Designer Spotlight

Over the next few months, Flourishes will be posting a series of articles spotlighting each of our wonderful designers. This weeks spotlight is on the very creative and talented Sharon Johnson.

Sharon Johnson, who serves as Flourishes Senior Design team member, you may know by her SCS moniker and blog name No Time To Stamp, and for someone with that name she is incredibly prolific in her creations! For many years, Sharon's creative energy was spent at the sewing machine until 2000 when she attended a stamping workshop and realized how enjoyable this new hobby can be. She became a Stampin' Up demonstrator in 2006, and in addition to her Flourishes work she has been a member of the Dirty Dozen Design Team on Splitcoast Stampers and a guest designer for Score Pal. Her work has been published in Stampers' Sampler and Take Ten.

Sharon’s art can be described in many ways, but the words that are often used are: stunning, beautiful and gorgeous. We knew we were in for a treat at Flourishes when she submitted this card, made with, of all things, the Cake Decorating 101 set. We never imagined a hat made from the set, and our jaws just dropped when we saw this beauty. This is representative of Sharon's creative energy. In addition to the hat, she also created a lamp, and of course, cakes!

Much of her work has a lovely feminine look and I asked her about that.

If we were to visit your home, I envision it to be shades of blue, florals with a very feminine look with all sorts of handmade items throughout. Tell us about your home and work space.

My home -- oh, you couldn't be more wrong -- LOL!!! We are farmers, our house is over 100 years old, and there is nothing fancy or frilly about our home or the way we live. I am the only female in this house having one DH and 3 sons. This house functions the way it needs to for a farm house. We have NO carpeting, only hardwood and ceramic -- all very easy to clean up. The predominant colors would be varying shades of ivorys/tans/browns and greens. My kitchen has English ivy wallpaper that I love with old fashioned looking lace curtains, my bathroom is a soothing, watery green, and all other walls are some shade of ivory. Most of our furniture and things either are old, or look old. Not that I am a particular antique nut, it's just that's what we have -- family pieces that are old. The furniture we purchase is always something to go with what we already have, so I guess I'd call it a mix of classic traditional and antique, but very functional. Nothing here is for show, it's all very well used. And nothing here is particularly feminine. I do have a traditional old-fashioned long front porch that I love, all done in white with large hanging baskets of flowers (during our very short summers) and many white wooden rocking chairs.

My work space -- I stamp in the basement in what was built for me as a sewing room 12 years ago, so I do have nice counters and cabinets; however, the cabinets are full of sewing supplies. I have added two individual units called pantry cabinets for my stamps and supplies and have a ton of the plastic units/drawers for accessories, etc. The cabinets and ceramic tile are all white, which brightens it up and last year we installed overhead shop lights. Not the most attractive, but they offer good lighting. I have 2 tables and can seat about 12 comfortably for classes, though I really prefer working with smaller groups of about 6. My work surfaces are usually messy and covered with anything and everything, but I do try to do one thorough clean-up each week, which is always so refreshing!!! I much prefer working on a clean and empty surface.

You are so creative – you don’t just make a cards, but bags, tags and all sorts of coordinating containers – where do you come up with your ideas and how long does it take to make a project?

My ideas come from anywhere and everywhere! I have always loved a beautifully wrapped gift, and I guess my overall feeling is that presentation is everything, which leads to my love of making bags, tags and containers. My eyes are always open, and whether I'm in store, scanning a magazine, or at a friend's house, I just tuck into the back of my mind things that I find appealing and of interest -- colors, shapes, accents, accessories -- inspiration is everywhere -- just keep your eyes open!!!

And how long does it take to make a project -- well, that's a good one -- LOL!!! There are times things go very smoothly and everything just falls into place very quickly; however, there are far MORE times that things don't go so well, and it's just a matter of trial and error until I get it *right*. I have learned to never adhere anything together until I am SURE it's the way I want it. Even the layering of colors -- using the same colors, HOW you layer them can yield such differing results. I just make all my pieces and play with them until I am pleased before I adhere things together.

