Running With Scissors...

Just Me and the Boys

Sharing a few family photos today.  You know how it is when your children grow up together, you love your friend's kids like your own. . .  That's Wally's friend, Magnum, giving me smooches.  The feeling is mutual.

 

Here's my two special guys. . .

 

We spent Saturday at the lake.  It was partly sunny and only slightly chilly.  The two days prior, the temperature reached 70 degrees.

 

No stick left behind.

 

It's days like this that make it easier to get through the work week, not that I dislike my job, but it's tiring and not nearly as fun as a day at the lake.

I stamped a little bit on Sunday, so I'll be back with that later this week.  Aren't weekends wonderful?  Have a great day!

Calendar on a Card

Welcome to Flourishes Friday when the team gets together and stamps on a theme.  Today, we're focusing on Flourishes free downloadable calendar.   Complete instructions for downloading the calendar can be found here.

 

I don't usually get around to making a whole calendar, but I've now made my second card using a reduced and trimmed down calendar page, and I do think they make a cute little accent on a card front.  This one is for a June birthday.  My other card featured the month of May for Mother's Day, and can be seen here.

The set I used is Around The Arbor -- beautiful images and sentiments.  The miniature roses come from the lattice stamp, colored with Copics, cut out, and regrouped.

Dawn and her special guest have put together a calendar feature on the Newsletter today.  I'm sure you'll enjoy its beauty and creativity when you have time to take a look.  I hope you'll also enjoy seeing what my friends on the Flourishes team made for today's stamping playdate:

 

Barbara Anders

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Danielle Kennedy

Dawn Burnworth

Julie Koerber

Laura Fredrickson (her last post for the Senior DT, sniff, sniff)

Stacy Morgan

I've summed up the ingredients in the recipe, below, and I'll leave you now with a wish for a wonderful weekend.  We're having Wally's friend, Magnum, over for the weekend and we'll be spending Saturday at our favorite lake, rain or shine.  Take care!

Stamps:  Around the Arbor  Paper:  Rose Red, Pirouette Pink, Flourishes Classic White, Prima Annalee designer paper  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Rose Red, Copics for coloring  Accessories:  Ribbon, pearls, Spellbinders Lacy Squares Nestabilities, Flourishes 2011 calendar template, Scotch brand foam mounting tape (to pop up one rose)

Hearts and Friendship

Hello, friends!  Today I'm popping in with a little something I stamped last weekend and finally got around to photographing.  I thought one of the Hearts and Flowers stamps would be nice paired with this sentiment from Angelic Love.  Add to that the sketch, which I found at Cardabilities, and it all came together nicely. 

 

I'm fond of hydrangeas.  They bloom all over my garden in various shades of blue and purple -- big, blowsy flowers that last all summer and right into winter.  I colored my paper hydrangeas with Copic markers, and added Stickles Stardust glitter glue and Ranger Liquid Pearls to the blossoms.  The Liquid Pearls came in handy as I didn't have enough tiny white pearls for all the flower centers.

Under the heart, I layered Spellbinders Eyelet Circles and Lacy Circles.  The cardstock is CTMH, which I sanded to tone down the color and add to the shabby chic look I was feeling for this card.  I'm not sure how chic it is, but it is a little bit shabby.

The white silk ribbon is from Flourishes, as is the velvet on crochet.  I'm afraid I'm guilty of hoarding my velvet ribbons, and that needs to stop.  They're much prettier on a card than they are wound around a spool, ziplocked in a baggie, and tucked into a basket under my stamp desk. 

I hope this finds you well and happy today!  I'll return tomorrow with one more card before the weekend.  See you then!

Stamps:  Hearts and Flowers, Angelic Love (both Flourishes)  Paper:  CTMH Spring Iris and Shell Pink, Flourishes Classic White, BasicGrey Wisteria designer paper  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black and Rich Cocoa, CTMH Shell Pink  Accessories:  Ribbon, velvet & crochet trim, button, linen thread, Stickles Stardust glitter glue, Ranger Liquid Pearls, Spellbinders Eyelet Circles and Lacy Circles, tag punch, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

A Simple Masculine Birthday Card

I have another one of those very simple cards today.  Stamp the leaves up, down, four times -- up with a freshly inked stamp, down without reinking the stamp.  Add some designer paper, a sentiment, and some twill trim with a slide.  Very simple.

