!

Thank you so much for stopping in — I truly appreciate it. Tomorrow I plan to start a new regular (I hope) feature for Wednesday’s called — May I Suggest…. Hope you can stop by to check it out!!! Have a wonderful week everyone!!!

We are proud to announce the selection of Flourishes 1st Featured Stamper!!! Here is a little peek at some of her creations this past week:

You can see the full creations and meet Flourishes 1st Featured Stamper at the Flourishes Newlsetter Blog. And if you’d like to enter to be a future Featured Stamper for Flourishes and get your name in the drawing for a great prize from Flourishes, you can read all the details here.

Happy Memorial Day everyone!!! Thanks so much for stopping in!!!

Good news!!! The JustRitefolksjust launched their new Blog!!! Congrats to JustRite!!!

And, in celebration, they are offering some FABULOUS BLOG CANDY — would anyone out there like to try to win a JustRite Monogram Stamper and Accessories????? Check it out at the JustRite Blog — and good luck everyone!!!! The drawing will be on Monday morning, so you have plenty of time to sign up yet!!!

And remember, if you don’t win one, we do carry a good variety of the JustRite Monogram stampers at Flourishes — you can see them here!!! And, as always, free shipping is offered on all purchases over $45.00!!!

Wonderful Memorial Day Weekend wishes to you all!!!