It's a Beautiful World

Hello Everyone and welcome to the first Flourishes Beautiful World Tour!!!  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 our team!  No longer are we a challenge team, instead we have FOUR new members to the team - Sasha, Dina, Anne-Elise and Meredith - (WELCOME girls, we are excited to have you join us!!) and each month, 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 the girls will be hosting the hop on the Flourishes blog, sharing a little about their creation and maybe even a little about their corner of the world!

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 South East Asia 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 any of the inspiration along the way!!

This month the hostess is........ME!!!  Welcome to Australia!!!  :)  Our theme this month is to be inspired by a SONG!  I thought that I would choose a song, originally written by the native people on the far northern island of Elcho Island (off the Northern Territory) called My Island Home.  After gaining nation wide recognition being sung by Christine Anu, it has become something of an unofficial anthem of Australia.  As far as size goes Australia is a large country,  in fact very similar in size to the United States, however we are entirely surrounded by ocean and it's often called the Island Continent!

With My Island Home playing in my head, I've created my card using Windows to the World and used a wavy card base as a sort of tribute to the sea that surrounds our beautiful country!  I started with a base of Old Olive cut with Wavy Rectangle Nestabilities to create the shaped card.  Next I used the same die, placed it on a piece of white and drew a line on the inside of the die and cut it out with a pair of scissors to create a mat.  I then took the next smallest die to cut a piece of MME Good Day Sunshine (I keep calling it the G'day Sunshine paper) DP for the next layer and attached a piece of green satin ribbon around it.  I've stamped the island window image and sentiment from Windows to the World in Memento Tuxedo Black onto Blending Card and coloured it with Copics (Walnut Collection, Creamy Collection, Candy Pink Collection, Leaf Green Collection, Ice Blue Collection, Iced Aqua Collection).

I've cut this out with Labels 25 Nestabilities and used a paper piercer and Mat Pack to pierce around the edge of the die cut.  I've then matted it with more Old Olive, this time cut with Labels 10 Nestabilities and popped it up on foam tape.  To finish I've added a green satin bow and Kaisercraft Snow Pearls to each of the corners.

Stamps - Windows to the World (Flourishes)
Paper - Blending Card, Old Olive, White, MME Good Day Sunshine DP
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories - Copics, Wavy Rectangle, Labels 25 and Labels 10 Nestabilities, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack, Green Satin Ribbon, Bow Easy, Kasiercraft Snow Pearls, Foam Tape.

I hope you've enjoyed visiting Australia - the next stop on your Beautiful World Tour is......BEAUTIFUL CANADA to visit MEREDITH

Thanks for visiting and happy traveling!!  :)