Despite the fact that I am anything but a girly-girl (much to the chagrin of my girly Mother), I love using flowers on my layouts, as they don’t necessarily have to be feminine or have to be used on layouts regarding women or gardens.
For those of you who also love flowers, I imagine that you are also lamenting the cost of some of those nice silk or paper flowers you see in the scrapbooking stores. Personally, spending almost $1 per bloom is ridiculous, and always gets me riled up.
Here’s a quick tip: go to a craft or department store and buy a pre-bunched group of flowers. They are silk and come with leaves as well. Now, pull the blooms off, as well as the leaves. Voila! You just spent around $1-$2 and now have over a dozen flowers…as well as the leaves!
The great thing about doing this is now you can do layered flower looks, without cringing in pain because you just spent $10 on flowers for one layout. Plus, those leaves are great for layouts on their own, or for usage during the layering. Rather than those plastic centers, use brads! Crystal brads are especially gorgeous, and you can get a bag of 30 coloured brads at Dollarama (as opposed to $7 for 20 at Michael’s). The savings continue! 
- Tanya
