Vellum Flowers Tutorial.

Hi everyone! Some of you might have already seen my first tutorial on the Flourishes blog, but here it is now on my blog too!

You know that I love using vellum on my cards and I'm now happy to show you my first tutorial! I will teach you how to add vellum layered flowers to your work. Here's first all you will need when making your card: vellum, white cardstock, black Memento ink, white embossing powder, a heat tool, a Versa Mark pad, scissors, foam pads, markers and a stamp. I chose the biggest stamp from the beautiful Winter Blossoms set.

If you have an electronic cutting tool, you can use it to cut your image. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut this image. After it is cut, leave it on the cutting mat and stamp it. You can now take your image and color it. You don't have to color the three biggest flowers that will be later covered with vellum.

My image was colored with the following Copic markers:

Take then your vellum and stamp your image with the Versa Mark pad. Emboss it with white embossing powder and heat it.  Make this step twice.

Once you have two nicely white embossed images, you will have to fussy cut the flowers you want to use for your project. Be here very careful not to cut the white embossed edges of the flowers. You can keep the flowers of the first layer together. 

You have now 6 nice vellum flowers. I usually put a brad, pearls or rhinestones in the middle of three of them. Here I chose to add some silver tiny glass beads. I first put some glossy accents in the middle of the flowers and then added the beads. Let them dry and then just add a foam pad in the middle of the flowers and adhere them to the first layer. This will give them a beautiful 3-D effect.

And now you will have to adhere the layered vellum flowers to your first stamped and colored image. I usually put some glue dots, but any glue should be fine. Remember to put the dots in the middle of the flowers so they won't be seen.

And here's now the card embellished with seam bindings and twine. I used the same stamp to make the pink stamped background. I added a cute little tag and a fourth vellum flower on the bow. The tag is made with one of the classic tags die set and the sentiment is from the Tiny Flowers and Tags set.

I hope this tutorial gets you excited about using vellum on your cards or creations. I just love the soft look it creates with almost any kind of image. Thanks for joining me today!

Happy Birthday Jan Marie!

Today, February 25th, Jan Marie Caruso, the fearless and creative force behind Flourishes, is another year older... what a wonderful thing to celebrate!

I wish I would have been able to join the team and make a card for the hop... but I'm still happy to show you now the card I made for her! You can also join all of us and simply be inspired by the photo below and create a card for Jan. One randomly drawn winner will get a 25 dollars gift certificate to the Flourishes store, just for playing along!

Jan may be the head of this company but one thing she doesn't get a ton of is happy mail from customers using her stamps. Let's change that for her birthday and flood her with some creative "love" by sending her your Berry Sweet Birthday Blog Hop creations! Here's the address so you can pop them in the mail!

Jan Marie Caruso
4140 Lyric Lane
Pensacola, FL 32514

Don't forget to link your creation here. And here's my card:

I wanted to make a card with vellum and so I chose one of my favorite stamp set, Hearts & Flowers. I added a few layers under the vellum flowers. The yellow stamped layer is made with the Love and Lace set. The sentiment on the tag is from the Mix-n-Mugs set.

Happy Birthday Jan Marie!! I wish you a wonderful day!! Big hugs!

February Beautiful World Tour.

Hello Everyone and welcome to the February Beautiful World Tour! Once again, it's time to get those passports ready, grab a cup of coffee and prepare to travel the world! Iwona is our hostess this month and she made us a beautiful sketch for inspiration!

Did you know that your travels around the Flourishes World gives you the opportunity to Win a free FLOURISHES STAMP SET?? All we ask is that you leave a comment on each one by February 28th for your chance to win!!

If you've jetted in from Dina's blog, then you have arrived at the right destination! If you haven't, perhaps you'd like to start your journey back in Florida at the Flourishes Blog so you don't miss all the beautiful inspiration along the way!

As it is soon Valentine's Day, I thought about making a card for this special day. I made a 3-D vellum heart with the beautiful stamp that you can find in the Fanciful Flourishes set. I added many different layers under the heart. The red antique lace frame is from the Love and Lace stamp set. I also made a felt heart with a Spellbinders Scalloped Heart die. I put my sentiment on a little tag. The sentiment is from the Hearts & Flowers set. I also added different ribbon, seam binding, twine and lace. I stitched the edges and added three little pearls and a button to finish it off:

Thanks for taking time to visit me, it's time to grab your passport and board the Flourishes Flight BWT, your next destination is:

January Beautiful World Tour.

Hello Everyone and welcome to the January Flourishes Beautiful World Tour! Meredith is our hostess this month and she chose to challenge us to create a tag!

Did you know that your travels around the Flourishes World gives you the opportunity to WIN a free FLOURISHES STAMP SET?? All we ask is that you leave a comment on each one by January 31st for your chance to win!

If you've jetted in from Kathy's blog, then you have arrived at the right destination! If you haven't, perhaps you'd like to start your journey back in Florida at the Flourishes Blog so you don't miss all the beautiful inspiration along the way!

For my tag, I used the beautiful flowers of the Bloomin' Aussie Florals stamp set. The flowers are made with a few layers of vellum. I colored the image with the following Copic markers:

I cut the image with my Silhouette Cameo. You can find the cut file here. The oval pierced background is made with the beautiful Victorian oval die. I stamped the white background with the retired Damask Background stamp. I clear embossed it and I love the way it looks. I just added some pearls, seam binding, ribbons, twine and a cute little tag. The sentiment is from the Tiny Flowers and Tags set. I also stitched the edges and here it is:

I wish we could already see beautiful flowers in the garden, but everything is covered with snow... we will have to wait for a few more months! Now we are enjoying going skating and skiing with the children. Winter is nice when the weather isn't too cold!

