Did you see the new fun and fabulous papers?????

If you haven't been surfing the store lately, we have fun stuff to share! For all you paper addicts out there, we have a handful of new papers that you might just be itching to get your hands on soon!

Check it out..... New 7 Gypsies~ Gypsy Market! This rustic paper has 48 double sided sheets!

Memory Box Gossamer It's the perfect paper for spring with 30 sheets in 10 different patterns! BasicGrey Sugar Rush -- color coordinated sweetness - need we say more?

BasicGrey Orgins - shades of brown, black, green and cream - neutrals at their best!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Saturday and happy stampin'!

My Oh My! There are goodies in the store!

There are so many new things in the Flourishes store, we can't possibly talk about all of them! We've stocked metallic paper just in time for the holidays. There are silky and regal new ribbons that are perfect to dress up your holiday cards! We have new pearls and rhinestones from BasicGrey in shades that compliment the colors of fall! And, how could we forget......

We have a brand new collection of Copic markers to add to your already fabulous Copic color families!

Want to see all that's new? Just click HERE on the What's New tab on the Flourishes store to see!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Julie

Our Newest Papers!

Earlier this week we showed you some great papers from 7gypsies and today we received our shipment of the new Memory Box and Cosmo Cricket lines:


Here are Memory Box Dewfrost and Spiceberry






Here are Cosmo Crickets Boyfriend and Earlybird:




We have a limited selection of all these - so make your purchase today!

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!

CHA update....and a challenge!!

I'm back from CHA! I'd like to share some things with you that I found...but be sure to read through about our latest challenge!


First - lets talk CHA!! There are some wonderful things out there - several that you will find in the Flourishes store soon!

Basic Grey has four new paper series coming out and we'll be carrying three of them. Here's a look at Indian Summer - if you like the rich vibrant colors of autumn then you will LOVE this! According the BG you will be "swept up in the swirling, falling leaves and sunset hues of fiery pink, terra cotta, coppery bronze and a brilliant, amber glow." This was by far my favorite paper of the entire convention. There's also Eskimo Kisses - their holiday papers described as " papers in wintery shades of spearmint green, glacial blue, powder pink, sugar plum and crimson mingled together with a dusting of frosty white." The third series is call Nook and Pantry - a darling paper with a nostalgic, kitchen-y feel.

I was very happy to see that more companies are starting to sell papers in a 6 x 6 format for card makers. Cosmo Cricket is one of them and here is a look at their holiday series called Jolly by Golly - this darling series along with two others from Cosmo will have homes in the Flourishes store!

The Spellbinders booth was pure heaven to look at! All those dies!! And yes, Flourishes will have many of them in the store. Some of my favorits are here - a new ribbon tag series that accomodates wider ribbon, and a new nestability die in a book shape.

































May Arts - who doesn't love ribbon? The May Arts booth was beautiful to look at - I must have gone back 5 times to look at all the lucious ribbons! We're selecting several to coordinate with the new papers!














Flower Soft Polar White - its so hard to describe this new color, but in person it is beautiful and will be perfect for those holiday cards! We can't wait to get these in the store!

Other interesting items:


-Post-It Notes will be offering Post-It Craft Paper - 12" x 8.5" sheets of craft paper (24 colors) that have adhesive fully covering the back - it can be repositioned, then holds firmly when pressed into place.


-Zutter Bind-it-all has new bound books called "cover-alls" -


-Making Memories has an embossing tip and a drawing tip for the Slice Machines


-Sizzix has a cute new embossing machine that looks like a purse, new embossing folders and die cuts


-Provo craft showed new cuttlebug folders along with the cricut and gypsy machines


-Clearsnap showed off the latest in shimmery inks/paints with the new Smooch and Smooch Spritz

Whew - that is only a small fraction of what I saw! It was fun to see all these products, do make and takes and shop for the store. I can't wait for these to arrive - we'll keep you posted!



And last but not least....
An August Challenge!


Flourishes is sponsoring the month-long sketch challenge over at RubberStampChat. Please be sure to visit the thread HERE and play along!





Thanks for stopping by!

What Color Is Your Rose?

Hello friends,

Today we feature the I Love Roses set. The classic rose is steeped in tradition where not only color but the type of rose and the number of stems can carry just as much significance. Here are the meanings of just a few of the colors:

Red - the traditional symbol of love and romance

Pink - a symbol of grace, elegance and admiration

Yellow - friendship, joy and happiness

White - innocence, purity, honor

Orange - desire, passion, enthusiasm

Lavendar - enchantment, love at first sight

(source: proflowers)

This first card in the traditional color of romance will be the valentine card for my wonderful husband! The rose buds and leaf (from the I Love Roses set) were stamped in Palette Noir and colored with Twinkling H2O's. They were carefully cut out and mounted to a white panel that was stamped with the "How do I love thee" sentiment from the Lace Heart set.