Tell us your top three tools that you cannot do without.

No. 1 is my old style guillotine table top paper cutter with a full 12 x 12 bed with 1/2" grid lines. I love working on a gridded surface in an effort to help me keep a sense of *straight*, and I know I'm a bit obsessive about that!!! I stand at my counter in front of this paper cutter to do all my final assembly work on it.

No. 2 is a tool that is fairly new to me -- the Scor-Pal. It makes scoring so very simple and quick and I LOVE to use it for dry embossing as well. It's a tool I can't imagine doing without once having it!!!

No. 3 is a tie between my little metal 6" seam guide (a sewing tool -- it's just a small 6" ruler) and baby wipes. LOL!!! Again, my obsessiveness with *straight, square, equal*!!! I'm just a measurer, I can't help it!!! And the baby wipes -- well -- I really dislike a messy work surface, don't like ink of my fingers for fear I'll stain my project, REALLY dislike glitter floating around, etc, etc, -- so the baby wipes are something I am constantly grabbing.

What does your family think about this hobby?

Well, that depends on who you ask and when - LOL!!! Generally speaking they are very supportive, however, this hobby does take a lot of time, especially when you get involved with DT work, Blogging, etc. I am also an active Stampin' UP demo. This all takes away from family time -- there is no question about that. I try very hard to achieve a balance and, quite frankly, I am amazed at my DH's level of tolerance. He realizes how much I truly love what I do and how important it is to me. Gotta love him for that!!!

What is your favorite Flourishes Stamp and why.
My favorite Flourishes Stamp set is Flourished Elements. It is a timeless set in a classic style that I so love!!! It has no theme, no season, no gender. It can be used on any type of project, for any type of person, for any occasion. I love it's beautiful lines and curves, I love that there is a good mix of large and small stamps in the same set, and my favorite stamp within the set is the large corner stamp. This is without a doubt my dream stamp set come true!!! I will use this set FOREVER!!! The project that I am the most excited about having made in a long, long time, is a set of 3 tall, narrow boxes I did with this set. Any project done with this set is guaranteed to be gorgeous -- this is just one of those sets you can't go wrong with!!!

Tell us something we don’t know about you, that we would be surprised to learn.

Well, probably the most unusual thing most of you wouldn't know about me is that I am a cheese maker!!! Not a professional in the dairy type of cheese maker, but an in my kitchen cheese maker. Our area has a predominance of Finnish people, and it is a Finnish cheese that I make. It is unlike most cheeses and is rather hard to describe, but it is a baked cheese, white, soft in comparison to most cheeses, referred to as *squeaky cheese* as it squeaks in your teeth when you chew it, and officially called Juustoa (pronounced *you-stew-a*, accent on the you) in Finnish. So, that's my claim to fame!!!

You can see more of Sharon's beautiful work on the Flourishes Gallery, and be sure to visit her blog, No Time to Stamp for more inspiration, techniques, and challenges.

Merry Christmas To You

From each of us at Flourishes, Jan Marie, Sharon, and Nancy, comes the Warmest of Christmas Greetings!

You have made this a very special and memorable year for us. We want to take a moment to say an all important Thank You for helping us to realize our dream. We are so very grateful to have each of you as our customers .

So from the sunny panhandle of Florida comes the Warmest of Greeting to you and yours. We look forward to 2008 and hope that the New Year will be filled with many blessings for all!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

3 Flourishes

Jan Marie, Sharon, & Nancy

Using Nestabilities in your Cuttlebug - Tutorial

Do you have a Cuttlebug - and you want to buy Nestabilities dies but are not sure how they work together? Well, we have a little video tutorial that will help you understand how these two great products work together. Below is a link to a video tutorial that demonstrates how to use Nestabilities dies in a Cuttlebug - examples are shown on how to cut, how to emboss a cut, and how to emboss a card front. We'll show you what we have learned along the way - so take a look and see how easy it is to combine these two products!

NESTABILITIES AND CUTTLEBUG TUTORIAL

New Releases!

