Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Monogrammed Wedding Ensemble

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, here's just a portion of her project:



Gorgeous bouquet, or what? 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!!!

Sharon Johnson

May I Suggest ...

Today I started a new weekly feature called May I Suggest...

It was supposed to run on this Newsletter as well as on my personal Blog; however, due to many technical difficulties last night (LOL!!!), the post isn't making this Newsletter, but I would like to give you a little peek at what I am suggesting:

And I would like to invite you to my personal Blog, No Time To Stamp?, to read the entire article.

Hope to see you over there -- thank you so much!!!

Sharon Johnson

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Flourishes First Featured Stamper!

Oh, WOW!!! I had no idea how hard it was going to be to select only one person as Flourishes first Featured Stamper -- there were so many fabulous entries!!! Thank you one and all for playing along this week!!! We at Flourishes have thoroughly enjoyed viewing all of your wonderful creations and look forward to many more as the weeks continue!!!

And now I am pleased to announce --

Flourishes 1st Featured Stamper


Lois, a/k/a Clownmom

Congratulations, Lois!!!



And Flutter by Butterfly Iris is the card that was selected, made using Siberian Iris and Two Scoops Designer Paper by Basic Grey.

There are many things that I really love about this card. First and foremost is the beautiful way in which Lois colored the Iris, using her Prismacolor markers. Her shading is lovely, the Iris looks very realistic, and I love the fact that Lois has taken the time to research a variety of Irises on the internet, find out their proper names, and then color them as they would be in real life. Lois has a variety of Irises in her gallery that bear the names of and mimic their real life counterparts!!! Way to go, Lois!!! What a wonderful way to come up with such realistic and wonderful looking Irises!!!

I also really enjoy the square format that Lois used, the way she made use of the Two Scoops Designer Paper as an interesting background, and her use of Nestability dies by Spellbinders to showcase and frame her Iris!!! And the accents added by the brads and butterfly just finish it all off so nicely!!! A wonderful creation, Lois – thank you so much!!!

And once we are talking about the Siberian Iris stamp set, I’d like to show you another card that Lois made from the same set, featuring the small topiary stamp. I just love this topiary stamp and consider it a total bonus in the Siberian Iris set as it can stand on its own as a main image stamp every bit as well as the Iris can!!! Here is Triple Topiary Thank You.


Again, Lois colored her images with markers, lightly sponging the edges which really softens things up, and used her Nestability dies by Spellbinders to cut and frame the topiary images. The sentiment is done with Flourished Words, a set of small and elegantly scripted sentiments that can be combined in a variety of ways to form unlimited sentiments. This card is an excellent example of how great that little topiary stamp is!!! Thank you so much, Lois, for all your gorgeous creations this week with Flourishes images. You may view Lois’ entire SCS gallery here.

We encourage you all to play along this coming week for our Flourishes Featured Stamper #2. All you need to do is create any project at all using Flourishes images, upload to SCS, and link to the Flourishes forum on SCS. You can read the complete details here.

As winner of this week's Flourishes Featured Stamper, Lois' name will be put in the drawing for a prize to be drawn on July 1. Thanks so much for sharing your talent with us Lois, and good luck in the drawing!!! We look forward to many more of your wonderful creations!!!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA and all who so graciously serve and give of themselves to protect our freedoms!!! Hope you are all off to a wonderful week!!!

Sharon Johnson

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Four Frazzled Flourishes!

Yes, all of the Flourishes are frazzled – frightfully frazzled!!!! What started out with all good intentions to offer our registered customers and Newsletter subscribers with a 10% off coupon code, has turned into the most frustrating experience the Flourishes have faced. Although many, many, many FLLC customers have taken advantage of their coupon code this week, it seems an equal number have not, and we have heard from countless dozens upon dozens of customers feeling frustrated because they were not provided with the coupon code. Jan Marie has talked with customers on the phone until she can talk no more, and letters of explanation have been sent, until fingers can no longer type; hence, this Blog post to explain to all what has occurred. And we’ll be very honest with you and tell you the whole story – LOL!!! Are you ready to read this novel????

The purpose of this email campaign was to see how effective our emails are. Do people really open and read the emails sent? Well, we found our answer – and that is exactly what backfired in our faces, resulting in four frightfully frazzled Flourishes!!! LOL!!! The emails with the coupon codes were sent ONLY to customers who were BOTH 1) registered as customers (you do this at checkout by agreeing to set up an account; essentially this gives us permission by Federal law to contact you via email with promotions); and 2) subscribers to the Flourishes Newsletter. If you have completed only one of these steps, you did not get an email. If you completed both of these steps you did get the email.

OK, so that determined who did and did not get the emails for this campaign. The emails were sent out early on the morning of May 14. The title of the email was Flourishes Announces and it announced the addition of Sharon Johnson as a partner, it then linked her No Time To Stamp? Blog, announced the 10% off, and THEN below that, it gave the coupon code and advised that there is free shipping on purchases over $45.00. OK, simple enough – well – one would think – LOL!!! Or so we did –

As stated above, after Jan Marie’s dozens of phone conversations with customers, it became VERY clear where the problem was. She waited on the phone as customers searched their emails for the May 14 notice – oh yes, here it is!!!! Some had opened the emails previously, some had not. OK, for those who had opened their emails, what had they remembered reading from it? Well, that Sharon was a new partner – well, what then – well, “then I clicked onto her Blog”. End of story. And therein lies the problem. Customers were NOT reading to the end of the email to find that they were provided with a coupon code. Then upon hearing a code had been issued and they “weren’t given one” the phones started ringing and the emails started flying in – and here we are, 3 days later, Four Frazzled Flourishes!!!

What can we say???? We’re so terribly, terribly sorry – because we are.

And what can we do differently next time??? Well, not much – other than try to impress upon everyone that if you want to take advantage of special offers, you MUST read your emails.

And what did we learn??? We learned that a good portion of people truly do not read their emails, and I guess in that sense you could consider this email campaign successful as we DID learn that, and that was, after all, one of the original intents.

Did we expect this reaction from customers??? No, absolutely not – it was the farthest thing from our minds – we thought we were doing a good thing (and it WAS good for all those who actually read the email – LOL!!!)

So, another day in the life of a Flourish – or Four Flourishes. Our sincerest apologies to all who felt slighted. No ill-will was ever intended towards anyone, and we are hoping all will read this Blog Post and come to a better realization of what happened. We look forward to continued relationships with all of you, trying our best to provide you with quality products, superior service and unparalleled customer support.

Photopolymer hugs to all –

Jan Marie, Nancy, Sharon D and Sharon J

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Are You a Subscriber?

Are you a subscriber to Flourishes Newsletter? I sincerely hope you are because a little surprise came in your e-mail bright and early this morning.

Your discount code can be used on any product Flourishes carries and boy.....have we expanded our inventory. It is time to expand our warehouse!

We are carrying D. I. Y. Monogram Stamper with accessories and LuminArte Twinkling H2Os, Polished Pigments, and Pure Mica. AND lets not forget two new stamp releases, the adorable Rock A Bye Baby and Lilac.

Shop to your hearts content without leaving the comfort of your home!

If you are not a subscriber, sign up now, don't miss out on any future specials.

What about the great news of Sharon Johnson becoming into business with Jan, Nancy and SharonD? Watch for more about the partnership!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Twinkling H2Os and Much More






Shine, Glitz, glamor, and sparkle that seems to drive our world. Not usually my style but I do like a little shimmer and sparkle in my life. Now I am carrying it over into my card creations.



Did you know you could turn any paper into a "metallic"? With twinkling H2O's and a little water I put a little color wash around the edge of my green and lilac paper. The shade of H2O should be close to the paper color but does not have to match.



Now that Flourishesllc started carrying 12 pack mini pots a wide range of shimmering color is available.

