Copic Collections

Whew......there for a minute I completely forgot (old age) what I had in mind when I made this card..... what I was trying to achieve..... well I am still learning how to use Copics, I wanted to try another blending collection, just to see again, if it really works. With Flouirshes color collections, it has been much easier for me to achieve the color/shading I am happy with by being able to use colors that blend well together. I am still limited because I do not have enough of the right collection groups.

I had been buying single Copic in colors that were a close match to the SU colors I have. When I did it that way I had a hard time getting the look I wanted with one or two shade/hue/colors for my image. Jan Marie has taken all the guess work out of picking the combinations that work perfectly, and much to my amazement I NEED to buy (it is a need not a want) most of the whole groups in the collection. And here I thought I was doing a good job with my color choices then didn't understand why I couldn't get them to work well together.

For those of us that do not have a background in Art need all the help we can get....that is why I am excited to be able to get my hands on Copic's in Collections. The collection I used for this image will be called Daffodil and Spring Greens, very fitting don't you think?

Card Ingredients:

Stamp; Signs Of Spring

Ink; Copic daffodil & spring green collection, Versa Mark, black

Paper; Urbain Prairie, blue CS

embellisments; Gold embossing, Spellbinders, ribbon

Window Dressing-A Clear Challenge

A Timeless Tuesday challenge with clear card stock. Have you joined the challenge? Anyone can, even if you do not have any Flourishes stamps. I am not eligible to win but you Can.

I found the challenge to be getting the clear card stock to show in a picture.....maybe I will have to put smudge prints on my "window". The ladybug is stamped on the clear card stock and colored with Copic on the back side of image.

I have to say that I used Copic markers on the bowl, fruit and vegetables. I believe that if I can do a good job (I think I did) coloring, then anyone can learn to use them.
The bowl, I stamped with Ballet Blue Palette ink on white card stock, then I took Copic B41, the brush end and ran it along the curved edge to get the darker blue. The top of the bowl is colored with R81 and the brush tip of a blender pen to make the "spots". Sorry but I did not keep up with all the shades of copic I used when coloring the fruit and veggies. It comes out great though doesn't it?
Once cut out, I placed the bowl on a table with pop dots. The window frame is popped up with dimensional strips although none of it shows well in this picture.

The window frame is cut with the square Spellbinders, What Did We Ever Do Without Spellbinders??? The sentiment is cut with the ribbon tag trio then threaded with silk ribbon. I Love the rich draping effect and feel of silk, don't you?

Stamps: Mixed Greeting
Ink: Copic and Palette
paper: Two Scoops

It is not too late to enter this weeks challenge.

Retirement Blowout Bash

Be sure to come back the 2ND of May.....if not before just to look.....but the second of May is when I am going to start my countdown to retirement (really changing not fully retiring). I will be counting down for 27 days to close out 27 years at the same dental office with a bundle of 27 items for blog candy.

I will add an item each day May 2 through May 28 with the random.org drawing to be held after 5:00 pm CST or as soon as I get home from work Thursday. More details on May 2, 2009 on how you have a chance to WIN IT ALL!

Until then it's back to work on Monday.

Piercing Red Violets- You Inspire Me!

Hey, does this qualify as a three for one? FTTC11 and Flourishes Friday Focus ribbon bows and SC224? Who knows maybe it qualifies as the color challenge too, I don't know I have not checked to see what the colors are for this week. It defiantly has piercing, it is the sketch for Wed and the ribbon, while not a bow it does give you options of what you can do instead.

Like add some bling, in this case a pearl, tie a knot in the silk ribbon to keep your choice of embellishment in place.

That is the finishing touch for RED Violets, the starting point was white card stock with the piercing at the bottom. I heat embossed with gold and colored with copics using the Flourishes Copic Collection. Are Violet Red? No, but that is the only blending collection that I have, are violet leaves this color of green? No, again this is the green collection I could make up with all the copics I have. I am looking forward to adding more to my Copic collection in the near future.

The sketch is found on SCS, the dp is bittersweet & brandywine by basic grey and memory box. SU card stock in ruby red and pink. Ribbon is white/ivory silk with white pearls tied at the ends. I saw them used just the other day at a touch of grace, what a terrific idea.

If you would like to see many more ways to adding ribbon to a card take a look at these fabulous creations. Stacy will start us off on bow creations!

Stacy
Laura
Cindy
Julie
Christine
Latisha
Leslie
Faith

For the Friends Of Flourishes Challenge take a look at the creations from the ladies with piercing styles....

Becca
Dee
Silke
Kim
Cindy
Betty

This card is how I feel about Friends Of Flourishes and Flourishes Design team, and I dedicate it to them, one and all! You Inspire ME.

