Beautiful Peonies

Yesterday as I spent a bit of time cleaning up a flower bed I was inspecting my peonies, which are nowhere near ready to open for quite a while yet. As I was working, I was reminded of all the beautiful Peony cards I've seen this week in the galleries and blogs, and I thought I'd like to share them all with you here -- oh, what a breath of fresh air they are!!!!

As I was gathering all these cards to upload here, I found it rather interesting to note that no two of these cards were created with the same technique. All different, all unique, all beautiful. The only consistent factor is that they were all created using Peony, one of Flourishes latest releases. Would you care to take a look?

This gorgeous card, with a real vintage flair, was created by Leslie Miller. Leslie stamped the image in Creamy Caramel ink and colored it in with chalks. Her design is gorgeous and finished off so beautifully with that gorgeous Chocolate Sheer Ribbon. What a treat for the eyes! Please click on Leslie's name above to get to her blog for more complete details on how she achieved this look.

This beautiful card, again with a distinct vintage and romantic feel, was created by Julie Koerber. Julie's technique was to apply ink directly to the stamp and then after stamping it she used an aquapainter to meld the colors together. Oh my, what a simple, but beautiful technique. Be sure to stop in at Julie's blog to get all the details.

This beautiful peony was created in a somewhat similar fashion to Julie's peony above, but with a bit of a variation. Sharon Doolittle created this simple beauty by first inking the image, direct to polymer, just as Julie did, but Sharon then finished her peony off by coloring it in with Stampin' Up! markers. What a a gorgeous peony Sharon created, and how simply! You can check in at Sharon's Blog for more of her design details.

This bright and bold peony was created by Dee Jackon -- how striking in its cheerful orange tones!!! Dee achieved this look by stamping her peony onto orange cardstock with black ink and then coloring it in with Stampin' Up! markers and then using her Prisma colored pencils to go over it and finish it off. The sentiment Dee used is from Many Sentiments, and how perfect it looks here!

Linda Duke, who is so well known for her dimensional work using a technique called Paper Tole, created this mouth-watering beauty using just that technique. Linda has achieved such a soft and pretty look with her Copic markers for color. Linda's card is large, at 6" x 6". We're hoping Linda can share a few tips and techniques with us in the not too distant future!!! Oh, wouldn't it be fun to learn to do this!!!

And Flourishes own Jan Marie Caruso created this elegant and stunning, classic beauty by stamping her image with the Palette Stamp and Stick Gluepad and brushing on a Pure Mica powder for a rich, gorgeous sheen!!! Her addition of pearls just tops off this formal beauty perfectly!!! Be sure to check out her Blog for more details.

And last, but certainly not least, we have this soft and lovely pink beauty by Julie Koerber. Julie's image is stamped onto vellum and colored on the reverse side with Prisma colored pencils. All of the layers, colors and pretty ribbons on this card just say PRETTY!!!

And with this card from Julie we have a special treat to share with you. Julie has prepared a very clear and concise tutorial explaining exactly what she did here, so each of you can very easily achieve the same results. You can read Julie's turorial here.

As I wait for my own peonies to bloom, I know all of us here at Flourishes anxiously look forward to seeing what type of peonies will be blooming in your gallery or blog!!! Please keep us informed, as we TRULY would love to see all of your creations. And remember, the keyword for uploads using Flourishes images in the SCS gallery is FLLC. We can't wait to see what all of you come up with!!! Happy gardening -- or coloring --whatever the case may be!!!

Sharon Johnson