Let’s light the candles and strike up the music!! The owner of Flourishes – Jan Marie Caruso – is celebrating a birthday and we’re helping her by getting the party started with just about the entire Flourishes Crew! 

Why not leave some love on her blog HERE  and while you are hopping around, pay a visit to the Flourishes team members who are honoring her special day!

I've used the Primrose image from A Year In Flowers 1 which is the February flower.  It's stamped on Flourishes Classic White card stock and colored with Copic markers.  I wanted to color the flowers a rich regal purple and I found shades of it in the Six by Six pad by MME called A Beautiful Life.

I used a Spellbinders Blossom die behind the image and the pretty border is from the Parisian Accents set. I used a Candi dot that I colored with a Copic to coordinate. I stamped a sentiment from Tiny Flowers and Tags and cut it out with a Tailor Made Classic Tags die.

In honor of Jan’s special day, the worker bees behind the scenes decided to have a COLORFUL sale to help celebrate! TODAY and TOMORROW only – all Copic Markers will be on sale 15% off. Just use the code COPIC15 in the coupon code box at the time of check out to get this fun discount! So, join us in singing her a special little birthday song! Be sure to check out all the fun and festive wishes and grab some great ideas for birthday cards along the way!

·         

·        Barbara Anders

·    Christine Okken

·    Cindy Lawrence

·    Danielle Kennedy (that's me)

·    Dawn Burnworth

·    Julie Koerber

·    Sharon Doolittle

Stacy Morgan

Tammy Hershberger

Beate Johns

Cindy Haffner

Heather Jensen

Maki Jones

Mona Pendleton

Silke Ledlow
Betty Wright

Kathy Jones

Yvonne Hagane

Pat Adam

Happy Birthday Jan! We hope your day is the absolute BEST and cheers to an even better year ahead!

 

Happy Birthday Julie!!

Today is a very special day…it’s a very special birthday. Our one and only, completely irreplaceable, unforgettable, head honcho, rock steady, keep us in line, and loves us for who we are, eminent leader…Julie Koerber! Without her there wouldn’t be…well, we wouldn’t be! She is the foundation of our Senior Design Team and the fearless leader that we always can turn to! It’s a blog hop for Julie’s birthday and I have a special birthday card for just for her!

I started by stamping sublte images from Ferns and Fiddles onto Flourishes classic white card stock then stamping Happy Birthday from the Kids Play set. I then die cut using Spellbinders Labels Twenty, which was kept in place while I sponged the panel with Wheat ink from Versa Magic. The patterned paper is MME Six by Six Vanity Fair. I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch and a scrap of pp and added them to the sentiment panel. I found the “stick pin” in my stash and found the colors similar and they added a nice little pop.

Jan Marie Caruso

Barbara Anders

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Danielle Kennedy (you are here!)

Dawn Burnworth

Sharon Doolittle

Stacy Morgan

Tammy Hershberger

Beate Johns

Cindy Haffner

Heather Jensen

Maki Jones

Silke Ledlow

Iwona Palmountain

Kathy Jones

Mona Pendleton

Yvonne Hagane

Laura Fredrickson I hope that Julie feels all the love that we have for her today as she hops along her birthday celebration route!
We love you Julie and wish you a very Happy Birthday!!

Flourishes Birthday Bash!

Welcome to day 2 of Flourishes Birthday Blog Hop Celebration! Just in case you missed it, Flourishes is now officially 4 YEARS OLD and we are busy lighting the candles on our cake with three days full of creative inspiration and chances to win a bounty of blog candy! Want to help us celebrate?

HOW CAN YOU WIN? THERE ARE SO MANY WAYS!

• Leave a comment on this post
• Leave a comment on the designers' posts that are on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday’s hops!
• Play in our Flourishes Birthday Celebration Card Challenge!
• Play in our Flourishes Favorite Card Challenge! (link to Wednesday’s post on the FLLC blog)

HOW TO PLAY IN OUR FLOURISHES BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION CHALLENGE!

