The Atelier is moving

That's right I have a new address for the blog from the Caruso Manner Atelier.
Please go to www. thecarusomanner2.wordpress.com. I hope you will sign up to get regular updates in your email box.

Ciao

Fantasy Floral Garden--More Beautiful Images

Last Friday NancyK and I had a chance to really play with our Fantasy Floral Garden set by Flourishes,llc. Nancy brought over her Zia mist inks which I had not played with before. These were great fun to play and create with...we both accomplished totally different results. We worked on watercolor paper. These misters have an intense coloring to them. This is certainly something I will be adding to my stash. For my card I misted the colors, blotted off and dried with the embossing gun before starting with another color. I found that it was best to start with the lightest colors and progress into darker colors..this I have found to be the most standard way of working with colors. I have found that it is best to work with the same shade of color before moving to different colors...say all yellows, before switching to blues, etc.

I used three colors in my card, then began to cut the paper and stamp the images. I find that the Hybrid Palette Inks work especially well with our Flourishes stamps sets. These very high grade polymer stamps are made in the USA and while they have a tendency to stain and will never be completely without color after use, they stamp beautifully.

I really like the Fantasy Floral Garden set...the images and the words are so fresh and different, yet retain a very today look. I used the small images from the set, added some small bling that I have had forever. The sentiment is also from the set, using two different sentiments, placing both images on the same block and stamping all at once. Have I said that I love this ability with the use of clear stamps!

My card is made of SU Basic Black, layered with Cool Caribbean and Regal Rose.....such a bright yet soft look when all assembled. The finished card is 4 1/4" x 9 1/4" fitting nicely into a legal size envelope. Oh, how I love this set !

Ciao from the Atelier at Flourishes!

Simply Peace

Hello from the Atelier,

This was easy work for such a beautiful card. I was inspired by Sharon Johnson, notimetostamp, one of our Design Team Members. I used a decorative paper called Holiday Swirl. The color matches SU Rose Red perfectly. The card base is a metallic paper called Carmel and is available at Flourishes,llc. The strips of paper were cut to highlight the swirls. The ribbon is from SU's Sherbet collection and I think it gives a nice monotone accent. The focal point is cut and embossed with the Nestabilites, the larger from Rose Red and smaller from metallic Carmel. Unfortunately the photo just doesn't capture the shimmer of the paper. The stamp from Flourishes,llc Christmas release is the smaller of the Peace images in the set.

This set makes such beautiful cards and is ideal for someone that is seeking elegance and simplicity in an easy to do format.

Two of my sisters are visiting in town so I'm off to spend the day with them. But I do have another card ready to post...so please come back to visit.

Ciao

OH Lookie At My Christmas Tree!

Oh my, have I had some fun! This was as much fun as doing the real thing...and I love that so much!

Creating stamps for this kind of fun has been almost uncharted territory. I wanted to give our stampers the greatest flexibility and not feel so tied to only the look of the stamp...I wanted to allow you to have as much or as little as your heart desires. This set certainly delivers that and more.

For the focus image I inked the stamp with Hybrid Palette Burnt Umber ink. Then the fun began and did not end until I had added each and every detail to the tree. A note, I did not ink the base of the tree (pot) and simply ink and stamp that sassy tree skirt. This was colored with my Copic Lipstick Red (R29). The skirt reminds me of a 50's poodle skirt...another time maybe. Then I began to color using a mixture of reinker and watercolor crayons, blending until I was happy with the shades of green and the aura around it. I colored in the trunk with Close to Cocoa. The ornaments were all placed on a single block and inked up with Hybrid Palette Noir inks ( these are all available at Flourishes.org). I repeated this process and used again a myriad of colors and inks including the new Copic iridescent pens. The little icicles that don't show up here very well were Versamarked and embossed with iridescent EP. My next step was to add a garland of pearls...stamped in Black ink and then each dot was highlighted with Pearl Scribbles. After the pearls dried I began to add ornaments, I cut each ornament out and used a piece of the large glue dot for another dimension and added them to the tree. The angel was the perfect little topper for this tree. She is sweet and I love the tree. I hope you do as well.

Now for more ideas.....they are just ready to be put on paper. Let me see how creative you can be with your trees. Remember we have a customer gallery over at the Flourishes website....Your creations are most welcome!

Ciao from the Atelier....

