Valentine's Flowers

I have come to the conclusion I love flowers... all kinds, all materials... think they look absolutely gorgeous.
I have also come to the conclusion I hate making them from scratch. Anything else I don't mind, in fact I quite enjoy. It's just that when I make flowers, they never, ever, EVER turn out how I imagine.
And yet... like a fool who rushes in I keep on signing up for swaps to make them. 


When will I learn?


Or maybe I'm just living by the adage... "Practice makes perfect"?


I present in all their glory (and my dissatisfaction) the flowers I made for the Crafting Passionz Valentine's Flower swap.

Out of the flowers I made this time around, these are probably my favourite. I love the colours (so out there like me), I love the dimensionality I just don't think they are practical for scrapbooking. They would however look gorgeous on a denim bag or on a pin attached to a scarf or even as the centre of a decorative pillow... but they are just too big, too bold and too dimensional for a layout.

I really like this style of layered patterned paper flowers... though I don't like mine. Not sure if they need more distressing around the edges or maybe I should have scrunched them a little to give them some dimension. The patterned papers I like individually but I think this layering looks too forced... maybe I shouldn't have used only scraps of paper... but then isn't that the idea behind them??

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Anyone?