White Rose.

There's a new Waltzingmouse sketch challenge! This week I chose the beautiful rose from the Roses in Bloom stamp set. I made the rose on vellum (what a surprise!!) and added tiny silver colored glass beads. The background is made with the Pic-nic Patterns and the Gingham & Co stamp sets. The sentiment comes from the Fancy Phrases stamp set. I stitched the edges, added a heart charm and three rhinestones.

Here's the sketch #112 made by Mona Pendleton:

Celebrate Color.

Here's another challenge to celebrate Flourishes birthday! This one is all about colors! I made a pretty clean and simple card with the beautiful butterflies from the Fanciful Flourishes stamp set. I cut the butterflies and put them on foam pads. I also scored a frame and put a velvet ribbon with a little tag.

A Banner Day.

It's Flourishes 5th Birthday and to celebrate we are asked to use a banner on our card! I made a white butterfly on vellum with one of the Fanciful Flourishes stamps. I also made some vellum flowers from the Summer Blossoms stamp set. I cut them by hand and added some golden tiny glass beads on the middle. The sentiment comes from the Botanical Bookplates Vol.1. The doily was made with my French Pastry die of Cheery Lynn Designs. The dark grey frame was made with one of the Romantic Rectangles of Spellbinders. The papers used for the banner are from My Minds Eye. I just stitched the edges and here it is:

Strawberries.

There's a Sweet Celebration Challenge at Flourishes! I chose the Strawberries stamp set. The sentiment, stamped on vellum comes also from the same set. I put some tiny gold glass beads on the flowers. The white background is embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder called Plaid. I stitched the edges, added a velvet ribbon, some twine and a few pearls to finish off the card. I'm sorry, but I had to use the flash to take the last picture because it was already so dark when I had to enter the card to Chupa's challenge! I later took better photos:

The layout is based on Chupa's sketch:

Angel.

I know, it's a little bit early to make Christmas cards, but I wanted to make a card with this beautiful angel! It's from the Alleluia Angel stamp set of Flourishes. There's a challenge at Flourishes which is all about adding sprinkles onto our card! I made the wings of the angel on vellum and added some star dust sparkle on them and on the little stars. I also made a tag and the sentiment is from the same set. I like it because it's in french! I embossed the white background with the Sizzix Sheet Music embossing folder. Just added a ribbon and a brad to finish it off.

White Butterfly and Heart.

Just had time to make a card for this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge! I chose the gorgeous butterfly from the Nordic Spring stamp set. I stamped it on vellum with white embossing powder. I adhered it on the heart which comes from the Seasons of Love-Tags stamp set. I made a felt scalloped heart with a Spellbinders die. Then I embossed on vellum again some flourishes which come from the Flourishes - Scalloped and Dots stamp set. I put three white pearls on them. I stitched the edges and also added a ribbon and some jute twine. The sentiment is from the Half Pint Heroes stamp set. To finish off the card, I put a cute wooden heart with twine on the butterfly.

I will also enter this card to the Blog Party of this month! The theme for August is Birthdays!

Here's the great sketch made by Laurie Schmidlin:

Pink tulip.

There's a sketch challenge at Flourishes! All we need to do is to use the sketch for our Timeless Tuesday creation! I chose the tulip from the Thank You stamp set of Flourishes. I cut it and put it on the Spellbinders Floral Oval die with foam pads. The white embossed background is made with the Sizzix Sheet Music embossing folder. I also stamped the beautiful Antique Lace stamp on vellum. The sentiment is from the With Gratitude stamp set. To finish the card, I stitched the edges, added different ribbons, a lace, a green button and three white pearls.

Country Road.

There's another Noon Time Challenge at Flourishes. This challenge is all about sharing our surroundings with the stamping world! We just have to share a photo, pick three colors in the photo and use them in our card!

The country where I live, Finland, is a country of thousands of lakes and islands. Forest covers 86% of the country area and it's the largest forested area in Europe. Finland's flag is white and blue. The color blue represents the sky and the lakes and the color white represents Finland's light during the summer nights and the snow in the winter. And so I wanted to make a card with blue, green and white colors:

The stamp is from the Flourishes Kids Play stamp set. I really love it because it's just what kids like doing here! Fishing! I found a Tilda paper with butterflies and a dragonfly and I think it was just perfect for this card as you can see a lot of these by the lakes! The white background was made with the Cuttlebug embossing folder called Seeing Spots. It also looks like white clouds! The frame of the image was made with one of the Spellbinders Labels Four dies. Here are two photos of a Finnish summer time:

White Gerbera Daisies.

