Category Archives: Flourishes

Happy days are definitely here again! I fell in love with this new set, Spring is Sprung,  from Flourishes last week. The nest and eggs just spoke to me.

Yes, happy day reason #2 – the official 8/9 year old sleep over is officially O-V-E-R. I hosted 9 little squealing girls last night. The girls were all good as gold, polite and no bickering. Even still, the last one (mine) still yapping at 1:15 am and they were up with the sun at 6:25 am. I see an early bedtime in our future tonight. My little cherub was beyond excited, but I can honestly say, it will be a while before I try that one again..I’m talking at least a year! LOL.

My nest is colored with Copics using a few of the more elementary shading techniques I’ve learned in Marianne’s book, Shadows and Shading. If you’ve not already signed up for my give-away, that comment thread is here. (Make sure you click to the that specific thread – that is where I’ll draw a winner from!) Everyone on the Copic team has a copy to give-away this weekend, so make the hop with the direct links on that post, and maybe you can win your own copy. I’ll draw a winner on Monday.

And, can I get a drum roll, please… happy day reason #3 – My Sew Mini sewing machine appears to be completely healed. I found a fabulous tutorial on how to re-align the machine from the incredible JanTink to my gal-pals at Splitcoast. I had started this thread, and there were many helpful responses. If you read that thread, I went back and forth thinking the machine was toast. Purchased something else that I’ve had trouble setting the tension on. Tried and re-tried. Finally sat down this morning, and said, ‘i’m going to figure this thing out!’ The steps in that tutorial and a new bobbin proved magic.

At any rate – you can see lots of reasons to be HAPPY here today. I’m headed to the gym to get in a run – it’s sadly cold and blowing a bit of snow, so I’ll be on the beloved treadmill that I despise. Please be praying for spring. After that, I’m going to color-and-sew my Saturday away.

Have a beautiful day!

• Stamps: Spring has Sprung- Flourishes
  
• Cardstock: Kraft, Portrait – Crate, Stella Rose – My Mind’s Eye, White
• Ink: Rich Cocoa Memento
• Accs: Copic Marker, lace, pearls (airbrushed with BG72), Spica Glitter Pen and Labels 9 – Spellbinders
  

I spent a good part of last weekend in Bloomington, IL where I had the pleasure of teaching a Copic Certification and a consumer class. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures at the Certification because there were many delightful people there, but I did manage a few from the card class at The Keepsake Element.  I loved Bloomington! Many large town amenities with a small town feel – 2 hours to Chicago, 2 hours to St. Louis. Just a wonderful time.  The Keepsake Element was a beautiful scrapbook store, with great class room space. Thanks to Lisa and Beth for hosting me!

The top card is one of the cards from the card class using the Flourishes Cherry Blossoms set.  I love how this image turned out.

• Flower Petals: R83 and Blender
• Flower Stems: G24, G28
• Background: BG000 and Blender

We made this Flourishes Poppy Patch card with blending and airbrushing. The ribbon was a plain cream that we dyed by coloring directly to the ribbon with a YR16 marker. (I use the chisel end, and it’s easy peasy.)

• Flower Petals: YR12, YR16 and YR18
• Stems: G24, G28
• Backgrounds: YR31 on the label, YR18 over the stencil and YR16 on the ribbon

Finally, we used this sweet little Bildmalarna image. She was my favorite, and seemed to be the favorite of many of the girls in the class, as well. It was the last image that we worked on, and we worked on hair, faces and woodgrain – 3 popular ‘how-to’ topics for Copic lovers. The colors used here:

• Hair: YR21, YR24, YR26
• Dress: BG000, BG01
• Skin: E00, E51 and a hint of R20 for the cheeks
• Woodgrain: E31, E33, E35

Three projects makes for a lot of ground to cover in a 2 1/2 hour class, and this beautiful bunch of ladies were wonderful on Saturday morning. They were helping each other, laughing, trying new things. So fun to visit with…wish that I had them right next door. We’d be instant friends, I’m sure. 🙂

Finally, here is a picture of Lisa McClelland and I after it was all over. We realized we needed a picture just after her store partner, sweet Beth had left for the day. <sad face> They were incredible hostesses with one of the most beautiful scrapbook stores I have ever been in. LOVED it. Thank you, Lisa and Beth for having me visit. I am so happy that our paths crossed, and I hope they do again in the future. 🙂

Thank you, Bloomington!