• Simply make a birthday card using Flourishes stamps!
• Entries need to be in by Thursday, September 1st by 5 PM EST
• You must link your creation on this post using our inlinkz widget in order to qualify
• You must have a link to our challenge in your blog or gallery post
• Please DO NOT combine challenges, while we love challenge chasers, we want to give those that follow the rules a chance at a prize valued at more than $60.
• If you upload to SCS, please use the keyword FLLCBDAY2
• We’ll announce the winners next Friday, September 2nd right here!
• To enter the Birthday Bash Challenge you must link up on Thursday’s post here.

For my birthday card I used the large flower from the Sunflowers set and the birthday sentiment from Kids Play. I stamped the image twice coloring both and using the center and top petals from the second image and the leaf to pop up over the first bottom image. I also colored a third petal with the ladybug and popped it up even further. All of the paper is from the Cosmo Cricket Material Girl paper pad. A little lace and a few buttons finish off. This is one of my favorite images and I really enjoy coloring it!

Speaking of candy, what do you win if you comment or play today? Take a peek!!! We’ll be giving 7 of these prize packs away! That’s right, SEVEN!

Who wouldn't want to win all that polymer perfection?? What are you waiting for! Let's get hopping!

Julie

Danielle (that’s me!)

Christine

Cindy

Barbara

HAPPY HOPPING!

Wednesday’s Color Throwdown

Hi everyone!  It’s Color Throwdown #153 and this cool palette comes from Broni. 
This is Birthday Fairy from Lili of the Valley.  She’s colored with a base of Copic marker with Prismacolor pencil and oms on top.  I didn’t have the exact colors for this challenge so you can see that my green is a bit brighter and my blue softer.  But as always, you don’t have to use the exact colors, just stay as close as you can :)

The patterned paper is from Marjolaine by Basic Grey.  I cut out the main image with Labels Ten from Spellbinders and the flourish is a die from Tim Holtz.  The sentiment is also from LOTV.   I used lots of glitter using a Quickie Glue Pen and MS glitter, on her outfit, around the image, and on the flourish.   Lots of sparkles were definitely in order for this cutie! 
Maybe you can see the sparkles here better.

Check out the design team creation from these designer!
Tammy ~ Broni ~Barbara ~ Carole and August guests Lori Tecler  and Keva Brown
Then head over to the Color Throwdown blog to join in this weeks challenge!  We love to see your creations!  Have a great day!

Happy Birthday…

LeAnne!  The card I mailed to LeAnne is below and she should have it by now…if not, well, surprise!  Here’s your card!

This is Milly – Just for you from Lili of the Valley stamps.  Another one of the latest in their “girlie” line of images.   I am having so much fun coloring these sweet images, so be on the lookout for more coming up!  She’s stamped on Flourishes Classic White card stock and colored with Copic markers.  The shading around the image is done with Prismacolor pencils and oms and around the oval panel, die cut using Spellbinders classic ovals, is with Wheat ink from Versa Magic.    The mat is  from the Classic scalloped oval die set.
The paper is from a pack I got from All That Scraps called Milton and Company from Wild Rose Studio. 
If you click on the picture for a larger image hopefully you can see the random glitter I added for sparkle around the image.
Have a great day!

Just a Moment…the release continues!

This is it! The last new Flourishes set called Moments In Time. This is a beautiful masculine set with very elegant images.

I stamped my hourglass on water color paper and painted it with SU reinkers.  I coated the glass with Crystal Effects and sprinkled Martha Stewart ultra fine crystal glitter on the “sand” .  I cut out the image with a Spellbinders die Labels Fourteen and under it used a Lacey Squares die.  I ran some tea dyed twill through the bottom mat and added some simple buttons.  The patterned paper is from the  Timepiece line by Bo Bunny. 
Can you see the glitter in the hourglass in the close up below? Well, it’s there, trust me! 

You have a chance to win this set as one of us is the…

You know what to do…leave a comment on every designers post listed below. 

