Sharon Johnson Blog Candy!!

Have you seen Sharon Johnson's blog, No Time To Stamp? She is giving away a wonderful blog candy - a set of stunningly beautiful boxes that she made!! Sharon is such a gifted designer and her creations are always jaw dropping gorgeous.

Please visit her blog for a chance at these great gifts!

Beautiful Damask

Here are some gorgeous cards made by a few of the fabulous Flourishes Designers using the new Damask and Many Sentiments Set.

Dee Jackson created this beauty - I love how she used the large flower from the Fantasy Floral Garden set as a focal point. The Damask background is just stunning and the sentiment from the Many Sentiments set is perfect.

Sharon Johnson's drop dead gorgeous card uses the Damask and Many Sentiments set. That little decorative element at the top is included in Many Sentiments.

Leslie Miller's elegant card shows how beautiful the mustard color can be. I love how she used both Damask and Damask-Reverse, and the ribbon is beautiful. "Love" is from the Lace Heart set.

Join us later in the week for more samples of these new sets!

New Releases!

It sounds like Jan Marie and Sharon are having a fabulous time at CHA! They're checking out all sorts of products and I am sure they will have some wonderful things for us to carry in the store. But until they return I want to announce tomorrows new releases.

We have two background stamps Damask and Damask-REVERSE, which is just a "negative" view of the Damask. These stamps measure 5.5 x 4.25. In addition to these is a set called "Many Sentiments" which contains some of the most often used sentiments for card makers - all in beautiful fonts. This set also has two decorative elements to coordinate with the phrases. This trio contains elements of all these sets.

First, the card uses the Damask - REVERSE in rose red for the background. The ovals were cut using Nestabilities and "Many Thanks", in rose red, is from the Many Sentiments set. The white satin ribbon is also available at Flourishes and is just perfect for this card.

Next is this cute little tin I purchased at Wal-Mart in their wedding section. It's filled with m & m's in the valentine colors (the hardest part was not eating the m&m's before I finished this project!) The circles are cut using the Petite Circle Nestabilities, and "Best Wishes" is from the Many Sentiments set. Both the rose scalloped circle and the band around the tin are stamped with the Damask background.

Finally, this little vellum box is filled with more m&m's!! I made the box with a template downloaded from Mirkwood designs. I took a strip of rose red and white and stamped the Damask on both and wrapped it around the box. Then I tied a rose colored sheer ribbon (JoAnn's) around that. I topped it with a tag made from Petite Circle Nestabilities and stamped "So Very Thoughtful" in rose. This sentiment is also from the Many Sentiments set.

Here is what the tags and little band look like before I adhered them.

Please stop by the store tomorrow and take a closer look at these sets.

Also - don't forget that the Flourishes Cake Decorating contest continues all this month - submit your card using the Cake Decorating Stamp set and have a chance to win prizes!!

Ready to hit the floor

Jan Marie and Sharon are ready to hit the floor running today. Our bags are packed with the essensials, ready to spend a full day finding new things for Flourishes as well as meeting face to face with our current vendors.
We have already found new products, from classes we attended on Saturday, that interest us. We are checking them out today and will be on the look out for many more items.
The raseberry dots are our Flourishes logo luggage tags and oh they look so nice. The black tags are from our class with Dee Guenig. We also attended a Hero Arts class. It was a fun filled day.
We close out the day attending SCS cupcake reception. It was so much fun for meet all the people that we know so well. It is totally amazing how many of us recongized each other!!!! Daven the owner of SCS was there as well as all the behind the scenes folks that keep SCS up and running and the home we love.

We have laid out the maps of the floor, in hopes that we can do all we want to today. We have made list of MUST SEE's and WANTA SEE's...and I am sure we will get distracted by some much great stuff that we will wonder why we made the plan at all.

So we are off....we are out of the door with comfy shoes and our bags ready.

Till Later...

Jan Marie & Sharon

We're Off to CHA!

