Mother's day flower meadow

I have had some good finds in wallpaper recently. The outdated sample books are heavy to carry but great to recycle for cards or altered objects.

This image is so pretty that it doesn't need a lot added for embellishment. I decided to leave the white space mostly free and instead have the wording at the very top of the card. I used outline stickers on a satin ribbon together with one of my new Dimension butterflies.

Challenges: Charisma Cardz week 17, Paper Play week 17, Aud Sentiments Challenge #27, The Lollipop Ladies #19, Crafty Creations #116, Papertake weekly, CI Paints, Craft your passion: any, GHWI #2, Pollycraft #91: any, One by one - May, Claudia and company #81, Clear it out: ribbon US, Creative Craft Challenges: recycle, Tuesday Taggers: old + new, Creative Card Crew: Mom, Creative Cowgirls: spring/mother, Dream Valley Challenges: flowers, Scrappy Frogs: any, Sparkles Forum: any, Cupcake Inspirations #109: mum / bright colours, 2 Sisters #37, Etsy Inspired Challenge - Imagine Studio: inspiration for the colour combination of pastels, SSDS Challenge: Mum, CES #34: inspiration: romantic muted but fresh colour scheme, Crafts 4 Eternity R#17: any, Paper Cutz Ch. #89: any,

Iris with fabric leaves

My aim was to make a covertly original birthday card for an older man who likes yellow flowers.

The photograph gains some depth from the shades of grey found in the background. This gave me the idea to make the flower three-dimensional, using long fabric leaves which I had recycled from a bunch of artificial flowers. For the bud I cut a piece of yellow pipe cleaner to shape. As it's not often that I find a use for those, I'm quite chuffed to have transformed one of them into a handmade flower! And finally I got to use my new Birthday confetti.

Challenges: Charisma Cardz week 17, Paper Play week 17 , Papertake weekly, TSG #105, Craft your passion: any, GHWI #2, Pollycraft #91: any , By the cute and girly - May: any once, Cards and things #77, Creative Craft Challenges, Tuesday Taggers: old and new, Creative Cowgirls: spring/mother , Dream Valley Challenges: flowers, Scrappy Frogs: any, Sparkles Forum: any, Stampin Sisters in Christ #87, Cupcake Inspirations #109: mum / bright colours, Etsy Inspired Challenge - Imagine Studio: inspiration to show a pond plant, Shannon's Sentiments #24: , handmade flower, Crafts 4 Eternity R#17: any, Paper Cutz Ch. #89: any,

Long orange flower card

A rather feminine, multi-purpose card, quick to make - in theory at least. Designing it took a little longer as I was not used to the proportions of this tall narrow card size.

Since I couldn't walk past this set of glossy card blanks in four cheerful colours, I am going to try my hands on this format more often.

I still think trying out a new card shape is worth the effort for the sake of variety in the display - these cards should quite literally stand out.

Challenges: The Ribbon Girl Color Challenge no. 1, Sweetstop sketches no. 76, simon says stamp, sketch-n-stash no. 45, Creative Card Crew, Daring Cardmakers, I heart 2 stamp ,

Sunflower painted by Klimt

It's sunflower season again... A few days ago I saw positively HUGE ones in a friends' back garden. They must have been well over 2 metres high - best enjoyed from the first floor window! Now I can understand why Klimt painted his sunflower head so close to the top edge...

Challenge: Crafting with Christina #3,

Flower medley

It is not quite a meadow on the paper I used but still has this summery feel to it. I had to go easy on the embellishments for obvious reasons, so I chose just one flower cut out from an embroidered fabric and used a stylised flourish punch on a wide red layer.

Challenges: Moving along with the times #57, Craftalicious #5, Create 4 fun week 30,

Circuitboard flower card

This card was designed around a piece of circuitboard. Its surface was yellowed by a burnt in trace of oil which inspired me to go for the patched Shabby Chic look. The flower is pierced as you can see in the detail.
Challenges: Flourishes blog, Crazy4challenges C4C27, Caardvarks Photo inspiration Challenge, Pollycraft Challenge Blog, 2sketches4you, Creative Inspirations, Little Paper Shop LPSC57, Mojo Monday 128, 365 cards Everybody Art #80, Papertake Weekly, Simon says, Crafty calendar, Our creative corner, Willow sketchie, 365 cards, Daring cardmakers, Promarker challenge, Sketch Saturday, Allsorts, Card patterns, Our creative corner, CPS, Cutie Sunday,

Black and white organza card

A Happy New Year to all the friendly commenters dropping by last year, and especially to my regular followers. - I hope there will be more of you by the end of this year!

I am starting off with a card I made using the first item I purchased in this year's sales - an organza door curtain with a pretty pattern which I thought would make a good motif. The fabric was already cut in strips and the edges were sewn, so I just needed to cut it up a bit further, sew the remaining two edges, glue the piece onto my card and then embellish - the bit I like best!

Challenges: One Stop Craft #61,