Barbara Anders

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Danielle Kennedy (that’s me!)

Dawn Burnworth

Julie Koerber

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

Sharon Doolittle

Jan Marie Caruso Don’t forget about the Farm Fresh Challenge!  You have a chance to win the entire July release.  Visit the Flourishes blog for all the details!  The deadline to enter is July 15th at 5 PM Eastern.

Happy Friday!

Welcome to Flourishes Friday Focus! Today we are celebrating the owner of Flourishes, Jan Marie’s birthday! No one is more deserving of a Happy Birthday than her! And here is the card I made for Jan Marie!

I stamped the sweet pea bouquet from the Sweet Peas stamp set on Flourishes Classic white card stock and colored it with Copic markers. I shaded around the image with Prismacolor pencils and oms and then I added some Martha Stewart glitter to the flowers for a little extra pop. It’s really sparkly and pretty irl! The patterned paper is from the Curio line by Basic Grey. I used the banner die from Lil’ Inker Designs to stamp the sentiment on and added a few pearls from Kaiser and a scrap of ribbon I used to make a bow.

There’s a long list of people wanting to wish Jan Marie a happy birthday so make sure you visit all of their blogs to see their creations and don’t forget to visit the birthday girl herself!

Barbara Anders

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Dawn Burnworth

Julie Koerber

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

Betty Wright

Cindy Haffner

Dee Jackson

Maki Jones

Silke Ledlow

Tammy Hershberger

Beate Johns

Cindy Coutts

Heather Jensen

Kathy Jones

Yvonne Hagane

One more thing...

Have you been following Flourishes Gambler's Sale? Prices are now at least 25% off! Click Flourishes to check it out!

Fun Stuff

Good morning! It’s lightly raining and has been above freezing the last 3 days so the snow has slowly been diminishing so it’s a good morning for me for sure!

We celebrated my 5 year olds birthday the end of January and I tried my hand at Cake Pops. I followed the design recipe from Cake Pops by Bakerella. So many fun ideas! I made these pirate Cake Pops to hand out as favors to his little guests.

I should have taken the picture before I wrapped them since I got hot spots where the light reflected off the plastic, but you get the gist of them. I used edible markers from Wilton that I picked up in Michaels to draw on their faces. They stink! Even following directions and wiping the tip after each use the stupid pen wouldn’t write at all after the first 6 or so. When you look at them up close you can see what difficulty I had coloring. Stupid pen. I am going to have to research edible markers and see what will work better.

In any case, they tasted delish!

I happened to have my camera handy when I noticed Rosie taking a nap. Has she got the life or what?

This position cracks me up! The funniest is when she wakes up and the hair on her head is plastered on one side and sticking up on the other! She gets static to in the winter and she gets very fluffy! Too cute!

Lastly I am going to take down the Cbox. It isn’t used that much and the spam is daily now. It’s so annoying. It amazes me that there is such scum out there that trolls the web and posts fishing messages on every piece of communication that they can. I am tired of seeing it. My email address is posted under my profile so you can always reach me that way.

Tomorrow is the first sneak peek for February Flourishes. You don’t want to miss it! I won’t have a Color Throwdown post but you can see my card on the Color Throwdown blog.

See ya tomorrow!

Hello

I missed yesterdays High Hopes challenge because I was so busy this weekend! I will spend the next few days just trying to catch up…and I meant to get this posted earlier, but well, that’s how it goes sometimes. Anyway, last Sunday we celebrated my mother’s birthday and I wanted to share some pictures of the cupcakes I made for her.

I used the book Hello Cupcake and followed the directions to make these chocolate butterflies. Takes a little practice to get the hang of the chocolate drawing…but they didn’t come out too bad. I was impressed enough that I want to do it again in different colors. I used boxed chocolate fudge cake mix for the cupcakes and make my own buttercream frosting tinted light yellow.