There's a Noon Time Challenge at Flourishes. This challenge is all about giving our card a little texture! I chose the beautiful Gerbera Daisies stamp set and embossed the flowers with white embossing powder. I put some gold-colored tiny glass beads on the middle of them. The frame is made with my Romantic Rectangles Spellbinders die. The embossed background is also from Spellbinders and it's called Elegance. I put different ribbons, lace and twine. I also added a bow with a button and a cute little tag from Flourishes. The sentiment is from Tiny Flowers and Tags. Just some stitching and three white pearls to finish the card!

Beautiful World.

Hello Everyone and welcome to the first Flourishes Beautiful World Tour!!! I'm very excited to write my first post as a design team member! As today is my birthday, what can be a better birthday present!! 

Those of you who have been following Flourishes for a while will know that the first Monday of the month used to be the Bring Back Beautiful Challenge. As we celebrate Flourishes' 5th Birthday, there have been some changes and one of those is this team! Rather than being a challenge team, four new members were added and now, each month, you can travel the world with us and be inspired by talented girls from all parts of the globe!!! We are now represented by Australia, United States, Canada, Finland, England and Germany and each month one of us will be hosting the hop on the Flourishes blog, sharing our creation and maybe something about our country!

So.....what does this mean for YOU?? Instead of being challenged to create and play along, all we ask is you do a little globetrotting and stamp our passports (leave us a comment) and you could WIN A FREE FLOURISHES STAMP SET!!!! Yes, you heard right, leave a comment and have the chance to win!! The catch is, you don't know which country is going to be this week's vacation spot (chosen blog) so leave a comment on each one by AUGUST 31st for your chance to win!!

If you've jetted in from Florida from the Flourishes blog then you have reached the first stop on your Beautiful World Tour Hop!

This month the hostess is Kathy and our theme is to be inspired by a SONG! You know that I live in Finland now, but I was born in Switzerland and lived there for 20 years before moving here! And as my mother tongue is french, I wanted to create a card that focuses on the lyrics of a french love song.  I chose the beautiful old song of Edith Piaf written in 1945, La vie en rose (literal meaning in english, Life in Pink). It is a song about a woman who describes the man she loves and who loves her. The two last sentences are:

Et dès que je t'aperçois (And as soon as I see you)

Alors je sens en moi mon coeur qui bat (I can feel inside of me my heart beating).

I wanted to make this card for my dear husband and so I chose one of the hearts of the  Hearts & Flowers stamp set of Flourishes. I stamped it twice on vellum and embossed it with white powder. I cut all the flowers and put a pink brad on the middle of them. The white frame is made with the Romantic Rectangles of Spellbinders, but as I needed a square frame, I cut it in the middle. I also made a white embossed background with the Sheet Music #2 of Sizzix. I added a May Arts sheer satin scalloped edge ribbon, a grey velvet ribbon (looks very dark on the photo, but it's grey) and some pink twine. A cute little Flourishes die tag with a sentiment from Tiny Flowers and Tags stamp set to finish the card!

I hope you've enjoyed visiting Finland - the next stop on your Beautiful World Tour is... 

...the beautiful United States to visit Betty!


Thanks for visiting and happy traveling!!

Great news!

Today I have great news to share!! Have a look at the Flourishes post It's a beautiful World! Yes!! That's true, I'm not dreaming anymore! I'm so happy to be part of a very talented team! Tomorrow we'll start with our first trip around the world!! Welcome!!

To celebrate this and the birthday of me (tomorrow) and Flourishes, I wanted to make a card! Flourishes are celebrating their 5th birthday!! There's a Birthday Wishes Challenge that will give a chance to win the entire new release of August! So here's the card I made:

I chose the beautiful bouquet from the Summer Blossom stamp set of Flourishes. I stamped two of the flowers on vellum with white embossing powder. I then put gold colored tiny glass beads on the middle of them. I also cut by hand four pink flowers and put them on foam pads to give them a 3D effect. The background of the flowers is made with the Floral Ovals of Spellbinders. The embossed background is made with the Kassie's Brocade embossing folder of Cuttlebug. The sentiment on the little tag comes from the Mix and Mugs stamp set of Flourishes. I stitched the edges with my sewing-machine, added a little Marianne Design butterfly and three little pearls in a corner.

Happy 5th birthday Flourishes!!

Happy Birthday!

Hello!!
We have been traveling around Finland with our motor-home and we had a nice time all the family together. I haven't been able to make cards during that time and I'm now so happy to be back here! I made a card for the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #108. I wanted to make a birthday card for a little girl so what can be better than the Heroines - Fairy Princess stamp set! The background is made with the Castle template of Waltzingmouse. The little fairy princess has vellum wings with star dust sparkle. I also made a vellum rose with my Sizzix Flowers, 3-D die. I added some lace, velvet ribbon and twine and stitched the edges with my sewing-machine. Just a few pearls and here it is:

Here's the sketch made by Belinda Chang Langner: