Spring Flowers

The challenge this time at The Card Concept is Spring Flowers, and the photo inspiration is a bucket of lilacs.  Here's my take on the challenge:

supplies: white, green, and shades of purple cardstock, Hero Arts Hibiscus Style ( a woodblock from 2005), Simon's Christmas Blessings die, Sizzix flowers embossing folder, Wilted Violet and Shaded Lilac distress inks, Sizzix Branch with Leaves die, various purple sequins

I first smooshed 2 purple distress inks on a white card panel, then after it was dry, I embossed the little flowers.  Then I affixed that to my white card base and then added the other elements.  I have an awful time figuring out what style my cards are - maybe mixed media?

After I finished my card, I remembered this old Flourishes set and made another one, much simpler in design:

supplies: white and lavender cardstock, Flourishes Sweet Violets, Chameleon Cool Tones markers to color, tumbled glass distress ink and finger dauber, Spellbinders Floral Ovals  die, Simon's Small Love You die

This card makes me think of those hand-painted porcelain pins that were popular in an earlier time......I'd guess this would fall into the clean and layered style.

Sweet

The cue word for this week's CASology challenge is sweet.  My mind went immediately to fresh juicy strawberries, and I used a stamp that I won years ago and have never used.  Many, many years ago, when I was more into gardening than stamping, I planted a little grouping of alpine strawberries, which are teensy-tiny little things, but just as tasty as their big sisters.  Over time, that patch has disappeared, but, I still find individual plants popping up here and there all over our gardens!  They are a joy to discover each year!

supplies: red and white cardstock, Flourishes Berry Sweet Frame set, markers, labels die

I stamped the berry sprig and sentiment on my white background, then cut out a red label frame and glued it around the stamped image, rounded the corners and attached it to a red card base.

Thinking of You

When I visited Theresa's blog recently her card reminded me of a Flourishes stamp that fits the bill for the Card Concept challenge, and also Kathy's 30-day Coloring Challenge.  I've always enjoyed coloring, no matter what the medium.......Here's my card; I guess I"d consider it Clean and Layered:

supplies: Flourishes Picking Wildflowers (retired), Avery Elle Simply Said Hello, white, yellow, pink and green cardstock, MFT Blueprints 20 (scallop rectangle and stitched rectangle) dies, Lawn Fawn and Paper Sweeties sequins

Fusion Challenge

I love how the bright yellows look against black and white, so here's my entry for this week's Fusion challenge:

supplies: black, white and yellow cardstock, Flourishes Lenten Rose, Hero Arts Antique Flower Background, Penny Black Indian Wheel (on largest banner)

I loved the symmetry of this sketch and didn't want to mess it up with a sentiment, so that's been left off until I send this out.  

Thanks for visiting!

It's a Wash(i)!

Reading my Blogger dashboard this morning, I came across this fun Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge that they're calling It's a Wash, and we're to use washi tape!  Just so happens that I found this sweet fabric tape yesterday when shopping with Joy and Carol and so I got right to it this morning!

The pansies were colored with Spectrum Noir markers to get as close as I could to the colors of the tapes.  The pansies and sentiment come from Flourishes Botanical Bookplates, vol. 2, and I added some irridescent sequins to their centers and in the corner of the card for a little sparkle.  

Thanks for stopping by today - I'll be back again tomorrow with my regular Wednesday Simon Says Stamp challenge post.  Enjoy your day!

Six for Six and my Hostess Picnic giveaway winner

Some business first.  I used Random.org to choose from among the comments left on my Picnic blog post, and the winner is Stacy K. Brais.  Congratulations, Stacy!

Flourishes is celebrating their 6th anniversary and this fun challenge called Six for Six gives us a recipe with 6 items we need to include on our cards!  A novel idea! 

Peach and green are so pleasing together!  Here's what I did:

supplies: white cardstock, papers from Graphic 45's Secret Garden pads and DCWV Garden Party (green background), white doily, Flourishes Botanical Bookplates Vol. 2, colored pencils and a green marker, Sizzix flowers embossing folder, peach ribbon, lace, pearls

Lilies of the valley are a sentimental favorite of mine, so I was thrilled when Flourishes made this stamp set. Thanks for a fun challenge, Flourishes, and Happy Anniversary!  Here's to at least 6 more!!