All you do is take an aqua brush, (the water is right in the handle, no mess) pick up a little color directly from the pot and paint the area you want to add twinkle to any image.

The Twinkling H2O's come in 5 gram mini pots, twelve to a package with a variety of colors.

The Primary Elements Polished Pigments are brilliant ground pigments mixed with Micas. They are created with pure color no fillers, and added mica for sparkle.

PEPP's are mixed 1 scoop of powder to 2 drops of #2 Simple Solutions. Mix to the consistency you like (adding a drop or two more of solution will make the color more sheer. Purchase in 4pks.

Polished pigment gives you a coloring range from semi-translucent to translucent depending on how much color and solution you use.

You can mix PEPP with @pearl Ex or powdered pearls to add even more shimmer. Mix colors to your hearts content it is limited only by your imagination. You are able to mix PP's with Gum Arabic, and Not simple solution, for a different look. Use 1 part gum Arabic to 3 parts color mix in a little water.

The concentrated color will stain you hands and carpet. Ivory soap will work on your hands.

Pure Mica metallic have more sparkle and are avalible in 21 gram jars.

All Luminarte is made in the USA.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Introducing JustRite Monogram Stamp Kits

Alphabets, letters, monograms. You see them everywhere – on cards, scrapbook pages, custom stationary, invitations, book plates and recipe cards. Flourishes now has the perfect tools for making custom monograms quick and easy. The folks at JustRite have developed a unique mounting and stamping system that will have you creating your own monogrammed stamped images in minutes! Sharon Johnson created this beautiful set with the Monogramer along with Flourishes background stamps.

First, check out these DIY Monogram Stamper Kits. Each kit includes at least one interlocking/interchangeable alphabet stamp set (and two of the kits have more than one alphabet set), three border stamps and a uniquely designed wooden mount. All this packaged in a nice storage box!

Take a look at how this combines the best of unmounted rubber and a wood mount. The border stamps and alphas are unmounted rubber, but take a look at the back of the stamps and the back of the wood mount!! The backs of both the stamps and mounts have grooves that allow them to snap into place!! No double stick tape or cling foam to use!! Just snap the borders and letters in place and you are ready to ink and stamp!

















The Damask Border kit (shown above) comes with the following: One large (7/8”) alphabet set – Times New Roman font, three different Damask border stamps and a wooden mount.

The Special Occasions kit comes with the following: One large (7/8”) alphabet set – Special Occasions font, two medium (7/16”) alphabet sets – Special Occasions font, three different elegant border stamps and a wooden mount.

The Curlz kit comes with the following: One large (7/8”) alphabet set – Curlz font, two medium (7/16”) alphabet sets – Curlz font, three different fun border stamps and a wooden mount.

Want more??? What if you are doing a BIG monogram project, such as wedding invitations or custom stationary and you need a tool to do this quickly?


The Monogram Stamper is for you. This set comes with the Monogram Stamper tool, one reversible ink pad (one side is inked in black, the other side is dry and ready to be inked using any color of your own water based dye ink, 4 different border stamps, one large alphabet stamp, two medium alphabet stamps – all in an attractive storage box.

The stamper tool has the same “groove” system as the wooden mounts so all the alpha and border stamps work with both. Just press the borders and letters in the groove, then use the tool in a manner similar to those self stamping devices you see in office supply stores. Only this one is much better – you can change out the letters and borders, and change ink pads. AND, if you want your border to be one color and your letters to be a different color – no problem!! We sell dry ink pads that are “two color pads”!! The pad is designed to hold one color ink around the perimeter and another color ink in the middle – how cool is that!! But even better…all the dry pads, both the one color and two color are double sided. This means you can have one pad with different colors on each side.

So, in addition to the Kits and the Monogram Stamper, Flourishes also carries additional accessories: dry ink pads , a Numbers stamp set, and another set of borders that contain 3 stamps: “From the Desk of”, “From the Library of”, and “From the Kitchen of”.

Check out all these items at the Flourishes store HERE.