FS114 INGE In Color

Casing INGE, she is the featured stamper this week at SCS. Nuts , I went to her gallery and that is the card I choose to case. I noticed she uses lots of layers, she uses color very well, she embellishes. It was like looking at a miniature work of art.

As you can see I flipped the card, used different colors, patterns, embellishments, and stamps, the layout is the same mostly.

The stamp set used is Strut Your Stuff colored with SU markers and twinkling H2Os.

Stamps: Strut Your Stuff
Paper: glitterati by memorybox, black, turquoise, European watercolor paper
Ink: Nior Black, SU turquoise, summer sun, mustard, a touch of H2O
Embellishments: ribbon, stick pin which I made

Day After Party Night!

What a wild ride we had last night, where you at the release party? If not you missed a fast paced night of good company, great card samples, games, prizes, and best of all new stamp sets! Do you want to see what we did? Well this is one party you can revisit.

I did manage to get another card made with one of the new stamp releases, Vintage Wallpaper. It is a companion to Thinking of You, but usable with so many different sets. Here I used it with Timeless Phrases, and why not the vintage background is timeless.

I like the first four words in the sentiment, they could have been used all by themselves for this card. The simple things in life, shimmery green card stock, soft design scrap book paper (both of these from my stash of scrapbook paper, of which I am way way way behind on) delicate rich silk ribbon and 1 bradish (my spell check is going to have fun with that word) type element. I think it makes a very simple, delicate, rich, looking card. AND no coloring!

I cut out the white paper with Spellbinders labels 4, I stamped Vintage Wallpaper with new sprout ink on the white. I cut a piece of vellum the same size as the white paper and stamped the sentiment with nior black ink on the vellum.

I cut the dp using the same size label as before with the next size smaller inside. I use temporary tape to hold everything in place and it comes right off without damaging any of the papers.

So right now I have 3 papers cut using the same size label, white, vellum, and designer paper. The last layer, shimmer green was cut with the largest label 4 and adhered to the background dp. The smaller label layer was popped up.

It is hard to see on the base layer that I used the VW background, but the silk ribbon and small brad type element (which I made) sets it all off in style.

Stamps: Vintage Wallpaper, Timeless Phrases, by Flourishes

Paper: White (GP), designer paper (HOTP), shimery green card stock (my stash), vellum (SU)

Ink: new sprout, nior black

Ribbon: Silk at Flourishes

Embelishment: bead cap with pearl (keiser)

Vintage Wallpaper- Day Three Of Release

Vintage Wallpaper is a new and wonderful companion to the Thinking of You set released a few months ago. Vintage Wallpaper is just the right image to give a finished background look that keeps the "feel" of the card, well vintage.

If you take a look at the close up you are able to notice in more detail the vintage background. I stamped with castaway on a dark brown piece of card stock from my stash.

Castaway alters the color of paper when it is heated with an iron. This is actually the test piece of paper, I had never used Castaway before so I tested it first. The paper I thought I would use did not turn out so.........instead of throwing my "test" away I made a card around a brown and yellow color scheme.

I cut ovals using Spellbinders classic ovals, colored direct to polymer on the Thinking Of You image, and because you can see though polymer stamps I was able to center my image with no trouble. The sentiment was added with ease too. Wouldn't this be the perfect time to add a little flower soft to the floral designs of this set?

The finishing touches are a new loop cord (soon to be adding to Flourishes site) and the flower button. Whomever receives this card will get a special piece of family heirloom, to me my moms button box holds our clothing history. My mother made many of my clothes when I was growing up, she saved a lot of the buttons from that clothing when they could no longer be worn. Today I found this button in a "treasure box" of my granddaughters all the bits and pieces she "picks up" when she stays at my moms. I do not know how old this button is, but some of them are 60 years old. I just might have to put this card away and save it for my GD when she is in need of it.

Well I degrees,
After working with Jenni Bowlin 4 x 4 papers, I found I liked that size. And Flourishes has envelopes in a size to fit. Now I did not use JB on this card I just cut my Basic Grey down to size. I also decorated the 4.25 x 4.24 envelope with one of the images from Thinking Of You.
All layers were adhered to a vanilla card base.

Recipe:
Paper; White, Basic Grey Urbain Prairie, brown card stock, vanilla and rose red card stock.
Ink; SU markers & ink pad
Ribbon; cream loop cord
Button; my Mothers button box by way of my granddaughters stash.

Thank you for stopping by, and if you have not gone to Flourishes newsletter to leave a comment for a chance to win this stamp set, do so now and read how you can win all three stamp sets for the April release.

