Here are 40 different ideas for using flowers on your own layouts:
1. Stamp a pattern on plain fabric flowers using ink or acrylic paint.
2. Add a 3D feel to silk or fabric flowers by stamping them with ink and then sprinkling with embossing powder and blasting them with your heat gun. (Be careful not to burn your flowers.)
3. Ink or chalk the edges of your flowers .
4. Get creative with your circle punches and create your own flowers by placing five small circles in a flower shape (for the petals) and adding a button to the center.
5. Recycle your small scraps of paper into punched or die-cut flowers and keep them in a basket on your craft desk so they are always at hand for the small finishing touches to a layout.
6. Punch small shapes into your fabric or paper flowers using an eyelet setter or tool such as the Karen Foster Scraparatus.
7. Add different centers to your flowers to get different looks such as gems, brads, buttons, ribbon, tags, eyelets or mini beads.
8. Use flowers to border a photograph.
9. Layer flowers together in a wave across your page.
10. Stamp a swirl pattern onto a page and add a small flower to each curly end.
11. Use flowers to bullet point your journaling.
12. Fold fabric flowers in half and attach behind a photo or patterned paper with a staple.
13. Fashion your own flowers using looped ribbon for the petals.
14. Utilise pictures of flowers from the Internet. Print them out a few times and make your own decoupage flowers.
15. Doodle on top of flowers for eye-catching presentation. You could follow the same doodling through to your layouts.
16. Crochet your own flowers in minutes using a template from Crochet Pattern Central.
17. Cover chipboard flowers with white ink and before it dries sprinkle on texture with a flocking powder. Doodlebug make some beautifully colored flock powders.
18. Utilise those old flower stickers you have to create a border around other embellishments.
19. Make your flowers sparkle by highlighting the petals with clear adhesive and glitter.
20. Quill on top of flower chipboard.
21. Pull or cut the petals off flowers to create new shapes or borders.
22. Cover a chipboard flower with mini beads.
23. Using a brass stencil and light box, light emboss onto paper flowers to add texture.
24. Twist the center of a flower into a point and wrap the base with a pipe cleaner to let the flower jump from the page.
25. Hold journaling blocks to your page using mini flower-shaped brads.
26. Sew patterns onto felt flowers.
27. Sew a flower directly onto your page. (You may want to draw a flower first in fine pencil.)
28. Be creative with your mini Prima flowers and make them spell out your page title.
29. Make your own paper flowers by cutting out three circles of different sizes. Fold each circle into quarters and cut across the rounded edge with decorative scissors. Unwrap them and then wrinkle them up. Unwrap again and then layer the now-scalloped circles on top of each other, and secure in the center with a brad. You can ink the edges or decorate to match your page.
30. Cover a fabric flower with embossing ink and ultra thick embossing powder. Blast with a heat gun and your flower will become lovely and glossy. Follow this process a few times on the same flower and eventually it will look like the flower is made of glass.
31. You can make your own flowers by using mini paper cupcake holders (the ones you bake your cupcakes in - they come in lots of different colors). Take the cup and cut from the rim down to the base. Do this at intervals all the way around the cupcake wrapper and then flatten open. Layer these on top of each other or add a button to the center.
32. Dip flowers in an ink pot and let the ink soak into the flower. (Let this dry for 24 hours at least.) You could even try tie-dying them with string before you tip them in the ink.
33. Chalk across flowers in differing shades of chalk for a multidimensional feel.
34. Use watercolor markers to saturate a fabric flower and change its appearance.
35. Use fresh flowers from your garden and press them yourself.
36. Add journaling to large flowers by writing directly onto them, around the outline of the petals.
37. Iron 3D flowers so they can be stuck flat onto a page.
38. Add a small circle-shaped photo into the center of your flower and cover with a clear glaze.
39. Use flowers as a mask. Place flower stickers onto plain paper and paint or ink over the whole paper. Let it dry and then carefully peel off the stickers to reveal a flower pattern.
40. Add dots to flowers using Stickles.
