Catch A Falling Star & Put in Your Pocket

Today is our BIG push to support the GinaK Make A Wish Foundation Set. We do not sell these stamps at Flourishes,llc; but certainly recognize the need for all of us to be conscious of others needs.

I unfortunately have spent too many day and nights in hospitals and have seen some truly sick people, especially children. We all can make a difference, and sometimes it is as easy as buying a stamp set. Gina K has been so community consicious and willing to share her profits with worthwhile organizations that I felt a real need to come on line and support her effort.

In a way, I have had many wishes and dreams.....and too my surprise, I have had the chance to live many of them out. Flourishes,llc is one of those dreams. Please join me in supporting GinaK, Stamping Freak.com for the Make a Wish foundation....purchase a stamp set and tell her Flourishes sent you, please.

Now the card:

Well I hope this simple attempt is obvious....it is a pocket and I was inspired by a song that my Dad would sing to us as we would swing on the front porch on summer evenings when I was a child. The song was Catch a Falling Star and Put in you Pocket......save it for a rainy day...for love may come and tap you on the shoulder some starless night....and you'll have a pocket full of starlight. Last night here in Pensacola was stunning, the moon was as big and white as could be, as I took a few moments to recline in my brand new hammock--gift from DH--I watched the dragonflies, lighting bugs, and then the bats all come out ( they just love the mosquitos--yeah)
It was delightful and I knew exactly what to do with today's card.

Cardstock: SU Bayou Blue (that is a place not far from my home in South Louisiana) and Whisper White.
The BB cardstock is cut 3 1/2" X 8 1/2, scored at 4 1/4" .
The WW cardstock is cut at 3 1/2" but the length is 5 7/8" and scored at 1 1/2" to make
the pocket flap. The sentiments were computer generated. The front logo image was
treated to one of my new Spellbinder Nestabilities (order them from us at Flourishes,LLC)
The Star image was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with Gold EP. The bling was in the form of stars that I had seen at the local hobby store.

The white stitching was done with a White Singo pen from SU.

Please support GinaK --It will make us all feel good to know we can do a little and get some great rewards--yes, even stamps sets produce good deeds. And go ahead, catch a falling star and put in your pocket, you deserve it!

Ciao!
Jan Marie

Make a Wish--Happy Birthday Diane

Tomorrow is my sister Diane's birthday. I made her this card and it is my way of kicking off a special week for Flourishes,LLC. We are starting a week long campaign to support GinaK stamp set to support the Make a Wish Foundation.

You will notice the my partners NancK, Seaside Creativity, and Sharon D, Sewflake, as well as all of the designers on the Flourishes Design Team will be working on this concerted effort. It is my hope that you will support GinaK and her great generosity of helping making dreams come true.

This is also very close to my heart, for I too have made a wish and that was to have Flourishes become a thriving entity. We are certainly on that journey.

Please watch for our banner ads on SCS on Wednesday to support GinaK. Please make a purchase and tell her Flourishes sent you.

You also will probably notice that this is my first post in a few weeks. I have been ill and required some hospital care. My heartfelt thanks to NancyK and Sharon for keeping things rolling in my absence. I am glad to be back home and on the mend. My goal is to have a post each day to support GinaK and the Make a Wish sets. Hats off to the nursing staff of Baptist Hospital, Pensacola and UAB in Birmingham. The care they gave was the best!

For Diane's cards:
This card had to be special, because she is so special. She is a glass artist and makes the most adorable "Dammit Dolls" .Check out her website: Impressions By Diane. She is a cool and very supportive sister.

--Base card was white cardstock with Basic Grey LilyKate over it.
--I punched a 3" square and then added a row of horizontal slot punches (SU).
--Then I wove a long piece of the lavederar grosgran ribbon from the Fairytale collection (SU), pulling it thru and covering the weaving on the back side and then to the front where I made a small bow...kinda cute do you think?

