Cindy Coutts Designs

Good morning and welcome to Flourishes Bring Back Beauty Challenge 2! Everybody was so thrilled to see the awesome turnout we had for our first challenge. For our True Beauties winners, don't forget to pick up your True Beauty blog badge!

Our new challenge for you today is Rustic Beauty. As the leaves start to change colors to usher in fall, we want to see you rustic beauty. Interpret this challenge however you like – want to use a little distressing? Want to use shades of rust? Want to use things that look aged or antiqued? You choose! Just make sure that the end result has a rustic feel to it. Link up your Bring Back Beautiful Challenge card here. If you upload to Splitcoast Stampers, Christian Paper Crafts, or other online galleries, please use keyword BBB02. You will have until September 30 to enter. As we unveil our challenge for next month, we'll share our True Beauties – those card makers who wowed us with this challenge. The winners will be featured on the Flourishes Blog and receive a True Beauty blog badge to proudly display on their blog!

For my card that I wish to share with you, I did a little bit of everything from distressing to shades of rust to the leaves turning. I used a technique for my tree that's normally reserved for enhancing images rather than using it for the entire image, and that's sponging. Layering color with sponging can still have stunning effects. I sprayed my image with Krylon Triple-Thick Crystal Clear Glaze to shine it up a bit. This card is similar to the card that I have published in the Paper Creations Fall Edition, available on newsstands now. This is a fabulous stamp set and I've had 3 cards published in the past 6 months using Forest of Trees. I hope that you like my card and thank you so much for stopping by today to visit me and God bless!

Please be sure to stop by the Bring Back Beauty Design Team member blogs to see how they brought your some beauty!

Beate Johns

Becca Feeken

Julie Koerber, Design Team Coordinator

Kathy Jones

Michelle Woerner

Yvonne Hagane

BLOG CANDY: Today's Treasure is Exodus 3. Read it and you'll see why I chose this. Now for the blog candy. If you can tell me why I chose Exodus 3, leave a comment, and become a follower of my blog by midnight CST September 17. I'll draw a name from those who left a comment and became a follower of my blog, or already follow my blog and commented, and your prize will be the Flourishes Forest of Trees stamp set! Be sure to stop by around noonish or so CST on Friday, September 17 to see if you're the winner. And please, don't become a follower of my blog just to win a prize. I think that is very thoughtless and greedy. Become a follower because you want to.

Stamps: Forest of Trees by Flourishes
Card Stock: Stampin' Up! Basic Black, Very Vanilla
Designer Paper: Basic Grey Indian Summer
Ink: Stampin' Up! Daffodil Delight, Cajun Craze, Poppy Parade, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Stampin' Up! 5/8" Basic Black satin ribbon, Black Flourish Designer Jewels, Jenni Bowlin Stick Pin, Maya Road Pearl Trinket Pin, leaf embellishment from craft supply, Spellbinders Circle Nestabilities, Krylon Triple-Thick Crystal Clear Glaze
Technique: Sponging, machine stitching
Size: 5-1/2 x 4-1/4
Challenge: Bring Back Beautiful #2 (BBB02), Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #87 (MTSC87)

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. Please become my friend through Google Friend Connect. I am always blessed by your support and comments!

To purchase Stampin' Up! products, please visit Stampin' Up! With Cindy.

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BIRTHDAY BLOG HOP WINNER IS JANARIA! Congratulations girlfriend! Send me an e-mail (you know where to find me), so that I can get your stamp sets out to you! Thank you all so very much who participated and for your very kind comments too. I am so blessed to be amongst ALL of you!

For today's Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenges, I'm the hostess and this is the first time that I've done this. Instead of reading what I wrote here, I'd like you to go to Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenges 53 and the verse we're focusing on today is Psalm 56:3. That verse has been on my heart lately, a lot lately, like thinking about it all the time lately; "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." We have to do our write-ups a few weeks in advance to give the design team time to pray on what they're going to do for the challenge. Since I've done my write-up, Pete's contract has ended and he's now working and living halfway across the United States. I'm glad that contract is up, but there's a few more in the works. There's one here or a chance to go back to New York in 11 months. Do you know how excited I am and get just thinking about that?! It can't come soon enough. Then again, I love my house and the weather here. I know those are small things, but they're important to me. I don't know what to do or think. I'm all over the place. So I still need to trust in the Lord to see where he will take us, if he takes us anywhere, and it will be for a reason. He knows how I feel about dropping my kids off all over the country. My daughter will be 19 by the time New York rolls around and she's been mandated to come with us. She told me, "I'm ready to go home, mom." BUT, what we're thinking about is that New York is the same home. Things have changed, people have moved elsewhere, the school scaled back to K-5, a lot has changed, yet we're expecting time to have stood still for us. That hit me the most the first 1-2 times I went back and I didn't like it at all. If I adapted once, I can adapt again. Familiar faces are so important to me too seeing them and having a history with my friends that I don't have here at all. Please keep this in prayer for me. Confusion is not of the Lord and I need direction. Also with Pete's contract ending, we got hit with a $32,000 cut in pay annually. Ouch. I won't be purchasing anything whatsoever and am really cracking down on funds and doing a lot of eBaying. I don't need the newest, latest, and greatest of something that's going to be popular for a month. If you truly think about it, it's a bit on the insane side. God will stretch our budget and increase my gift to glorify him. I'm not so afraid anymore. It's just changed to confused and a lack of direction, so I'm redirecting my prayers asking for clear direction and I also covet your prayers as well.

