Hi Everyone, Shari Carroll here. I’m so thrilled that it’s finally Spring, I can’t wait to get outdoors to start my garden.

This week I’ve decided to play with the theme of April Showers Bring May Flowers.  My week will end with the beginning of May, so it fits in nicely! For the next few days I’ll be making projects that are all about those beautiful blooms we all enjoy.

To start the day off, I’ve created this card using simple stamping but added a twist to the background by using an embossing folder. I wanted focus on texture and contrast with this project. The bright pattern paper really pops against the black ink, lifting the flowers up with foam squares adds more dimension, then a bit of Glossy Accents gives some shine here and there.  For the background, just stamp and color the stem first then run the paper through the Cuttlebug with a leaf type pattern. So fun!

I’ve used Glossy Accents to highlight the dots on the paper and portions of the leaves.

Supplies:

• Artistic Borders
• Kraft Notecards
• Memories Black Dye Ink
• Other: Pattern Paper (My Minds Eye), Cuttlebug, Ranger Glossy Accents and foam squares

This next card uses the same stamps but has a completely different feel, more of a soft shabby look because of the soft tone papers and cardstock.  This one is for my wonderful mom.  :o)

Here’s a close-up with the added details, I sunk some pearls into the glossy accents in the center of the flower.

Supplies:

• Artistic Borders
• Happy Mom’s Day
• Fancy Designer Flourish
• Cream Notecards
• Walnut Stain Distress Ink
• Soft Sand Shadow Ink
• Neutral Buttons
• Art Flowers Meadow
• Accent Pearls
• Other: Pattern Papers (Prima), Blue Tag (K&Co), Ranger Glossy Accents, book text, sewing machine, foam squares and string

Now it is time for the challenge details. This week’s challenge is to create a project with some sort of Flower. You can make cards or pages with stamped flowers, create a shaped card, use paper flowers, make your own blooms with cut papers, etc. All you have to do is use at least one Hero Arts stamp. Easy! Upload your projects to the Hero Arts Flickr Group by Sunday, May 3rd at 11:59 PM PST and tag them with the code word “mayflowers” (”May” and “flowers” with no space between the words).

We will then award the following prizes:

• Fresh Face Winner (someone who has not yet won a contest): $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• Scrapbook Page Winner: $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• 1st Place: $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• 2nd Place: $25 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• 3rd Place: $15 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog

And, speaking of contests, there’s still time to enter the Win-A-Day on the blog contest! You have until April 30th to submit your entries.  Click HERE for all the details!

I’m flying home right now from Houston, I taught a fantastic all day class for our retailers there.  Tami’s sitting in for me moderating comments until I get in, Thanks Tami!  Are you ready for a quick little giveaway? How about the stamp set featured in today’s cards!  I’ll give out one set for a lucky random comment left here by 11:59 PM PST tonight.  I’ll announce the winner on Wednesday.  Good Luck!

EDITED to say: This Contest is Closed.  Thanks!

Have a great day!

Filed under: mayflowers

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 4:00 am and is filed under Motivation Mondays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.