The Feel of Fall -- let the fun begin!

All of us at Flourishes are giddy getting ready for our September release and we can't wait for the fun to begin!

In a little less than a week - we will usher in the 'Feel of Fall' and will unveil a handfull of new stamp sets that are just perfect for this time of year! Wait until you see them! While some are sure to create that perfect homespun charm, another one-of-a-kind set urges us to band together and "Fight Like Girls!" We'll kick off the sneak peeks next Wednesday on the Flourishes Newsletter -- and you won't want to miss a minute of the action! Each day will bring a chance to win the set of the day!

But first, a chance to win all FOUR of our new releases! Just make a card using this sketch for our Feel of Fall Challenge! Edited to add: You can use Flourishes stamps (if you have them) but, if not -- we'd love for you to play along!!

Need a little creative inspiration? How about checking out these fabulous creations from our even more fabulous Senior Design Team!

Faith Hofrichter

Christine Okken

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan


Julie Koerber

Laura Fredrickson

Latisha Yoast

For more on the mechanics of these fine ladies' cards, simply click on their names to find out more!

Christine Okken
Faith Hofrichter
Julie Koerber
Latisha Yoast
Laura Fredrickson
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan

We hope you make time for play time! All you need to do is link your creation onto our new Mr. Linky link box below - click on the box and a second box will pop up, add your URL linking to your actual blog post and... you're in the running! If you upload to SCS, please use the keyword FLLCSEPT. Remember though, in order to be in the running, you have to link up your card by clicking on the Mr. Linky logo. The contest closes Friday, September 11th at 4:00 PM CST. The winner will be announced during our Power Hour Release Party which kicks off that night at 9PM Central time!



Good luck and we'll see you back here Sunday when we unveil our latest designer to be "In the Limelight!!" We love this designer's creative talent and we know you'll love Sundays on the Flourishes Newsletter watching her in action! We'll see you then!

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge(FTTC31)!

It is time for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge(FTTC31)!!! A big thanks to Liz William for guest hosting with us last week! Thanks so much, too, to all of you who played along with us with the pearl challenge. Keep reading to find out who won! We also have the August monthly winner listed.

Do not forget to use Mr. Linky when you play!!!

The Friends of Flourishes blog design team are bringing you exciting and different challenges each week. Everyone can PLAY and anyone can WIN! Make sure you continue reading to find out how.

This week Kimberly Crawford is our host. Kim is challenging us to no coloring. You can use solid images or use a technique to showcase outline stamps in a non-colored way. There are many techniques from paper piecing, embossing, glittered, or heat embossing to name a few. Whichever you decide, would love to see what you create!

Let's go see what the blog design team created with the no coloring challenge this week.

Up first this week is Kimberly Crawford. Kimberly is using the Cherries and Peaches stamp set. This is gorgeous, Kim!!! I just love the colors and patterns. For the no coloring challenge, Kim paper pieced the leaves and used some red glitter for the cherries. It makes them look mouth-watering sweet!!! Beautiful detailing and design, Kim!!!

Next up is Silke Ledlow . Silke is using the I Love Roses stamp set. Beautiful colors and piercing detailing, Silke!!! For the no coloring challenge, Silker paper pieced the leaves and the rose using different patterns to create visual interest. She also used the paper tole technique to create dimension and depth with the rose. Wonderful looking card, Silke!!!

Up next is Betty Wright. For my card, I am using Poinsettias and Boxwood set. I am using some basicgray lemonade dp. I used the paper tole technique as well. I embossed with a snowflake pattern that mimics the pinking nestabilities shaped framing. I added some gold wheat shimmerz and kaleidescope embossing powder for added sparkle. I finished with some pearls, gold cording, and a satin and sheer ribbon bow!!!






Cindy Haffner is up next. Cindy is using the Coffee with Friends and Strawberries stamp set. Wonderful colors and textures, Cindy. Cindy paper pieced the cup using some basicgray dp. She embossed the background and used the same background embossing on the cup. She finished her card with a silver cord frame and some lace with ribbon combination. Beautifully done, Cindy!!!

Please check out our individual blogs for more card details!!

Silke Ledlow

Betty Wright

Cindy Haffner

Kimberly Crawford

We also have the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday blog button working properly again. If you need the code, check here.

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Winner(FTTC30)!!!