The designer paper is from the Scarlett's Letter series from Basic Grey. Riding Hood Red and black cardstock compliment the color scheme.

A luscious dark red satin ribbon and black rhinestones were the final touches!

This yellow rose card will be perfect to send to any friend! Once again I used the Scarlett's Letter series and matched it with Marigold paper.

I started by using a 3 inch square of white and stamped an image from the Flourishes Elements set in versamark - look closely and you can see the faint flourishy images. The edges are sponged with Pallete ink - Cognac.

The rose (from the I Love Roses set) was stamped in Palette inks - Landscape and Cognac with the main bloom stamped twice and popped up. I have to say I just love using the Palette ink line. Once the image was stamped I colored using Twinkling H2O's, which was a breeze because the Palette inks are fast drying and waterproof!

Reversable yellow/orange satin ribbon and yellow rhinestones (which actually look more greenish-yellos) finish it off.

I Love Roses set is sure to be one of those sets you will reach for again and again. What color will your rose be today?

Thanks for stopping by!

Nancy

New Basic Grey - Ambrosia and Eva

Once again Basic Grey brings papercrafters gorgeous designer paper in their new collections Ambrosia and Eva - and Flourishes has both!

Ambrosia is described by BG as "delicate monarchs, ornamental trinkets, graceful feathers and lace, colliding in a bold array of blazing shades of red, orange and gold". We love these colors which are set against cream, grey and black neutrals.

Eva is just as pretty - "a collection of fanciful flourishes, exotic birds and quaint finial patterns". Gorgeous rich jewel tones of burgundy and pink, greens and dark chocolate.

These new lines, along with many of the other Basic Grey papers can be found on the Flourishes store here. Thanks for visiting!

Christmas In July!

Flourishes is celebrating its one year anniversary this month and what better way to celebrate by having a Christmas in July promotion! Down here in hot, humid Florida we are roasting with July's normal weather - mid 90's and humidity as high. SO...to keep us cool let's think snow, roaring fires and ho-ho-ho! Our promotion, which starts today and runs through July 31 will have you saving on our Christmas sets. During this time, all Christmas sets will be on sale for 15% off their regular price.

This card by Leslie Miller is just one of the beautiful cards made by our design team.

No special codes needed! The prices are already marked down - so all you need to do is shop and save! But don't delay - the sale ends July 31!

Take a look at these greats sets - while supplies last!!

New Stamps!

This month’s new releases have the entire Flourishes team so excited. The three sets, Thank You (Stamp Simply series), Poppy Patch and Butterfly Moments are the culmination of ideas, sketches, and talents of a number of people and we thought we’d share some of what goes into making a stamp set.

Thank You is the second set of the Stamp Simply line at Flourishes. These sets are designed so that they are easy to use, have gorgeous images that maintain the Flourishes signature style of timeless and classic beauty, and are able to stand alone. Sharon Johnson started the process with a rough sketch and description - words of gratitude as a small background panel and images of tulips. Once we had the overall design drafted we enlisted the talents of two of our favorite artists, Joan Machinchick and Marcy Hawley. Joan and Marcy’s work are found exclusively in several other Flourishes sets and we think their designs are beautifully coordinated here. Joan’s elegant calligraphy provides the sentiments – one panel, measuring about 2.5 x 3.5, that can be used as a small background image and two individual sentiments. Marcy’s two tulip images have the same graceful style and work so well with the sentiments. It is amazing how well the works of these two talented artists meld so beautifully together, time after time. These cards by Faith Hofrichter and Julie Koerber showcase the beauty of this set.

Poppy Patch celebrates summertime and the colorful Poppies! In deciding what type of floral images to develop into a stamp set, Jan Marie said – “Poppies – we must have Poppies!!”. This set contains more great work by Marcy Hawley and is pure joy to stamp with. Marcy provides floral images, buds, leaves and sentiments for this set which is as colorful as summer itself! These cards by Leslie Mill and Linda Duke show the poppy in glorious color!

Butterfly Moments was developed with the thought that these images can be used as primary images that can stand on their own, or with other Flourishes sets as accents. We started with a couple of pages of butterfly images put together by Jan Marie and her sister

Diane, but then came the difficult part. Which of these images to select!! There were so many to choose from and they were all wonderful. Narrowing them down was difficult, but you can rest assure these just may show up in other stamp sets some time along the way. Once we chose our favorites we combined them with a heartfelt sentiment that Sharon Doolittle provided. There was no better name than Butterfly Moments and so it was! These cards by Susan Roberts and Julie Koerber are beautiful butterfly moments!

