Flourishes Friday!!!!

Happy Anniversary!!!! Well, not yet.....my anniversary is next Friday!!!! Of course, the more I look at this card, the more I think I created it more for me than my DH. I may need to do a more manly looking one for him. Somehow I managed to squeeze in three challenges with this one card...wow!!! First of all, the limited challenge is to use a rectangle and a circle on your card. And, wouldn't you know it....Beate's sketch(WSC65) was perfect for the Limited LSC193 today. In addition, I hopped over to Sharon's(notimetostamp) blog and her challenge ssnotime60 was to add nature elements...real or not...she wants us to create. I went digging in my stuff and found some dried baby's breath. Now, I would love to say that the stuff is REAL, but I am not sure as it did come in one of those plastic things from Michael's....so I seriously doubt it. Next, I used my Flourishes, LLC Siberian Iris. I do not use this stamp nearly enough. Today, I wanted to downsize it a bit and just use a portion of the stamp. I finished with a JustRite oval sentiment....yes, I said OVAL. I wanted to show that just because some of these stamps come in shapes, does not mean we have to keep them in that shape. I stamped just the wording and punched it out in a circle....amazing versatility!!!

Okay....as promised I have a hint about cutting out paper. I am a lefty and many teachers growing up tried to get me to use left-handed scissors. Those things could not cut for anything. A natural tendency for left-handed people is to use the scissors upside down. I am still not sure if I use them correctly, but I do know that practicing does make the process easier over time. When cutting the paper, always move the paper not the scissors. This was the best advice I ever learned. In addition to this, I also use a marker to run around the edges to give the edges a finished look. The less white showing....the more clean the look....especially if we stamped with a dark ink. As for my water coloring experience today, well.....as many of you know coloring is NOT my forte'!!!!! It is a true work in progress. Something I learned today....when the project was completely dried, I took the aqua painter with just water on the tip and ran it over the edges of the flower to dissipate some of the color. It gave me some very subtle edge highlighting....which is what I wanted because I wanted a solid colored flower.

Stamps Flourishes Siberian Iris, Just Rite Harmony Classic Oval I Stamper Ensemble
Paper Red Riding Hood, Mellow Moss, vv, Strathmore watercolor paper, cream(unknown) Anna Griffin, Kraft Level I paper pack
Accessories Scallop punch, oval punch, large circle punch, baby's breath, gold cording, mini gold square brads, blender pens, aqua painter, sponges.

You can visit Julie's Friday Friends of Flourishes Blog Team weekly roundup over at the Flourishes Newsletter, and also visit these Friends of Floruishes blogs to get the complete Flourishes Friday scoop Becca Fekken, Christine Okken, and Cindy Haffner