Thanks for taking time to visit me, it's time to grab your passports and board the Flourishes Flight BWT, your next destination is:

Thank You.

Hello Everyone and Happy New Year!!  This is my first card of the year 2013! I was so sad to hear that this is the last Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge...  Claire surely has new ideas for this new year, but I will miss this challenge... The first card I made and posted in my blog was a card for this challenge and since this day I've made a card for almost all the challenges! So this time I wanted to make a Thank You card for Claire and all the Waltzingmouse DT members who have made beautiful cards every weeks and have given us so much great inspiration!!! Thank You!!

For my card, I chose the sweet angel from the Earth Angel stamp set. The wings and the sentiment are made on vellum. I made a doily with my Cheery Lynn Designs French Pastry die. The big wings are made with my Sizzix Layered Angel Wings die. The wings were distressed and I also put some crackle accents on them. You can also see a felt heart made with a Spellbinders die and the cute red tag is made with one the Fancy Tags Two die. One of the background is made with the Waltzingmouse Woodgrain set and the other one is with the Gingham & Co stamp set. I added different ribbons, lace, twine, a red button and a cute little tag with a heart from the Make Your Mark set.

Here's the great sketch made by Edna Morrisedie:

Merry Christmas!

I wish all of you a very happy and merry Christmas!! I haven't been able to make cards for a while because we have been with the whole family on holidays! It was nice to be in Dubai where the weather was sunny and warm... here's a photo of us wishing you a great Christmas time! 

And here's another photo taken here in Finland where everything is covered with snow... the weather was yesterday very cold, -27 degrees Celsius (-16.6 Fahrenheit), but fortunately today it is "only" -13 C or 8.6F !!

All my Love is Yours.

Here's my card for the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #126. I have to tell you why I felt like making a card with a heart... Can you imagine how chocked I was when I noticed that the diamond that was on my wedding ring was missing!!! And of course I wasn't at home... so it could be somewhere in the snow or in the car, who knows!! Well, when I got back home, I took a flashlight and look at the floors everywhere. And guess what?? It's incredible but I found it in the bathroom!!! I was sooo happy!!! My husband thought that I would never find it again! And so I just had to make a card for him!!

The heart is from the Seasons of Love - Tags set. The sentiments are also from the same set. The sentiment on the heart is framed with the Fancy framed Tags Two of Spellbinders. The stamped background is from the Way out West set. The vellum doily is made with the Dainty Doilies 2 Small set. I also made one vellum and two felt flowers with my Sizzix Flowers, 3-D die. I stitched the edges, added some ribbons, a bow, a button and a cute little key charm.

Here's Iwona's great sketch:

I will also enter this card to the CR84FN Color Challenge. We are asked to use burgundy, gray and cream as the main colors. Here are the beautiful photos for inspiration:

December Beautiful World Tour.

Hello Beautiful World! Naomi is our hostess this month and she chose to challenge us to create something that shines like ice and glass! So cuddle up with a cup of cocoa and get ready to embark around this beautiful world!

Did you know that your travels around the Flourishes World gives you the opportunity to WIN a free FLOURISHES STAMP SET?? All we ask is that you leave a comment on each one by December 31st for your chance to win!

If you've jetted in from Meredith's blog, then you have arrived at the right destination! If you haven't, perhaps you'd like to start your journey back in Florida at the Flourishes Blog so you don't miss all the beautiful inspiration along the way!

For my card I chose the beautiful stamp of the Christmas Candles set of Flourishes. I colored it and then added some glossy accents to make it look like glass. I also put some tiny red glass beads on the decoration around the candle.  The bow is made with some cream seam binding. The sentiment on the tag is from the retiring set Alleluia Angel. The layers are made with the Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two and the Floral Ovals dies. The doily is made with the Cheery Lynn Designs French Pastry die. One of the background is made with the retired Damask Background stamp of Flourishes. I clear embossed it. The other background is embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. The poinsettia is made with the Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia dies. I stitched the edges, added some ribbons, lace, twine, a red button and two cute little bells to finish it off.

We have snow in Finland now and this morning the weather is very cold, -23 degrees Celsius (-9,4 degrees Fahrenheit)! It's time to put wood in the chimney and light candles!

Thanks for taking time to visit me, it's time to grab your passports and board Flourishes Flight BWT, your next destination is:

Christmas Tree.

There's a great challenge at The Ribbon Reel. The challenge #42 is all about Pastel Christmas. We are asked to create a card using the colors cream, baby blue and pink and some bling. I just loved the trees that I made in my previous card and so I made a vellum Christmas tree with the Dainty Doilies 2 Small stamp set of Waltzingmouse. I added a silver star on the top of the tree. This one was made with the Nordic Winter stamp set. The background was made with the biggest of the Spellbinders Floral Ovals dies. I also added some beautiful ribbons that I won from The Ribbon Reel! Thanks again so much! I stitched the edges and added some rhinestones, a tag and two little bells to finish it off.

Lenet chose this beautiful Christmas photo for inspiration: