The very definition of a flourish!

The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is "Flourish".  Before I made a start on my piece, I decided to sit down and think about what the word flourish actually means, in a crafting context.  I consulted a range of online dictionaries and this was the consensus - "a decoration or embellishment".  I liked that phrase so much that I decided to use it as a focus, along with several flourishes cut from the Tim Holtz Festive Greenery decorative strip die.  I'm sure you must have a few flourish-y stamps or dies in your collection, why don't you make an entry for this week's challenge?  You'll be in the running for a $50 shopping voucher! :)

I started by decorating my background with blended distress inks and then splattered it with drops of water.  I then embossed it with a chevron embossing folder (which is still in hiding somewhere in my workroom!  I've supplied a link to a chevron folder in my supplies list but I can't be completely sure it's the right one - forgive me!).

I applied more ink to the raised parts of the embossing to give them more definition and then set about cutting out my letters and flourishes.  The letters came from the Typeset die, a font I really love, somewhat reminiscent of an old typewriter, which, as you're reading this, you'll know I already love!

I trimmed the flourishes in parts so that I could join them together into more complicated shapes, if you peer closely you can see the joins in some places.  I've made pieces based around poems, stories and song lyrics in the past, but never a dictionary definition so this is a first!  :)

Supplies I used included:

InLinkz.com
Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week, just make something for the challenge and you could the winner! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Don't forget, Simon Says Stamp have a great Facebook page too!  Check them out here!