My Turn to Host!

Hello and welcome to my studio.

I am so excited to be the Artist in Residence at the new Flourishes!
Every Friday our Senior Design Team is challenged by one of the designers on the team.

For today's blog hop, it's my turn!  I have challenged the team to use:

Non-traditional Colors

I have the great pleasure of using the Year of Flowers 3 set

And Christmas Sentiments

I used Patriotic Colors instead of the usual Christmas red and green, and I threw in some striped in the pieced background to add to the "theme".

Today's card images were masked and stamped with Memento Ink.
I colored them with Prismacolor Premier Pencils, blending with a blending pen.

The sentiment is framed using one of Flourishes exclusive set of dies.

a few sequins and some gold Stickles, ribbon and I'm done!

Here is the blog hop list for you to enjoy more non-traditional colored creations:

Flourishes Blog
Barbara Thompson

Beverly Cole (me)

Linda Lucas

Naomi Gong

Rebecca Ednie

Tricia Traxler

Enjoy the Journey,

Friday with Flourishes

Hello and welcome to my studio.

I am so excited to be the Artist in Residence at the new Flourishes!
Every Friday our Senior Design Team is challenged by one of the designers on the team.

For today's blog hop, Rebecca Ednie has challenged the team to use:

Pastel Colors

I have the great pleasure of using one of my favorite stamp sets:

Must Be Santa:

Must Be Santa

Today's card images are colored with Spectrum Noir Markers with a bit of

Distress Ink by Ranger around the edges .

The beautiful blue cardstock is from the Color Made Easy collection,

 which can be purchased in the Flourishes store.

The sentiment is a little poem I wrote to add to the
Christmas Sentiments Set

Here is the blog hop list for you to enjoy more creativity using Pastel Colors:

Flourishes Blog
Barbara Thompson

Beverly Cole (me)

Linda Lucas

Naomi Gong

Rebecca Ednie

Tricia Traxler

Enjoy the Journey,

Silver Mum

Silver Mum...Silver Mum...sounds like a song, doesn't it?

This stamp set was my very first released. That will always make it special to me.

Fuji Mum

The patterned paper and gray marker works so well together,

allowing the yellow accents to just shine!

I used "Fuji Mum" by Flourishes of course,

and Authentique paper sold at the Flourishes Store.

Glossy Accents and a bit of twine from my stash finish off this card.

The fussy cutting was kept to a minimum. 

I simply used my paper trimmer to cut straight cuts,

and skipped wherever the flower overlapped the cuts. Then did the fussy stuff.

I added some Stickles to make the Fuji sparkle.

The black strips frame the design.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

The Artistic Stamper  10/1

Penny Black and More 9/30

Thanks for stopping by. I truly appreciate you looking at my designs.

Enjoy the Journey,

Flourishes September Release Day 5

Today I am sharing a card made with the new set,

"Its All in the Details"

I used the corner stamp on a piece of  Authentique designer paper to create a square frame, which fits perfectly on a 6x6 card. I then combined it with, "Christmas Tree" one of the stamps in our store. Since the tree is sized for a 5x7 card, I masked my frame,

and stamped the tree off the edge so it appears smaller.

After inking the edges, I layered the paper onto gold metallic card stock

and more Authentique designer paper.

I stamped the sentiment (coming in a set next month...stay tuned) on a strip of card stock,

creating a banner by simply scoring, folding and trimming the ends. The edges are inked as well.

Gold glitter glue and golden gems from my stash finish off this card.

Here is the list of designers for this hop.

Leave a comment on the Flourishes Blog to win a change of winning this set!

Naomi Gong
                        Beverly Cole (You are here)
Tricia Traxler
Linda Lucas

Enjoy the journey,

My First Stamp Set is Released for Sale!

This is a Fuji Mum.  I love its long, graceful petals.

It is one of the images from my stamp set called, Fuji Mum!

Fuji Mum Set

I designed this set exclusively for Flourishes.

I am so thankful to be able to draw stamp sets. I work in my studio at home,

which is so great! My work is my vocation, but feels like an avocation...because I love it so.

Here are a couple of cards I made with the set.

This card was created using designer paper by Authentique,

as well as Color Made Easy card stock, both available in the Flourishes store.
I used watercolor markers.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Fashionable Stamping Challenges - #115 Autumnal Colors
Penny Black and More  - Add a Sentiment
Pile It On - #117 Autumn

I created this watercolor card using watercolor paper and one of

Flourishes exclusive dies. I enjoyed drawing this

wind-blown Fuji Mum, with all the loose petals!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Fashionable Stamping Challenges - #115 Autumnal Colors

Penny Black and More  - Add a Sentiment
Pile It On - #117 Autumn

Please take a peek at the Flourishes Blog and the other Design Team members' creations,
beginning with our newest Senior Design Team member, Rebecca!

Rebecca Ednie

Beverly Cole (you are here)

Linda Lucas

Naomi Gong

Thanks so much for stopping by. I truly appreciate it.
Enjoy the journey,

Pinterest

My First Stamp Set is Released for Sale!