-- The stamp is yes, from GinaK "Make a Wish set" I colored it with my Copic Markers and actually used the G21, &Y15, BV00...I think the colors work well and were blended make for a good match.

--I added a little glitz with stickles in yellow and iridescent. so Diane, I hope you enjoy your day....and thanks for all you do for me! I love you.

Check out this Viedo on Seaside Creativity

Hi All,

One of the flourishes..Nancy Kirk has a great new viedo on masking and reversing masking...and all using Cake Decorating 101. It is her first attempt and is just a little scratchy...but very informative.....her card just below the viedo link is the finished product.



I think you will be please and take on masking if you haven't donet this yet...even it you have give it another shot....What inspiration!

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=masking_0001

http://www.seasidecreativity.blogspot.com/



Let us both know what you think...Yes the studio is a fun place to learn.



Thanks Nancy

How Stamps Develop--Concept Card

I know that many of you have been following me since I mentioned that I wanted to develop a new line of stamps. That seems like such a far leap for me, let alone having NancyK and SharonD believe in me that much! These ladies joined me in this huge undertaking and without them Flourishes would not exist.

Things always happen for a reason in my life. Last year I was wondering if I would make it day by day...and today --OK with a few set backs-- Flourishes,llc has been launched.

I would like to take a few moments and share with you just parts of that adventure....the conception and design of the stamps.

Flourished Words is a group of words that I thought up, Nancy and Sharon tweaked and we decided to go with them. There are a few things we would change, but then nothing is perfect the first time or two. The Cake Decorating Set is one that I conjured in my little old brain. During my college years and then beyond I made and decorated many a cake, some for family birthdays, sisters' weddings and even the cake for the Marine Corps Ball for it's 200th anniversary--a few years ago. Thank goodness there were many more successes than Opps....I remember doing a wedding cake for a big name family here in Pensacola, FL. The mother of the bride really wanted a pure butter icing and it was the heat of August. I tried to explain the horrors of butter icing melting on one of Pensacola's hottest days. But in the end she got just what she wanted. The cake was as beautiful as any I had ever done, if not my best. It was stored in a room that was as chilly as we could get it at the bride's home, but they wanted to bring the cake outdoors for all to see....OH HORRORS!!!! Well, you know what happened and it did so very quickly....the cake was carried out to great applause, set on a table to be admired, but Mother Nature had her way quickly and the icing began to melt.....Fortunately I asked the servers to quickly cut up that beauty before it could melt away. There are lots of other similar cake stories I could share.

I wanted to create a way for every one to have the chance to make the cake or two of their dreams. I started sketching to come up with what I knew could be done and how to translate that to a stamp. I saw Marcella Hawley's name one night while I was surfing the net at my sister's studio (Diane is a glass artist and doll designer) in Baton rouge, La. I eventually wrote to her about the design of our website and she sent back some of her background. I asked her if she had ever taken concept drawings and turned them into stamps. No, but she is an illustrator and a very good one I might add (see her bio on the Flourishes Newsletter). I then set out to learn and teach her what I could about the production of photo polymer stamps. She refined our images and formated them for production.
One night she asked me to come up with what I thought a Cake Decorating 102 card might look like......the card you see here is just that. I sent her the first one and kept the 2nd choice. The colors of those cards varied...the first one was all in last year's SU! In colors. This is a slightly updated version. A Flourished Original! Cool don't you think...just you wait to see what else we have collaborated on in the upcoming stamps to be released!

The Card:
SU! Morning Marigold, Basis Black, Guava -over colored with Prisma yellow- and Purely Pomegranate. I used a mixture of watercoloring, Prisma pencils and stamping for all of the cake and it's pedestal.