Than You -Simple, Elegant, Quick

I needed a really quick and easy thank you card, but I did not want to sacrifice any elegance. My mind was set to whirling and I settled on a punch from Impress, used a vellum tag and then the small two hole punch from SU!. The rest was simple. Place a snippet of ribbon on the two holes and trim, attach the punched tag on a square of black card stock and then add a layer of brushed silver cardstock, available from Flourishes. That little extra touch of silver is part of the design function...repetition of the tag. Our eye sees odd numbers better in design. I accomplished this with three elements, the tag, the black, and the silver. The sentiment is a script I took from an old SU! retired set.

Now, that's quick, easy, and elegant.

Now back to work on my Christmas tree card...this is one you won't want to miss. So I am going back to work in the Atelier and getting it to post. Ciao

Fantasy Floral Gets Water Colored!

Today is a banner ad day for Flourishes at SCS. So I hope you pop over there and see our ad. My choice to work, if you can call it that, was to Fantasy Floral again. I wanted a different look and had placed a few challenges for myself. I wanted white on vellum and to water color the main image. I wanted a sophisticated yet lively look. So here it is:

This card is large, finished card front is 5" X 7". I used three of the smaller images from the Fantasy Floral, one of the Flourishes, llc new releases, and arranged them all on my clear block at the same time. I inked in Brilliance White and then stamped the image repeated on the vellum and allowed to dry. Meanwhile, I stamped the main image on water color paper and set out to color in using Rose Red, Lovely Lilac, Garden Green, and Bashful Blue. I cut a layer just slightly larger than the water colored image and assembled them. Then I cut two larger pieces of water color paper and placed them on the inside of the card. One attaches to the back of the image to cover the mechanics and the second is for the sentiment on the inside card back. To add some softness I used one of Flourishes, May Art ribbons from Flourishes and a piece of hardware to attach it all. The sentiment is stamped in Burnt Umber palette Hybrid ink and is from the Flourished words set also by Flourishes, llc.

Later I will be posting a fun and easy Thank you note...so do come back to the Atelier.

Ciao for now.

Fantasy Florals Sympathy

For today's image I used the newly released Fantasy Floral Garden by Flourishes, llc. I also wanted to do the SCS challenge on limited supplies-Sympathy. This required the card to be a sympathy card and must include the use of a background stamp. The challenge further pushed the stampers as no decorative papers could be used nor could an embossed image us a stencil or folder. So here's my card, I meet all the requirements.

The main image is from the new Fantasy Floral Garden from Flourishes,llc, and the words are Flourishes Words also from Flourishes,llc.

I created the main focus using a misting technique which I had not done in some time. The technique is easy, but the results are not always predictable. It can be an extremely satisfying (or frustrating) process...but I love it. Varying solid stamps are best for this technique. Here I used the retired SU, The Shape of Things. I generally use 3 colors of ink, which are applied directly to the rubber, apply lightest to darkest. In this case, I broke my own rule and applied the Purely Pomegranate, then inked off several times, then applied Sky Blue and Almost Amethest. I try to focus the ink on the area I would like it to be on and to not muddy the colors too much. I then mist the rubber image, which I hold about half an arm length away. I have a favorite old hairspray bottle that I keep loaded for this purpose. The image is now placed inked side down on the paper and I allow the paper to absorb the ink by letting the image set for a few moments. Then carefully raise the image and behold your beauty. I repeated this process, varying the colors to include some green.

While that was drying I made my required background using the SU retired Paisley background stamp inked with Versamark and then applied a mixture of lavender and micropearl Pearl Ex to get a softer color. Cut the strips for the corners. Now that my focus image was dry I completed it by stamping the Fantasy Floral image in SU Going Gray. I added a small ribbon in Amethyst from the SU Sherbet Collection. Two layers were added to the back of the main image, both from SU, Almost Amethyst and Certainly Celery. Attach the strips of background to the opposing corners and then anchor it all down with my trusty ATG.

Flourishes,llc will host the banner ads on SCS on Wed and I hope you will visit SCS and click onto our site. Our design team will have lots to post as well.

So from the Atelier, Ciao for today.

Peace on Vellum

This card is CASED from one of my favorites of last season on the SCS gallery. It was created in its original design by StamperSharon and featured the same papers and ribbon type I have used. She used SU's Flourishes and I was taken by its beauty.

I thought this card required some constraint to allow the beauty of the Dove-Peace to be the central focus, so I streamlined my version.

All in all, I am very well pleased with the card, although the next time I make this card I would probably heat emboss the sentiment.."Let There Be" in gold EP for definition. I also masked off the end of the sentiment so not to clutter the card. I think there is always room for improvement on my cards.

So here is my list of items I used:
Peace stamp set-Flourishes,llc
Brushed Gold metallic paper from Flourishes,llc
Vellum Card stock
White wired ribbon...I removed the wire
Beige with white dot sheer ribbon
Corner punch from SU
Brilliance White ink pad
Gold Encore Ink

So from the atelier, I say
Ciao
Jan Marie

Fantasy Florals and SCS Color Challenge

I finally had a chance to really play and late last night got a few nice things done. I was really intrigued with the color combination on SCS for the Color Challenge. I will be the first to admit that Guava is not my favorite color, but in a moment a card popped into my head.

Of course, I was really ready to play with our new released Fantasy Floral Gardens. I used the two fuschia like flowers placing them close together. I stamped in Hybrid Palette Burnt Umber and then used my ink pads and waterbrush pen to lightly color in the flowers. For the stems I used Certainly Celery and Always Artichoke, a slight bit of yellow and the most beautiful color of the season, Purely Pomegranate. I lightly shaded the inks literally planting the flowers on a bit of earth. I ever so lightly brushed lite blue Copic marker and then used my Copic colorless marker to create a lite sky of blue. Then some edging along the cardstock with my Always Artichoke inkpad gave the edges some definition.

To really make the card dance for me I selected some Basic Gray Papers for the face of the cards and the stripes...of course all layered on Guava and Artichoke. The final touch was small ribbons, one from SU Sherbet collection and the other from Flourishes, a pretty scalloped edge olive green ribbon. Now what I really think lights up this card is the little bit of Purely Pomegranate in the background and on the tiny flowers. what are your thoughts?

So that's it from the Atelier for today..but come back because I have something else ready for next time.

Ciao,
Jan Marie

FLOURISHES RELEASE THREE NEW SETS!

I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE IT !!

We are six weeks old and this month we are releasing three brand new original stamp sets!

We are beginning the release of the original calligraphy of a friend of mine, Joan Machinchick. She is a well known calligrapher in the Washington, D.C. and Maryland area. I have had the great pleasure of working with this very talented artist over the years and was pleased when she agreed to do some calligraphy for Flourishes,llc. Her beautiful work is all penned by hand and I think it is a great treasure to have her artistry to add to our line of stamps.
Please visit the Flourishes Newsletter and read her impressive bio. I think you will want to own these beautiful words to add to your own collection.

For my first set I choose to spotlight Joan's peace dove. I think you will agree with me that this set lends itself to a beautifully elegant card, but don't be fooled this is more versatile. Several of our designers have made beautiful cards samples that can be seen on the Flourishes,llc website. They are all stunning, but be sure to check our Sharon Johnson (notimetostamp) and her beautiful card using pine boughs and twine. Peace...down to earth!

I used a transparency for the base of the card. The Peace image was stamped on Shimmery White paper from the paperie at Flourishes. I really wanted the Peace and the dove to work together, but somehow distinct of each other. In order to achieve this end I stamped the word peace with SU Craft Going Grey ink, added silver embossing powder and heat embossed. Now here is where the beauty of using clear images becomes a wonderment. I cleaned the stamp and re inked the dove this time and because of the clear stamp I was able to place them perfectly without a mask! I again heat set the ink and then shaded the dove with some light soft watercolors and adding the olive branch. The card has a slightly larger layer of SU Bordering Blue behind the Shimmery White and then on the back of the transparency (to hide my mechanics) I added a piece of the Blue Steel metallic paper also available at the Flourishes in the paperie. The inside of the card and back of the card also have white shimmery paper with the verse stamped on the inside from the set. I topped it all off with a soft satin bow in a blueish gray.

I will drag out my releases of the other two set over the next couple of days...so please come back to the Atelier and visit with me.

The three new sets, Peace On Earth, O Christmas Tree, and Fantasy Floral Garden are all available to order as of tomorrow. We has three wonderful combo kits each featuring one of the newly released sets. I hope you will visit SCS Wednesday 5 Sept for our banner ad and then click on over to Flourishes,llc to see all the new goodies. I'm pretty pleased.

Ciao, for today.
Jan Marie