As you can see from these cards, our Design Team is feeling the excitement as well….for they are conjuring up all kinds of thing for you to get those creative juices flowing. Now it’s your turn to show us just what you can do with these great images. Remember to post them to our gallery on SCS using the keywords FLLC. We look forward to seeing what you create!!

Happy Stamping!

Flourishes Releases Stamp Simply and Peony

Flourishes is pleased to announce the release of it’s first set in the Stamp Simply line, called Coffee with Friends, and another beautiful floral drawn by Marcella Hawley, called Peony. Spring Ephemerals, Flourishes first solid image set also drawn by Marcella Hawley, was released last week. Here’s a look at all three of June’s releases:


Coffee with Friends, Peony, Spring Ephemerals

Are these gorgeous sets, or what!!! I am so pleased to be able to work with these gorgeous images, but even more pleased to be able to show you what our fabulous Design Team has done with these images. Please check out the following Blogs for some super fantastic samples: Leslie Miller, Julie Koerber, Linda Duke, Susan Roberts, Faith Hofrichter. And here is a gorgeous sample by Jan Marie and some by me, Sharon Johnson.

These sets are now available for sale and you may find these sets by clicking on the links right under each set.

Thanks so much for stopping in!

Sharon Johnson

Stamp Simply -- The Story Behind the Series

Flourishes Stamp Simply Series debuts on Tuesday, and I couldn’t be more excited!!! I know a lot of you have questions about our new Stamp Simply Series, so I thought it would be appropriate to explain to you how the series came about, what it actually means to *Stamp Simply* and to let you know what you can expect from the Stamp Simply Series.

Stamp Simply means, first and foremost, to keep the process simple, but at the same time, make it beautiful! And that perfectly sums up the way I like to stamp. I like to keep things simple, but at the same time, I want the end result to be beautiful. With that thought in mind, the Stamp Simply Series was born. I wanted to create stamp sets that were easy to use, that had gorgeous images that maintained the Flourishes signature style of timeless and classic beauty, and I also wanted the sets to be able to stand alone – meaning that if you’re in a rush (and aren’t we all), you can just reach for a small Stamp Simply set and know that everything you need to complete a beautiful card is contained in that one set.

Each Stamp Simply set will allow you to create gorgeous cards, very simply, when you keep the Stamp Simply concept in mind. Those of you who are regular readers have heard me say this time and again – but it bears repeating: When you use beautiful things, you don’t have to DO much. And this is so, so true. Beautiful cards are easily achieved with the use of gorgeous images, quality papers, and luscious ribbons. Really, that’s all it takes. Start with a simple design, add a bit of your favorite paper, attach your stamped image, add a sentiment and finish it off with a beautiful ribbon or other embellishment. Simple, beautiful, done!!!

I also promise you that as far as those simple designs go, I will be regularly posting with the Stamp Simply sets, offering you a wide range of designs to choose from. And to assist you even further, I have created a Stamp Simply tab at the top of my Blog, No Time To Stamp? Here I will provide a concise index of Stamp Simply samples for your reference. I think it will serve as a quick and handy reference tool for you.

And a question I have been asked a lot of recent is whether I am drawing the Stamp Simply sets. No, I am not. I can not draw. I am not an artist. But I am filled with ideas -- so many, many ideas -- and that’s where it all begins. The original concept for a stamp set is transferred into rough drawings, sketches, photos, and the written word – whatever it takes -- to communicate the concept to the artist. Flourishes uses both artists and calligraphers to create our final stamp sets, and these personal touches are what set the Flourishes images apart from the rest. Each and every Flourishes stamp set is a labor of love, a collaboration of many, many women, with many hands laid upon it before it is complete and final. Truly, a melding together of many hearts and minds, giving us the best of all worlds.

And as for the artist behind our first Stamp Simply set -- once the overall style, shapes, sentiments, etc. were decided, the actual artwork was a collaboration between Jan Marie Caruso (Flourish #1) and her sister, Diane Roche. Diane is a self-taught glass artist who is very computer savvy and uses the computer to her advantage in turning out awesome pieces of glass art. Diane is the only licensed glass artist for Louisiana State University and last year Diane was the designer chosen to create the art for the Breast Cancer Awareness Program in the State of Louisiana. After the main images were drawn, the detail work was pulled from some of Flourishes previous images – Lace Heart and our Flourishes Logo – and some detail was drawn by Diane. I couldn’t be more pleased with our first Stamp Simply set, and I thank these talented ladies immensely for their work and effort in bringing our first Stamp Simply set to life!!!

Hope you’ll check back in on Tuesday to see the debut of our Stamp Simply line!!!

Thanks so much for stopping in today!!!

Sharon Johnson