I WON Blog Candy from Christine Creations!

I am feeling truly blessed. One of my favorite blogs, Christine Creations, offered this very special blog candy when she reached 400,000 unique visitors to her blog. Congratulations to Christine on reaching this milestone! And congratulations to me for winning this amazing collection:

Please stop by Christine Creations and enjoy all the inspiration. Christine is a talented colorist, working in Copics, watercolor, and colored pencil. I learned a lot from her when I was refreshing my rusty coloring skills. Christine is a talented member of the Flourishes design team. Thanks to Flourishes for enriching this blog candy! I love their stamps; they are famed for their beautiful florals but they have other interesting sets, take a look! In particular, the Moments in Time set and A Guiding Light have been near the top of my Flourishes wishlist and now they are mine!!! If you are in need of Father's Day inspiration, take a look at A Guiding Light.

Christine is responsible for many of my Flourishes purchases; just take a look at what she has done with my all-time favorite Sunflower stamp set by Flourishes here, here, and here!

This is what I created with the Flourishes Sunflower stamp set, combining it with their innovative Seeds of Friendship set in this wall hanging for my sister's birthday:

You can read more about my Sunflower Seeds wall hanging HERE.

Thanks so much to Christine, and to her sons who drew my number out of the hat!
;-)

Sunflower Happy Birthday for Janet

Happy birthday Janet!  My sister loves sunflowers and this is one of those "big" birthdays so I wanted to make her a really special card. I am so pleased with how it turned out!

I *HAD* to have this Flourishes Sunflower set when it came out, and it had yet to see ink. I combined it with another of my favorite Flourishes stamp sets that needed to get inky - the seed packet set!  This set is so cool - you can use any fruit or floral set to fill the main area! Click on the images above for more details about the stamps.  I stamped the frame, first on my good card stock and again in the middle of a thin sheet of copy paper, which I used as a mask after I cut out the openings in the image. Then I stamped the large sunflow, leaf, and bud in the opening.

I had a wonderful time coloring in the combined image with Copic markers.  I folded a piece of kraft card stock to make a pocket and adhered the colored image to the front. Inside the pocket is a manilla shipping tag stamped with some birthday sentiments and a Michaels gift card stuck on to the back of the tag!

I knew I wanted to use the Spellbinders Sunflower 1, one of my favorite of their non-nestie dies! I cut one leaf, one center and two of the petals out of white card stock which I then colored with Copics. I did not stay precise with this, I wanted more of a sketchy watercolor look and I love how it turned out!  I curled the lower ring of petals slightly by wrapping the tips of each petal around the barrel of a pen. I curled each of the top petals all the way from tip to base so they really lift up! I curled each half of the leaf around the barrel of the pen also.  To assemble all the bits, I glued each ring of petals to a card stock circle with Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue. The center is popped up with dimensional foam tape. 

Next, I knew I wanted to use this black and white gingham ribbon. I colored the ribbon with the same neutral Copics I used to color the banner on the seed packet, which toned it down to an ivory and black ribbon; perfect!  I tied the ribbon into a nice fat bow on the Bow-Easy and left nice long tails to frame the seed packet.

Now it was time to start assembling all these elements into a finished piece. I started by cutting two Labels Eleven Grand Nestabilities. The front one was cut out completely, and while it was still in the die, I sponged around the edges with Memento in Lady Bug Red and then Distress Ink in Wild Honey, then I edged it with a Krylon Leafing Pen in Pale Gold.  Before I cut the back piece, I had to include a folded area for the hinge. I trimmed the kraft card stock about an inch taller than it needed to be, and scored it and folded over the extra inch. When I placed it in the die, I put the fold line just inside the cutting edge on one side.  I adhered the folded over inch to the inside of the front cover, and this forms the hinge at the top of the card.

The bow was adhered first with Fast Grab Tacky Glue. The seed packet was adhered next with dimensional foam mounting tape. Then I glued the leaf and flower with Fast Grab Tacky Glue. I couldn't make my composition work with the whole sunflower, so I cut it in two and nudged the raw edge under the popped up seed packet. It turns out I liked it with the half-flower much better than with a whole one, and it allows the seed packet to stay at center stage. 

