Another Flourishes release is here and with it another challenge. This one was to be inspired by our garden - by our favorite flowers, colors, anything we love in our garden.

We just moved to our house this summer and it has no garden to speak of - just grass. We were to busy with moving, settling in and other stuff this year to do more than just move the lawn. BUT next year I’m planning to work on it - and I would love love LOVE to have a garden with fruit trees, bushes and plants - apples, peaches, blueberies, strawberries… so my card is inspired by my dream garden. I used an image from Cherries and Peaches set and colored it with Prisma pencils.

The background panel is embossed and sprayed with Garden Fairy Glimmer Mist. Edges are distressed and inked with Peeled Paint distress ink.

Can you believe it’s that time again - time for another new release from Flourishes and this month it will be one of their BIGGEST releases ever. They have 6… no, it’s not a mistake - 6 new stamp sets to release. And like before every release - there is a challenge. This one is called A Season That Sparkles. So we need to capture the sparkle of the holiday season on a card.

For my card I picked a picture from the Rejoice set from Flourishes. I colored it with Prisma pencils and added some details with a silver pen. Then I paired it with 2 shades of purple Bazzill  cardstock. I love the shimmer on this paper. It’s perfect for this challenge. Then I used Stickles on angel’s wings and added a couple of rhinestones for extra sparkle. The sheer ribbon is from Flourishes too (it’s my favorite)  and the sentiment is from SU.

Last Tuesday’s  challenge on Flourishes was to create a monochromatic card/ other project. I found this great tutorial for Box Bag yesterday and decided to make one.

Papers are from Me&My Big Ideas Christmas scrapbook kit and I used the cup stamp from Flourishes Coffee with friends set. Making the bag was really easy and it’s a nice size to fit a bag of gourmet coffee beans. I longed to add some brown, but since this was a monochromatic challenge I couldn’t Maybe next time.

This month Flourishes challenge us to incorporate the “feel” of the sea into our creations. Here is mine. I used the Lighthouse from StampsHappen, It’s stamped and sponged through a circular mask.  I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and used SU Bashful Blue and Baja Breeze inks for the sky.

The background paper is SU too. Then just a bit of ribbon, couple of dew drops and an easy breezy card is done.

I’ve been so busy lately - too much work and now we moved too - so when I had a bit of time I created a card, but didn’t have time to post it.

So while my craft room is still in boxes I can catch up with my posting. I will start with couple of cards I created for last VSN back in May.

I was hosting a challenge where players had to use GOLD in their creations. Here are my 2 sample cards:

I used Flourished I love roses set for them and kept them both gold , black and white - already used them as Sympathy cards.

I made another card with this set  for MAY09VSNC challenge where we had to use only red, black and one neutral.

The rose was colored with red Prisma pencils and blended with OMS. The back panel was stamped with roses from the same set in Riding Hood Red on a CS of same color.

Flourishes are releasing new sets this Friday and with it comes a release challenge and release party - I love these - lots of fun and a chance to win!
The release challenge was to create a His & Hers cards - use the same stamp set or layout and make two cards. I actually did 2 sets of cards - I didn’t like the first too much - well, the cards were not bad, but it was hard to tell which one is feminine and which masculine so I tried again - this time with these baby booties.

I love the booties image - it’s so versatile, you could make them any color and it would still look great (I also made a cards with green booties, but not for this challenge). So I used the same image and layout, just did one in blue and one in pink. And I also used a bigger ribbon with a bow on the girly one to make it look more feminine and just ties a knot on a the boy card. The images are colored with prismacolor pencils and blended with OMS.

Last week’s Friday Focus on Flourishes blog  was paper piecing. I was really inspired by the tutorial created by Faith so I decided to use the I Love Roses set too. And here is the result:

The whole rose is paper pieced using Basic Grey Porcelain papers. The base of the rose is one paper a bit colored with Prismacolor pencils to matched the popped up middle. Paper I used for the middle of the flower is a bit yellow-y so I added a bit of yellow to the base too. The leaves are half colored with Prisma pencils too. All the other papers and the brads are from the same collection.

I loved the technique, so I decided to make another card. Same papers, just this time I used my new Gorjuss girl stamp from Funky Kits.  And here she is:

This is my first time participating in Timeless Tuesday on Flourishes. This week we were challenged to use RIBBON.

I do use ribbon all the time, so I tried to think about a different way to use it. So I created a whole panel covered in different ribbon strips.

The image is from I Love Roses set, it’s colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with OMS and stumps. I had strange light this morning.. the pinks look brighter IRL. The image is cut out and popped up with 3D dots. The sentiment is from Penny Black, the card base is SU cardstock.

This week’s challenge on Stamp Something was to create a card inspired by something favorite… my Mom is my favorite person and she loves roses in any form - alive, on pictures, cards, china, clothes… so when I got the I Love Roses stamp set from Flourishes I was inspired by her. So here it comes:

The rose was stamped with Palette ink and colored with Prismacolor pencils. The small roses were stamped on 1 inch pieces in Riding Hood Red and layered with DP. The same red was used for decorating the inside and the envelope. DP is Que Sera Sera from K&Co. I was trying to keep is as flat as possible for easier mailing so I just added one ribbon for decoration.

I just got my new stamp set I Love Roses from Flourishes and this is the first card I made with it. The roses were stamped on watercolor paper with Palette ink, embossed with clear EP and colored with inks, markers and aquapainter. The BG papers are SU (raspberry tart and old olive DP). The sheer ribbon is from Flourishes too… I love it, it’s SOOO soft