We are so excited to release three new sets this month! Take a look at what we have in store for you. The first set, Lace Heart, contains a beautiful heart and more stunning calligraphy, courtesy of Joan Machinchick - the perfect set to tell someone how you feel!

The next two sets, Open to Love and Love Nest are just adorable!! These sets include the artwork of Sophie, the newest addition to the Flourishes team. We think these sets are so cute and can be used for many different occasions.

We hope you take a liking to these new sets - head on over to the boutique and place your order today and while you are there check out the designer gallery. Our designers have been working hard and have made some wonderful creations to get you inspired!

Introducing Sophie!

By now some of you have seen some wonderful, adorable creations by our designers - a little "sneak peek" at sets to be released next week. Two of the sets were made possible by a very talented artist who many of you may know at SCS by the name of SophieLaFontaine.

Sophie started drawing at a very young age because her parents brought home tons of scrap paper and gave her all kinds of pens and pencils. This hobby continued into her school years when she would draw in class instead of paying attention. In 1990 she found some rubber stamps at a store and has been stamping ever since! She lives in the US but her heart is in France. Her blog is Cranky Sophie, but I have never known her to be cranky - just very sweet!! Please join us in welcoming Sophie to the Flourishes team and look for her designs in our new sets next week as well as in future sets.

Introducing our Guest Designer

Flourishes is happy to announce its first guest designer, the talented Lisa Silver. Many of you know Lisa from SCS (aka Silvergirl) or from her blog, Silver Stamping. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two children and works for a chemical company. She described her syle as classic and detailed. Lisa will be designing for us for the next few months - we can't wait to see more of her artwork! Please join us in welcoming Lisa to the Flourishes team.

Fantasy Floral Garden is a Christmas Wreath

Today I am featuring a wreath that I created using the Fantasy Floral Garden Set. I have had this on my mind since the set was released. I have visions that this wreath could be used in many seasons. Sometimes we want a wreath or a swag from a set, using the parts we can create so much more. So today's tutorial will get us started in that direction.

Here are the two images I used from the set.

I also have a new camera. A Cannon Power Shot S5 IS....it is great...but as you can see from the photos, I have not mastered the power of this camera...so please bear with me.

To Make the Wreath:
I started with a light pencil sketch of a circle the size I wanted my wreath. Light pencil can be easily erased, but in this case I used the line to add more color so I just left it.

Using the vine with outline leaves inked in Hybrid Palette Noir I stamped in the image following the circle.

Then I stamped in the berries. I have actually cut the main flower image from the set removing the lowest group of berries. This is the portion I used. Then I just carefully inking and placing the berries I filled in the inside and outside of the ring. You may not think this looks like much...but hold on and watch the wreath come alive!

Now for the fun...COLORING!

Here is the scheme of colors I used for the green. Remember start light and add darker colors.

First a ring of green to define the area, then adding to the leaves...all in the lightest shade of green.

Then I added the darker green...accenting the lines of the wreath and the leaves....the wreath is just beginning to hold so promise of a nice card. I filled in "dead space on the wreath" with the lightest of the green to make it look fuller and highlighted some of the vines with the darkest green.

Now for the red tones of the berries. Here is my color scheme.

Again starting with the light pink I colored in all the berries.

Then added the brightest shade of red.

Now the darkest shade of red. Shading adds such depth to our projects. Try keeping the darkest colors in the same area. On mine in is from about 3 o' clock to 6 o'clock on the circle.

Ok...It is beginning to look like a Christmas wreath. But oh my, it needs some glisten. The Sakura iridescent jelly roll made that easy. I trimmed the image down to 4 inches square, then using the SU corner notch punch I added some interest on the corners. I added a layer of black and attached it on the diagonal, so I could use it for this weeks card sketch challenge at SCS. The red ribbon is a nice touch, it is the sentiment which came from the Rejoice set (Flourishes,llc).

So this it finished.....not so hard.

