Bees and Blooms and Inchies

Welcome to Day Two of Flourishes April Releases!  Today's set is very fun and unique.  It's called Bees and Blossoms designed by Becky Fleck in one of my favourite styles - pointillism.  Becky develops highlight and shadow with the presence of tiny dots in the design.  It is really versatile and can be stamped alone in ink to make a great statement, or it can be coloured up to also give a wow effect.  And this is a very special set as Becky is donating 100% of her artist profits to the Relay for Life from this set.  As well Flourishes is also donating 10% of the profit from this set to the Relay too.  I LOVE this as that was one of the first events we did to raise funds after my husband's cancer diagnosis.  

I thought I'd do something really different from my usual style and create some buzzing little bee trails on inchies.  I stamped this little bee 4 times with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Flourishes Classic White Cardstock in different positions.  Then I added some piercing detailing on 3 of the bees to give the feeling of motion.  I coloured them up with the Sunflower Collection of Copics, giving them a little dazzle on the wings with a glitter pen.  I paired this with Flourishes Color Made Easy Sunflower and Classic Black Cardstock.  On the bee inchie without the buzzing trails I framed it with Spellbinders Lattice Squares Die to highlight that square.  

Then to show off the pointillism on the flowers I just stamped them in Tuxedo Black onto the Sunflower card stock, and then ran that section through my Fireflies Embossing Folder, because it has the same feel of the buzzing bee trails.  

Here you might be able to pick out the shimmer on the bees wings.  Some checked gingham and lace ribbon, a Sunflower button and some iridescent string finish it off!

Now you can join in on the fun and find today's Mystery Blogger somewhere amoung the Design Team.  Comment on her blog and you have a chance to win today's set! 

Amanda Havon

Christine Okken (you are here)

Cindy Lawrence

Danielle Kennedy

Heather Jensen

Julie Koerber

Maki Jones

Silke Ledlow

Stacy Morgan

Want another chance to win the whole April Release?  Be sure to join in on our Flourishes Summer Lovin' Challenge and create something with a summer theme.  See you back here tomorrow for a summer showstopper and a stunning new kit I got to play with!

Love what you see?  Want to pre-order these sets already?  Check out the Flourishes Store HERE.  

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Bees and Blooms and Inchies

Spring Blossoms

We've come full circle and now we have the next seasonal offering in our gorgeous Blossom Collection to show off to you today with Spring Blossoms!  Marcella did a beautiful job pulling together these spring flowers into beautiful bouquets, corner elements and sprays with daffodils, lenten roses, magnolias, snow drops and berries.  The set can stand alone, or pair beautifully with the other elements in our amazing Blossom Collection.  

Isn't that bouquet amazing?  I went with a really soft palette for this design with peachy-pink daffodils, and cream magnolias, with the little touch of greenery and a soft creamy-green lenten rose.  I stamped the image onto Flourishes Classic White with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  Then to get the embossed effect I used Flourishes Perfectly Pierced Classic Frames Die and rather than cut it out, I just embossed the die into the paper (using an Embossing Pad) in the sandwich.  Then, after I coloured the image wtih Copics I aged the outside layers with Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress ink to give it more of a old world feel.  

To get the crown effect over the top of the die, I just ran the top edge of the paper through just that much of the Decorative Labels Twenty-Two die.  Because I wanted the pretty striped paper (MME - Market) to show through I stamped the sentiment onto Vellum Cardstock cut with our Flourishes Perfectly Pierced Classic Windows Die and sponged it lightly.  The ribbon is my very favourite ever ribbon from Flourishes - Woven Iridescent Ivory ribbon, I added a wee row of lace and some Candi that I colured with my copics to match.  Dreamy feeling to me, I really love it!

Now you can join in on the fun and find today's Mystery Blogger somewhere amoung the Design Team.  Comment on her blog and you have a chance to win today's set! 

Amanda Havon

Christine Okken (you are here)

Cindy Lawrence

Danielle Kennedy

Heather Jensen

Julie Koerber

Maki Jones

Silke Ledlow

Stacy Morgan

Want another chance to win the whole April Release?  Be sure to join in on our Flourishes Summer Lovin' Challenge and create something with a summer theme.  See you back here tomorrow for Day Two!

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Spring Blossoms

Gentle Callas

I recently put about 200 of my cards up for sale with my friends around here, trying to make some investment in our hopeful summer plans for sabbatical travels.  I have sold about 100 so far  - so that's  a real answer to prayer for us.  We have big dreams for this summer to travel knowing that this is a rare opportunity for us as a family.  