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:35
Timestamp: 2009-09-01 01:45:16 UTC

Kathy J. (Wattle) (Wattle) Congratulations!!! You Won!!! Please email:

flourishesllccustomerservice@cox.net for your coupon code!!!!

The Flourishes Timeless Tuesday

August Monthly Winner!!!

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:16

Timestamp: 2009-09-01 01:49:32 UTC

Terry (Krazy's Place ) Congratulations!!!! You won the monthly pick for August!!! Please email flourishesllccustomerservice@cox.net for your coupon code!!!

Now, it is your turn to play! Here is what you need to know!

• Anyone can play whether you have Flourishes stamps or not. Of course, if you have Flourishes stamps, by all means, use them.

• Use keyword code FTTC31 when linking to SCS or public gallery. Leave a comment on this post with a link to your creation. Please give a direct link to your blog post so we can see the Flourishes challenge post and not just the general page. To get the full link, click to read the comments. Another page will open that will have just the one card and your comments. Copy and paste that link here in the comments section.

• If you use either your blog link or online gallery, please give an active Flourishes Newsletter link.

• You can combine this challenge with as many others as you want.

• The challenge runs from Tuesday, 12:01 am until Monday at 8 pm EST Enjoy yourself!!!
  

So here goes!!! We have Mr. Linky!!! You click on the Mister Linky in green and add your URL and name. The comments section is now open for you to comment as you wish on our cards. Mr. Linky will give us links to your cards!!! We cannot wait to see what you create.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by and playing Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge with us! Don't forget to use Mr. Linky!!!!

Your Flourishes Friends!

Flourishes FLIP - are you ready?

Are you a member of the Flourishes FLIP Program? If so you should have received your discount code to be used on Tuesday, September 1.

If you did not receive your discount code it probably was because your e-mail came back as blocked or non existent!! We have two FLIP members that we could not get in touch with!!

SO....if you are Deanne H. of Montana or Angelicka G. of Austria, please send us an e-mail at flourishesllccustomerservice@cox.net so that we can verify you and give you the special code!

If you are not a member of FLIP - all the detail on how to qualify are in this post HERE!

Happy Shopping!

Limelight Week 4 with Makiko -- Bath Gift Set

Hello everyone. It's Makiko and this is my last post being in the Limelight! I think you have already noticed that I LOVE Flourishes stamps, lol. I just got the newly released set, Cherries and Peaches. Of course, I had to get them dirty :):) Did I mention my other addiction is buying stamp supplies?? LOL.

For today's project, I embellished a bath set to match a cute card. As a stamper/paper crafter, I love decorating gifts and adding a personal touch, and I love seeing the smiles when I give them :) Embellishing gifts also gives the impression that you got them from a specialty store, don't you think? As a matter of fact, those bath bottles are sold at major discount stores ;)

Here is the close-up

I stamped the sentiment & the word "peach"on Flourishes classic white cardstock, then it was sponged with wasabi green ink. I layered it under the apricot mat that was cut out with Nestabilities label four and embossed with the embossing folder so that it peeked from behind the window. The peach image was stamped on the classic cardstock and colored with Prismapencil colors, then blended with Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS). I also used Twinkling H2O's (chestnut brown) to emhasize the shadows.

The colored peach was trimmed and mounted as you see. I embellished the card with the silk ribbon, rhinestones and decorative corners. I made a step by step tutorial slide show on how I colored the peach image on the bottom of the post if you are interested! ;)


Using the heavy duty adhesive tape, the bath bottle was wrapped with 2 mats that were cut out with Nestablities label four (the largest die). I folded the mats in half and scored the other folding line to fit the side of the bottle. The ribbons were wrapped around the mat and the bottle lid. The sentiment was shaped to fit the circle mat when it was stamped. After the mat was sponged, I adhered the colored and trimmed peach image on the same mat and embellished the rhinestones.






The slide show below is the tutorial show how I colored the peach. If you have any questions about all of my tutorials including the past ones, please e-mail me (makikojones@hotmail.com). Enjoy!




Well, that's it from me! Thank you for taking your time to see my Limelight projects. I would also like to thank Flourishes giving me this wonderful opportunity. I'll continue to show what I create in my blog. I hope you will have a wonder week!!

~Makiko

A few new products in the store

Hello friends!

Just a note to let you know that we are starting to receive some of the products we ordered from our recent trip to the CHA trade show.

Just arrived are 7gypsies 6 x 6 papers in the Nottinghill and Savannah series:

You get 4 sheets of each design for a total of 48 pages! Click HERE to shop for these!

