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