Supplies Used:

Stamps:

Fantasy Floral Gardens

Papers:

SU Handsome Hunter, Shimmery White, Black

Inks:

Hybrid Palette-Noir

Copic Markers

Sakura Jelly Roll Iridescence

Flourishes, llc Sponsoring Card Positioning System

We are so pleased to sponsor the Card Positioning System, hosted by Tami Mayberry. She hosts a great blog that challenge stampers each week. The designers are "fantabulous"! Please visit the site for the great cards that will be featured this week. The Fantasy Floral Garden set is also a featured special this week. It's an any occasion set that allows you to color, dream, and use great fonts in the sentiments of the set.

The card I designed for today is an earthy mix of White, Creamy Carmel, and Basic Grey. I just love the look of the Grey Suede Flannel and Camel mixture...the white gives a crisp clean look. The image was stamped in SU Basic Grey and colored in with Copics (and one Panatone marker-the square one) all in the beige tones as seen here.

I highlighted with the Copic Metallic Markers that take this card to a new level. The pretty scalloped edges are actually a piece of the May Arts Black scalloped edge ribbon that we carry in our Ribbonere at the Flourishes store front. It just adds a feminine and soft edge to a dreamy card.

Please join me and the other Flourishes in this exciting challenge with Card Positioning Systems....upload your cards and, of course, sent them to us so we can add your cards to our gallery.

Ciao,

jan marie

Flourishes sponsors Card Positioning Systems

Flourishes is happy to announce that it is sponsoring the card sketch at Card Positioning Systems this week! Each week CPS posts a sketch and invites you to submit your card. The talented CPS designers are using the Fantasy Floral Garden set and are making some lovely creations - please visit the site and show them your card!

To go along with sketch, the featured product on the Flourishes Boutique is the Fantasy Floral Garden combo kit. This kit contains the Fantasy Floral Garden stamp set, a pad of Basic Grey Infuse 6 x 6 pad and two yards of coordinating ribbon. This set is very versatile and works so well with the Infuse paper.

Have you Ever?

Have you ever received a gift that was wrapped and decorated so beautifully that you did not want to open the package, you just wanted to look at the box. Well I received one of those this week. It was from Nancy as a thank you to Jan Marie and I for "minding the store" while she was on vacation.

I did open the box so I only have the outside decorations to take a picture of. I did not think of taking one before I opened it, duh!

Anyway, I liked her thank you card so much that I spent part of the day making a handful for my sister to use during the holidays. She takes small gifts when she is invited to friends and family. she also sends thank you notes.

The tags are made with real red, metallic red, soft sky and white. Flourished Elements was stamped in craft white and embossed with silver glitter the sentiment is stamped with Flourished Words. Spellbinders nestabilities ovals was used to cut accent pieces.
Red card is cut 3x6, sky blue paper cut 2.5x 2 1/4 white insert paper is cut 2 3/4 x2 3/4.

In the process of stamping with Flourished Elements I found several ways of making one stamp fit into different patterns which I used to accentuate a small Note.
I do not have a finished card in mind yet, but when I do I will post it here. Thanks for visiting, and thank you Nancy for the lovely gift.

Save 15% of Basic Grey Infuse paper!

While supplies last, Flourishes is offering its Basic Grey Infuse paper for sale at 15% off! These 6 x 6 pads of paper are great for card making and scrapbooking. The Infuse line is so pretty - shades of pink, green and chocolate. The pad of paper has both prints and solids all coordinated for you. Visit the Flourishes boutique and place your order today!

Flourishes New Design Team Announced

There is a great celebration in Stampingdom....We are announcing the

New Flourishes,llc Design Team It is hard to beleive that only four short months ago we were announcing our Charter Design Team selections. Well those dreative ladies have served us well and the time has come to announce the new the newst one....so drums start your r0ll and carry this exciting news to every inch of Stampingdom!

Here is the Flourishes Design Team for 12 Dec thru May 2008

Sharon Johnson, Design Team Leader

(SCS) notimetostamp

http://notimetostamp.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

RETURNING MEMBERS




AND

Tracy Durcan

http://www.durcandesigns.typepad.com/

Leslie Miller

http://leslierich.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

DRUM ROLL Please.....................