 

These retired Stampin' Up! Autumn Leaf Prints leaves are some of the best leaf stamps I own.  Very realistic and require no coloring.  I had this image idea on my mind, and when the time came for a masculine birthday card, I felt it was just what I needed.

About the birthday:  This birthday is a 90 year milestone.  Yes, that's a biggie!  My cyberfriend, Sue, is hoping to gather up 90 cards for her husband's 90th birthday.  It's a tall order, but we can do it!  Hey, we stamp.  It's what we do.  Do you have a boxful of cards and you feel like making somebody happy?  It'll just take a minute to click --->here, then scroll down just a bit to where Sue gives her email address so you can contact her to get her snail mail address.  If you're an SCS'r, you may know Sue as Stampinsusie.

I'm off and running again!  My days have been very busy and I'm longing to do some coloring and fussing with my cards, but for the time being my focus is elsewhere.  Thanks for bearing with me!  Have a wonderful day!

Stamps:  Autumn Leaf Prints, It's Your Birthday (both Stampin' Up!)  Paper:  Brown Bazzill textured, Whisper White, designer paper of forgotten origin  Ink:  Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip  Accessories:  Twill, ribbon slide

Looks Like Spring

I made this card Sunday afternoon after having spent a good part of the weekend in the garden.  Hard to believe, but even though we've got inclement weather ahead of us still, signs of spring are beginning to emerge.  I trimmed fucshias, cut back ferns, pulled a few weeds, and just generally enjoyed the fresh air.

 

The stamps I used are Flourishes Friendly Reminders.  The image was already colored from way back when the set was first released, and it's been waiting all this time for me to turn it into a card.  The velvet ribbon, Prima flowers, glazed brads, Classic White cardstock, and the Copics I used for coloring are all from Flourishes, as well.

Short and sweet at the end of a lovely weekend.  I hope your's was good, too.  See you soon!

Stamps:  Flourishes Friendly Reminders  Paper:  Bazzil green textured, Pale Plum, Flourishes Classic White, Memory Box Gossamer designer paper  Ink:  Memento Rich Cocoa, Certainly Celery, Copic markers for coloring  Accessories:  Velvet ribbon, Prima flowers, BasicGrey Sugared glazed brads, Martha Stewart Arched Lattice edge punch, 1 1/4" circle punch

Love Tank

This will be my husband's Valentine this year.  I knew it as soon as I saw this darling image in Flourishes' new Tokens of Affection set.

I made it simple and manly, but fun (how could you avoid fun with an image like this?).  The coloring was done with Copic Markers and the designer papers are BasicGrey Sugar Rush.

It's Flourishes Friday Free For All Day, so you'll be able to see more Flourishes samples when you visit the rest of the team:

Barbara Anders

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Danielle Kennedy

Dawn Burnworth

Julie Koerber

Stacy Morgan

I have sad news and happy news today.

Sad:  Laura has retired from Flourishes' Senior Design Team.  She's cutting back on some of her obligations so she can focus more on family life.  We've all been there, haven't we?  I can understand completely, and while it's sad news for those of us who are losing our teammate, it's a happy decision for Laura and her family.  Happy:  Laura is staying in the Flourishes family with the Bring Back Beautiful Team, a much lighter committment.  Whew!  I feel better now.

More happy news:  With open arms we welcome Barbara Anders to the Senior DT!  Barbara's been stamping with the Friends of Flourishes team, so she's certainly no stranger.  In fact, she's darn sweet and super talented.  Welcome, Barbara!

Just a reminder that today is the final day to take advantage of this month's New Release Bundle from Flourishes.  Purchase all three of the new sets in a bundle and save 10% off the total.

Wishing you all health and happiness as we head into the weekend!  See you again soon!

Stamps:  Tokens of Affection  Paper:  Basic Gray, Riding Hood Red, Flourishes Classic White, BasicGrey Sugar Rush designer paper  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics for coloring  Accessories:  Ribbon, screw brads, 1" circle punch, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Cats in Silhouette

Hello!  Popping in with a card I made quickly, but I like it alot and surely there's something shareworthy here.  The feline silhouette is an old (and I do mean old) stamp, labeled AAA Rubber Stamps.  Judging by the scant results a Google search turns up, I'm guessing this company is out of business.  However, when I searched "cat silhouette stamps" I found quite a few cool stamps (in case you're a cat fancier).

