A lovely dress was the inspiration for today’s challenge over at SCS - one of those pretty sparkly cocktail dresses!   Here is my submission based on that inspriation.

I started with a large chocolate card, 5 1/2 x 5, on which I embossed images from the Flourished Elements set.  The embossing powder is called “Black Hills Gold” from Creations Unlimited and it has a wonderul effect to it.  Depending on the light, the embossed powder looks either gold or copper - just like the Black Hills Gold jewelry!  I stamped another flourished element on  piece of scrap chocolate and cut it with nestabilities circle dies. 

Love is stamped on vanilla and embossed with the same powder.  This stamp is from the Lace Heart set from Flourishes and was cut with nestabilities as well.

Then I took a piece of gold scrapbook paper and did a “tuxedo” fold - thought it would look well with the formal look of the stamps.  If you are doing a fold like this use thin paper, not cardstock, which is just too heavy.

I attached the gold paper to the card and wrapped a gold cord  - which is actually metallic needlepoint thread - around it, then attached the Love circle to the cord.

I just love these little birds!  I had this card in my mind for so long and I am finally getting it on paper.  The card uses stamps from three different sets and I love how they all work together.

First, I stamped the arch from Open to Love on river rock and cut away the interior.  I stamped the leaves from Fantasy Floral Garden around the upper and lower corners.

On a piece of white cardstock, I stamped the branch, nest and birds, all from Love Nest, then added the leaves.  I sponged a little blue for sky then mounted the cut out arch on top of this.  I mounted everything on vanilla, then turquoise, then river rock,  The sentiment, also from Love Nest, is stamped in Palette Noir on white and mounted on river rock.  The ribbon is SU turquiose grosgrain.

Sue Berker, who was selected by random number!!  Congrat’s Sue!!  Send me an e-mail at nkirk@aol.com with your address and I will send this package with all the goodies out to you!!

 Thanks to everyone who commented - we have quite a variety of stamps that people want!

It’s Christmas Eve and time to announce my blog candy!!! In celebration of reaching 10,000 hits I am giving away this great package of goodies…..

The winner will receive the Cake Decorating 101 set from flourishes - this set contains 34 stamps!    There are all sorts of cute little pieces to use to decorate a cake.  To get you started stamping, I’ve also included a Palette Inkpad in Burnt Umber.  I love this ink - it works so well on polymer stamps.   And to finish it off, how about a bottle of stamp cleaner developed specifically to clean clear stamps?  

What do you need to do to win this candy?  Just respond to this post by answering the following question….

I wish someone would make a stamp/stamp set of…….

The candy countdown ends friday morning, December 28, 9 am CST and I will announce the winner later that day, chosen by random number selection. 

Good Luck!

on its own?   This rarely happens to me!!  I was working on a card where I punched a circle out of a piece of Basic Grey designer paper and I placed the leftover piece aside.  I finished the card I was making and went over to the table where I had placed the leftover piece.  The circle was cut out of the upper left hand corner and when I set it aside to work on my original card I placed it on a piece of cocoa paper that just happened to match perfectly with the designer paper!  When I saw how the paper looked with the cut out circle placed where it was, I immediately saw the finished card! 

I punched out two scalloped circles in smaller sizes than the cut out and in colors that coordinated with the designer paper, using the Nestabilities petite circle sets.  I stamped “Celebrate” in cocoa and placed a “page pebble” over it.  These were all mounted together and placed over the cut out section of the designer paper, which was mounted on a piece o cocoa paper.  I knew I would use this chocolate satin ribbon (from the $1 bin at Big Lots), but did not want to just place it horizontially across, so I tied a knot in it and angled it diagonally across the bottom corner.

Paper - vanilla, cocoa, blue, Basic Grey Urban Coture

Stamps - Celebrate from the flourished Words Set

Other   Ribbon, Petite Circle Nestabilities die set, Page Pebbles

Whew!!  I’ve been working on setting up my gallery…it’s taken a while to put it together and I am still going through my photos to add to the gallery, but in the meantime I hope you will take a look.  Please click on the gallery tab at the top of the page then click on a thumbnail which will take you to that particular gallery.  I’ve categorized my flourishes sets from all the other stamps I have….now

Blog Candy…I’m approaching 10.000 hits (!) and next week I will be offering some nice blog candy - so stay tuned!

Here is my submission on this week’s technique challenge - it calls for using Dazzling Diamond dust.

I started by stamping the angel stamp from the Rejoice set from flourishes in Palette Noir ink on glossy white.   Dazzling Diamond dust was used on top although from the photo you cannot see how sparkly it came out.   I used the nestabilities circle dies to cut this image, then used the scallop circle dies to cut  circles from pomegrante and silver metallic paper.  The card was made with SU’s holiday paper with pomegranate and silver ribbon on top.

Do you have a cuttlebug and want to buy the Nestabilities dies but are not quite sure on how well the two work together?  Well, check out the Flourishes newsletter here  - there is a quick video tutorial about using nestabilities in a cuttlebug.  The topics covered are cutting with the dies, embossing and embossing on a card front.  We show you what we have learned using these products!

The first time I heard about people cutting apart their stamps I was amazed!!  Why would anyone want to cut apart an image…then it happened to me!  I was using a stamp from Flourishes Fantasy Floral Garden and there are two little pieces on the stamp that I usually did not want to show.  I thought about cutting them off and after much thought I realized I would like the image better with the little sections off.  So….out came the xacto knife and ….very carefully…I cut off the two small pieces.  Some tips….think about this for awhile before you make your cut because you can’t go back!  Also - use a new blade in your knife and go slowly.  I found that this polymer was sturdier than expected…hopefully a sign of quality materials.  I also used a magnifying glass to get a better look - in this case you don’t want to cut the stems off too much or two little - just take your time.

Once that was done and I felt more confident I tried another, harder image.  The cake slice from Flourishes Cake Decorating set was always a difficult one for me to stamp.  Since I usually stamp with pads, not markers, it was difficult to get two different colors on this one stamp.  So - I carefully cut between the “frosting” edge and the “cake” edge.  This one was more difficult because the space between the two is very tight - I cut very slowly and carefully and was able to get two stamps that I can use on ink pads!

 Let me know if you have ever cut apart a stamp and how you did it.

I just joined the Blogging Sisterhood and am in group 5 - YEAH!!   I’d like to give a stamping shout out to all of my sisters who have posted so far, and to those I will soon get to know.  About me:   I’ve been stamping for about 10 years now and am co-owner of Flourishes Stamps with two other wonderful stampers.  I was born and raised in New England, then moved to southern California where we lived for many years and now we live in beautiful northwest Florida!  I hope to hear from all of you and can’t wait to see all your blogs!