THE NEW TEAM MEMBERS ARE

Dee Jackson

(SCS) StampingcuzILuv2

http://www.stampingcuziluv2.blogspot.com/

Janine Tinklenberg

(SCS)Jan Tink

http://jantink.com/

Natasha Trupp
(SCS) tashers

http://palmtreesandpogosticks.blogspot.com/

Lisa Somerville

(SCS)Lisa S

http://www.lisasomerville.blogspot.com/

Kelly Sampson

(SCS)emmiestamps

http://diariesofastamper.blogspot.com/

Congratulations and Welcome to each and every one of you!

Now it is your turn to send these ladies a note of congratulations and to help us spread the news thru Stampingdom!

Jan Marie, NancyK & Sharon D

Congratulations Julia

Flourishes, llc is nearing a milestone. Our very first Charter Design Team is within weeks of finishing their time with us. They have made such an impact on our company. We will soon be announcing our new changes, but that is not what this post is about. We Flourishes, Jan Marie, Nancy, and Sharon, want to give our thanks and congratulations to Julia Stainton, she has been selected to be the Design Team Coordinator for Cornish Heritage Farms. Julia is extremely talented and will serve them well, as she did for Flourishes. We are extremely happy that she has this new opportunity to move forward in her career.
A note to Cornish Heritage Farms, you have made a wonderful decision with the choice of Julia and we wish you all continued success in the future.

Designer Update

Due to the overwhelming response in the last few days regarding our search for new design team members, Flourishes will cut off the application process on Thursday, November 8, instead of November 12 as originally posted. There is so much talent out there in stampland and we have received so many responses that it will be very difficult to choose. Thank you to all who have expressed interest and we hope to have our decisions made by next week.

Flourished Elements!!

Flourishes is so excited to release its latest stamp set - Flourished Elements. This elegant set will work well with cards, scrapbooks and in many other decorating projects. From holiday gifts to special occasions like weddings and anniversaries, use these beautiful images to create cards and gifts that will be treasured by all. Please visit the Flourishes boutique to place your order for this wonderful set.

CALL FOR DESIGNERS!

Flourishes has a few spots opening up on its design team and we are looking for creative stampers to showcase our stamps!! We are looking for people who can create 4 - 6 items per month for the next six months - December 2007 - May 2008, and who can showcase their works on their galleries, blogs, etc.

If you are interested, please send us an e-mail at: flourishesllc@cox.net . We will be taking applicants through November 12.

Be sure to include the following:

• Your full name, address and phone #
• e-mail address
• a link to your blog. gallery where we can see examples of your work
• a little description about yourself, how you got into stamping, if you've been published and if you are currently serving on any other design teams.

If you have any other questions, send them to the above e-mail as well.

FLOURISHED CHRISTMAS BACK IN STOCK!

We just received our replenishment order of the Flourished Christmas set!! If you've been waiting to order this popular set, just head on over to the Flourishes store (link on the right) and click on "stamp sets" to place your order.

New Basic Grey Paper is here!!

Flourishes has just added one of the new Basic Grey papers - Periphery!! Along with some of the other beautiful Basic Grey papers, we have the 6 x 6 packages of this beautiful new Periphery series. It features soft blues and greens, french provincial inspirations, aged florals with a very romantic look. Please visit the online boutique for this latest addition.

Strut your Stuff Update!!

It's been a busy day for us today at the Flourishes studio. We awoke in Pensacola this morning to severe weather - tornado warnings, heavy thunderstorms and lightning. Some areas in town received damage, but in the studio we were safe and hard at work!!