For today's challenge, you can either just focus on the verse of Psalm 56:3 or recall a "Jesus and me" moment when he revealed himself to you. It's more of a personal challenge that maybe only you can understand, but my purpose for this is for you not to forget what the Lord has done for you in your life and how you've drawn closer to him.

As expected, my card is about moving. It's very clean and simple, and that's the way that I wanted it for today. We all thank you for participating in our challenges and would also like to thank Sassy Studio Designs for sponsoring us today. God bless you and I'll see you next Sunday with another awesome challenge to use our gift to glorify the Lord and spread the gospel. Be sure to check out what my design sisters did for this challenge too! They'd love to hear your comments. God bless.

Stamps: Gina K. Designs Oh Boy!
Card Stock: Stampin' Up! Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze, Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream
Designer Paper: October Afternoon Road Map
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
Accessories: Stampin' Up! silver brads, Baja Breeze striped grosgrain ribbon
Size: 5-1/2 x 4-1/4
Challenge: Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge 53 (SSCC53), Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge 86 (MTSC86)

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. Please become my friend through Google Friend Connect. I am always blessed by your support and comments!

To purchase Stampin' Up! products, please visit Stampin' Up! With Cindy.

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Today's Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge 74 (FTTC74) is Christmas in July. I had just gotten out of the Christmas spirit with all of my magazine work, but now I'm going to have to get back into it. Attending this year's Craft and Hobby Association SuperShow in Chicago in a few weeks will help me get back into the Christmas spirit as I'll be able to see AND bring home the new Christmas releases from various vendors. I'm very excited about attending this show and meeting my friends there!

For this challenge today, I winged, or made up (read trial and error) a technique or two, so I'm not quite sure what I think of this card, but I will tell you that Glimmer Mist covers a multitude of craft sins. I used the Lord Have Mercy Sketch Challenge 81 (MTSC81) to help me out. I usually have zero success with gold thread as it's very difficult to work with, but it's all in the sewing machine quality. Since last year's Janome to a Singer Fashion Mate, stitching on cards has made life so much easier. I will have to read the automatic threading feature one of these days because I'm as blind as a bat and I'm still threading manually.

So…..here's my card and I hope that you enjoy it and that it provides you with some inspiration. Thank you for stopping by again and looking. God bless. Don't forget to pray about the 2nd gum transplant that I am undergoing tomorrow morning on the lower right canine. After that heals, then it's back to the left side for a premolar. I wish I could have gotten that procedure done at the same time as the first lower left canine, but there's a crown on that tooth and the dentist said that it's an entirely different procedure because the gum won't adhere to the crown. I think he's trying to bankrupt me. But, you can learn a lesson from this. Don't be an aggressive brusher! I recommend and electric Oral B or Rota-Dent toothbrush. They'll do the job without ripping up your gums. I'm so crazy neurotic about that now that I'll lean over a 15x magnifying mirror to make sure that I get every single part of my tooth without touching my gums, but that's a whole other story and as I try to keep this blog pretty sanitized to all things crafty, I won't go on. I pray you have a very blessed day and keep me in your prayers as well.

Stamps: Flourished Christmas by Flourishes
Card Stock: Stampin' Up! Cherry Cobbler, Brushed Gold, Very Vanilla
Designer Paper: SEI Holiday Lane
Ink: Versamark, Stampin' Up! gold embossing powder, Cherry Cobbler, Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder in Peeled Paint
Accessories: Stampin' Up! gold brads, gold cord, Modern Label punch, Scallop Oval punch, gold star from craft supply, Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist
Technique: Machine stitching, heat embossing
Size: 4-1/4 x 5-1/2
Challenge: Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge 74 (FTTC74), Lord Have Mercy Sketch Challenge 81 (MTSC81)

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. Please become my friend through Google Friend Connect. I am always blessed by your support and comments!

To purchase Stampin' Up! products, please visit Stampin' Up! With Cindy.

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