AND - we have in stock MANY of the new Spellbinder dies just released! Click HERE to see them all!

Happy Shopping!

Flourishes Focus: Masking

Hey everyone~

Cindy here! :) Today I'm going to share a tutorial on masking using Eclipse Masking Tape. Have you seen it? It's in the Flourishes store, and it truly is the best product I've used for masking images.


Today I'm taking you "back to basics" with a simple form of masking.

I started my project by stamping an image from the Poppy Patch set three times on Classic White cardstock. I used Palette Hybrid Noir Black ink.


Now, I wanted my flowers to look more natural, like they would in a garden. So I decided to stamp a couple more flowers in between. In order to do this without overlapping the lines of my images, I needed to mask the images I had already stamped.

So, I stamped a couple more poppies onto my Eclipse Masking Tape, and cut them out.


Next, I stuck the stamped Eclipse Tape directly over my stamped images and proceeded to stamp the remaining poppies. Here you can see me peeling off the last "mask".


I used to use Post-it notes for masking; but this stuff is sooo much better! I definitely did not know what I was missing until I tried it! For one, the Eclipse Tape is sticky all over; so there's no chance of it slipping or moving and ruining your project. It is completely re-usable as well, since it doesn't lose it's stickiness. I store my masks with my Flourishes stamp sets, stuck right to the side! :)

Here's my finished card. I just love the dimension and depth you get from something so simple as masking off a couple of flowers! How easy is that!?

Here's the full card recipe:

Stamps: Poppy Patch

Papers: Classic White, Basic Black, Sweetbay Designer Paper

Inks: Palette Hybrid Noir Black, Copic Markers: Poppy Collection, Evergreen Collection, C7 from the Cool Neutrals Collection, BG11 from the Water Collection

Accessories: White Pearls (dyed black with Copic Marker), Angel Wings Shimmerz Paint, Black Satin Ribbon, Black Crocheted Lace Ribbon

I really wanted to show you a second sample using masking in a different way; but I just ran out of time. I did start the card; so I'll show you quickly another masking technique without a finished sample at the end.


I know...what a tease, huh?! I tore the edge of my roll of Eclipse Tape and adhered it to the bottom edge of a folded card base. Then I used the Palette Hybrid Landscape pad and a sponge dauber to sponge ink all along the exposed edge. This is a terrific technique to use when you want to add the "illusion" of layers of cardstock, without actually adding the layers. Stay tuned this coming week on my blog for the full reveal of this card. ;)

So, you wanna see some more masking fabulousness??? Well, hop on over to the rest of the design team blogs to see what they've come up with for you:

• Christine Okken
• Faith Hofrichter
• Julie Koerber
• Latisha Yoast
• Leslie Miller

Until next time, happy stamping!

Hugs~
Cindy

Our final brush with royalty!

We are winding down our anniversary month here at Flourishes and we hope you've had as much fun as we have! Trust us, we have a little more fun up our sleeves to honor our loyal followers, you'll just have to stick around to find out what is in store! ;-)

As we wrap up the crowning of our Royal Court, we are honoring a lady who was not only the very first customer to buy a set of Flourishes stamps, she was also the very first person to upload a card using Flourishes stamps to the Splitcoast company gallery! Wow!

To say we owe a debt of gratitude to this fine designer would be an understatement! So, we took some extra time to polish her crown to match the others in the Flourishes Royal Court. Without further ado, we hereby crown.....

Rose Ann has been there from day one and continues to be a supporter of Flourishes. She probably has no idea how wonderful that makes everyone behind the scenes feel! It's amazing to be a part of such a team of fabulous concept designers, artists and visionaries... knowing there are customers out there that believe in what we do! It makes it all worth while!

Rose Ann, just email us at flourishesllccustomerservice@cox.net and let us know which stamp set you'd love to add to your stamping stash. Consider it our way of saying thanks!

Switching gears, do we have any challenge lovers out there? Then, we have a challenge for you! This week over in the Copic Buzz group at Paper Craft Planet, Flourishes is hosting the Inspired By Nature challenge! You can click HERE for all the details. Up for grabs is a stamp set of your choice... so check it out!

Thanks for stopping by! We'll be back Friday with our Flourishes Focus! This one is hosted by the fabulous Cindy Lawrence. She'll have a tutorial on how she uses some tools in her studio to manipulate images to get the most out of her stamp sets! Stay tuned!