Fabulous Flourishes

Hi there!

Ahhhh....Fabulous Flourishes - try saying that 3 times fast !  Ha Ha!  Flourishes are AWESOME! I really love using them and a few years back I became a wee bit obsessed with them.  I remember taking classes at Stamp Antonio where the teachers were demonstrating their potential and I literally was falling in love with them. 

So, fast forward to December 2010 where I was trying to decide on my word for the One Little Word project (by Ali Edwards) I was starting in January and I looked up the word Flourish - some of the meanings include to be strong and healthy, to be at the height of excellence, to be successful, and to make dramatic sweeping gestures.  Then I checked out the thesaurus and found more interesting meanings like delight, amplify, arrive, develop, and accomplish. I loved how these meanings made me feel about what I wanted to acheieve during the next year so I decided to make Flourish my One Little Word for 2011.  As the year progressed, I was working on designs for Paper Wings Productions and I thought I'd draw my own set of flourishes, some inspired by other flourishes I had seen and others cames from doodling.  I hope you like flourishes as much as I do, and if you haven't used them before, take a look at these samples I made using both Flourish Fun 1 and Flourish Fun 2 sets from Paper Wings Productions.

This Celebrate You card uses three different flourishes: part of one flourish becomes the antennae, another flourish to decorate the wing and a third to show a trail behind the butterfly. The celebrate sentiment comes from the Banner set by Handmade by Lissie Girl, and I added the "you" with silver glitter sticker letters.

The trail and butterfly decoration are both embossed in silver.  The butterfly is die cut with a Stampin' Up! die from book paper sprayed with glimmer mists and adorned with 3 black gemstones. I used glue dots to add the butterfly to the card and lifted the wings for more dimension.





This time, I'm using the flourishes embossed in white on red paper, and then punched and applied with foam adhesive.  The birthday letters are from American Crafts rub ons and wishes is handwritten.  I cut the front of the card a little shorter to add the punched edge and cut a thin strip of black paper to accent it. the punch is glued to the card from the inside so I could line the scalloped edge with teh back of the card. 

 

This technique is so simple and could be used in a variety of ways.  Think about other shaped punches you could use this with.  Lots of possibilities!

I love pink, and I love this lime peel green, but I really like them together! I had this wonderful satin ribbon from Stampin' Up! in my stash and I love it on this card. 

I really had fun making this image.  I used pieces from the Flourish Fun 2 set to create this flower. One flourish in light green to create a flower stem and leaves look.  Then, I used the extra dotted flourishes from the set in a darker green for a little more dimension.  This set also includes two flower shapes, (one shown here in dark pink), the "small petal" shape (shown in the lighter pink), and several different dot clusters (shown here as pink buds or berries and the yellow stamen on the flower - accented with stickles of course) .  The sentiment is another rub on from American Crafts.

I really liked making this tag.  I had this idea that the swirls should be behind the stars for emphasis and of course I had to frame the tag with them too.  I've used two different color inks for the flourishes to give them more depth. The quote is from Vincent Van Gogh - "For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream."  Love that!



These stars are die cut from a Stampin' Up! die, inked with Distress ink pads, and then outlined and filled in with Ranger Glossy Accents.  I left this overnight to dry and they really shine!  I used the flourishes again with versamark ink and heat and stick powder to add the Dazzling Diamonds (SU!) glitter for some extra shine and sparkle. This would be a great tag to add to a birthday or graduation gift! 

I hope these samples inspire you and possibly give you new ideas of how to use flourishes.  Come back soon to see my tags I created during the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry class. 

Have a great weekend!