And here are many more delightful ways to use Vintage Wallpaper

Julie Koerber
Laura Fredrickson
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Faith Hofrichter
Latisha Yoast
Stacy Morgan
Leslie Miller
Jan Maire Caruso

Just A Swingin

No I have not added dots ! That is the paper from jenne bowlin. The smaller scale print on these papers are the easy to use with smaller scale stamps, not that the tree branch is small scale, but the little girl is. What a lovely set to use for girls, of all ages.

I have four granddaughters, this is the first set that can be used for a more juvenile cards, as well as young adults. Now Flourishes needs a few sets for boys, maybe sometime soon?

The paper is black line from from the Jenni Bowlin collection, watercolor paper, with a white picket fence. Who could resist? The card base is black with a white insert.

I used SU markers and a water pen, my favorite way to watercolor. What could be easier, a pen that carries your water for continuous coloring without having to have an open container of water, which for me would be very dangerous in my creating room.
The sentiment is inked onto a piece of watercolor paper one line at a time so it reads in a straight line insead of "stacked". When using clear stamps it is easy to line up ANYTHING, because you can see through it. Being able to see through the stamps allows me to see more options for using the stamps.

Well, I am off to make a card using the final set to be released this week, Vintage ?????? Hope you come back tomorrow.

Sweet Violet Memories

As I was coloring these sweet violets it took me back, way back in time to a place I can only visit in memories. Back to my childhood in the Midwest and a field of clover just a block from my house. I would sit in that big field of clover looking for, what else, a four leaf clover. I would find a four leaf clover every time, if I spent enough time looking.
In among the clover I would find a few wild violets, they would be setting in small clumps surrounded by deep green leaves. They seemed more special because the violets were few and far between but oh, so much easier to find because of their distinctive coloring..... I would pick the delicate flowers to take to my mother and to this day she keeps a clump of wood violets outside her back door. And that's not easy in Florida!
Maybe that is why I keep looking for clover among these violets, but in loo of the clover I have settled for ribbon and a little bling. I can't say that was a bad choice in this case.
I used two Basic Grey papers, Eva and Lilykate two ribbons parrot green in scalloped and sheer, and two plum colored card stock papers, two styles of ink markers Copic and SU, two ink pads Palette charcoal and distress ink straw, and two embellishments Stick pin and single violet.
After this picture was downloaded, I added the sentiment (hello friend) to the lower right corner, just under the ribbon, it seemed to be the perfect finishing touch.
I enjoyed the memories this brought back as I was making this card, maybe someday I will again find a field of clover to hunt for violets!
If you would like to more Violets, check these out

Christine
Faith
Julie
Stacy
Cindy
Latisha
Leslie
Laura
Jan
Nancy

Ya'll Come back tomorrow too see whats new. And don't forget to check out what is going on this week!

Click on the Flourishes Newsletter for daily giveaways of the featured set!
Don't forget about the Swing Into Spring challenge! You could win all three new sets being released! Click HERE and scroll down to the end of the post to find out more!
Mark your calendars for our release party this Friday in the Flourishes Forum on SCS! We'll kick things off from 8 to 10 PM CST with games, giveaways and even more samples showcasing this month's sets!

L2K Meet Sophie's BFF's

I do believe we have found Sophie's BF F's Chloe, so can Gigi be far behind. You know Sophie don't you? You can find her over at Flourishes scoping out papers, checking the ribbons, finding embellishment that coordinate, just for you so you can make fabulous creations.

Well Chloe looks like she is off to find more products for Sophie to show you. L2K? (like to come) for those of us that don't do text talk.

I stamped Chloe on watercolor paper then on Eclipse masking tape. When you want to stamp over a small area of an image you only have to cut a portion of the mask. Just the part that will be affected. In this case I cut just around the packages that Chloe is carrying. Makes it quick and easy to use a mask and create a scene.

I paper pieced Chloe's dress with scrapbook paper (heavens knows I have a ton of that). Then colored the rest with SU markers and a water pen. The last thing I used was the creamy caramel marker around the edge of the paper. It was much easier to color the edge than I thought it would be.

Once I finished coloring I place the layer on my work table, stepped over to my designer paper and thought................what paper do I use now? When I turned back the image screamed loud and clear....Urbain Prairie. That is what I used! Added a piece of ribbon and a big flower, hopefully not too big. Chloe looks like she is ready to shop, shop, shop.

Check out Gigi and Chloe!

If you want to see more go..........
Stacy
Jan
Laura
Cindy
Julie
Latisha
Faith

Gigi and Chloe!


Have a good shopping day, and read all about "The girls"