I did use some relatively new paper (Webster's Pages Hollywood Vogue) and sentiment stamp (Hero Arts Life is Not Perfect).  The Prima flowers and BasicGrey glazed brad were purchased in this century, too.  The designer paper is one piece which I trimmed to size, and I stamped the cats directly onto the designer paper.  They were stamped in Versafine Onyx Black and embossed with Detail Clear embossing powder.  The sentiment was also embossed.

Now, I tried to be objective about why I like this card so much, and I think, probably, you would have to have been there.  Well, granted, I do love the paper, flowers, brad, stamps.  The colors are easy to look at, and the whole thing is really just sort of "me", actually.  The photo turned out on the first take, also.  But, in the end, it's the fact that I made it in a matter of minutes and still like it that comes in as the #1 reason I like this card so much. 

I must run now, but I'll be back tomorrow with something colored, using one of my new stamp sets.  I hope we can get together again then.  Have a beautiful day!

Stamps:  AAA Rubber Stamps Cats Silhouette, Hero Arts Life is Not Perfect  Paper:  Bazzill textured tan, Flourishes Classic White, Webster's Pages Hollywood Vogue & WonderFALL designer paper  Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black  Accessories:  Prima flowers, BasicGrey Boxer glazed brad, Detail Clear embossing powder

Outside Looking In

Wally just wanted to say "hi" to his friends!

 

Wally is very seldom outside looking in, but we were at a friend's house at the time of this photo.  We'd taken the dogs for a walk in a marshy field and they were drying out a bit on the back porch while my friend and I had lunch.  He looks happy, doesn't he?  Just checkin' on Mom.  Look at that  fuzzy little paw. . .  I love the way the fur tufts up between his toes.  So cute!

Honestly, I'd planned to have a card to share today, but stamping just didn't work out, and the new-me blogger decided not to stress about it because stamping should never be about stress.  There was housework and laundry to do, as well as long walks with Wally in the wind and rain.  After Sunday's walk, I sat down with a cup of coffee to read for "just a bit".  Well. . . after I finished the book (ahem), it was late.  Let's just say it was a lazy and wonderful Sunday afternoon, something I rarely grant myself.  Hey, life is short!  Now I'm back in the work week and I'm glad I went with the flow for a change.  I need more of that.  How about you?

I'll catch you later in the week with stamping.  Have a super wonderful and, hopefully, stress-free day!

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday 100th Challenge Blog Hop and Another New Release Sample

Hello, and happy Friday!  Today's post has a two-fold purpose. . . 1)  to introduce you to the last of this month's new stamp sets from Flourishes and 2)  to hop in on the Blog Hop fun.

 
Every month, I generally have a favorite among Flourishes' new releases, and this month it's Tokens of Affection.  It's just so darn cute and clever!  Today, I've used one of the simplest stamps in the set to make a little box for Kisses, and a card to go with it.  Extra tokens are ready to be plucked from the card and cashed in later (or all at once, perhaps).

 
 

 
 
And now for the challenge. . .  It's all about favorites --  favorite stamps, papers, colors, techniques, embellishments, whatever!  Well, every time I pick up my Flourishes stamps, I'm using some favorites.  They are my favorite stamps!  And since Tokens of Affection is my favorite new set this month, it's #1 on the list today.

Other favorites I used today are ribbon and bling.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention the chocolate Kisses in the box, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to count them, tsk, tsk.

Be sure to check the Flourishes blog right here to see more of everyone's favorites, read up on the details, and maybe link a favorite of your own.  There's still time, and it's going to be a lot of fun (and prizes)!

Now, if you'd like to see more samples with the new Tokens of Affection set, hop right on over to the rest of Flourishes design team -- cute stuff!

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Danielle Kennedy

Dawn Burnworth

Julie Koerber

Laura Fredrickson

Stacy Morgan

Don't forget the limited time New Release Bundle -- 10% off when you purchase all three sets.  A good deal if you love them all and can't decide.

I've had fun this week, but I'm so ready for some R&R.  How about you?  Have a great weekend!

Stamps:  Tokens of Affection  Paper:  Flourishes Classic White  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Riding Hood Red, Copics for coloring  Accessories:  Ribbon, rhinestones, clip

Flourishes' New Sets are in the Store!

After a fun few days of sneak peeks and a super duper fun release party, let's tie this release up with a bow and share a bit of what you can now find in the Flourishes store!  Introducing....

Hearts & Flowers

Love Notes

Tokens of Affection

To go shopping, just click HERE!  Thanks for joining us this week.  We had a blast and we hope you did too!