We’re here to bring you another great Friday of inspiration from the Design Team with our May Releases! So we invite you to hop through the Design Team and enjoy once again! Just a reminder TODAY is the last day these sets can be purchased at a discount in our New Release Bundle. Don’t miss out on the discount on this great release!
So you’ll want to drop by and visit:
But before you go… now for something NEW! And there’s something in it for you TOO!
We’re starting a new Focus on some of our Fridays throughout the summer that will let you get a chance to get to know our Senior Design Team a little better. And after you hear a little more about them, I get to pick my all-time-favorite creations by each designer to show off to you….then it’s your turn to jump in for prizes, so keep reading!
First up is my very dear friend Julie Koerber. Many of you have known her as the face of the Design Teams at Flourishes for a lot of years. And though she’s passed off some of those duties to some of us, this lady is still one of the main faces of Flourishes for all the many things she does (so well!) behind the scenes for Flourishes. So though you don’t see her front and center as much, she’s not going anywhere 
She’s a dynamo! Loyal, fun and energetic, compassionate, smart and savvy. I appreciate so much about her, am blessed to call her friend, and I know you’ll love getting to know her a little better:
Describe yourself in a few sentences, and then in just one word.
I am a fun-loving, live for the moment, spunky, work-at-home mom who calls the foothills of Montana home. I am a journalist by trade but a creative spirit at heart. I am a wife and a mom and those are two titles I am most honored to hold. One word? If I had to pick one, I would say loyal.
What do you do outside of card-making?
I am the editor of a regional magazine called Yellowstone Valley Woman. While I do take time each week to stamp, when night rolls around and our family nestles in for time together, you’ll often find me knitting. I don’t know if it is something I never learned but I just cannot sit still without doing something!
How did you get the card-making bug?
I got the stamping bug when my sister-in-law invited me to an at home stamping party. We had just finished a step aerobics class and she BEGGED me to come with her. I told her, “Ok, but we are in and out!” I laugh because after I started to make cards, she ended up leaving me at the party! I loved it and it wasn’t long before I started my stamp collection. Ironically, my mom went to a stamping party on the exact same day and she was instantly hooked as well. We still laugh about that. She has a blog too called the Rubbermaid!!
How long have you been with the Flourishes Team?
I joined the Flourishes team in June of 2008 and have been a lover of all things Flourishes ever since!
Favourite Flourishes sets?
With more than 200 sets out there for “consumption” it seems hard to choose just a few! I would have to say Bee My Honey, Gerber Daisies and Sweet Nature. All three have a very sweet look about them that Marcella Hawley seems to capture so well!
If you were to describe your card-making style – how would you describe it? What makes a card “you”?
I have absolutely no idea! LOL! I have been told that most of my cards feature one larger focal image that takes up 2/3 of the card’s front. I don’t usually do a ton of embellishing and hardly ever create without embossing, distressing or piercing something. Bows are almost always a given and brads, bling or buttons are staples as well!
Tell the Flourishes world something they may not yet know about you…
I’ll tell you a few – how about that? 1. I love muscle cars and instead of a diamond or jewelry for my 10th anniversary, I got a ’77 Corvette. Yee-haw! 2. I grew up on a horse farm and one of my biggest thrills as a kid was working with Thoroughbreds straight off the race track and teaching them to be hunter jumpers. 3. A few years back my family was on the reality TV show Trading Spaces and we traded spaces with our neighbors to redo one room in each other’s house. We got a kids play room that was out of this world and the experience was just one of those once-in-a-lifetime things!
-Julie
See – even I never knew about Trading Spaces! :) I love Julie’s style, she really has an eye for shape, balance and pattern in her designs that is always inviting and beautiful…want to see some of my top favourites of Julie’s from the past 5 years?
I was blown away by the beautiful softness Julie blended into this card with our Spring Bouquet set. You’ll have to see her tutorial for the “how to.”
How Julie popped up the centers of these Orchids and combined these beautiful papers and accents is just amazing on this card.
I think her colouring on these butterflies is amazing on this card with our Butterflies and Blossoms set.
I love how the spotlighting of this card really accents the lighthouse from the set A Guiding Light…and it shows off one of Julie’s trademark styles – beautiful sanded edges on her designer paper die cut shapes. It always adds so much to her designs.
I love the no-line look on this card that Julie achieved with the Strawberries set and how she worked with this fantastic sketch. See that great sanding again?
Julie always does a beautiful job of clean designs and I just love this one with our Ferns and Fiddles set. It showcases how simplicity, colour and balance can really shine.
Just look at the richness to her Copic coloring on these leaves on this card and our Falling Leaves set!
This card has a special place in my heart because it actually sits on my counter I love how Julie made this sketch shine with her expert blend of patterned papers, shape and interesting edges with the beautiful Sunflowers.
Julie always does such a great job layering shape and designer paper to create interest in her designs. Isn’t this card a great example with our With Gratitude set?
I just loved how Julie combined several Flourishes sets in such a creative way to make this beauty, using Moments in Time and Butterflies and Blossoms sets.
To me this creation is signature Julie style. Beautiful use of color and patterned paper, beautiful colouring and just the right accents with our Poppy Patch set.
Isn’t Julie amazing? I know you’ve been inspired so…
Now ITS YOUR TURN! ‘Cause I feel like giving something away! Want to play for some goodies? We invite you to CASE one of these beautiful top fav’s above of Julie’s work and enter here. Make it your own but use Julie’s designs as your inspiration point. And have fun!
You’ll have one week to play and enter using our InkLinkz button; we’ll randomly pick a winner and we’ll send you a Flourishes Goodie Bag!
