I love nestabilities…and pomegranate paper…and black ruffled ribbon….and white shimmery paper….AND the new Flourishes stamps!!   Can you tell I am in love this week???  This card is just something I did quickly because I had to create something!!  I have a few other things I am working on to highlight the three new sets to be released by Flourishes (hopefully this week!!).  You are going to love them all.  The Flourishes designers have been busy, so check out the Design team gallery on the Flourishes store for a look and some great inspiration!

Now the card:

• Paper:  black cardstock, white shimmery card stock (in stock at the Flourishes store)  and SU designer paper

• Ink:  Palette Noir

• Stamps - All from Flourishes  - The tree is part of the “Flourished Christmas” set and “Joy” is part of the “Rejoice” set

• Other:  Black ruffled ribbon and Nestabilities die cuts - both available at Flourishes

Assemble card as shown.

Well, I’ve already gone gray, but my hairdresser fixes that every 6 weeks!  No, this going gray is the “Ways to Use It” challenge this past week on SCS.  I’m so glad SU came out with this darker shade of gray - sometimes you just don’t want to use black. 

Here are the details:

Supplies:

• Paper:  Blush, gray
• Ink:  Versamark, Palette Noir, Mauve Mist
• Other:  Pearl Ex, Swiffer

Instructions:

• Make a card in Blush Blossom
• Stamp “Dream” im Palette Noir on a piece of blush and sponge with Mauve Mist.  Stamp Dragonfly with versamark, brush pearl-ex (flamingo pink) on the image and swiffer the excess pearl-ex off.
• Cut several 1  1/2 inch strips of gray paper and miter cut the corners.  Stamp floral images with versamark randomly on the strips, brush with white pearl-ex and a very little bit of flamingo pink pearl ex.  Swiffer off the excess.
• Attach card as shown.

It’s been awhile since I participated in a color challenge and I was determined to do so this week!!  The color combination of rust, chocolate and river rock has a wonderful fall feel to it - but I still used a floral image!!  My idea was to have the main image look like a tile - I used two coats of clear embossing powder for the effect - the photo does not really show it very well.

Supplies:

• Paper: Rust, river rock, chocolate, vanilla
• Ink: Rust, chocolate, moss, versamark
• Stamps: Fantasy  Floral Garden from Flourishes
• Other:  white chipboard, clear embossing powder, ribbon, rounded tab punch

How to:

• Stamp floral images with rust and chocolate on white chipboard. Sponge with rust.
• Cover chipboard entirely with versamark ink and emboss with clear embossing powder.  Two coats were used.
• Mount on chocolate and river rock, and attached punched tab to the side.
• Stamp leaf images with rust on vanilla, attach to chocolate and tie with chocolate ribbon.   Attach this to river rock and assemble card

Just when I started to feel somewhat comfortable with Blogger, I move to WordPress!!  What’s up with that?  There was nothing wrong with Blogger, I just saw a number of blogs using WordPress and really liked the look.  There are some features on WordPress that you don’t get on Blogger, so I am making the change.  I’ve got just the basics at this point, but will be fine tuning the site as time goes on.  I hope you will subscribe again for updates, add this new address to your blogroll and visit from time to time. 

Are you a member of the SCS fan club?? The fan club gallery is a source of great inspiration and now fan club members can participate in monthly sketch challenges!! This is my entry and I love how the colors came out.

Supplies used:

Paper: Teal, green galore and white

Ink: Palette Noir, green galore, Zia Colorwash

Other: Acetate, die cuts, clear drying glue (elmers), tissue paper

Stamps: Fantasy Floral Garden by Flourishes

Instructions:

-Stamp images on acetate with Palette Noir, let dry and turn acetate over
-On the reverse side of the acetate, apply glue covering the acetate completely. Spray on Zia colorwash (I used citron and blue topaz) and gently mix the ink into the glue. You can also use a couple of drop of reinkers for this technique.
-Crumble up a piece of tissue paper, then uncrumble and place over the glued and inked acetate. Let dry - this may take several hours!
-Mount on green galore and white.
-Stamp other images with green galore an a piece of green galore paper. Stamp small floral image in Palette Noir in lower right corner
-Punch or die cut two ovals, one in white and one in teal. Stamp “Bloom” in Palette Noir on the white and sponge with green galore.
-Attach all pieces as shown.

Has it been ten days since I posted?? We’ve been so busy at the Flourishes Studio and yesterday Jan and I finally took the chance to actually stamp for pleasure!! We both worked with the Fantasy Floral Garden set available at Flourishes. I brought along my Zia Watercolor
Wash sprays - I love these and don’t create with them nearly as often as I should.