My other sister-in-law who is in the US asked if I had some "praying for you" cards and she'd buy them too, so I went through what was left and found some for her, but also made this new one too.  Calla lilies are so elegant and I love the colours in this MME pack - In Bloom that I picked up at Michaels.  The set is Flourishes - Calla Lilies, stamped onto Flourishes Classic Ivory with Memento Tuxedo Black.  The dies are Floral Ovals, Deckled Ovals and Flourishes Perfectly Pierced Hourglass Die Set for the sentiment, using our Flourishes Color Made Easy Tiger Lily Cardstock paired with Gray.  

I added some little fish tale flags in the designer paper and with some crochet lace and then a little poppy button with some iridescent string.  

Here's the Copics I used:  

Y0000, Y21, Y23, Y26, YR30

Thanks for stopping by!  Come back starting Wednesday for the Flourishes April Sneak Peeks!

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Gentle Callas

Photography 52 - 14

Just a few more pictures from Easter this week.  

I'd love to say that my kids are always smiling and it's easy to get a picture of them together....however its more like -----> this next one.

Yep - ^ that's what it's far more like :) SHEESH

I made them sit until we got a good one of our family.  

Easter Eggs in my mom's crystal

The Girl Easter Egg Hunters.  

Two of the boy Easter Egg hunters.  My nephew 'got it' way more this year...last year he was a little lost.  This year he had so much fun looking for eggs.  

And this little guy thinks he's grabbing grandma's stash of eggs.  BUSTED!

Love this picture of the little guy :)  

Reading to the cousins :)

Love this one.  

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Photography 52 - 14

Summer Lovin' Challenge

I LOVE pink lemonade!!  I just had to get that out there :)

Welcome to the April Pre-Release Challenge at Flourishes!  This month's theme is a fun one:  With spring here and warmer weather on the way, let's get ready for a heat wave on our cards and creations! Simply make a card with nice weather or summer in mind and you'll be in the running to win our April Release! FLLCAPR13.   

When I think of summer, one of the things I would love most would be to have a wrap around porch on my house with a lovely wicker chair to sit in and read or to have a little pink lemonade with my friends :)

So here's my summer scene on my dream-wrap-around-porch.  I've paired Flourishes On the Porch set with a sentiment from Flourishes Inside and Out Congrats.  Stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black on Flourishes Classic White, then cut out with Spellbinders - Decorative Labels Twenty-Two die.  I like the fact that you can thread ribbon like this light teal velvet through the side part of the die.  The papers are Flourishes Color Made Easy Emerald Coast Cardstock and MME - Remarkable.  

As you can see, I did a little paper piecing with colouring on the pillow and throw.  I love how cozy it looks.  Tiny touches of accents with some Candi and two little tabs of wrinkled brown ribbon.  I really love how this turned out.   It definitely says lazy summer days to me.

So how about you join us in the Challenge?!  It's a great way to get a little summer in your day, and you could win the April Stamp Releases from Flourishes!  Sneak Peeks start next week.  Just head on over to the Flourishes Blog to see all the contest rules today!

Now you can visit the rest of the Design Team to be inspired by their Summer Lovin' Creations...

Amanda Havon

Christine Okken (you are here)

Cindy Lawrence

Danielle Kennedy

Heather Jensen

Julie Koerber

Maki Jones

Silke Ledlow

Stacy Morgan

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Summer Lovin' Challenge

Cherries Jubilee

One of my favourite treats each summer is our cherry tree (as you can probably tell by my blog design too).  Last year we picked 50 lbs of fruit and made dozens of pies and jelly.  It's a tart cherry tree and I love it that way.  Right now it's buried under a lot of snow, but by summer it will bloom and be beautiful and then give us fruit.  This is such a fav set of mine from Flourishes - Cherries and Peaches.  I stamped the cherries on Flourishes Classic White with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, then did a little "out of the box" trimming and then die cut it with the Spellbinders Circles die.  That's bordered with an Octagon die shape with Metallic Black cardstock.  I really love the combination of white/black/red and green together for this image.  The papers are Echo Park - For the Record.

Love colouring these cherries!  Can you also see I added a soft stamping of the tiny cherries image in Pear Tart Memento Ink and then Love Letter Ink for the sentiment?  I've also used some beautiful black lace around the fish tail banner, with a little looped bow and button.  

+R32, R35, R37 and BV02 for shadows

Yep....now I'm craving cherry pie!

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Cherries Jubilee