This is a Fuji Mum.  I love its long, graceful petals.

It is one of the images from my stamp set called, Fuji Mum!

Fuji Mum Set

I designed this set exclusively for Flourishes.

I am so thankful to be able to draw stamp sets. I work in my studio at home,

which is so great! My work is my vocation, but feels like an avocation...because I love it so.

Here are a couple of cards I made with the set.

This card was created using designer paper by Authentique,

as well as Color Made Easy card stock, both available in the Flourishes store.
I used watercolor markers.

I created this watercolor card using watercolor paper and one of

Flourishes exclusive dies. I enjoyed drawing this

wind-blown Fuji Mum, with all the loose petals!

Please take a peek at the Flourishes Blog and the other Design Team members' creations:

Beverly Cole (you are here)

Linda Lucas

Naomi Gong

Rebecca Ednie

Thanks so much for stopping by. I truly appreciate it.
Enjoy the journey,

The Warmth of Friendship

Welcome to Flourishes' Friday Design Team Challenge!

You can find links to all the Design Team Cards at the bottom of this post.

Be sure to stay tuned...my newly designed Beverly Cole stamp sets, created exclusively for Flourishes, will be here in a few weeks!

a tiny hint...

Oh, how I enjoyed making this card!

As I have said before, with all the art I have been doing over the past few years,

my card making skills are rusty, to say the least.

So...today I decided to just relax and go back to my proverbial, "roots"

of card design.

I used so many fun tools and products from my stash, along with some classic techniques.

First, I took out a stamp set created by Sam Pickard for Flourishes entitled,
"Happy Thoughts"

How fitting for this warm toned card.  I made a mask for the flower stamp in the set,
after cutting the stem off the stamp...I know, I know but it's all good! I can simply reconnect the cut
pieces on an acrylic block when I want to stamp the flower with a stem.

Then, using the "cut" flower stamp and the mask, I created a border.
I colored using my Caran D'Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils, and blended them with
a clear Wink of Stella pen, instead of my water brush. They are subtly sparkly,
which is difficult to see here.

After fussy cutting the image, I flipped it over and used some deep orange ink on a sponge and rubbed the edges of the image, so they were no longer stark white.

Then I started on my background.

I used Flourishes New Leaves and  Tiger Lily card stock from the

Color Made Easy Collection.

I also used some of the adorable patterned papers in the,

"Nestled" 6x6 collection by Authentique. The are available in the Flourishes store.

I used the Perfectly Pierced Classic Hourglass Template Die set by Flourishes

to create an inlaid design. I then "quilted" the two pieces together

with an embossing folder by Anna Griffin.

It's a bit difficult to see in this picture, but if you look carefully, you can see it.

Then, I got out my Singer and zig zag stitched the edges around

the inlay and the edge of the card.

I then added a sentiment from the same stamp set

on Flourishes Classic Ivory Cardstock,

and cut it with another die from the same set.

I added some gems and gold Stickles to the card and the flower centers.

The border is on dimensionals to make it pop.

I truly loved making this. I was in my element...my happy place...my comfort zone.

It felt good.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
C.R.A.F.T. challenge 379 embossing
DL.Art September Linky Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Die Cuttin Divas Challenge #281 Must use a die cut

Visit my friends on the Flourishes Design Team and check out the Flourishes Blog

for Vicki Dutcher's challenge to the Design Team.

Beverly Cole (me!)

Vicki Dutcher

Amanda Havon

Naomi Gong

Linda Lucas

Nancy Nickel

Enjoy!

Happy Thoughts Coming Your Way!

 

 I am sure we all want to get the most out of our stamps. That's why I decided to use this Christmas set to make a happy everyday card. This way you can see it's versatility!

So here is my happy card. Everyone needs to be cheered up once in awhile.

The stamps are from two different sets that are offered by Flourishes...

Glory to God

and

Happy Thoughts

I randomed stamped the background here and there with the flower from Glory to God, using Versamark Ink, then clear embossed it. I then rubbed ink all the card face using Old Paper Distress Ink.

I repeated this process two more times, using darker inks as I went. I used Crushed Olive and then stamped with Peacock Feathers Distress Inks. Using a baby wipe, I removed any ink residue from the embosses images.

I cut a piece of vellum, using Flourishes, "Perfectly Pierced Classic Hourglass Die Set."

I stamped the two mirror image flowers from the Christmas set onto the Vellum with Olive CTMH ink. I also used CTMH black ink to stamp the sentiment from the Happy Thoughts set.

I love brads, even though they have been around forever! Gold cardstock was used to mat the background.  Another neat trick I just love using is to melt ribbon to give it an aged look. I melted this organza ribbon with my heat tool and attached it with glue dots.

Finally, a tiny bit of gold Stickles was used to speckle the background, along with some

metallic gold oil pastels, which I rubbed around some of the flower images.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Catch The Bug Challenge - time for color

Sasayaki Glitter Challenge - use a die cut

Be very sure to follow Flourisheslc.com, as my stamp sets will be released later in September!