Well if I were a blonde this would be me! Yes -sir- ree, today I am off to the largest craft and hobby trade show in the world in Anaheim, California.
I will be there to take it all in and certainly be on the lookout for the latest news and best of everything for papercrafters. Keep an eye out as I will post to the Flourishes,llc member company forum on Splitcoastampers. I am looking forward to meeting many of the folks I deal with via the phone and email.
I will definately meet with the Spellbinders folks and see the NEW electronic cutter that they will release in May.
I will share with you some of our neat finds that you will be able to purchase from our Flourishes . Keep your eyes looking here over the next few days.
There will certainly be BIG and EXCITING news to share when I get back.
Sharon Johnson (notimetostamp) is having a BAKE OFF contest as part of our ongoing Cake Decorating Contest. So show us your entries by adding it to the thread on the SCS Flourishes Forum...and you will definitely be in the running for some great gifts...winners every week!
The Flourishes Design Team is very busy starting the sneak peaks for the new Flourishes release next week. Dee Jackson (http://www.stampincuziluv2.blogspot.com/) has a wonderful tutorial and magnificent projects for her sneak peeks.
Thanks for stopping by the Atelier today.
Rubber Hugs,
jan marie

Cake Decorating Spotlight - Part 2

In yesterdays post we showed you several different ways to decorate a cake. Today, we’ll concentrate on the cake slice.

I stamped the slice in two different colors, blue and saffron.
( A personal note. I’ve taken the cake slice stamp and cut it apart. Yes, that’s right – cut it apart. I just found it easier to use, since I usually use two different colors on the slice, one for the frosting and one for the cake. VERY CAREFULLY, I took my xacto knife, a good light and a magnifier and cut it apart. A word of caution – you only get one shot at this so make sure this is really what you want to do!! Once you cut it there is no turning back. )

Now, here is a way to use more of those little bits and pieces to decorate a cake slice.

To make a little flower, I stamped the 3-dot stamp in a darker blue, then used the flame from the candle stamp for a leaf (stamped in green) and finally used a signo pen to add the white center.

I did the same using the small flower stamp.

For a different look, I took the “wispy” stamp in rose, then turned the stamp around and stamped it again to make a flower, and added the leaves. No signo pen was needed for the center.

Once the flowers were stamped on the slice, I added a little detail – a signo pen was used just below the top flowers for a decorative accent, then a blue marker was used to make little “dots” below that.

Now take a look at a great card Jan Marie made using the cake slice. (click on the photo for a larger view of the details)

Now - When is a Cake Stamp NOT a Cake stamp? Here are some fabulous creations by the Flourishes Design team to show you what you can do with this set. These creative ladies really were thinking outside the box with these cards!!

Cards shown are from Sharon Johnson, Alex Eaton, Paula Bloom and Julia Stainton.

Cake Decorating Spotlight - Part 1

Over the next two days we will spotlight the Cake Decorating 101 Stamp set and show you some of the fun things we’ve done with this set! The set contains images of cakes, a cake slice, cake plates, pedestals, sentiments and many decorating pieces for a total of 34 stamps!

First, the basics – here are just some examples of how we put together a basic cake:

Stamp the outline cake

Then, mask the cake and stamp the plate and the pedestal

Add a little decorative detail – don’t you just love the little “bling” hanging from the cake plate?

Apply color!!

Here are some great examples from Leslie Miller Tracy Durcan, and Sharon Johnson – a little coloring, decorative paper and ribbon and you have a fabulous card!

Or try this – stamp the outline cake image and make a reverse mask. Then use a decorative stamp to create a design within the cake outline - the reverse mask protects the area around the cake. For this I used SU’s filigree background stamp. Here is a card I did using the reverse mask technique and Basic Grey paper.

Suppose you wanted the cake to look like a slice has been removed? Here’s how:

Stamp out outline cake image.

Then, take the “slice out” stamp (I don’t know what else to call this stamp, so I just call it the ‘slice out”) and place it towards the left hand side of the cake. Because these are clear stamps, you can line it up where you want it very easily.

There it is. A cake with a slice cut out!

Here are some great examples of cakes with the slice cut out from Jan Marie Caruso, Alex Eaton and Tracy Durcan.

WANT MORE?????

Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of the Cake Decorating Spotlight. We will show you how to decorate a cake slice, and show some fabulous examples of “when a cake set is not a cake set” .


In the meantime, be sure to get in on the month long Cake Decorating contest by providing us a link to your cards make with the Cake Decorating Set - see the details from our January 31th post!