 My sister Janet LOVED the card. I am going to have to make something similar for myself because I had a REALLY hard time letting go of this one (see how much I love you Janet? *wink*).   And I've got a head start as the other half of that flower is still sitting on my work table! I'm going to add a twine loop through the fold of the card so Janet can use it as a little wall hanger or suspend it from a knob. The base is a just under 2/3 of a letter sized sheet of card stock, so it is a really nice size. LOVE the Grand Nestabilities, and I can't wait for them to release more of the label shapes in the larger size.

What do you think?  I'd love to hear from you!

Tweet! Heard it was your Birthday!

Now that my nieces are home for the summer, we are belatedly celebrating their friend Karlie's birthday. She is so bright and cheerful and animated, and the bright eyed bird in Flourish's "Home Tweet Home" set makes me think of her! I also wanted to enter the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge FTTC67 which is to use chipboard.



I stamped the branch, bird, and birdhouse with brown ink on the blue cardstock, then I stamped the bird and birdhouse again on white cardstock. I colored in the branch, leaves, and bird's legs with Copic markers. Then I sponged blue around the edges and in the sky area, and green across the bottom.  I colored the bird and birdhouse on the white cardstock and cut them out. Because I had also stamped the images on the blue cardstock, I did not have to worry about trimming around the bird's legs or the spirals at the edge of the birdhouse roof - I trimmed them off when I cut out the images. Much easier!! I adhered them in place on the blue cardstock.  I stamped "tweet!" in black and heat embossed it with clear detail powder.

I save cereal boxes and other packaging, do you?  I especially love it when you find items packaged in white chipboard, and that is what I used for my clouds. Clouds are a very hot trend right now! I drew some clouds on the printed side of the chipboard, then ran it through my Cuttlebug in an embossing folder. Then I cut out the clouds and sponged a little blue around the edges.  I also stamped the "little bird" sentiment on a piece of blue cardstock and trimmed it out, sponging the edges with green.



Now to assemble everything! I cut a slot for ribbon on either side of the birdhouse and ran yellow satin ribbbon around the panel and through the slots, tying it in a square knot.  I rounded the corners, then adhered it to my pale yellow cardbase. I added the sentiment on regular dimensionals, and the clouds on ⅛ inch thick dimensionals to really lift them up! I aligned them all with the edge of the card base, not with the blue panel. I like having elements that break through the boundaries, must be the rebel in me!!

Can't forget the inside!



I stamped the sentiment and heat embossed it with clear detail powder. I cut out a few more clouds, again having some floating off the edge of the paper, and sponged some blue where I planned to put them. I adhered these flat against the cardstock.

I hope Karlie will enjoy receiving this birthday card at dinner tomorrow night. We are having a big meal and cake at my sister's house, gotta love a big family meal!  Happy belated birthday Karlie!

I purchased this stamp set at the Flourishes booth at a scrapbooking & stamping show in Perry, Georgia! I can't tell you how exciting it was to be able to do some stamp shopping in my own town, which is tiny!!  I got to meet two of my blog heroes, Silke Ledlow of My Life, and Dee Jackson of Stampin' Cuz I Luv 2 and made them pose for a picture with me - my sister Janet is behind the camera!  I was so excited as I have subscribed to their blogs for years, and there they were doing Copic coloring make-it-take-its at the show. Of course I recognized Silke immediately because of the picture on her blog, and the minute Dee told me her name, I said "Stampin' Cuz I Luv 2" and then we all squealed and jumped and hugged! It was just like being ten years old again!

Stamps: Flourishes -  bird, branch, birdhouse, tweet from "Home Tweet Home" set; Inkadinkado - little bird sentiment; Waltzingmouse - belated birthday sentiment from "Fancy Phrases" set
Paper: Stampin' Up cardstock - Cool Carribean, pale yellow; Georgia Pacific - white cardstock
Ink: Memento - Rich Cocoa; Ranger Distress - Black Soot; Marvy Matchable - Salvia Blue, Yellow-Green; Copic Markers
Embellishments: Hobby Lobby: Double-faced satin ribbon; Recycled chipboard packaging
Tools: Embossing Folder - Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles; Corner Chomper (½ inch side); Tack sponges