I made a dozen butterflies some small and some large and put them all together on a plate then pulled out my new Papertrey Ink set Butterfly Dreams to make a decoration for the center. I die cut the butterflies, then stamped and colored them with Copics. I glued them each to a floral wire stem and gathered them for a fun centerpiece. Here’s a close up of the butterflies.

And here’s a closeup of the centerpiece.

Then I used more of the same butterflies along with images from the set Turning A New Leaf which I stamped in various Versa Magic inks and added a series of white dots with a gel pen.

I am headed today to yet another kiddie birthday party, the fourth one in four days! This has not been any kind of spring break for ME! The kids of course are loving it.

Be back tomorrow with The Color Throwdown! Have a great day!

Get Wings with High Hopes!

Welcome to another weekly challenge from High Hopes. This week your hostess Amy L is asking for you to use an image with wings…butterflies, angels, birds, anything that has wings. I chose to use Warm Wishes image of a winged dragon.

The image is colored with Copics and his wings, flames, and various spots on his body are sparkly with Stickles and glitter applied with a Quickie Glue Pen. I used patterned paper from My Minds Eye, a small mat pad in the Home line that I picked up last week at Michaels. I hand wrote the sentiment and added it under some Prima flowers that I layered with a brad.

Join us over at High Hopes and play along with this weeks fun challenge. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Color Throwdown Wednesday challenge #67

This weeks color challenge is being hosted by Tammy. She has chosen these perfectly masculine colors for me as she knew I had to make my hubs a birthday card! Not really, but they worked perfectly for the card I was making him. Happy Birthday Joe!!!

This image is from DRS Designs. It is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Neenah Solar Crest White Ultra Smooth card stock. I colored it with Copics...what little coloring it required.


Both the image and mat are cut with a rectangle Nestabilitie die lightly inked with blue chalk ink while still in the die. They are matted on the green panel which was run through a Cuttlebug folder. I inked around the edges of the green panel and blue sentiment panel with Distress Ink in Walnut Stain. I added some Diamond Glaze to the deers antlers, but it has seen better days...time for new bottle! The sentiment is from SU and the ferns from a Martha Stewart punch and some Doodlebugs polkadot scraps. I wrapped some hemp twine from PTI around the green panel several times but it kind of got hidden by everything.

This buck is a tribute to the one my hubs says he's gonna take down this weekend, uh huh. It might be the only eight pointer he ever gets...

Come on over to the Color Throwdown and join our challenge. Make sure you check out all the DT's great samples!

LeAnne Pugliese - Wee Inklings

Barbara Anders - Paper Pursuits

Broni Holcomb - Splashes of Watercolor

Tammy Hershberger - Stamp Happy

Cathy Indelicato - Crafty Thoughts

Elise / Guest Designer - Mamacow Creations

Oh, I'm stuffed!

As soon as I saw this adorable hamster on Mo's Digital Pencil I had to have it! I always had hamsters as a kid and it was so funny to see how much they could stuff into their cheeks.

I used Prisma pencils and OMS on Neenah Solar Crest White Ultra Smooth cardstock. The cupcake is accented with glittered sprinkles. The patterned paper from Imaginisce is stitched in panels to Dark Chocolate cardstock from PTI and finished with a bow and a few dew drops.

On another note....I just want to apologize to all my fellow bloggers and followers for my lack of comments the last several weeks. I am suffering from Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) to my right hand and it's painful to do everyday tasks which include using the computer (typing), coloring, writing, opening jars and bottles...you name it. I have been trying to take it easy as not to aggravate the condition further and to heal as quickly as possible. I have still been visiting all of your blogs and seeing all of your gorgeous work but just not commenting much.

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend! Promise I'll be visiting!

Color Throwdown #25

This weeks color challenge, was well, a challenge for me!