Another Note: Our Flourishes Design Team is one really creative group of ladies, but in case you have not checked the SCS gallery for today please do so as Sharon Johnson(notimetostamp) has outdone herself with a cake turned hat and pedestal. Nancy Grant has a dragonfly made from the ruffled cake plate, Leslie Miller has a darling cake on a piece of furniture, Julia has a great journal and Paula has a Greetings card that showed up in my very own mail box today--thank you Paula. Tracy Durcan has the sweetest flourished Thank You. Alex has a special English cake for us...all are too cute. So if you have not been to the Designer Gallery of Flourishes,llc, please saunter on over and have a fest for your eyes--no calories--no kidding!

Again the Spellbinder-Nestabilities Pre order is in full swing and we are giving you the very best deal we can offer. We hope that you will take advantage of the deal....it won't last long!


Rubber(photopolymer) Hugs
Jan Marie

I'm Home--And Back At Flourishes !!

Well I am glad to say that I am back home....a small detour last week had me in the hospital for a few days, but I am now up and roaring to get running again.

I hope that all of you have visited the Flourishes,llc website and ordered your very own Infuse Combo kit...it is a great deal. The Basic Grey Infuse papers are neat and the two Inaugural sets are fun and easy to use. Great beautiful words make up the Flourished Words set and Cake Decorating 102 is fun to use. This set gives you all the creative flexibility to create those special birthday cakes.....and who doesn't need a birthday card???

We are working on the upcoming sets to be release by Flourishes as well! One is definitely a holiday set and the 2nd set we are holding out on announcing ! You know we all love surprises and we have lots of them in store for you at Flourishes,llc

SPELLBINDER NESTABILITIES PRE-ORDER SPECIAL--- I told you earlier Flourishes haS gotten our own store copies of the coveted Spellbinders- Nestaliliblities die cuts. We are offering two different packages for Pre Orders.

The first is to pre order the sets for each group, circles, squares, rectangles, ovals and the scallops in each of the different shapes or if you can order the whole package. We have a great package offer as well. Please remember that these are exactly what they say...a Pre Order...Spellbinders will begin shipping them as soon as they arrive at their site. As soon as they arrive at Flourishes we will begin shipping them out. Again, check out the webstore for all the details. Nancy Kirk has a great pictoral purchase guide on the Flourishes webstore.

Now that I am home and can use my right arm I will begin to churn out some goodies for you to enjoy.


This Card featured today is one I did before the big hospital stay.........
I used:
---White cardstock is the base, then layered with a transparency of pink and pale yellow stripes.
I then cut a piece of decorative paper from the Dena's Closet package of Transparency Overlays I got on the reduced section at Michael's.

The rest is all Basic Grey Papers from Phoebe Collection which we have in the Flourishes,llc store. We also carry lots and lots of May Arts Ribbons.

--The Cake was actually stamped on a sheet of the BG Phoebe, and cut out. The flowers were punched from from the coordinating paper. I used pop dots to get some dimension on the cake and then added the Jelly Roll Glaze pens with iridescent to give it all some sparkle.

--The cake plate was also stamped onto the BG coordinating paper and cut out and glazed to give the look of glass. Small snippets of ribbon were added at the bottom for some flair.


-- I used the Brilliance white inkpad for the icing and drops and highlighted with white Signo pen, by Uniball.


--The sentiment was stamped on white using the Palette Hybrid in Burnt Umber as were all the images. The white scalloped cardstock was then attached to more of the BG coordinating paper and all attached to the front of the card.... Now that's a Sweet, Very Sweet, Happy Birthday card! Another Flourished original!

Now I think it's your turn to show off the creations that you have come up with using our two versatile Flourished Words and Cake Decorating sets. Send them to me and I will select 3 winners on 1 September and send the three selected a surprise gift from Flourishes! I will also post them on the brand new Customer Gallery on the Flourishes site. If you don't have the sets yet....then hurry on over to Flourishes and see what you are missing and place your order.

A special round of thanks and hugs to NancyK and Sharon Doolittle, for taking care of Flourishes while I was gone.

I missed you all.....glad to be home.

Rubber ( Photo polymer) Hugs,

Jan Marie