Flourishes Black and White challenge

Flourishes is celebrating its 6th anniversary with 2 weeks of challenges and giveaways!  Their first challenge is called Black & White.  I thought this was the perfect opportunity to use this darling silhouette from their Sweet Days of Summer set.

I also used their stamps Picking Wildflowers for the sentiment and Strips & Stripes, along with a Die-Namics Decorative Doily, punched Martha Stewart butterflies, and a Sizzix little flowers embossing folder.  

Nature's Textures

The current challenge at the Flourishes blog is to make a card that is inspired by the textures of nature.  I have long wanted to do this, so here was my push!

Using Flourishes Lilac set, I stamped the lilac spray, then paper-pieced the leaves and stems.  That was then die-cut into this Nesties Labels Eighteen shape.  After punching out several shades of blue and purple with  my Martha Stewart hydrangea punch, I then pieced in the individual florets.  The finished panel was then framed in a pale green and popped above my card front, which was embossed with a Sizzix ornate frames folder, also adding some more texture.

This photographed a bit more blue than the card actually is, but I'm pleased with the results. This lilac set was one of my first purchases from Flourishes, and, since it's a sentimental favorite flower of mine, it remains one of my favorite stamps.

Thanks for visiting me today!

CASE Study #140

Maile is our muse for CASE Study this week, and here's my take on it.

I started with a kraft card base as Maile did, stamping my background Dot Flower Pattern using Latte chalk ink.  I used the same ink to stamp the Lenten Roses onto ivory cardstock, and colored the leaves and flowers minimally with Memento markers before fussy-cutting them out.  Again following Maile's example, I added a pink ribbon and a sentiment from Find Joy, stamped in Cup o' Joe ink, then popped my flowers above the card base.  

Once again, thanks for visiting - Happy Mother's Day to those of you in the US!

Flourishes Progressive challenge

I haven't played for a long time at the Flourishes Blog. I love their stamps because of the variety of beautiful flowers they produce.  This week they have a really interesting challenge, a Progressive one - what a great idea!  It starts with a sketch, then adds 3 more steps: make it monochromatic, use some decorative paper, and add bling!  You can make 4 separate cards, or just 1, using all of the steps.  I chose to do the latter, using one of my favorite flowers from a set called Botanical Bookplates, volume 2.  The sentiment is also from the same set, and since its subject is hope, I went pink, thinking this would make a lovely card to send to a breast cancer patient. 

supplies: pink and white cardstock, Amuse pink gingham, doily, Flourishes Botanical Bookplates, vol. 2, VersaFine onyx  black ink, pink and green markers, pink dotted grosgrain ribbon, flower button, pink heart and round pearls, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares

Pop It!

I'm just squeaking in under the wire for this month's Flourishes new release Noon Time challenge.  This one is called "Pop It", and we simply have to pop up a portion of our creation with dimensionals.  I used the Strawberry set and after cutting it out with my Nesties Labels Eighteen, the panel is popped above the rest of the card:

other supplies: BoBunny Wild Berry Red Dot, Making Memories Spring Green Gingham, baby ric-rac, Hero Arts butterfly, We R Memory Keepers candy stripe twine

10-minute Resist

One last card for the Flourishes Gimme 10 challenge, and also for Julie Koerber's Celebrate Five challenge - I used resist for Julie and kept it very simple, just 4 easy steps, easily doable in 10 minutes.

supplies: white cardstock, Flourishes Sweet Days of Summer, VersaMark ink and Zing white embossing powder, tumbled glass and peacock feathers distress inks, Nesties scalloped rectangle die as a mask.

10 Minute Creations

The challenge at Flourishes is to make a clean and simple layout that can be done in 10 minutes.

Here's mine:

supplies: white cardstock, Flourishes set #53 Life, Love & Lemons, Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden collection, VersaFine onyx black ink, Letraset FlexMarkers

I'd also like to enter Julie Koerber's 5th Blogversary Celebration challenge with this card.  Happy Blogversary, Julie - and many more!!

Home Sweet Home

Flourishes has a challenge entitled "Home Sweet Home"; we're to choose something in our home that inspires us and base our card on that item.  I was inspired by this pretty little creamer that  was my Aunt's.  It's not old, but she loved pastels just like me, and it was part of her tableware. She and my uncle had no children of their own, and so they made all of their nieces and nephews feel very special. She was known for her baking, and we always came away from her home with something sweet from her kitchen.  And she was just as sweet herself.   This little creamer is a lovely remembrance of her, and I plan to keep it filled with little bouquets from the garden. 