Orange and red together are not a common combo for me...and being I don't have any SU! paper I of course don't have any patterned paper that contains these colors. I substitute Bazzill and Prism and get very close, but I usually have to create my own dp. Here they are:

I originally began with a stamped background (the green panel) but I hated it...and nothing I did to it could make it better. I just couldn't live with it and it had to go. Instead I tried again but this time embossing with a Cuttlebug folder instead of stamping. The pattern has a little bird in it, which I think is completely covered up, but it was repeating my adorable bird image. All of the stamps are from the set Birthday Surprise by Verve Visual.

The bird is colored with Copics but all of the other elements are paper pieced and popped up; hat, wing, balloons, and bow, which you can see in the picture below. The tiny bow was a challenge in itself! I went over all of the swirls in the elements with a Sakura Star Dust pen for some pizzaz too. The polka dot ribbon is from Papertrey Ink and I used the SU! scalloped border punch for the bottom of the blue panel. I pierced some corner designs in the main panel and on each scallop. I really love the bright colors-it's a very cheery birthday card for one of my sil's!

Check out the other team members wonderful creations!

Tammy - Stamp Happy
Broni - Splashes of Watercolor
LeAnne - Wee Inklings
Barbara - Paper Pursuits
Cathy - Crafty Thoughts

Hope you play along! Enjoy!

Don't forget to enter for blog candy here!

Celebrate your birthday!

I have a close and dear friend who is celebrating her birthday on Thursday and I knew Stella Bella would be perfect for her. I even made her hair the same color! Well, maybe my friend is more of a strawberry blonde, but I've seen her sitting in her martini! Okay, maybe not sitting in it, but I think she gets the idea and is going to love this card! Inside I used a stamp from Printworks that says "It only happens once a year....so Celebrate!"

At first I wasn't sure about the bright colors but I matched them to a K & Co Berry Sweet paper pack and they have really grown on me. Colored with Copics and accented with Sakura Star Dust pen and Diamond Glaze and cut out with a Nestie. I used a ball head pin in pink to attach the sentiment which I stamped and punched out with a SU! small oval punch.

Have a great day! I will be back tomorrow with a special card!

Chicks birthday

Just a quick post today. I sent this card to a blogger friend for her birthday. The images are from Anna Wight's Crazy for Chickens from Whipper Snapper Designs. The chicken is paper pieced and there is faux stitching around the brown panel. The balloon is a punch and I used some wild wire for the string. I added some Sakura star dust to the hay bale for a little sparkle. The yellow dp is from Rusty Pickle.

I have been sick since Friday and going to a stamp show on Saturday instead of resting is now wreaking havoc on my body. With both my almost 3 yr and 5 yr old boys home with me today I don't think getting any rest is on the "to do" list. Anyway, I am going to try and catch up on my blurfing and hope I can get some rest later. I hope everyone has a good day!

PUMPKIN FLOWER ARRANGEMENT

This is a birthday card that I made for my great aunt. She is my mother's aunt, my grandmother's sister, and one of the few living relatives left from that generation on my mother's side. I really can't remember the last time I saw her...not since I was a kid. Aunt Betty has never, ever, ever forgotten my birthday. I don't recall my mother ever making me send her a birthday card, but as soon as I was old enough I made sure I sent her one every year. She makes sure she sends my boys birthday cards too. Without fail this woman never forgets...wish I could say the same about some other family...oh well. In any case, her birthday is the day before Halloween so I thought a fall themed card was appropriate.

I waded (almost literally) through a kiddie pool of unmounted rubber at the DRS booth at the last stamp show I attended in September. I struck gold when I found this beauty! I attempted to emulate Paula Williams, colored pencils on kraft paper, and although it falls short of her gorgeous creations such as this one, I think it came out good none the less. I painted over most of the flowers and the pumpkin with Shimmerz in coordinating colors. You can see the sparkle in the picture above. it's a little washed out from the reflection. Below is a little close up of the flowers and you can see the colors better.

Stamps: DRS, pumpkin; Rubber Cottage, sentiment

Paper: Rusty Pickle dp, PTI kraft and dark chocolate cardstock

Accessories: Prisma pencils/oms, Shimmerz, PTI dark chocolate dot ribbon, button, hemp, Nestabilities, paper piercer.