When you think watercolor, usually you think soft, muted colors but it does not have to be that way. As you can see from this card the colors are very vibrant. Using a black card as the base really makes the colors pop. Here is how I made the card:

Supplies used:

Strathmore Watercolor Paper, cold press, 140 lb

Zia Watercolor Wash Sprays

Palette Noir Hybrid Ink

Rose Red and Black Cardstock

Fantasy Floral Garden Stamp Set

Pop dot and general adhesive

-On a piece of watercolor paper, scribble silver metallic ink in a random pattern and heat until dry.

-Spray three colors of Zia Watercolor washes. For this card I used Citron, Fire Opal and Garnet. Heat set each color before applying the next color. Cut off a section of the paper to use to stamp the “Dream” phrase.

-Stamp images from the Fantasy Floral Garden set using Palette Noir Hybrid Ink (I have come to love this ink more than Staz-On.)

-Mount on rose red and black. The “Dream” phrase is mounted on black and attached to the card with a pop dot.

Here is my latest creation using the new Fantasy Floral Garden set just released by Flourishes and my entry for this weeks sketch challenge at SCS. This set has so many wonderful floral images - you’ll be able to create many different looks.

The base card is olive, but the rest of paper is from the Basic Grey Infuse series. The main floral image was stamped in dark brown marvy markers and colored with three different pink marvy markers. The sentiment, from the Flourished Words set was also stamped in dark brown. At the bottom you may be able to see some more fantasy floral images - stamped lightly with olive.

Over the next several weeks, many of you will be receiving Spellbinder Nestability dies. For those of you who will be using the dies in your Cuttlebug, I’d like to share with you my experiences…………I’ve used cuttlebug and sizzix dies in my bug with no problems, and did not think I would have any issues with the spellbinder dies, but anytime you use one manufacturer product in another, care must be taken.To use nestabilites to cut in the bug, you will notice that the standard “B” plate sandwich is insufficient – too thin.

Your next attempt will be to replace one of the “B” plates in the sandwich with the thicker “C” plate – giving you a “B/C” plate sandwich – IN MY OPINION, YOU SHOULD NOT DO THIS!!

When I used this sandwich here were my results:

1) I broke 3 “B” plates over the course of my testing. Now you’d think I’d learn after the second one broke, but no, I had to keep on trying. The plates did not break every time, but when you have to exert pressure to crank the sandwich through it is not a good sign. You don’t need a lot of pressure to make the cut.
2) Using the “B/C” plate sandwich the dies often embedded themselves into the plate. I mean really, really embedded. To the point where I was using a screwdriver, butter knife and finally an xacto knife to pry the die off of the plate. More often than not, the resulting die cut was ruined and I had to start over again.

My conclusion: the “B/C” plate sandwich is just a bit too thick.

My solution: Start with your original “B” plate sandwich and add one or two pieces of chipboard, the thickness of your chipboard will determine how many pieces you need. I used two pieces that I cut the same size as the “B” plate and consider it just another plate to use. The chipboard increases the thickness of the sandwich, - thicker than the “B” plate sandwich, but thinner than the “B/C” sandwich. Also, because chipboard is softer than the plates, it has a little “give” to it. My dies cut cleanly and did not stick to the plate.

This is just my experience with these products. You may want to try different options – let me know if you do and how it worked out. I love the bug and the nestability dies – they are both great products in my humble opinion. I would recommend both to any crafter.

Here is another card I just made using one of the new soon to be released sets from Flourishes - this one uses the O Christmas Tree set, which contains 25 stamps. There are so many ways to trim this cute tree..

I started by making a card out of Strathmore watercolor paper, which I embossed using the Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder.

On a small piece of watercolor paper, I sponged blue for the sky and green and brown for the tree, both using marvy markers and a watercolor brush to soften the lines. The ornaments were stamped with staz on, then colored with marvy markers. You can’t tell from the photo, but I used a glitter gel pen to add a little sparkle to the ornaments.

The red mat was created using the Nestability scalloped rectangle die cut.

Flourishes will be releasing three new sets in the next week and I wanted to give you a sneak peek at one of them! Yes, it’s Labor Day weekend, but we are working on the upcoming holiday season - even though it’s 90 degrees here… This card was made with an image created exclusively for Flourishes by calligrapher Joan Machinchick. More on Joan will be posted on the Flourishes Newsletter in the coming days.

The base card was made using beautiful shimmery white paper. Flourishes carries this paper and has a nice selection of other metallic paper - perfect for holiday and wedding cards. I stamped and embossed the Peace Dove in gold on shimmery paper, and used the Nestabilities oval dies to cut and emboss the white and gold mat. The sheer gold ribbon is from Michaels. The photo just does not do this card justice, as the beauty of the shimmery paper is not seen.

I hope you like this little peek at what is coming…check out the Flourishes boutique in the next week and see what we have to offer.