I used the Flourishes stamp set Lenten Rose to make my card, using the softest colors I could find:

Pretty in Purple

Flourishes is introducing its new stamps for this month, and one of the noontime challenges is entitled Pretty in Purple:

One of my favorite stamps from them is this Lilac one, and I've used it often, but I don't think I've ever paper-pieced it:

supplies: white, purple, green, and kraft cardstock, Flourishes Lilac set, VersaFine onyx black ink, Nesties scalloped rectangles die, Martha Stewart eyelet edge punch, lavender gingham ribbon, lavendar button, white twine

The card is more of a notecard, sized  4" wide by 4 1/4" tall.

for the Book Worm

Flourishes is unveiling their new stamps for this month, and you can win the entire gorgeous release by entering their noon-time challenges.  Today's is entitled "the Book Worm challenge", and we're to make a bookmark or something that has to do with books.  The challenge ends tomorrow, so I had to work fast!  I don't have many Flourishes stamps but I thought this Sweet Violet set with the tiny violet image would be perfect on a bookmark.  This is the first time I've inked this diminutive image, but it stamped beautifully and clearly.   Thankfully I had ribbon and papers that matched my colored pencils.  Here is my bookmark:

supplies: dark lavender and white cardstocks, unknown lavender striped dp, Flourishes Sweet Violets, VersaFine onyx black ink, prismacolor pencils, Nesties ovals and scalloped ovals dies, Martha Stewart doily lace punch, lavender gingham ribbon, white twine

The challenge at Simon Says Stamp is "April Showers Bring Spring Flowers" - since these violets are popping up everywhere in my gardens and lawn, I'm entering this there, too.

Lovely in Lace

The challenge at Flourishes is to use some type of lace on our project.  I chose a paper doily.  The challenge at Simon Says Stamp is "April Showers Bring Spring Flowers"

sujpplies: white yellow and black cardstock, Teresa Collins Carolina Breeze dp, Flourishes Sweet Days of Summer, Versafine onyx black ink, yellow colored pencil, paper doily, black and white gingham ribbon, yellow button, Nesties scalloped circles and circles

Motherly Love challenge

Flourishes' current challenge is to make a card for Mom.  I instantly knew which of the Flourishes stamps I would use, as I associate lilacs with Mother's Day.  As long as I can remember, my Mom puts a big bouquet of lilacs on her Mother's grave.  They're a favorite of my Mom's and mine, too.  There is nothing like their fragrance!

supplies: Hero Arts lilac card, Amuse gingham, Core'dinations Asparagus cardstock, white cardstock, Flourishes Lilac stamp, Hero Arts CG119 Flourish Background, CL498 Celebrate Everyday, Versafine onyx black and Hero Arts soft lilac shadow inks, Nesties Labels Four, Martha Stewart monarch butterfly punch, We R Memory Keepers lemonade baker's twine, yellow button

A challenge at Flourishes

It's been too long since I played one of Flourishes challenges, and though I don't have any of their stamps here with me in Florida, they say it's okay to use anything we have to play along; I so appreciate that, as many other challenges don't extend that courtesy!  This week our challenge is to make a card using Black and White and 1 other color as a pop.  Here's my entry:

supplies: white cardstock, Webster's Pages black script design paper, Doodlebug Designs Cupcake grid design paper, Hero Arts S5101 Raindrop Background, PTI Spring Jar Fillers, and tiny tags die, Versafine onyx black ink and clear embossing powder, Michael's pink gingham ribbon

the Name Game Challenge

Over at the Flourishes blog, Suzanne Czosek has come up with a really fun idea for a challenge, to use your monogram, find something that represents each letter of it, and then use all of them on a card you create.  Fun idea!  I knew just what I wanted to do, using a new floral paper, and my latest Flourishes stamps from the set called Sweet Days of Summer.  My letters are LIB, and I used lace, ink, and blossoms!

supplies: white and orchid card stock, design papers from Echo Park Country Drive, Jillibean Soup Blossom Soup mini pad, BoBunny Sweet Pear Dot, Flourishes "Sweet Days of Summer", versamark ink and white embossing powder, Hero Arts Little Inker in pink, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, lace from Carole