Have a great day!!!

Finally another card. And a birthday. And miscellanous!

Sorry I haven't posted in a week or so. Life gets real busy sometimes and I know I am not alone when I have to put stamping and creating on hold for more important things. Wait, did I just say that? Are there more important things?! Of course, just kidding! Before I show the card I finished today I have to wish my son Joey a happy 5th birthday!

His birthday was on the 12th, the day this photo was taken. He is wearing the crown he made a day earlier in day care-and very proud of it! He's such a ham too. He loves clothes and loves to get his picture taken...a model in the making? Or maybe just high maintenance? Anyway, he had a party in our backyard on Saturday with several of his "school" friends. It was a Tiki party. He couldn't wait to wear his grass skirt, much to my hubby's dismay, lol! Hey, the big Kahuna wears a skirt, so can Joey! God, I love that kid....mmmmmwwwaaaahh!!! Big kiss for my big Kahuna!

AND...the coolest thing happened to me on Sunday. There's a scrapbook shop where a friend of mine, the enabler, teaches and I shop there as often as I can and take her classes for moral support and a night out without the kids. The owner started giving out raffle tickets to each customer whenever they made a purchase of at least $50 for a period of time...like 6 or 8 weeks, I can't remember. Anyway, I had 6 tickets and last night my name was drawn for the prize! Know what it was? Of course you don't! But I'll tell you. It was a 60 second dash through her store and everything you had at the register on the counter in 60 seconds was yours! Woo hoo! I grabbed some fabulous Sizzix dies, grungeboard, Fancy Pants stamps, Kaiser mdf kits, a cool punch and some miscellaneous last second things at the register! I used one of my new dies on the card below. It was totally crazy-that after I grabbed exactly what I wanted I like froze and didn't know what to do next! But I am really happy with what I got-it was over $200 in merchandise! Her next game is going to be Let's Make a Deal and behind one of the curtains is going to be a $500 gift certificate for her store! I have my first raffle ticket already. Yeah, it wasn't enough what I won, so I had to spend an additional $50 last night. Well, she gave everyone in attendance 15% off so I had to stock up on cardstock and rub-ons and paint, etc., for Halloween! Love Halloween......*sigh*

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Okay, here it is. Is this stamp from Rachelle Anne Miller the cutest or what?! I bought it here at 7 Kids College Fund. I love her artwork. Her illustrations are fantastic! I have her frog print, which is also now a stamp, of course that I bought, just waiting to be framed, but I'm not sure where I am putting it yet. I already have some Christmas stamps on pre-order too. Check them out!

I used my new *free* scallop xl card die from Sizzix to make the card using Basic Grey paper from the sultry line. The owls are stamped with Versa Fine black and the image is colored with Prisma's and oms with H2O's painted over it. I added some sparkle with both Spica and Stardust pens here and there. The white and the pink cardstock is from PTI as well as the ribbon. The flowers are layered Primas with a button. I added a few pink gems in the corner and distressed the pink cs a bit. I think it's adorable and I love the bright colors on it. I can't wait to use my other *free* super cool die! I hope everyone is enjoying the last days of summer and getting ready to send the kiddies back to school! Have a great day! I have to go catch up on my blog reading, again!

Hugs~Danielle

Freaky Tiki

Happy Saturday! Ok, short and sweet today:
Tiki and sentiment from Rubbernecker Stamps. Paper is from Papertrey. All stamped in Palette Noir and colored with Copics. The hibiscus image on the cardbase is from Inkadinkadoo and stamped in Versa Mark and chalked with I Kan Dee pearlescent chalks. I added piece of twill with a brad on the sentiment and used some stardust pen on the flower centers. I wanted it to be a bit masculine, even though there are flowers! I love this image. I have another tiki too...Rubbernecker has a few and some other great images that go along this theme. I love the bright colors of the orange and yellow...not usually my preference but I think it works on the tropical! Have a great weekend!