We'd like to thank everyone who participated in "Strut Your Stuff" yesterday on SCS. We loved seeing all the wonderful creations on the gallery. Everyone who participated will receive a thank you from us along with a small gift - some metallic cards, ribbon and designer paper. In addition, we have randomly selected three participants to receive additional prizes. Rose Ann Reynolds will receive the grand prize which includes a Spellbinder circle die set, a package of Basic Grey 6x6 Infuse paper, ribbon and two sets of alphabet stickers - a package worth over $35. Velta Wesson and Deborah Saaranen will each receive a package of Basic Grey 6x6 Scarlett's Letter paper and some coordinating ribbon. Congratulations to everyone - everyone's package will be in the mail either today or tomorrow

On another note, we are sorry to let you know that we are out of stock of the "Flourished Christmas" set. We sold out about 2:00 this afternoon, but have a replenishment order already in the pipeline and hope to have this popular set back in stock before the end of the month. Thanks for your patience!

Strut your Stuff on SCS

Flourishes welcomes all of our customers to "strut their stuff" on SCS next Wednesday, October 17. What does this mean? Upload your artwork using Flourishes stamps on the SCS gallery, with "Flourishes Strut Your Stuff" in the keyword section, then send an e-mail to us at flourishesllc@cox.net with a link to the photo and your home address. We will send all participants a thank you and small gift and we will select one person to receive a nice "Strut Your Stuff" prize. "Strut Your Stuff" is only for the 24 hour period of Wednesday, October 17.

REJOICE set is now for sale!

Flourishes is pleased to issue our third set this month, the beautiful Rejoice set. This elegant set of 12 stamps contains more of Joan Machinchick's calligraphy, created just for Flourishes. Her work can be found in the words: Joy to the Word, Joy, Alleluia and the gorgeous REJOICE stamp. Along with these words is an elegant angel, created for us by Marcy Hawley. We've rounded out this set with some traditional and contemporary designs that will have you using this set for years to come. As a bonus, we've included a Flourishes logo for the back of your cards. Be sure to visit the Flourshes Designer Gallery for some incredible inspriation using these stamps.

OUR Cafeteria Plan

It has been said around work that we believe Flourishes has one of the best cafeterias in the business. We even had our own chief "Manual Labour" sometimes known as Mike, (But not often).
This day "Manual" prepared us for us, what else, a chief salad. Served with style, complete with costume, I mean uniform.
He keeps us supplied with chocolate, makes post office, Kinkos, bank runs and any errand we might need done.
He is there everyday and sees to our every need. As much as we appreciate and have come to depend on him we try not to keep him at our beck and call all day. But with winter coming (soon I hope) I can't wait for the hot Bengial tea.
Thank you Mike for pampering us every day.

New Releases

Today Flourishes releases two of the three new sets for this month!!

The first, called Flourished Christmas is a set of 8 holiday stamps. As you can see from the photo, it contains a beautiful flourished tree and a reindeer with flourished antlers! Joan Machinchick again provides, exclusively for Flourishes, her lovely calligraphy with the words Rejoice, Joy, Noel and Merry Christmas. A few phrases for use on the front or inside your cards round out the set. As an added bonus, we've included a Flourishes Logo and copyright for the back of your cards.

The second set available now is called Sweet Treats - and what a treat this is! A set of 30 stamps including a three tiered plate, 4 phrases and a multitude of options for you to create muffins, cupcakes, bon bons and other sweet treats!

The third set for October will be released SOON!! We are waiting for our shipment from the manufacturer and expect to have it later this week. The set is called Rejoice and is simply stunning. Here is what it looks like - more details on this when it is available.

Please visit the Flourishes designer gallery for some wonderful inspiration using these sets!

Gift Card Holder Instructions

This gift card is very easy to make - and the sky is the limit on how you want to decorate the front. I first saw this in a old issue of Take Ten magazine.

Supplies:

• Envelope
• Ribbon
• Cardstock
• Decorated Panel
• Adhesive

Start with an envelope - fold it in half, then unfold it.









Open up the flap and using the center crease, cut out a "V"

Seal the left side of the flap. Leave the right side un-sealed - this is where you will place the gift card.












Take a piece of card stock cut smaller than the left side of the envelope and adhere to the left side - this is where you can write a message, or stamp a greeting.

Fold the envelope in half. Wrap a strip of ribbon around the outside and ahere with double stick tape.

Attach a decorated panel to the front with double stick tape and tie the ribbon. You are done!!