Flourishes August Release - Chrysanthemums

I'm so excited to be joining the Flourishes Design Team today as they showcase this new stamp set! "Chrysanthemum" is a new offering from illustrator Sam Pickard and it showcases the unique blooms of the Chrysanthemum flower that is a staple for fall color and bouquets. This 4 x 6 set contains several arrangements of single or grouped flowers, a buzzing bee, plus wonderful sentiments which I designed, with a sunshine theme. It's sure to bring wonderful cheerfulness to your designs on those crisp Autumn days that are coming. And for even more creative options, we'll have a cut-file available for this set as well. So we want to show of some of our Chrysanthemum creations to you today and there's a chance for you to win today's set! All you have to do is find:

 Hidden among the Design Team's blogs today is our Mystery Blogger of the day. Comment on her blog and you could be chosen to win today's set! The more you comment, the better your chances.

• Allison Cope
• Christine Okken
• Cindy Lawrence
• Dina Kowal
• Heather Jensen
• Julie Koerber
• Maki Jones
• Silke Ledlow
• Stacy Morgan
• Tosha Leyendekker

Here's my project using the set. I wanted to use my Inktense pencils, so I traced out a circle, and filled it with stamped flower images. I colored in the flowers first, using a very sharp pencil, then blended with the brush tip of a blender pen.

I covered all the flowers using a Sakura clear glaze pen, then filled in the rest of the background with a dark blue pencil and blended with a water brush. The glaze pen adds a slightly raised, glossy finish to the flowers, and also acts as a resist medium, so that I can watercolor around and even over those areas without losing the detail of my coloring. Much easier than cutting a mask, or using masking fluid.

Here's an angled shot in full sun so you can see the effect of the glaze.

After my background wash was dry, I added in the shadows using dry Inktense and Prismacolor pencils.

DO YOU WANT TO WIN OUR ENTIRE RELEASE?

If you would like a chance at winning all three of the soon-to-be released August sets…

• You can play in our Colorful Creations Challenge – we will have multiple winners there! Deadline for entries is FRIDAY August 16th at 5 PM EST. Check out the link for the official rules!
• All three August sets can be pre-ordered now, even before you see them all! Take advantage our New Release Bundle and get 10% off when you purchase all four together in a bundle, this discount will be available for only 1 week following the release.
• All sets will be live first thing Friday morning along with the coordinating cut files for this release.
• Head back to the Flourishes Blog Saturday for the Winner's Circle where we'll announce all of our winners of this weeks' challenges!

Many thanks to the Flourishes Team for letting me join in the hop today!